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Rating: 
Summary: Detailed and thought-provoking
Review: "Cries Unheard" was a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a profoundly dirturbed young girl. At times, I felt the book concentrated too heavily on listing and describing the events of Mary's past in chronological order. The most interesting parts of the book are the voices of Mary, her mother and her careworkers. This book is worth reading, but at times I found myself skimming through the "who, what, when, where" and seeking out the "why". This book is also clearly trying to avoid sensationalism, so there are no photographs of Mary other than the grainy one on the cover. The book's greatest strenth is the fact that it opened my eyes to the harm that is done when a child criminal is sacrificed to satiate the public's desire for vengance and "justice". The author's message is clear; by treating child criminals as adults, we are ignoring the fact that they are qualitatively different creatures. Mary Bell committed a shocking crime, but that doesn't take away the fact that she was a little girl of eleven, still playing pretend and wetting her bed. To treat her as an adult did her a great disservice, and did not bring back her two victims, either.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: Cries Unheard is not an easy book to review. Like Sereny's other books on Albert Speer (Hitler's Chief of Armaments) and Franz Stangl. (the Commander of the Treblinka Death Camp) one picks up the book with the hope that one will find answers to the question of why people commit evil acts. Sereny did not give the reader an easy, pat answer when dealing with Stangl and Speer, and neither did she make such an attempt in dealing with Mary Bell. However unlike Stangl and Speer, who were adults and unquestionably knew what they were doing was wrong if not "evil," the same can not be said for Mary Bell. When Mary committed the murders she was a young child who did not understand the true consequences of her actions. Sereny explores Mary's psyche as well as the environment in which she lived in order to answer the question of why she committed theses unspeakable acts. As always, Sereny does not pull any punches when dealing with Mary, although she is clearly more forgiving than she was with Stangl or Speer. Importantly, Sereny in no way seeks to excuse the murders or minimize the horror that the victims families were forced to endure. She also makes clear that Mary knew that her conduct was wrong even if she did not understand the finality of death. What comes out of the book is that there were multiple causative factors that led to the murders. Among them was the abusive home in which she lived as well as the total lack of a support network. However, Sereny does not rest with the easy answer that abuse equals murder. After all Norma Bell (no relation), who committed the second murder with Mary, did not come from an abusive home. At the end of the book there is no real answer as to why the murders were committed. The book is written against the backdrop of increasing penalties for juvenile offenders. While Sereny's political agenda unquestionably effected the writing, Mary's story is compelling for the murders as well as her incarceration and her rehabilitation. Given all that happened to Mary, the murders, the imprisonment, and an abusive mother Mary seems to be living a productive life and ably raising her child. Perhaps Mary's present life, and the way in which she got there, is a more important story than the murders.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: Cries Unheard, subtitled Why Children Kill: The Story of Mary Bell, is one of the best books I have ever read. Don't expect that you will understand why children kill after reading this book. This is a compelling account of an eleven year old English girl in 1968 who murdered two boys. This is not in any way your usual "true crime" trash novel.I'm a true crime reader and find most of this genre to be a waste of time. This book is one to keep in your library with In Cold Blood and The Sea Will Tell.
Rating:
Summary: Familiar with english childhood
Review: Having been born and raised in England for the first 21 one years of my life,I can understand the sort of childhoods that some kids go through.The English way of life is far different than any I've known so it was a very easy book to get into.I have read different snippets about this story over the years and I am pleased to see that finally someone has put all the facts together and writen an excellent account of these little killers.Well written,an interesting story.Not to be missed!
Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL THOUGH SHOCKING!!!
Review: I believe that the book did what the author intended for it to do. It explained, though slightly clumbersonly, why she killed. HOWEVER I do not believe this book should be taken as the reason children in general kill. I feel that Mary Bell committed a crime that she did not know, at the time, was a crime and that she herself CAN NOT and SHOULD NOT be held resonsible for her actions. The system is designed to help children, not permantly condemn them. This book, in my humble opinion, acomplishes the goal of showing this to the public. I commend this book highly and rate it as a MUST READ!
Rating:
Summary: How very sad
Review: I thought this book was very well written. About Mary Bell, well I sure wouldnt want her around my children. I feel very sad for this woman but here is the definition of antisocial personality disorder: Hostile to or disruptive of the established social order; marked by or engaging in behavior that violates accepted mores. A personality disorder characterized by chronic antisocial behavior and violation of the law and the rights of others.
