Raised by a Serial Killer

Discovering the Truth About My Father

De: April Balascio

Narrado por: April Balascio

The untold story behind the hit true crime podcast The Clearing, this unforgettable memoir traces one daughter’s moving quest to understand her larger-than-life childhood as she searches for the truth about her father, the serial killer Edward Wayne Edwards.

One evening in 2009, April Balascio was searching online, as she had been every night, for unsolved murders in the towns her family had lived growing up, when she stumbled across the latest investigations into the “Sweetheart Murders” cold case. All at once, the buried memories of her father’s dark history were awakened, and she knew she had to take action. She picked up the phone to call a detective and the rest is infamous true crime history.

In her unflinching memoir, Balascio bravely reveals an astonishing tale of a lifetime of manipulation, unexplained upheavals, and silent fear. Some part of her had always known what her father was capable of, but the full truth of how she came to these revelations is as riveting as it is quietly terrifying. Through searing storytelling, dedicated research, and intimate insight, Raised by a Serial Killer is a gripping, courageous memoir unlike any other.

©2024 April Balascio (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Authentic, sympathetic and well done

I'm writing this review when the author is nearly done with high school. I have several hours to go, but I'm so impressed with the book that I'm motivated to recommend it as soon as possible. The author narrates her own story, which lends authenticity and atmosphere to the telling. People often wonder why spouses and children in the orbits of such appalling characters as the author's father don't run away sooner than they do. But the fine details of this family's predicament reveal the attachments and conditioning which immobilize them, along with the extreme danger of leaving such a vicious and vengeful person. This is not a hard book to hear because we can hear in the author's voice that she was adaptable, strong and courageous in ways that allowed her to survive. I believe her siblings and mother were too. There's no gratuitous description of the father's crimes. It's well-worth reading.

Her poor childhood 😭

I just wanted to reach into the book and save this sweet baby, you are amazing! This was very well written and easy to follow along!

Wow

RAISED BY A SERIAL KILLER is the remarkable story of how a daughter’s call to an unsolved murder tip line brought down a serial killer. April, Edward Wayne Edwards’s oldest child, grew up tortured and traumatized by her father. Unprotected by her mother, April endured countless beatings and humiliations. Still, April believe he loved her. I don’t know if Edwards was capable of love. He may have been able to mimic a loving father for short periods of time but it doesn’t seem like he put anyone’s needs ahead of his own agenda.

Speaking out about crimes perpetrated by her father caused estrangement among her siblings, which didn’t surprise me. The unwelcome notoriety affected everyone in her family and although from April’s point of view, her siblings were aware of their father’s criminal behavior including at least one murder. Still, being raised in a family as dysfunctional as the Edwards, where their father often pitted the siblings against each other, I’m not surprised they didn’t grow up with healthy relationship skills.

RAISED BY A SERIAL KILLER is 75% April’s child and young adulthood, giving insight into Edwards’s minor crimes and his systematic abuse of all his children. Readers see how April’s realization that her father’s behaviors weren’t normal and were in fact barbaric and murderous. The remaining 25% focuses on the investigations, capturing Edwards and the aftermath.

Narrator is very hard to listen to

The story was well written and is a testament to the author overcoming the adversity of her upbringing. Enthralling from start to finish. Only downside was that the author narrates the story, but that’s not to say that it didn’t add to the overall experience. She just does not have a good reading voice or cadence for storytelling; very juvenile.

Good reader

She whines way too much about getting spankings and being poor but she is a hood reader.

Enjoyed the story but not the narration

I am sad that April went through all this and glad that she shared her story. However, the reading cadence was difficult to overlook and jarring.

My heart goes out to this lady!

Good book-I feel for this lady & her family. I hope she knows love & kindness for the rest of her days! I was really saddened at her mother’s behavior… I think her mom is definitely complicit in the abuse. I did have to speed book up to 1.2, I feel the reading was slow, halting and a little childlike. Her father deserved far worse than he got.

Excellent!

Excellent all the way through! Thank you for sharing your story! You deserve all the b

Raw truth and vulnerability of characters

I was deeply touched emotionally by this true account and the feelings of my youth being so “normal” in comparison. A must read!

up close and personal look at life with a psychopath

Well done. The unfolding story of the brutal existence survived by the family of a killer. Violence against people, children, animals. Harsh but it is the reality.