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pbraue13's review against another edition
4.0
A fun, albeit morbid, look through some of the most vile and infamous killers of our time. The commentary by the podcast's hosts is fun and lightens some of the more downbeat and grim details of the lives of these horrible monsters.
hannahthespectroscopist's review against another edition
I appreciated that they’re trying to NOT do what true crime junkies do (almost idolize and mythicize killers), but chapter two got veryyyy cop-propaganda/bootlick-y.
blawesome's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.75
belacqua's review against another edition
dark
informative
medium-paced
3.25
This book was not quite what I was expecting when I picked it up. Billed as a more irreverent take on some well known serial murderers it really just boiled down to a telling of their life and crimes interspersed with some pretty lame jokes. Reading the stories was interesting enough but I don't think they've added much to an already crowded genre of books.
chadconnecticut's review against another edition
dark
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.75
AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: after having read the book when it was first released, I wanted to revisit the audiobook and see how it addressed the book’s unique format. I’m a long-time fan of the podcast, and was a listener when these subjects were covered initially.
For starters, the audio format really makes it clear that this is Marcus’ book. The book is made better for his performance as a reader, and some of the heavy hitters covered early in the show’s run (BTK and Bundy especially, Gacy and Dahmer to a lesser degree) benefit from Marcus’ maturity as a researcher and the passage of time. It feels like those heavy hitters got the coverage the boys would give them now, which makes it easier to say goodbye to some of those dicey early episodes of the pod.
The formatting with Henry and Ben’s interjections isn’t always very natural, not just in terms of the context, but with the editing of the audiobook leaving pauses between the narration and the interjection, which leads some of the jokes in earlier chapters to fall flat.
To address the proverbial elephant in the room: the book, more than his waning contributions on the podcast, the book highlights how Kissel’s level of contribution is out-of-step with the content. The movie references feel especially stale in a static object like a book that’s meant to be even more evergreen than the show attempts to be. I think that, to any longtime listener of the show, this won’t make or break the reading experience, but it certainly won’t be missed if/when the boys decide to do another book.