“You Have a Very Soft Voice, Susan is quite possibly the most twisted and surreal case of stalking I have ever encountered. Well written and gripping. Just when you think it can’t get any more bizarre, it does.” — Patrick Quinlan, Los Angeles Times bestselling author of All Those MomentsThis is not a typical story of Internet stalking. It is an unusual case of friendship and deception so pitiless … deception so pitiless and unyielding that it opened a door to Hell into the author’s life. This is an unforgettable story for today’s digital world driven by social media in all of its permutations and cruelest forms.
The story begins with Susan Fensten’s online search for her father’s family, a search that soon turns into a two-year frightening odyssey of internet stalking and threats when a posting on a genealogy message board brings her into contact with what she thinks are distant cousins, but what turns out to be a sociopath.
Through email correspondence with her new “family”, evidence of mental illness, dark family secrets, a struggle over wealth and bizarre criminal histories emerge. She quickly becomes the focus of sexual obsession and suspicion, and her life is completely turned upside down. She soon becomes the target of dozens of frightening characters including real verifiable convicted sex offenders in an elaborate cyber-hoax that includes threats of kidnapping, murder, rape, torture and cannibalism.
Remarkable in its complexity, this story of Internet stalking is also a sinister and shocking journal of madness. Described by the FBI as a case “in a category by itself,” This book is a story about the Internet, the search for family, a friendship and a journey into the underbelly of American crime that raises questions about safety online and pushes the boundaries of our perceptions of what is real and what is not.
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What a terrorizing experience and a roller coaster of a story! The minute it was evident that her “relatives” were disturbed, I kept screaming for Susan to stop communication. It wasn’t until later that I could see how she was strung along to remain in the nightmare. This was a well-written, detailed account of an almost unimaginable internet encounter. If for no other reason than to be educated in the manipulative nature of a psychopath, read this book! I admire Susan for sharing her story. I have a feeling that her level of trust will be forever changed.
Susan Fensten’s new book, You Have a Very Soft Voice, Susan, is a stark look at the dark side of the Internet. It’s a cautionary tale about how quickly things can go wrong when one’s keystrokes reach the wrong person. In our connected world, where in an instant we can touch such wonderful knowledge that will change our lives for good, we need to realize that evil waits for its turn as well. Without question, Fensten’s book is a pulse-pounding work that proves once again that truth is stranger than fiction.
Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction and boy, is this a great example.
In 2003, Susan Fensten decided to go to an online genealogy site to look for family members on her dad’s side. Two weeks later she received an email from her cousin and thus began a spiral into online stalking unlike anything conceived of in Wes Craven, Timothy Burton, and Quentin Tarrantino nightmares.
She soon finds herself the target of salacious sexual advances, all of which quickly escalate into threats of rape, kidnapping and cannibalism. Yep…cannibalism.
Perhaps most harrowing, in 2003 her stalkers’ behaviors weren’t considered a crime and no one from the NYPD was particularly interested in helping her. She finally gets an agent from the FBI to listen to her and as he begins to investigate, well, things just keep getting stranger.
This true story will make you want to shut down every social media account you have, chuck your computers, tablets and phones and buy a little stretch of land somewhere off the grid, even if it means you won’t be anywhere near Whole Foods, your favorite colorist, or the gym. You’ll get plenty of exercise working the land and your chickens won’t care what color your hair is.
See you there!
Thank you to my GR friend, Michelle, for her compelling review of this amazing book. Girl, I would follow you off a cliff!
Thank you also to Susan Fensten, WildBlue Press and NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Susan goes on a genealogy site to look for lost relatives and things really go down hill from there. She thinks she has made contact with a relative but things soon get really weird and continue on over a couple year period. This book gets really creepy and scary but I felt it could have been shorter. Thank you to NetGalley and Wild Blue Press for the opportunity to read this very engrossing book.
This was scary as Hell! Since I have the same name, and someone actually said those words to me one time, it had personal meaning to me. A true story of one gal’s nightmare that went on for years!
A chilling tale of stalking that reads like a cheesy Lifetime movie, but is actually true. An innocent trip to a genealogical message board in search of her father’s relatives gradually leads Susan into a dark world of previously unknown cousins with unsavory habits that they wish Susan to join in. A whole constellation of cousins, husbands, children are thrust upon her. At first she is happy to have her family expanded, but when one member tries to pull her into his BDSM world, her concerns grow. Horrific things begin to be sent to her workplace and to all of her coworkers. Threats on hers and her boyfriend’s lives begin to become a daily occurrence. A cousin’s husband claims to be trying to get them all to back off through legal means, but never seems to succeed. The crazy thing about all of the above is that it occurs without Susan ever meeting any of these people face to face.
Multiple trips to the local police department produce little sympathy and no offer of protection. Eventually the FBI becomes involved and things start to unravel. I must say that as an outsider reading this I was fairly certain of who the perpetrator was earlier that Susan realized it. One complaint about the book is that it could have been more compact. Pages and pages were devoted to describing how scared she was. While this is an accurate description of her desperation, it could have been shortened a bit.
Boring, too much detail to follow. I could not finish the book.
I gave this book a three star rating instead of a five because the subject matter might be difficult for some people. For me this is a very scary book. The idea of being stalked by evil people seems horrific to me.
I read it because it is about a woman who doesn’t feel connected to her father so she reaches out to some of his cousins she never knew, only to discover they are monsters who soon invade her life with devastating consequences.
This book might serve as a warning for those who are looking to connect with missing relatives by submitting their DNA to places like Ancestors.com.
It wasn’t what I thought it would be. Had a difficult time really getting into it. Ended up speed reading through most of it. I’m sure what this woman experienced was horrific, just didn’t find it that intetesting
I’m not sure what to make of this book. It started out intriguing, but soon lost its momentum. The author could not have been a more willing victim. Obviously intelligent, she just keeps getting pulled in deeper and deeper, willingly. There were numerous times I wanted to put the book down, but I completed it. Its a cautionary tale of what can happen when you allow someone to lead you down a slippery slope.
Susan Fensten’s autobiographical account of how her simple internet search for lost relatives on an ancestry website unleashed a horrifying armada of mad kinky ghouls to relentlessly stalk her, is a fright house of a tale; a Dantesque decent into a cyber inferno that any one of us could easily find themselves drawn into.
You Have a Very Soft Voice, Susan is quite possibly the most twisted and surreal case of stalking I have ever encountered. Well written and gripping. Just when you think it can’t get any more bizarre, it does.
Made me look at my friends with new eyes.
So poorly written I just couldn’t finish it
Thank you Wild Blue Press, Net Galley and Susan Fensten for sharing your story. It’s a great teaching tool too.
I don’t know what to rate this book, it’s really good and I feel for Susan. I want to rate it a 3 due to the content but also rate it a 5 due to Susan. I have to say it’s disturbing and the fear you had to go through. This book was picked up, read, put down etc.
To say this book is strange is an understatement. Innocently enough Susan Fensten decided to use a website to try and locate family on her father’s side. She ended up locating something very evil. She gets a reply from a Karen, then Leonard, then Sharon, then another and another. They all email each other and get to know one another. Each family sharing way too much. Then things get worse and yes worse. Soon no one in Susan’s life is immune, Reading this book made my jaw drop and made me rethink my social media. Susan was smart for taking such good notes and saving everything. I wanted to know who was behind all this, Thank you for sharing your story Susan. It must of been horrible to relive this to put it all down on paper.
Thanks again Wild Blue Press.
This book is already available. Be careful out there.