Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

21 reviews

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Animal death, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Animal cruelty, Blood, Gore, Child death, Death, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, and Violence

emy_clemy's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Violence, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Suicide attempt, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Chronic illness, Gore, Domestic abuse, Child death, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Excrement, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Racism, Ableism, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Suicide, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Car accident

js304808's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, and Racism

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Animal cruelty

calamityin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

1.5

While it's one of the cornerstones for True Crime as a literary phenomena, it's incredibly insensitive to the victims and those around them.  It's frankly a bit disgusting the way that Capote describes these horrible acts as if they didn't happen to real people who had real hopes and dreams and lives.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Classism, Death, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Racism, and Car accident

Minor: Fatphobia, Alcoholism, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

soswiin's review against another edition

dark informative tense medium-paced

4.0

definitely a unique format that grabbed my attention more than i thought it would've. yes, inventing dialogue and scenes made it read more like a novel than an informative essay as capote intended but it just didn't feel morally right. which is a dilemma that encompasses 90% of this book's controversies anyway. capote was brave for humanizing the clutter family's killers and i appreciate it to an extent — it elevated the pair from stereotypical jailhouse grunts to fleshed-out individuals with individual wounds and faults. while it added depth it still felt weird to ready about!! bad childhood ≠ the right to blow the brains out of an entire family. lot of repeated information which was quite helpful given the attention span i'd allotted for this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Child abuse

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcoholism, Suicide, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Homophobia

ashwaar's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative medium-paced

4.5

This is another book I’ve read from my long list of classics and I really enjoyed it! I hadn’t heard of it before but it has been claimed as the first narrative non-fiction novel and whether that’s true or not, it was done really well. It’s a fascinating look into a seemingly motiveless crime in rural Kansas. Capote keeps the reader engaged throughout as you learn about and even sympathise with those involved in this chilling quadruple homicide.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Cursing, Violence, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gun violence, Murder, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Rape, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse

Minor: Sexual content, Car accident, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

jbrown1120's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Gun violence, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Abandonment, Car accident, Child abuse, Eating disorder, and Mental illness

Minor: Sexual violence, Racism, Grief, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicide, Sexism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

maddypat's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

This book made me feel some kind of way. Overall I would say it was a fantastic book. I was practically glued to it, so eager to know what happened next despite knowing the ultimate ending from the start.

While reading it, though, I couldn't help but think about the current discourse about true crime as a genre. A lot of people feel that true crime seems to focus a lot on the murderers and barely treat the victims as people, and often spreads misinformation about the case or the people involved. I think this is fair to say about a lot of true crime podcasts and, I'm sure, also about a lot of true crime books. 

In Cold Blood, I think, does a pretty good job of humanizing the victims. Accounts from friends and family of the Clutters help paint a picture of who they were before they were killed, and throughout the book we never forget how brutal of an end they were met with at the hands of Dick and Perry. But then on the flip side, well over half of the novel is dedicated to talking about those men, their lives leading up to the murder, and what happened following it. After finishing the book and looking up the case, it turns out Capote had actually befriended Perry during his research. 

At first, I was not really happy with this. Who are these men, these two people that murdered a whole family

(for no more than $50!)

, that I should feel bad for them? Or feel any kind of way except disgusted? I again kept thinking about the true crime discourse and how victims are so often drowned out by the coverage of their killer. But then, as the book went on, I realized it simply isn't that black and white. Dick and Perry did something horrible and unforgivable, but it doesn't mean they aren't humans with complicated lives - and understanding those lives can go some way in trying to understand why they did what they did. I grew to appreciate that I learned so much about these two, and similarly wrestled with the punishment they ended up receiving. I have never given much thought to the death penalty, but as it's reasoned in the book, it was urged because even life in prison could result in a parol in as few as (if I remember correctly) 15 years in that. These two men would be barely in their forties by then, and from my view of them, very much capable of making similar choices again. But who are we to decide who dies and who lives? 

In the end, I think what sets this book apart is that it paints the full picture. Sure I learn a lot about the perpetrators of the crime, but I also am thinking of the victims around every curve, and that is the difference between good true crime and bad.

I know I'll be thinking about this book for a long time. I'd recommend it even for people who don't read much other true crime. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

reiley_61's review against another edition

informative mysterious slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Rape, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Homophobia, and Cursing

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

shinumi's review against another edition

dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Murder, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia