House of Evil is a 2008 novel by John Dean. Death came knocking…In the heart of Indianapolis in the mid-1960s, through a twist of fate and fortune, a pretty young girl came to live with a thirty-seven-year-old mother and her seven children. What began as a temporary childcare arrangement between Sylvia Likens’s parents and Gertrude Baniszewski turned into a crime that would haunt cops, prosecutors, and a community for decades to come… Behind closed doors… When police found Sylvia’s emancipated body, with a chilling message carved into her flesh, they knew that she had suffered tremendously before her death. Soon they would learn how many others — including some of Baniszewski’s own children — participated in Sylvia’s murder, and just how much torture had been inflicted in one… House of Evil (Taken from the back of the book).
What happened to Sylvia Likens was a terrible thing; she was brutally abused by the Baniszewski family. Gertrude Baniszewski committed these acts solely because she was jealous of Sylvia, and the children committed these acts it felt like because they could get away with it. The whole time I read this book I progressively got angrier. I don’t think that justice was served in this case.
I gave this book four stars on Goodreads. I thought that the first half of the book was very interesting but disturbing. John Dean described what Sylvia had to go through in great detail. I definitely would not recommend this book to the faint of heart. However, the second half of this book when John Dean was describing the case could have been better. The author writes the second half of the book as if everyone who reads it has a legal background. Reading the book made me feel like I was reading an assignment. In the first half the author started working on the minute he was given the assignment, and the second half was done the night before it was due. Overall, I do recommend this book because I think that Sylvia’s story needs to be heard.
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