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mkquinn91's review
3.0
This is book tells one of the most bizarre and horrifying stories I've ever heard. The history of Pitcairn Island is already strange, being settled by mutineers from the HMS Bounty who lived in deep isolation, but it only got stranger in 1999 when authorities were alerted to a rape that eventually revealed multi-generational sexual abuse, perhaps going back to the very founding of the island. The island is still under British control, and the specter of empire looms over the criminal case, which is immediately politicized.
The book is worth reading for this incredible story, but I felt the writing was rather weak. Kathy Marks is a journalist who was one of 6 allowed onto the island to witness the court proceedings, and her point of view while on the island is compelling. However, I thought her analysis could have used greater depth, both on the early history of Pitcairn and how the rapes compare to similar cases: she briefly mentions a case of multi-generational rape in a Canadian Aboriginal community, and there have been other cases in cults, for example. Is there something unique about Pitcairn and its isolation, or is this kind of abuse something more common? Hopefully it's the former.
The book is worth reading for this incredible story, but I felt the writing was rather weak. Kathy Marks is a journalist who was one of 6 allowed onto the island to witness the court proceedings, and her point of view while on the island is compelling. However, I thought her analysis could have used greater depth, both on the early history of Pitcairn and how the rapes compare to similar cases: she briefly mentions a case of multi-generational rape in a Canadian Aboriginal community, and there have been other cases in cults, for example. Is there something unique about Pitcairn and its isolation, or is this kind of abuse something more common? Hopefully it's the former.