Rabbit Hole by David Shurter is a horrific tale that you wouldn't believe actually happened to a person until you read it. I spent most of the book keeping my jaw off the floor

I literally don't even want to review this book.
I had such high hopes to get an inside look into the survivor's abuse that he suffered while his family was involved in a Satanic cult.
Too bad that's not the book I got.
Rabbit Hole: A Satanic Ritual Abuse Survivor's Story, written by survivor David Shurter, is NOTHING like the title suggests.

Now, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. I fully believe he had a traumatic childhood, one that obviously hurt him throughout his entire life. His family was not anywhere close to perfect. I believe that growing up the way he did significantly altered how he would view the world and how it shaped his personality.

HOWEVER, there is zero evidence to point to his family ever being involved with the Satanic Churches or anything of that nature. Although, he does mention a blood sacrifice and setting a man on fire in his family's basement. Yet when he brings this information to the police, they turn a blind eye? That doesn't sound right.....
Let me also point out, David speaks about Satanic practices and different affiliates of "high social standing" who happened to be covering up ALL of the "satanic panic" rumors. But he speaks as if his findings are fact, even though all of his information was found on forums, chat rooms, online videos, and different magazine articles. None of his information was found through credible sources. The one book that he references throughout the entire book was Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America written by Noblitt and Perskin, which is very interesting because they also co-wrote Rabbit Hole with David. Not to mention their book has received serious heat because while the scientific evidence is somewhat accurate, the explanations are written very poorly.

So no, I will not be recommending this book to anyone under any circumstances.

Thanks NetGalley for the arc!

Satanic Ritual Abuse, local political cover-ups, shocking kidnappings, unsolved child murders, and scandalous pedophile rings.
This is quite a hard book to review, to say i enjoyed it just feels wrong because of the subjects in the book.
It was hard reading and a bit confusing with how it was written in places jumping from narration to newspaper reports.
It is hard to believe some of the claims in the book but i am in no way discrediting the author as this was as very brave book to write let alone live.
The world is full of conspiracy theories between the FBI, the media and the Presidents and i have heard that some of the content in this book is just that as there seems to be no evidence backing parts of it up. But at the same time there is no evidence to discredit anything written in this book unless i have missed something.
Satanic rituals have always fascinated me but not in the sense i want to partake in anything like that, just the phycology behind what drives people to believe and become involved in cults.
This deals with a lot of really disturbing and emotional elements: religion, sexual and mental abuse of children, Satanism and many other things and has very graphic content so it certainly won’t be a book for everyone.
I think reading about abused children is always a very hard read and very upsetting, no matter how you feel about the book, the author or the contents of the book you can not help your heart from breaking for everyone involved.
Im glad i read it and made it to the end but it was a very tough read.
I hope with the publication of this book David Shurter gets the awareness he wants to bring to Ritual Abuse and Satanic Ritual Abuse he is trying to achieve and that by writing all the horrific things he was subjected to brings him some kind of peace.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from netgalley

So this isn't what I expected. I'm a big fan of true crime documentaries and books around childhood difficulties. Not in an enjoyment way? But I have my masters in development and psychopathology so I find, what people are capable of - particularly children - really fascinating.

Anyway, this wasn't really that. This was the aftermath of the abuse and it had vey spiritual and religious overtones. I found a lot of it hard to believe. Not saying I didn't believe it, but in a 'wow the world is cruel'

The writing isn't great. It's all over the place at times. But the author is reliving his experiences and memories and I imagine they don't always come in an order.

It's opened my mind and I'll probably do some research around it, but it wasn't an overly easy read. I'd recommend if you have an interest in conspiracy theories rather than true crime.

This is a very difficult book to review and to be honest it has nothing to do with the subject matter. The book hinges on the plausibility of the piece and whether or not one believes the story within the pages. This creates a blind faith leap into this world and bewilders the reader into one of two camps: the believer or the non believer.

The book meanders from point to point and often jarring the reader out of the main narrative through his use of “newspaper articles” typed out but not printed copied and typed source material and at times, abbreviated to drum the message home. There is also the ramblings within the pages that sometimes contradict itself and often times lacks the emotional depth beyond the overused word count. There are also some plausibility factors to tie into the novel that at times are not consistent to the overall piece.

Keeping all this in mind, the book is self-published and this maybe the down fall. If the book was professionally published it may have sorted out some of the problems with the book such as using actual clippings, the ranting e-mails at the end and a better layout of source material to differentiate the general message found within. If a professional editor was used, the message would be less muddled and more focussed to the main point of the book.

When looking between the lines, there is also a lack of pathos and responsibility found within the narrative that at times, seems to focus away from the trauma of the author and instead lends focus on a possible exaggeration of the situation. This has a JT LeRoy feeling about it where you want to believe in it all but there is somethings that go a bit too far to make it believable. It lends itself to fabrication.

I think I should point out that I do believe that author is a product of sexual and emotional abuse. There may have been a satanic element behind this but this again is where the story gets a bit fuzzy. He on one hand abhors paedophilia but when two grown men offer their home to three underage bed (whether something happened or not – still unclear); have put themselves in a situation in a city that is rife with paedophilia (writer’s own words), then gets caught and sent to jail. We have the writer using words as set up and validating their injustice. It often makes the readers roll their eyes.

I do believe there is a good actual nonfiction book found with the pages and I do think there are very truthful aspects to the story. I also believe that with a good publisher and editor, there would have been a bit more truth and less exaggeration within the pages. I am happy to hear that the author has sorted his life and able to get his life back on track after his ordeal. I also believe that he has made himself an advocate on the subject that he is writing about which is a good thing. There also seems to be a bit of controversy about the author himself but we are living in the world of the internet and talk is relatively cheap.

Finally, overall it is an interesting book and there is a good vs evil premise found. At times, it is overwrought and over detailed and other times there is a lack of detail. The book is an interesting read just not a fulfilling read.

Wow, speechless. There's the camp that thinks this is a true tale of the cover-up of the 80's and those that think there is no way this could happen. I know something had to have happened to David, the story that is told is just so horrific for some of it not to have happened. (trigger warning- this book has a lot of abuse and if that is troublesome for you, I'd skip this book) Even if the abuse isn't always explicit there's enough knowledge to infer what happened. There are some editing problems that make the book seem run on, but it's still one of those memoirs that will stick with you and be glad that there are good people in the world too. Thanks to netgalley for the review copy.

I guess the focus isn't exactly where I expected it. The book is mostly focused on the aftermath, cover-ups and the gay scene, whereas I was expecting more of the 'shocking kidnappings and unsolved child murders.' There was information about these, but mostly in the form of flashbacks. I wonder if the book would have been better off as two seperate books - one with everything witnessed and dealt with as a child and the second about the aftermath/gay scene. I definitely would have read both. I'm not saying this is a bad book, I'm just saying that I guess I expected it to take a different route than it did.

Did not really find this a compelling tale, despite its fascinating subject matter. I'm not sure why this was, perhaps it was both involved and detached at the same time which made it a little frustrating at times. I found it a very interesting subject, hypothetically but the narrative voice did not manage to captivate or compel me.

Hands down, it's one of the most frightening and horrific abuse stories I've ever read. I do believe his memories are authentic from his childhood, and from what it did to his life, I really have to applaud his sustained determination to better himself through therapy. I especially liked his whole interest in and acceptance of Shamanism when it was suggested as a way to heal himself also. How he dove right into learning about it and doing it without qualms. Quite impressive. The book has renewed my belief in the existence of satanic ritual abuse that had been mostly debunked years ago, reinstating them once again after reading this. I was given a copy of the book to review by NetGalley, Concierge Marketing Inc, and the author in return for my unbiased review.

Hard subject matter, but one that we should know more about. Ritual abuse. What is it, why do people partake in it? This book will answer those questions and more. The writing is honest and at times hard to digest. Threats, brainwashing, belittlement, it is all a part of this story. I give the author much credit, I do not know how he was able to survive this.I comment Mr Shurter for writing this book and bringing awareness to the evil that is part of our world. Good Luck to you. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.