Book Review: The Boy In The Cellar by Stephen Smith

The most terrifying book you’ll ever read – and it’s all true!

I love thrillers. Thrillers, horror, mysteries, crime and action, whatever it is, I love reading and watching things that can make my heart beat faster. So when I first discovered the true crime genre at some point in my early teens, I was immediately hooked.

There’s something particularly terrifying about it when you know it’s real. When you know that these things actually happened to someone. In this day and age, there’s tons of true crime everywhere, documentaries, shows, podcasts, you name it, but I realized hadn’t read many books in the genre. Naturally, when I came across this I was immediately fascinated.

The book is the story of Stephen Smith, a boy from England who was kept looked up and beaten by his father in the early 1960’s. We’re served a unique view of the world from Stephen’s perspective within his small, damp room, and it’s a fascinating tale of how a boy, a child, has to grow up and learn about, adapt to, and overcome so many things that he should never have gone through alone.

Unfortunately, the cellar isn’t the worst thing that happens to Stephen. There’s a whole system of people, adults and authority figures around him that fail him miserably. On and on it goes, until Stephen is a grown up himself, and even then he struggles. You see, Stephen is a clever boy. Very clever, according to some of the tests he’s taken. Yet, he never has a chance to apply himself, not properly, because of what he’s been through. That’s not to say he hasn’t done great things, but even his adult life is rife with tragedy.

This was an extremely fascinating book, albeit also a horrifying one. Some of this is painful to read, but a lot of it is unique and eye-opening.

Stephen’s journey has been a long one. He’s an old man now, and though is life has been terrible, it seems that he’s been able to find peace, and some success, since his early days as the boy in the cellar.

Do you like true crime, or is it too much to stomach? Do you have any books or shows to recommend? Let me know in the comments! Oh, and as always, check out my books! You can pre-order my upcoming thriller today!