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Send Them to Hell: The Brutal Horrors of Bangkok's Nightmare Jails
Send Them to Hell is a horrifying, authentic chronicle of life as lived by foreign inmates over the past two decades in Bangkok’s notorious prison system. Murder, human-rights abuse, drugs, prisoner and child sex slavery, blackmail, extortion, extreme violence, medical maltreatment, and unjustifiable death penalties feature as everyday occurrences in the living hells that are Bangkwang and Klong Prem jails. Sebastian Williams' blistering exposé graphically reveals this shocking reality through the eyes of a long-term inmate who has endured first hand the unimaginable, inhuman nightmare that constitutes the Thai penal system.
301 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 12, 2013
This book had the potential to be an extremely interesting account of time spent in a Thai prison and the flaws in the Thai judicial system. Unfortunately it is extremely badly written. The story was told in the first person by the character 'Sly'. Considering the hell he went through over 17 years he should have been a far more sympathetic character. He may well have been the victim of an elaborate set-up but I didn't find his innocence particularly believable. A more objective narrative would have been far more effective way to tell the story. And quite possibly the most annoying part of the book: WHY couldn't he just put at the start of the book "all the names have been changed" instead of OVER and OVER again writing 'this fellow... (who I am going to call [insert name]'. I only continued reading because I wanted to see how he managed to escape death row, but honestly the last 10 years were skipped over so quickly it was all a bit of an anti climax. There are so many accounts of time spent in Thai prisons around, I'm 99% sure there are more well written ones out there.
November 19, 2012
Book is full of holes. Whilst the horrors of Thai jails is real, the plot reads like a b-grade movie. There are other books which have been authenticated and worth reading.
December 16, 2013
I was not as impressed with this book as I thought it would be. It started out really interesting but seemed to wane. Maybe I have read so many prison stories that nothing surprises me anymore. It's definitely hard for any prison story to live up to The Damage Done by Warren Fellows. I think this book is worth a read but would recommend not to go in with expectations too high.
July 18, 2019
I have read a few biopic/journals about life in a foreign prison and they all start blurring into one... This isn't a patch on Papillon or Hell's Prisoner but can be tossed on the pile with cliche prison "classics" often seen in the hands of backpackers and in hostel libraries (e.g. Marching Powder or Damage Done).
I'd say skip this one. This is a harrowing life story told in a disappointingly dull way when in fact the subject matter is important and should be interesting.
PS how many times does the author say "... Let's just call him..." for the sake of character privacy? Surely just replace all the character names and pop a disclaimer in the preface or similar!
I'd say skip this one. This is a harrowing life story told in a disappointingly dull way when in fact the subject matter is important and should be interesting.
PS how many times does the author say "... Let's just call him..." for the sake of character privacy? Surely just replace all the character names and pop a disclaimer in the preface or similar!
October 30, 2019
Absolute nightmare to go through. Not sure if everything written is true or not, but it does make for a macabre reading. Sometimes you have to wonder just how much a human spirit can endure. Shame of humanity to treat fellow human like this, even if they are convicted criminals.
Just one small critiscism of the book....its written in a 3rd party point of view and has too many charaters and psedo names. Makes it difficult to remember and follow everything unless you read this with full concentration.
Just one small critiscism of the book....its written in a 3rd party point of view and has too many charaters and psedo names. Makes it difficult to remember and follow everything unless you read this with full concentration.
November 16, 2024
One of the terrible books I have read in the recent time. The horror in the Thai prisons makes you uncomfortable while reading so you can consider the pain the prisoners had gone through. Though the plot of the book is bit disrupted or disconnected it is understandable because the main character of the story whose name is Sly had to gone through this terrible experience so you can not expect everything he will remember exactly. That's why the timeline of the story the plot seems bit disconnected but that's quite acceptable. Overall a worth reading this book.
July 13, 2019
This book isn't very well written and the story of his innocence is hardly believable. As the horrors of the Thai judiciary systems are real, this is not worth reading. The main character goes on whining about his situation through the entire book as other prisoners seem to suffer way heavier stuff than he does. After 17years in prison I would expect way more humbleness and personal insight of the person.
July 9, 2021
The worst book I've ever read, whoever wrote this was almost writing a book using a "color by numbers" approach, eg. the evil German man, the mystery middle-eastern man in a suit, the beautiful ladyboy... the book was such crap I started laughing at it after the first chapter. Lesson learnt, next time I'm buying a book I'll read the reviews online first!
September 27, 2018
Heavy weight stuff. Makes the heart heavy. Startling details and imagery. Horribly frightening and shockingly true.
