The Less People Know About Us

Author: Axton Betz-Hamilton
Genre: Memoir / True Crime
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2019
Pages: 320
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Axton Betz-Hamilton grew up in small-town Indiana in the early 90s. When she was 11 years old, her parents both had their identities stolen. Their credit ratings were ruined, and they were contsantly fighting over money. This was before the age of the internset, when identity theft became more commonplace, so authorities and banks were clueless and reluctant to help Axton's parents.

Axton's family changed all of their personal information and moved to different addresses, but the identity thief followed them wherever they went. Convinced that the thief had to be someone they knew, Axton and her parents completely cut off the outside world, isolating themselves from friends and family. Axton learned not to let anyone into the house without explicit permission, and once went as far as chasing a plumber off their property with a knife.

As a result, Axton spent her formative years crippled by anxiety, quarantined behind the closed curtains in her childhood home. She began starving herself at a young age in an effort to blend in - her appearance could be nothing short of perfect or she would be scolded by her mother, who had become paranoid and consumed by how others perceived the family.

Years later, her parents' marriage still shaken from the theft, Axton discovered that she, too, had fallen prey to the identity thief, but by the time she realized, she was already thousands of dollars in debt and her credit was ruined.

The Less People Know About Us is Axton's attempt to untangle an intricate web of lies, and to understand how and why a loved on could have inflicted such pain. Axton will present a candid, shocking, and redemptive story and reveal her courageous effort to grapple with someone close that broke the unwritten rules of love, protection, and family.
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Review: Do not read the Acknowledgements section prior to reading. I almost always do, but in this one, there's a big spoiler. After reading the spoiler, I debated on whether or not to continue with the book, and I'm so glad I did. This is a great memoir, readable with likeable "characters."

It's hard to remember a world pre-internet, but this memoir will take you back, or open your eyes to it. Amazing.

This book and the author's story will stay with me for a long time.