As someone who has a master's in forensics and a minor in psychology, this book highly appealed to me! It was so informative, and I enjoyed the memior writing style used to tell the story. I learned so much about the SVP law and how experts can determine whether or not an offender can be let back into society. I'll give this book 3.5 stars. I just wished to hear about some female rehabilitation stories, and at times, some of the educational spots read like a textbook. I still really enjoyed the book overall.

Thank you to Netgalley, Samantha Stein, and Kensington publishing for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Review the trigger warnings before reading!

This is a great read for true crime junkies and was very insightful for society (especially women) to see what goes on behind the scenes to institutionalize sexual offenders.

I have a new appreciation to the work that goes into interviewing these criminals to determine the next steps after they complete their sentence. It’s a job I couldn’t imagine doing and one I wouldn’t have the empathy for.

This book gives a good life lesson of empathy and how broad your actions in everyday life can impact those around you even when you just feel you’re doing your normal day to day routine.

Somehow this is scarier than most horror but also an informative and intriguing travel into the system of assessing and working with violent inmates.
I liked the style of writing but found some parts a bit disturbing
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Evil at Our Table is a thoughtful, well done memoir of the author’s work evaluating convicted sex offenders to determine the likelihood that they will reoffend with similar crimes. Dr. Stein, a forensic psychologist, evaluated offenders prior to their release, to assess whether each fit the criteria to be classified as a sexually violent predator under California’s Sexually Violent Predator Act. Those deemed to be an SVP are subject to indefinite civil commitment to a mental health institution rather than released.

I have a background studying criminology and psychology (and may have become a forensic psychologist myself if I’d had a better career plan), so I was especially interested in reading this book. I got even more out of it than I expected.

Dr. Stein describes several of her interviews, including her thoughts and feelings before, during, and after, which provides a compelling look at her work and also lets you put yourself in her shoes. She weaves in insights and statistics from relevant research and shares how she handles the weight of her job. Although it takes more than her evaluation to declare an inmate to be an SVP, the assessments are a critical part of the process. It was illuminating and impressive to read how she keeps herself balanced between wanting to protect society and feeling the weight of playing a role in curtailing a person’s rights.

The reader not only learns about how such psychological evaluations are conducted, but gets to know Dr. Stein as a human being as well. She shares how her work affects her home life and her parenting and how she disconnects from the weight of what she hears day in and day out. Along the way she also sheds light on the humanity of the offenders she interviews, while explaining how she retains neutrality and never wavers on holding them accountable for the harm their crimes have caused.

I highly recommend Evil at Our Table for anyone with an interest in true crime or criminal psychology. Please know that, while not extremely graphic, there is frank discussion of the violent and sexual offenses committed by the inmates discussed. Please consider your personal triggers before reading.

Thank you to @kensingtonbooks and @netgalley for the eARC copy in exchange for my honest review!

[this review will publish at Instagram and Goodreads within the next two weeks. I will include some further information on SVP laws in the U.S. in most post as well, along with a link to the author's website and other resources.)

4.5 stars rounded up.

Until this book I had no idea that 16 states, Washington D.C., and the Federal Prison system had a law where inmates convicted of violent sexual assaults had to go through psychological evaluations before parole to determine if they were going to get out of prison or be sent indefinitely (or for a long period of time at least) to a mental health hospital for treatment as a sexually violent predator. As Stein points out throughout the book this is not a perfect system (and government cutbacks are making it even more flawed) and it made for some great discussions in my house while I read.

Stein's book is well written and she does a great job of marrying the tragic, sometimes stomach turning, aspects of her job with compassion and empathy. I loved hearing how her job has changed her home life and how she parents. I've always been curious how people with jobs that are this mentally and morally straining compartmentalize to have a balanced life.

Stein explains the laws, practices, diagnoses, and steps she must take very clearly so anyone can understand. My one complaint is actually the title of the book. The author talks at length in the book about trying to move away from labels such as evil and monsters when she knows there are so many inmates who can be rehabilitated. It just seems a bit weird to name it that although I can say the name is what drew me to the book so there is a point for marketing.

This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn more about psychology and forensics in the realm of sexual assaults and predators. It is very hard to read at times as it can be graphic so be sure to keep that in mind.

Wow- an interesting look into a very difficult job. The author meticulously explains her thought process through several experiences and how she arrives at decisions that affect not only the prisoners she is interviewing, but society as well.

Brilliant and enthralling. One of those books that opens and broadens the mind. Couldn’t put this book down.

