This is a tough read, but a very validating one, as Osbourne-Crowley sets out to tell the stories of those who testified in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, and in the process to explore the nature of trauma and explain why trauma victims defy social expectations of a "good" witness. It is tricky to tell a broader story through the specific stories of trauma survivors, without further shadowing those stories, but it is achieved here. Helped, I think, by Osbourne-Crowley's friendships with several of these women, willingness to weave her own story around the edges (never the centre) and sheer narrative skill. The scenes from the trial - the sense of this sisterhood forged in 2am queues and post-trial coffees - is fascinating. She also effectively balances giving space to those who testified and honouring their trauma, while also covering how much was excluded from view (and hinting at far, far more).
I have not followed the story in detail - long form is apparently how I like to digest hard stories - and was a little shocked by how little was dealt with at trial. None of the four women whom the prosecutors chose to take forward told stories of abuse beyond Maxwell and Epstein, despite many of the hundreds who have accessed the compensation fund having stories of being trafficked to others by the pair. Their is, in the end, a very limited sense of truth telling from the whole book, while remaining a clarion call for more.
It still shocks me that many people think that the fragmented memories of trauma survivors around details are somehow indicative of trauma not having occurred, instead of the opposite. One of the strengths of the book is how clearly Osbourne-Crowley explains that the memories around the edges are often shattered, but there is strong evidence - as admitted at trial - that people faithfully remember the core traumatic event, and other particular details will be burned deep.
It is also hard to wrap your head around what might motivate someone to do what Maxwell did. Wisely, Osbourne-Crowley doesn't try. She keeps her lens on the victims, and how the trial itself provides, even as it takes away, a sense of validation.