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evenshadow's review against another edition
2.0
Some of the essays were well thought out and informative, even when speaking on cases that most people who are interested in true crime have heard multiple times before. Other essays, especially the last few at the end of the book, were boring and tedious, especially as a non-American. Wish there had been more focus on actual true crime cases, especially ones that hadn't already had a lot of media attention.
sunseas's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5
yoteach87's review against another edition
3.0
A mish mash of captivating stories, and dry spells, worth it if you don't mind skimming around for the good stuff.
jmross10's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
2.5
For some reason I thought this would be a group of pieces written specially for the book. In reality, it’s just a compilation of pre-existing articles turned into a collection. While Weinman does separate them by themes I don’t personally feel they all go together well or make much sense as a whole.
This is particularly true about The Ethical Dilemma of Highbrow True Crime by Alice Bolin, What Bullets Do To Bodies by Jason Fagone, and Checkpoint Nation by Melissa Del Bosque. They are interesting pieces in their own right but lean more into social commentary and the need for change than the others, which focus more closely on specific crimes.
I also found it odd that the author chose to include The End of Evil by Sarah Marshall which suggests that Ted Bundy was a mentally ill individual who was wrongly identified as a psychopath, and as a result was improperly handled by the system. It felt uncomfortably forgiving considering the things he’d did. As if what happened wasn’t really his fault. Coming dangerously close to suggesting that his mother - and thus women - were to blame for his actions and not the man who did the crime.
In fact, many of the pieces came across as sympathetic towards violent offenders. While I understand they are all human and nothing is black and white, it’s still a choice on the author’s behalf to present these pieces together.
This decision is made even more odd by ending with “I am a girl now,” Sage Smith Wrote. Then she went missing by Emma Copley Eisenberg, in which there is an individual who has gotten no semblance of justice, but the article is written with a degree of partiality that reduces Sage to stand in for others in her situation instead of an actual sympathetic figure.
All in all, the individual pieces were interesting. As a whole the collection simply doesn’t make sense to me.
This is particularly true about The Ethical Dilemma of Highbrow True Crime by Alice Bolin, What Bullets Do To Bodies by Jason Fagone, and Checkpoint Nation by Melissa Del Bosque. They are interesting pieces in their own right but lean more into social commentary and the need for change than the others, which focus more closely on specific crimes.
I also found it odd that the author chose to include The End of Evil by Sarah Marshall which suggests that Ted Bundy was a mentally ill individual who was wrongly identified as a psychopath, and as a result was improperly handled by the system. It felt uncomfortably forgiving considering the things he’d did. As if what happened wasn’t really his fault. Coming dangerously close to suggesting that his mother - and thus women - were to blame for his actions and not the man who did the crime.
In fact, many of the pieces came across as sympathetic towards violent offenders. While I understand they are all human and nothing is black and white, it’s still a choice on the author’s behalf to present these pieces together.
This decision is made even more odd by ending with “I am a girl now,” Sage Smith Wrote. Then she went missing by Emma Copley Eisenberg, in which there is an individual who has gotten no semblance of justice, but the article is written with a degree of partiality that reduces Sage to stand in for others in her situation instead of an actual sympathetic figure.
All in all, the individual pieces were interesting. As a whole the collection simply doesn’t make sense to me.
mollywill's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
kellyzen's review against another edition
2.0
"There’s a subtler danger, too, when we focus on stories of individual characters and crimes, because the greatest crimes, now and always, have been systemic, and systemic stories are harder to tell."
The introduction to the anthology included the above quote, which was never realized in the disjointed collection of essays mostly about. . . individual characters and crimes.
The introduction to the anthology included the above quote, which was never realized in the disjointed collection of essays mostly about. . . individual characters and crimes.