Broken Base: While some credit the novel (and film) for raising public awareness of the Likens case, others feel that the excruciating detail it goes into portraying Meg's abuse, as well as the addition of explicit sexual violence that didn't occur in reality, make it come across as exploitative rather than informative.
Complete Monster: Ruth Chandler believes that all women are whores, and as such should be treated like animals. When her nieces Susan and Meg move in with her after the deaths of their parents, she subjects Meg to an escalating series of atrocities that include hanging her from the ceiling and ordering her sons and some of the neighborhood children to rape her, mutilating her with a blowtorch, and forcibly removing her clitoris, forcing Susan and neighbour boy David to watch as she does. She also punishes Susan, a disabled girl, for her sister's perceived disobedience; while also molesting her in secret.
Fridge Brilliance: A lot of the discomfort in reading the novel comes from David's inertia. It's very frustrating when no one moves to save Meg, instead standing around and watching. After a while, you start to realize that's exactly what you're doing as a reader. A gentle sort of Take That, Audience!.
Squick: The scene where one of the boys forces Meg to eat dog shit.
Took the Bad Film Seriously: In this film adaptation of a novel that's been criticized for its insensitivity to a historical tragedy, it's generally acknowledged that Blythe Auffarth genuinely does her best with the material she's given despite the film's exploitative nature. Auffarth later stated in an interview that filming the torture scenes was a very harrowing experience for her, commenting that, "it's scary being helpless and it's humiliating hanging and dangling there, and it's even more petrifying to have your senses taken away from you."
The Woobie: Meg and Susan Loughlin go to live with their secluded aunt, Ruth Chandler, after the deaths of their parents. They are subjected to an escalating series of abuse climaxing with Meg getting bound and gagged in the basement, and forced to take punishments reserved for Susan. Meg is beaten, tortured, raped and ultimately given a forced clitorectomy before succumbing from her wounds, while Susan is molested by Ruth - and one instance of it resulting in her bleeding.
