If The Idaho Four by ignited your fury at systemic failure and institutional betrayal, let We Were Once a Family by cut even deeper.
Buy on AmazonWhy It's Your Next Read
- Child welfare failures dissected w/ forensic rage
- Intimate family voices amplify emotional devastation
- Suspense builds through institutional cover-up revelations
- Victim-first empathy over perpetrator psychology
If The Idaho Four left you raging at every institutional crack those young victims slipped through, We Were Once a Family delivers that same gutting precision—only here, the systemic failures aren't just background noise but the entire anatomy of tragedy. Asgarian's investigative scalpel cuts through the child welfare apparatus with the same restrained fury you craved from Patterson and Ward, revealing how bureaucratic apathy can be as lethal as any knife.
This isn't courtroom theater or profile-of-a-killer pageantry. It's the compulsive, chapter-devouring tension of watching real horror unfold through voices that trusted the wrong systems, told with journalistic integrity that never exploits the innocents it memorializes.
Read it if you dare to feel that protective rage all over again.
What Readers Are Saying
"This is 5 star journalism! I’m in awe honestly... The generational trauma revealed in this book is absolutely harrowing. This author... took the time to get the whole story and to know all of the people involved, warts and all." — Danielle, Goodreads
"This is an engrossing and powerful read... Asgarian's greatest accomplishment is showing the ways in which the child protection system punished and misrepresented the actions of the loving stable members of the birth families... Highly recommended." — Bonnie G., Goodreads
"This is one of the best things I've read this year...the storytelling, the research, the writing, it is all so so so good. You must read this book." — Traci Thomas, Goodreads
