Reviews tagging 'War'

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

3 reviews

henrygravesprince's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

3.75

Capote’s prose is masterful, but the non-fiction aspect was handled in a way I don’t find responsible, and I think that, as one of the first major modern true crime media “sensations”, In Cold Blood embodies many of the same problems that true crime media, particularly dramatizations, maintains today. I don’t dislike Capote, and in fact I quite like his writing for the most part, but I couldn’t in good conscience give this book a wholly glowing review. There would still be issues if I looked at it the way one looks at fiction, but monumentally less — that said, it is not purely fiction, and I can’t look at this novel & not be acutely aware of the fact that these were real people & the facts were embellished in ways that can’t really be brushed off, in my opinion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Mental illness, Death, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Pedophilia, Racism, Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Misogyny, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, War, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Homophobia, Abandonment, and Grief

kemorrell's review against another edition

dark informative sad slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Gun violence, and Child death

Moderate: Abandonment and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Sexual assault and War

athereaderofbooks's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

2.0

Clearly, I would not recommend this true-crime novel. 

I will give kudos to a couple of aspects of this book: 

1. It was organized in a notable way. It started with showing the past of both the victims and their killers. Their environments were taken into consideration and you developed an idea of their character. Later it led to the investigation and we found out how the murder occurred through confessionals. Truman Capote followed the case until its conclusion. 

2. The entire book was thorough with everything. If something was mentioned it was never offhandedly, and we understood how everyone and everything contributed to the narrative. 

But despite these factors, I hated this book. This is the first time that I have read a true crime book, and this most definitely affected my rating, but this was horrific. Why would I want to read about an entire family being murdered

because some thieves wanted money??

How does one find enjoyment in such a subject when they themself could one day be the victim of such an unsuspecting crime? The Clutters likely never thought of this likelihood and look what happened to them. The only thing this book added to my life was more anxiety, and I already have enough. 

 On top of this, there have been multiple people who have contested the accuracy of this book, saying that there were many pieces of opinion inserted and falsehoods added into the book. (Not just random people online, but people who themselves have analyzed this crime.) 
 
This dragged on and on with a really excessive form of writing and the only interest I had was finishing this book so I could get it over with, understand what happened, and try to forget it. 

And to me, most importantly, there were multiple instances where racial, homophobic, and in general degrading slurs were used. This includes but is not limited to the n-word, the f slur, and out-of-date referrals to Asian, Black, and Native American people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Car accident, Death of parent, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Abandonment, Bullying, Excrement, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and War