Could she have been different in a more positive enviornment, I think so, but I believe she is still a creation of her upbring.
I would be afraid.
VERY GOOD
Rating:
Summary: Documentary story of a child-killer: tries to answer
Review: The true-life story about the english girl Mary Bell - a little girl who killed two other little boys was very disturbing and chilling. Yet it is THE book to read to try to understand how young children mentally operate, why they could do such a horrific thing, and what could lead them to even think about death/murder. It is written by Gitta Sereny from a very journalistic point of view. Sereny was a journalist appointed to Mary Bell's case from the very start of that case and she has followed Mary's story throughout the years. This book is written based on interviews with Mary as an adult - after she came out of jail, but Sereny is very fact-based. It is not just opinions and "excuses" of Mary that we read in this book. In fact, many a times, Sereny states that she does not believe some things Mary says, so Sereny goes and interviews everyone related to particular statements Mary makes about certain periods of her life to get to the TRUTH -- Mary's jail housemates, relatives, jail security persons, etc etc. So we don't just get Mary's story.... You read about Mary from the start of her lie to her life at present. A fascinating "can't put the book down" reading which teaches you that kids develop their mental abilities at a very young age. Every social worker and parent should read this. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED -Alina Uzilov / 2003
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating tale of a life after...
Review: This book documents the transformation of Mary Bell from what was obviously a sociopath to a "Morally Aware" adult. What is even more interesting, it seems that Mary Bell made this transistion despite the best efforts of the Home Office. The seeds of the Mark Bell transformation seems to be the efforts of an gentleman *without* formal Corrections training. This gentleman was charged with her incarceration just after her conviction. Later Mary was transfered from his custody to an adult prison, where remarkably her "morality" suffered, but survived. It makes one wonder about the wisdom of the "Try as an adult" laws that are becoming popular in the United States. I would strongly recommend that the reader, read Ms. Serenys previous book on the Mary Bell Murders (if you can find it) *before* reading this book. Failing that, internet has several good sites on the Murder and Trial.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating tale of a life after...
Review: This book documents the transformation of Mary Bell from what was obviously a sociopath to a "Morally Aware" adult. What is even more interesting, it seems that Mary Bell made this transistion despite the best efforts of the Home Office. The seeds of the Mark Bell transformation seems to be the efforts of an gentleman *without* formal Corrections training. This gentleman was charged with her incarceration just after her conviction. Later Mary was transfered from his custody to an adult prison, where remarkably her "morality" suffered, but survived. It makes one wonder about the wisdom of the "Try as an adult" laws that are becoming popular in the United States. I would strongly recommend that the reader, read Ms. Serenys previous book on the Mary Bell Murders (if you can find it) *before* reading this book. Failing that, internet has several good sites on the Murder and Trial.
Rating:
Summary: Rehabilitation is the most humane goal of imprisonment.
Review: This is an appalling story, not simply because of what Mary Bell did but because of the confusion of attitudes surrounding the issue of what an appropriate response to those actions might be. Children do not become as angry and as cruel as Mary Bell was without cause, and given the fact that they ARE children, and very much the product of their environments, she should be understood to be a victim of those circumstances as well as a victimizer. Children under the age of puberty quite clearly do not have an adult perception of consequences or an adult grasp of morality, nor for that matter the capacity for adult self-control. To treat them as adults, therefore, is simply to entrench in them the rage that led to the initial crime. If we subscribe to the view that imprisonment should be a rehabilitative process, then we cannot do anything other than applaud Mary's emergence into a relatively normal adult life outside prison: in particular, the very positive experience she had at Red Bank under the care of Mr Dixon - obviously one of those rare, humane and loving individuals the prison service is probably too short of - points the way to those who wish to reform the treatment of children in protective custody. To cast aside the life of an 11-year-old by blaming her for the sins which were committed against her and which her actions mirror back to society is obviously in itself another crime, and Gitta Sereny's book slowly and persuasively builds up the case for this view. By the way, since we as yet know next to nothing of the backgrounds of the children who killed in the USA recently, it is too early to say they too were not victims of a careless and uncaring adult world: their anger cannot have been causeless. Read this book with an open mind and then work for reform of the juvenile justice system!
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