Starvation Heights

I started listening to Starvation Heights expecting a grim but familiar true-crime tale, but Stacey Glemboski’s narration turned it into something I couldn’t pause. Her voice for the doctor—Dr. Henry Lindlahr—is especially unsettling; she modulates his tone from avuncular to sinister with terrifying ease, making his manipulations feel like watching a spider weave a web in real time. The production is crisp, with no distracting background noise, and the pauses between scenes are timed just right, giving you space to absorb the horror before diving back in. That said, the book’s middle act drags a bit when Olsen dives into the historical context of fasting movements. It’s fascinating, but for a story this gripping, I’d have preferred more focus on the Williamson sisters’ ordeal and less on the broader cultural trends. That minor flaw aside, the audiobook’s strength lies in how it makes the past feel present—especially when Lindlahr’s ‘treatments’ escalate from starvation to outright psychological warfare. By the end, I was furious at the system, the doctor, and even the sisters’ own family for enabling their suffering. Glemboski’s performance ensures you stay emotionally invested, even when Olsen’s writing occasionally flirts with melodrama in the final act. If you love true crime that’s as much about human psychology as it is about crime, this is a must-listen.