I received this as an ARC and am voluntarily leaving an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for an eARC of this book!
I absolutely loved this book. I was excited to read this one because I love learning about psychology and forensics. I was thrilled that this was written by a Forensic Psychologist and I thought it was so cool that she specifically discussed her work and how it impacted her life.
There were many things that I enjoyed about this book. To start, Stein did a fantastic job with descriptions and with setting the scenes. At numerous points, she describes the prisons where she is conducting evaluations and she did a fantastic job describing the rooms and the prisons at a whole. It really set the scene for the evaluations she continued on to describe.
I think that Stein also did a great job with explaining all of the laws, practices, and technical terms. Even though there is a lot of psychological background used, Stein took to time to explain everything that was being talked about which I think was really helpful for anyone wanting to read the book but that may not have any background knowledge in psychology. She broke everything down really well and made the book extremely comprehensible.
I also thought it was great how honest she was about everything. She could have easily sugarcoated her experiences and said that it was easy and she handled everything perfectly, etc. Instead, she took the reader and laid out her feelings and experiences in their full honesty. She was very raw in her stories and she took the time to be completely transparent with her work and the toll it took on her. I thought her honesty added to the book and made it a more compelling read. It was really interesting to me to see how the job impacted her life and the way she interacted with others and raised her kids.
Lastly, I want to give a trigger warning. This book contains a lot of difficult material that may be triggering. The main premise of this book is that she is talking about her work with sex offenders. Stein does include a trigger warning page at the beginning but I do believe it is important to include in my review as well.
Overall, this was an extremely captivating book that I found to be very enlightening and informational. I feel like I learned a lot from Stein and I enjoyed reading this book. I would highly recommend this book but do take a look at the trigger warnings!

This was an excellent book. It was well-written.
At times it was hard to read but it's worth reading.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

If you're into true crime, this one’s a must-read. It’s written by a real-life criminal profiler who interviewed sex offenders behind bars, and the perspective is unlike anything I’ve read before.

As a huge fan of true crime, this was right up my alley. Difficult to read, but so fascinating to get a glimpse into such fractured minds. Honestly this book would probably be too dark for a lot of people, but I found it hard to put down.

This book was hard to get through. The content is dark and disturbing. Although I feel it is important to talk about these topics, it was hard to read the descriptions in the book.

I found this book fascinating since I am a psychology major and interested in criminal psychology. Great job writing this and well researched as well.
A disturbing but interesting book.

This book wasn't what I was expecting. I think I expected something along the lines of Robert Ressler's "Whoever Fights Monsters," except it would be discussing working face-t0-face with sex offenders. However, I was surprised by how insightful this book was. Samantha Stein, a forensic psychologist, specialized in the assessment of sex offenders, deciding if they were still dangerous to society and needed to be sent to a psychiatric hospital or if they were safe enough to be let out of jail.

Dr. Stein had originally worked with victims of sexual assault but decided to work with offenders in the hopes of preventing new victims. Before reading this book, my opinion was that all sex offenders needed to be kept in jail, that they would all reoffend. Dr. Stein shows that there are very few cut and dry cases. She wants to break that stereotype and I think she does that well in the book.

Dr. Stein also speaks about her family, a husband and 3 children. With all that she sees everyday, it would be easy to succumb to fear and teach her children to be afraid. Instead, she tries to teach her children to be independent and confident.

Another thing that I wasn't expecting was that I would feel hopeful reading this. Dr. Stein speaks of some of her cases and how some of these men are able to feel remorse about their crimes and get help through therapy and group support and are given the opportunity to become a decent person in society. The book shows that sex offenders should be held accountable for their actions and be punished appropriately but that most don't re0ffend and can change. That's my biggest takeaway from this book.

I am a huge fan of true crime documentaries but had not read any true crime so when in reading the description of this book I was instantly intrigued. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Although this book is very difficult to read it is also filled with facts and more importantly it is filled with humanity. I have the greatest respect for Samantha Stein and anyone who chooses to work in this field. I loved how the author makes clear that even humor and laughing inappropriately at times are just coping skills desperately necessary. Evil At Our Table is also an important title I believe, reminding us that the lines between criminals and us can be very thin and blurry. It isn’t us versus them, it comes down to humans figuring out how to be human and help others.
A truly wonderful book on many levels.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC of this book. I am really interested in hearing from the criminals themselves to get insight into what is going on in their heads, so this book really stood out to me. I had a hard time getting through this however. There was more technical psychological talk and analyzation between the different psychological categories than I would have liked. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite for me.