Makes you second guess travel to the "Land of Smiles". A book the world needs to read.
Makes you second guess travel to the "Land of Smiles". A book the world needs to read.
August 10, 2019
Definitely not one of the best books I’ve ever read. Sort of a struggle to finish.
January 20, 2020
So terribly written. I only finished it because of my need to finish what I’ve started. So glad it’s over.
December 22, 2022
Typical badly written memoir of an expat in Thailand doing dodgy things so he can stay longer. An interesting read regardless but nothing special
February 4, 2024
I've lived in Thailand for over 20years, this story is absolute nonsense
July 31, 2013
A potentially interesting story marred by poor writing.
I was driven to distraction by the clumsily structured, adjective-laden sentences. Half the time, once I'd finished reading one of the author's trademark 70 word sentences that circled the point, like a shark circling a struggling and injured swimmer, and throwing in, for good measure, a few brutal's, horrifying's and other words that the author loved so much I'd pretty much forgotten the original point of the sentence.
Yeah, like that.
I also wish the author had included the disclaimer 'all names have been changed' at the start instead of introducing every new person with something like '- who I'll call Billy-Bob Whatever-'
I do have the feeling that there was an interesting expose of the conditions within the Thai prison system and its endemic bureaucratic corruption, but sadly it was buried too deeply beneath the poor-quality writing to appreciate.
I was driven to distraction by the clumsily structured, adjective-laden sentences. Half the time, once I'd finished reading one of the author's trademark 70 word sentences that circled the point, like a shark circling a struggling and injured swimmer, and throwing in, for good measure, a few brutal's, horrifying's and other words that the author loved so much I'd pretty much forgotten the original point of the sentence.
Yeah, like that.
I also wish the author had included the disclaimer 'all names have been changed' at the start instead of introducing every new person with something like '- who I'll call Billy-Bob Whatever-'
I do have the feeling that there was an interesting expose of the conditions within the Thai prison system and its endemic bureaucratic corruption, but sadly it was buried too deeply beneath the poor-quality writing to appreciate.
May 7, 2012
This book was very well written and I enjoyed it thoroughly, as far as books go.
That said, I cannot emphasize enough how angry I was the whole time, to read this is the way westerners are being treated in a Thai jail. It made me want to become some sort of activist. I've never been political but it just evoked so much anger out of me that I felt an immense need to save the world and other innocent victims who are set up by such a corrupt judicial system from becoming another statistic.
This book is not for the faint of hearts, you see a whole new side of the world that most of us westerners are very much unaware of.
I will never travel to Thailand, because that's how pissed off I felt when I finished reading this book.
Sebastian Williams however, did a wonderful job of writing this person's story.
That said, I cannot emphasize enough how angry I was the whole time, to read this is the way westerners are being treated in a Thai jail. It made me want to become some sort of activist. I've never been political but it just evoked so much anger out of me that I felt an immense need to save the world and other innocent victims who are set up by such a corrupt judicial system from becoming another statistic.
This book is not for the faint of hearts, you see a whole new side of the world that most of us westerners are very much unaware of.
I will never travel to Thailand, because that's how pissed off I felt when I finished reading this book.
Sebastian Williams however, did a wonderful job of writing this person's story.
June 13, 2013
Wow, got this book from a bookshelf at a resort whilst staying in Bali. Couldn't put it down for two weeks. Westerners are providing Thailand with scapegoats left right n centre. People need more educating on these goings on before travelling abroad I think. Hotel K is next on list. With this book, the real kicker was one of the last stories about the Thai man sold by his family to a life sentence for murder..... Despite clearly being physically unable to hold a gun, let alone shoot one. Simply amazingly sad. Tumultuous read but a bit like a train wreck, couldn't stop till the end.
May 14, 2011
Written really well, this book could be very negative but yet the writer manages to keep it somewhat light, with details of the more positive relations that 'Sly' has held during his time in prison. The moral of the story was 'In Thailand...don't trust foreigners with business deals and don't ever try to get drugs.'
April 24, 2010
Very interesting and impressive!
March 24, 2017
This book left me both conflicted (Is Sly truly as innocent as he claims himself to be) and absolutely horrified. As much as I appreciate the expose', something about the narrator's tone (especially in certain parts of the novel) left me with an inkling of doubt if it's ALL genuine.
Nevertheless, I was deeply moved by certain Character's predicaments such as Sompon and Steven (and several others), hence I rated 3 stars.
Nevertheless, I was deeply moved by certain Character's predicaments such as Sompon and Steven (and several others), hence I rated 3 stars.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews