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a789's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Murder, Death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Violence, Sexual violence, and Alcoholism
somelibrarychick's review against another edition
2.75
Graphic: Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Rape, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence
hannahchristine's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Child death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Blood, Death, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Cancer, Car accident, and Child abuse
athereaderofbooks's review against another edition
2.0
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.
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
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 This includes but is not limited to the n-word, the f slur, and out-of-date referrals to Asian, Black, and Native American people.
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
brittishliterature's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Rape
akissforcatullus's review against another edition
3.5
My biggest qualm is how noticeably biased this book can be towards Perry. Now, this goes without saying that Perry’s tragic life does deserve sympathy, but, it just seems unreliable at times; invoking slight scepticism and concern as to whether something actually happened or was just contrived or hypothesised by the writer. This applies, too, with the Clutter family’s personal life. There are parts I feel that were added and elongated insincerely, like Bonnie’s illnesses and strifes. Also want to add, this book did initiate this momentary hyper-vigilance on my part. I usually am a kind of vigilant person, but upon reading this book I felt an already existing fear become substantiated and intensified. I can’t say it’s necessarily a bad thing, but it certainly was haunting.
Regardless of my personal negative emotion towards this book, it deserves credit for the sheer amount of effort put into it as well as its execution. I commend the writing for keeping me fairly interested despite my hesitance in continuing—of course certain chunks of information felt at times superfluous, but I appreciated it nonetheless. The unreliability, the—what essentially was—confirmation bias, the gruesomeness of the murders, the horrid themes, the occasionally tedious bits of information, all retracted a 4 star rating. I also didn’t feel pleased with giving it a 4 or higher star as I don’t particularly enjoy novels of this nature, no matter how well it may be written. I hope this review is coherent. I’m too tired to map out exactly what I wanted to say as well as what was said.
There’s a lot missing out. There’s a lot more I want to express, like my deep anguish for the poor family, and how certain parts of the novel will probably remain cemented in my mind, but I’ll leave it for you, dear reader, to experience it for yourself. (Edit: I advise you not to, actually. Thinking back on it now, I could’ve lived life perfectly fine having not read this book. So, no, despite how dedicated the author was, this is not a book I recommend.)
Graphic: Racism, Toxic friendship, Murder, Violence, Racial slurs, Child abuse, and Death
Moderate: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
Minor: Suicide, Homophobia, and Pedophilia
narpetcards's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Car accident, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship
lefeer01's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Gun violence and Gore
Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Alcoholism and Physical abuse