The Lafferty Girl by Rebecca Lafferty is a memoir about a girl who was abused by her father. A man who would later commit a horrible murder.
This book is one of those books that’s hard to read, not because of the writing, but because of the content. Rebecca Lafferty was raised by a horrible man who committed awful crimes. This book is one I would only recommend to people who like true crime novels. It’s also a great story for anyone who likes memoirs about children who went through trauma.
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The Lafferty Girl Overview
Title: The Lafferty Girl
Author: Rebecca Lafferty
Pages: 336 Pages
Publish Date: September 30th, 2025
Genre: Memoir
My Star Rating: 3/5 stars! (It was a really good book and I would recommend it to people who are interested in this subject)
Grab your copy here: https://amzn.to/4gyDKsT
Synopsis from Amazon
Rebecca Lafferty grew up with a volatile, erratic, and ultimately notorious father, Dan Lafferty. She carried the scars of her traumatic upbringing through childhood and into adulthood. But most of all, Rebecca carried the horror of learning about the cold-blooded murder of her aunt and infant cousin in 1984, perpetrated by Dan and Ron according to a revelation Ron had received—as profiled in the Jon Krakauer book and FX/Hulu series Under the Banner of Heaven.
Now, in this riveting memoir, Rebecca tells her own story of survival and healing. Her correspondence with Dan—serving life in prison—insights from relatives, and most importantly, her own lived experience, give her an astoundingly deep point of view on the lead-up to the tragedy and its aftermath.
In this book, Rebecca hopes to encourage other survivors of abuse and trauma to chart their own path to healing and peace.
My Review of The Lafferty Girl
First off, thank you to NetGalley, Rebecca Lafferty, and the publisher for this advanced reading copy of The Lafferty Girl. It was a jarring and honest story of a girl raised by an abusive and traumatic father.
This story was hard to read. Not in a bad way, just hard to read because of the content. Rebecca’s story is as heartbreaking as it is harrowing. I applaud Rebecca’s bravery in telling her story and sharing her life with people.
The reason I gave this book three stars is that I was expecting more stories from her childhood. It seemed like that part of her life was over about 30 percent of the way through. The rest of the story is her life and the choices she’s made.
I know Rebecca is a real person and this book is her telling her life story, but I just found myself wanting to shake her and hope she makes better choices. Once I finished the book, I had to remind myself that she experienced something at such a young age that I could never understand. Once she did the work to overcome her trauma, she seemed more settled.
Overall, The Lafferty Girl is a story that most of us will never understand, but hopefully can learn from. This book is great for anyone who enjoys true crime novels and knows the story of the crime that inspired Under the Banner of Heaven.
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Final Thoughts
If you enjoyed this review or have any questions, let me know in the comments below. If you read The Lafferty Girl, let me know what you think. I love hearing from all of you!
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Thanks for reading,
Kell
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