hmmmmmmm....well...it's obvious that Farrow is a gifted journalist and did incredible work to make sure that these stories from survivors were reported. I was not surprised at how deep the corruption runs, but it hits differently hearing from those that experienced it firsthand.

Despite Farrow's expert reporting, I have a lot of issues with this book. First, I listened to the audiobook and I have a huge problem with how Farrow mimicked the voices of the survivors he was speaking to. Listening to him speak the words of survivors in whining, high-pitched tones struck me as demeaning. I don't see why the voices were even necessary, it would have been fine to just read it normally since this is a non-fiction, investigatory piece and I did not read it to be entertained or have a laugh. I think his mimicry was disrespectful to survivors and it was ultimately hard to listen to.

My main issue with this book is perhaps Farrow's inability to separate his reporting from his personal life. Yes, I understand that he went through professional and personal stress during this story and others, but that side of things may have been better to include in a memoir. Or, a completely separate section of the book where he used his own experiences with reporting and being followed to comment on surveillance and the mechanisms of suppression. The book just needed SOMETHING to separate Farrow's life from the lives and stories of survivors.

Because when I'm reading a book about how SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS are risking EVERYTHING and have been risking everything and SUFFERING FOR DECADES, I'm not interested to hear that the author isn't functioning normally while working on this story. Hearing Farrow, a Yale Law School graduate and a white man, worry about potentially being unemployed actually made me laugh out loud. Come on. Hearing about his own personal concerns sentences after hearing about how a survivor was assaulted, harassed, fired, blacklisted, stalked, and suffered severe mental health issues for years felt like a selfish move by Farrow. I'm not saying that he did not suffer while reporting and I am also not attempting to "rank" suffering, but I think this book could have benefitted from some self-awareness on Farrow's part.

My final complaint is the few times that it seemed like Farrow pressured the women to speak. Not in the overt, "I NEED you to tell this story," but rather in the more sinister, "If you don't tell your story, other women will be hurt." Personally, that would have been the last thing I would have wanted to hear if I were one of these women. When you go through something like this, it's hard to even be able to keep yourself afloat. And using language like this puts the onus on survivors to stop predators, rather than just holding the predators accountable in the first place. Some of the women mentioned that that is why they came forward, which is totally fine, but coming from Farrow, or anyone else who has not lived through something like this, it sounds like a threat. Society as a whole needs to question why our first instinct is to tell survivors that they need to report because then they may stop future predation. Instead, we need to prioritize telling survivors that first and foremost, they must take care of themselves. ASK what a survivor needs in the moment and take the responsibility of bringing a predator to justice off of a survivor's shoulders.

Finally, I was pleasantly surprised to learn of Anthony Bourdain's phone call to the New Yorker as Farrow prepared to run the story. Bourdain, then dating one of the survivors, told Remnick that Weinstein's predation was sickening and "I'm not a religious man, but I pray you have the strength to run this story." I love AB and I was glad to see him pop up here when I wasn't expecting it.

Ultimately, Farrow is an exceptional reporter and writer, but not a great author.