"This biography from Casillo fleshes out the icon, telling Monroe's tale in great and often harrowing detail and showing how the notorious blond pin-up was smarter and shrewder than most realize, yet just as tragic as we knew." --
New York Post, "Most Unforgettable Books of 2018""After all I've seen and heard about Marilyn Monroe, this book is a revelation, an earthy, empathic vision of a real woman who happened to be an ethereal goddess. Getting to know Charles Casillo's Marilyn made me feel a level of identification and understanding that was devastating and thrilling."
--Mary Gaitskill"A refreshing take on the complex and talented Monroe....A+." --
Tulsa Book Review"Casillo explores the myriad facets of Monroe's personality with a respectful but incisive eye...an intricately nuanced portrait of this misunderstood idol...A worthy addition to the Monroe canon." -
Booklist"A well-written examination of the mystique of a woman who still fascinates decades after her untimely death."--
Publishers Weekly"A deep dive into the model and screen legend's glamorous but troubled life…[Casillo] pays particularly sympathetic attention to her emotional journey…a compelling exploration of a beguiling film icon's life."
--Kirkus Reviews"Extraordinary…Castillo's sympathetic and psychologically nuanced Marilyn Monroe bio is compulsively readable and well researched." --
Shelf Awareness
"Charles Casillo has managed to further peel back the layers on one of our most complex modern day heroines."
--Stanley Buchthal, co-editor of Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters