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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
fast-paced
dark
emotional
informative
tense
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Cannibalism
dark
emotional
informative
tense
medium-paced
Difficult to rate, honestly. I knew what I was getting into when I started, and while there's some stomach-churning things detailed in this book, the most horrific part is the ease with which Gaskins seems to relay them. If you've read American Psycho, you've read very nearly as gruesome as anything gets in this book as far as details are considered. An interesting read if you come equipped with the BIGGEST grain of salt. And man if I wasn't laughing at some of Pee Wee's turns of phrase despite myself.
I'm not sure how to "star" this. The syntax, misused vocabulary, and incorrect grammar remain to cultivate a voice, and it works, and it's pretty scary on its own (as the compiler, Earle, puts it - to know how commonplace and unmistakable evil can coexist).
I didn't really want to read this book. I'm from Florence county. Still live in Florence county. Everyone here grew up hearing about Pee Wee. Hell, I have some older family members who knew him, or his kin.
But he was a ghost story we told when we were worried about running out of gas on old Salem Road out of Johnsonville. He wasn't real to me - even living here, driving down streets he killed on, stopping in stores that existed then and still stand now. Pee Wee Gaskins was a scary story you told to your kids to convince them to be careful, and to your friends to freak them out. I never actually knew a single factual thing about him.
I work in Johnsonville now, and I read this because my job focuses on local history and genealogy. Gaskins was a disgusting, terrifying example of the worst humanity has to offer. However, I found myself a lot less interested in the murders (perhaps to emotionally distance myself from them enough to stomach finishing the book) and a lot more interested in his tight, operationally defined moral code, and the codes of those he lived and worked with. That's another book to write, though.
As far as the Meanest Man in America goes, this book is his version of the Final Truth. I doubt we'll ever really have it, though.
I didn't really want to read this book. I'm from Florence county. Still live in Florence county. Everyone here grew up hearing about Pee Wee. Hell, I have some older family members who knew him, or his kin.
But he was a ghost story we told when we were worried about running out of gas on old Salem Road out of Johnsonville. He wasn't real to me - even living here, driving down streets he killed on, stopping in stores that existed then and still stand now. Pee Wee Gaskins was a scary story you told to your kids to convince them to be careful, and to your friends to freak them out. I never actually knew a single factual thing about him.
I work in Johnsonville now, and I read this because my job focuses on local history and genealogy. Gaskins was a disgusting, terrifying example of the worst humanity has to offer. However, I found myself a lot less interested in the murders (perhaps to emotionally distance myself from them enough to stomach finishing the book) and a lot more interested in his tight, operationally defined moral code, and the codes of those he lived and worked with. That's another book to write, though.
As far as the Meanest Man in America goes, this book is his version of the Final Truth. I doubt we'll ever really have it, though.