"Are You There ALone?"The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates

"Are You There Alone?" The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates by Suzanne O'Malley, 279 pages.  I don't usually read true crime stories but I do read a lot of biographies.  I choose to read this book recently when I read in the news that Andrea Yates had requested the right to attend church.  I remembered her crime had something to do with her religious beliefs and that the crimes happened right before 9/11.  I was interested in discovering if there was more behind her awful crime.  There was some interesting background on how she and her husband had met and their decision to live in a bus temporarily and home school their children.  The book dove into her psychological background, her commitments to mental institutions, and her depression and medications, and how a month before she drowned her children she had actually filled a bathtub also with a similar intent.  Although her crime is unspeakable, the book gave background to what may have driven her to such a tragic crime. Her words echoed throughout the book she was not a good mother and she had damaged her children and she was told by Satan to kill them.  A very, very sad tale.