Several things just didn't work for me:

-- The detached writing style. (I mean, I get the training historians go through, but it seemed wrong for this #truecrime story.)

-- Lack of human element: the grief and trauma of rape, coupled with the society view of women's sexuality at the turn of the 20th century in the USA was missing. (Spoiler alert: if you were a "respectable" woman, YOU. DIDN'T. HAVE. SEX. BEFORE. MARRIAGE.🙅‍♀️) Even if Baatz had no primary sources from Evelyn, he could have used other contemporaries to illustrate the ridiculousness and sexism women endured.

-- I felt Evelyn, the titular girl on the swing, was pretty absent from the narrative. The rape, which happened to her, was addressed through the men in her life. I wanted her voice, her emotions, and her. More focus and attention was spent on her rapist and her husband. 😤🤬