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    The Little Prisoner: How a childhood was stolen and a trust betrayed
    Unavailable
    The Little Prisoner: How a childhood was stolen and a trust betrayed
    Unavailable
    The Little Prisoner: How a childhood was stolen and a trust betrayed
    Ebook217 pages3 hours

    The Little Prisoner: How a childhood was stolen and a trust betrayed

    By Jane Elliott

    4/5

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    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    From the age of four, Jane Elliott was forced to carry a terrible secret…

    Dominated, bullied and sexually abused by her stepfather for 17 years, The Little Prisoner is a devastating true story of one girl’s struggle from freedom.

    Held as a prisoner, subject to horrendous emotional and physical abuse, it wasn’t until Jane was 21 that she managed to escape. But it took another five years of living in hiding before she felt able to go to the police.

    Nearly every witness who could have attested to the evil and violent behaviours of her stepfather was too frightened to come forward. Would the judge and jury believe Jane and her small band of brave supporters?

    The Little Prisoner is the shocking, astonishing and ultimately uplifting true story of one woman’s shattering twenty-year ordeal; and how she triumphed over an evil and violet human monster when honesty and bravery were her only weapons. A heart-rending and inspirational tale of courage and survival.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateApr 15, 2010
    ISBN9780007359011
    Unavailable
    The Little Prisoner: How a childhood was stolen and a trust betrayed
    Author

    Jane Elliott

    Jane Elliott is a pseudonym. The author first decided to tell her story to the police after taking inspiration from Dave Pelzer's powerful memoir A Child Called It and becoming convinced that she could no longer remain a silent victim of the stepfather who had kept her a virtual prisoner for so many years.

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    Reviews for The Little Prisoner

    4/5

    18 ratings12 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Harrowing memoir.
    • 3/5
      This was a very hard book for me to read. At first I did not really understand why she let him do that to her even when she was an adult but then I started thinking of her family. Real white trash. They terrorized the neighborhood and everyone was scared of them.
      We have families like that in The Netherlands too and people do not dare to complain cause they know they will be punished for it later.
      What annoyed me mostly was that the mom got off free. No punishment at all while in truth it was mainly her fault. A mom is the one that should protect a child when there is no father or if a dad is abusive. if you cannot count on your mom, who can you trust?
    • 2/5
      A horrible story. When it was chosen as our book club book the chooser did not realise it was on this subject. I have read similar books and am always apalled and horrified, I admire the courage of the author to relive the experience and hope it helps them but I do not widh to ever read this type of book again.
    • 4/5
      The first part of this book was very interesting. I stayed up late and read over half of it the first night because I could hardly put it down. By the time it got to the court case at the end, I had nearly lost interest in it. This part just wasn't as interesting to me. After Jane moved out into her own apartment, my first thought was that I didn't really understand why she didn't immediately lock Richard out and call the police when he tried to continue his abuse. I was physically abused as a teenager, so I understand what kind of threats an abuser can make and the terror that is often inflicted on the victim. My ex step-father would tell me if I caused trouble for him, he would kill my dad. So I assume Jane probably continued to let Richard into her home out of fear. If not for herself, she may have feared for her baby, her mother, or her younger brothers.
    • 2/5
      Survival stories always seem to be shocking and inspiring, but generally leave one feeling empowered by sharing the experience. There was no such feeling in my heart when I finished Jane's survival tale. Jane was a victim of abuse, psychological, physical and sexual. She was controlled in the very worst ways by everyone around her from the time she was four until she finally made her escape, seventeen years later. It's hard to fathom such a stint of despair.Jane recognizes several times within her memoir how hard it is for people to understand her story if they've never been in that situation. Because her past was so very violent I don't think a lot of people will be able to identify with her, even if they empathize or sympathize. At least, that is my hope.As with "A Child Called It" by Dave Pelzer, the story shocks the reader beyond the realm of believability, not that one thinks it is false, but it is just so unreal that a parent could treat their child in the ways that are described.Jane keeps her memoir as vague as possible so that it is not obscene at any given page, even if it flirts with sensationalism several times, but it is detailed enough that the reader is given full disclosure of what happened in her past. The thing I liked about the memoir the most is how she spelled out the emotional journey she went on. It was a hard and far from happy read, but one that definitely showed growth and gave the reader hard food for thought.To place oneself in Janey's shoes would be impossible, implausible at best for me. But I could wonder if I were one of her friends, what would I have done, or been able to do? Would I have had courage to stand by her and encourage and support her? Or would I have cringed from the violence and obscenities that surrounded her? I fear it would be the latter but I would hope that unlike the woman in the pub, if confronted I would have given the help so desperately asked for.To deal with thinking of Richard at all simply leaves a sick feeling of disgust and uncleanliness in the pit of my stomach. Of all the villains in literature, only one other has affected me this way, and knowing that Richard is real makes him ten times worse. Knowing that the perspective we've seen gives absolutely no room for any redeeming qualities helps me face the world still, but the pure venomous violence of the man and his family just flabbergasts me.Even though the book claimed to be a dark fairy tale, I don't equate the two in my mind. Neither is it a particularly inspirational tale. It is clearly an emotional journey and perhaps a necessary story to liberate the minds of others who have made that trek, but it is not a plotted adventure. The story wanders from one memory to another and not in any particular pace or order, and the vagueness can at times be distracting. Because memory works the same way, I can see how the manuscript followed this flow, but it doesn't work particularly well for a storyline. For that reason, and because the story stays dark up to the last page, without much of a happily ever after, I would never classify it as any kind of fairy tale. It has its own merit.
    • 5/5
      This book is intense and draws you in quickly. The descriptions are vivid and often hard to read, but they enable the reader to quickly develop a hatred for "Richard" and others like him. I cannot imagine why a person would do such things to another person, especially a child. I am just glad that she was able to overcome those horrible years and has written about her experience so others in similar situations can hopefully gather the courage to escape.
    • 4/5
      Terrible, terrible things happen to people, especially children, everyday, and The Little Prisoner is just a glimpse into one woman's childhood abuse. It's not easy to read these sorts of things, and I'm sure it wasn't easy to write about them. In fact, Jane Elliott is not the author's real name. The book itself is written with an almost childlike story telling, jumping around and giving a choppy sense of the author's past. I've read "A Child Called It" and now "The Little Prisoner", and while I think it is absolutely horrible what happened to both, I think it is great that they have chosen to tell their stories and hopefully shed some light on a terrible issue.
    • 5/5
      It’s hard to imagine that the kind of evil described in “The Little Prisoner” happens, but tragically, it does happen. After reading this book, I thought I should wait a few days to write this review until shock of Jane Elliott’s story wore off. Then I realized I am still in shock after reading “A Child Called It” so many years ago, and believe the shock of this story will never wear off just as the shock from the Pelzer books will never wear off. Anyone working with children should read this book, anyone afraid of reporting a child abuser should read this book, anyone that is interested in a survival story should read this book. This memoir is a horrifying account of some of the worst kinds of betrayals, a betrayal of a mother to her daughter, a brutal betrayal of a step-father, and a betrayal of a community to an innocent and vulnerable child. Once I started reading this story, I could not put it down no matter how much I wanted to in certain parts. I am glad the author wrote this book as it has the potential to help other children in abusive situations, but I am sorry the author had to endure such hell on earth.
    • 3/5
      It is a given that nobody writes a memoir unless something terrible has happened to them and The Little Prisoner is no exception to that rule. As repugnant as the events in this book are, and this is not an easy read, books of this nature must exist to protect the innocent children. They need to know that this abuse is not okay and is not their fault. Only then can they overcome. This author should be admired for coming forward and telling her story. It is more important when you realize that, though her stepfather is in prison, he has four sons that appear to be just like him. In that regard I was left more frightened than hopeful at the end. I would have liked to hear more about her time with the psychologist as her recovery is as important to her story as the court trail. Being an American I was unfamiliar with what I would assume is the British welfare system. However, it was not a major disadvantage to following the events of the story.
    • 5/5
      This book is visual, never in my life have I read a book that had such a visual impact on me. The story played like a movie in my head. You become the character, feel when she is scared, and hurt, and would do anything to rescue her. Her story will stay with me forever, how brave of her to stand up to her abuser, and allow the rest of the world into her very private life. Really made me think that you truly never know what happens behind closed doors. Tonight I will thank my parents for the awesome job they did, and kiss my children good night promising quietly that I will never hurt them. A must read for everyone.
    • 4/5
      .What a moving novel. To read of this woman's life is just tragic for so many years. To be raised in an abusive household when you don't know what your next move may bring is just horrific. There were many times I moved to tears just wondering how she kept the strength to continue to struggle day in and day out against her step father.I think Jane Elliot is a true inspiration as she says in the beginning of her book that she wishes that somebody may get some good from reading this I believe they will. If they have walked down the road that she has had to travel they can see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.Just as The Child Called It this book shows the true mentality of some people that raise children and it is truly terrifying but in the same token to see how these individuals bring themselves back from the true depths of despair.
    • 5/5
      First Published in Britain in 2005, published in the U.S. in 2008. It was a British #1 Bestseller. I acquired this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Club. First, I should say that I have read this book in its entirety. Jane Elliot (a pseudonym for her protection and that of her family) was inspired to write by reading Dave Pelzer’s extremely popular book A Child Called It. Pelzer’s book has been popular for several years now in the libraries I have work in, particularly amongst teenagers. That being said, I have not read that work. Five years ago, a coworker read the book and described it to me in such detail that I have had no desire to read it. This newer book, Little Prisoner, shows me why I have not read Pelzer’s book. It is HORRENDOUS the way people treat one another. Child abuse of all kinds is not every right, and it was not just child abuse in this book. Everyone is threatened with violence by Elliot’s stepfather (who is only 14 years older than her) – and we come to find out that it is just not her stepfather, but her some of her half brothers who learn it from their father. If people even seem to threaten that they will tell authorities, police, etc, her stepfather promises violence, and he follows through. The idea of “family” is very twisted here. I usually like memoirs, and I have read some involving abuse, such as Sickened by Julie Gregory. That said, Little Prisoner is very well-written. It is clear and precise – from the author’s confusion from the so-called “games” her stepfather played, to the fact that her mother acted protective at times, but chose to look away most other times. In the introduction to this edition, which I really enjoyed, Elliot rightfully “suspects” that there are two categories of one, those from “stable, happy homes, who can’t understand how any one can abuse child” (xii), and two, those who “suffered something similar themselves and find some comfort in discovering they are not alone” (xii). I am of the first category. As I read this, I constantly wondered how anyone could ever do this to any one. As it comes out during the court trial years later, this was beyond child abuse, it was about “fear and control”. I don’t understand, really, how her stepfather and all of his accomplices could have done all of these things, and continued to do them. I lost my infant son to heart defects, and would give nearly anything to have him here to hold. To me, it seems that a lot of abusers take children for granted and then don’t treat them with the love, respect and attention they want and need. I just don’t understand it. I applaud the author for sharing her story, and hope that her family, with her husband and precious children, is doing well.