Under California's Sexually Violent Predator Law, Samantha Stein, PsyD interviews sex offenders to see if they require confinement in a mental hospital or can be released into society as being no further threat to anyone. She is one of a number of people who make this decision as a team. This a a meticulous, precise, and careful procedure in which input from a variety of sources is painstakingly
weighed, measured and evaluated. Stein described all this and its effect on her personal life in this memoir.

It makes a remarkable story.

Evil at Our Table: Inside the Minds of the Monsters Who live Among Us by Samantha Stein

This is an incredible book, is written from a perspective I haven't had the privilege to read before. This book takes you into the prison interview room and into the minds of serious sex offenders and Samantha is tasked with assessing the fates of those charges with these distributing acts.

Samantha Stein PsyD is a forensic psychologist who works under the California Sexually Violent Predator law. Her job is to meet with each offender and decide if they are fit to go back to society or to be incarcerated indefinitely.

Dr. Stein gives us an in depth, behind the scenes account of being a treatment provider and evaluator in the field. If you are interested in Forensic psychology or the why behind why people do the depraved things they do, then this is the book for you.

Huge thank you to Samantha for writing your story and partnering with NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

This incredible book comes out August 26 2025!

Evil at Our Table was an interesting look at another facet of the American justice system which actually occurs near the end of an offender’s incarceration, at least in the case of sexual predators. The recidivism rate is currently 11.1% for treated offenders and 17.5% for untreated, and through multiple interviews and intense screening, professionals such as the author, had to make decisions as to which inmates would likely not reoffend once released from either penal systems or mental health facilities. Their recommendations could actually prolong a sentence. Stein is very frank about trying to keep the dark aspects of her job separate from her home life, and through a series of events, begins a new career later. Several case histories are shared, but sadly only one person seemed to truly be remorseful. Others were quick to manipulate and blame, even their victims. The book is eye-opening and more than a bit disturbing.

The title of this book is ‘Evil at Our Table: Inside the Minds of the Monsters Who Live Among Us’ is a little misleading. Just based on the title alone, one might be led to believe that this would fit in nicely in the True Crime section of your local book dealer. However, this is not your average tale of catching a killer/rapist/thief. Evil at our table is more of an exploration of the process of identifying sex offenders and their likelihood to reoffend if released from prison. Basically, the author, Samantha Stein, is tasked with interviewing these offenders, reviewing their history, and determining if they should be released or be remanded into a secure treatment facility after their sentence has been served. You might think that the idea of continuing incarceration for people who have served their time is ethically questionable, and you would be right, but Dr. Stein does address this in the book and her thoughts on it make you think. The title also makes me squirm a bit because it seems to me that the subjects in the book are not really evil, they are simply mentally ill. It seems a bit strange to have that title and then spend nearly 300 pages explaining why these people are not really evil, but maybe that was the point. Either way, this is an interesting read, if not necessarily an enjoyable one.

There are graphic (but not overly so) depictions of sexual abuse contained herein, so if that kind of thing is triggering for you, use caution. I spent 20 years doing child abuse investigations, so nothing here was really shocking to me, but your average person may find it upsetting. Also, if you want to try to understand the inner workings of the mind of a sex offender, this might not be your book. There is a lot of time spent with these particular people, but you gain little insight into what they’re thinking. Instead, what we have here is a book about the evaluation of criminals and what makes an offender likely or not to reoffend. There is also insight into the home life of someone who does this kind of work and the toll it takes on their mental health. As a social worker by trade, I can tell you that the toll is high, but Dr. Stein seems to be managing it well. The secondary trauma experienced by those in this line of work is often overlooked but is very real and very serious. It’s a topic that really should receive more attention.

Overall, Evil at Our Table is well-written and Dr. Stein does a good job of explaining things in laymen’s terms and not falling into the trap of using jargon and acronyms that your average reader won’t understand. She is also fairly concise and to the point, but I honestly wish that the interviews would have been detailed a little more thoroughly. That may be simply because of my background, though, and this book is really written for people who don’t know anything about this topic. That’s not to say that I didn’t find it interesting even after having worked with sex offenders for years. For example, I found the California system described to be very interesting and made me think about how it could be improved or instituted elsewhere.

In closing, I would like to thank Dr. Stein, Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for sending me an Advance Copy of Evil at our Table. I recommend this book for anyone wanting to know more about sex offenders and the process involved in maintaining public safety while attempting to remain ethical and unbiased.