Reviews tagging 'Grief'

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

30 reviews

lilytheravenclaw's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Pedophilia

Minor: Racial slurs, Cursing, Car accident, Hate crime, Racism, and Mental illness

strange's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

It’s hard to really give this book a rating— it’s a 5 on the writing quality and impact, but somehow it just feels like there’s something missing that I can’t quite place. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Pedophilia, Death, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Grief, Mental illness, and Rape

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racial slurs, Cancer, Blood, and Addiction

Please, please, please do not push yourself to read this if you in any way feel you’re not ready

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. 

---

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

foreverinastory's review against another edition

challenging dark sad

3.0

 CWs: Blood, child death, death, death of parent, gore, gun violence, grief, injury/injury detail, mental illness (paranoid schizophrenia), murder, suicidal thoughts, violence. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

katya_orlova's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

narpetcards's review against another edition

dark informative sad tense medium-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

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

meganpbennett's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

2.5

I'm not sure what I think of my first true crime story (recommended by a True Crime aficionado librarian I know). The story was interesting enough, with Capote showing readers how the convicted committed the crime, and how the felt about it. 

I found In Cold Blood not what I expected. It wasn't gripping or page turning (in fact, I think I finished it out of pure desire to finish it and not because I especially liked it). I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style, nor of the emphasis placed on how non-remorseful Perry and Dick were over the whole thing. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Violence, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Grief, Child abuse, and Cursing

Moderate: Pedophilia and Child death

houndoflove1985's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Pedophilia, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, and Mental illness

Minor: Abandonment, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, and Racism

carsonlott's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

4.5

i really really enjoyed this book. capote invented the true crime, nonfiction novel and is an absolute genius. however, some parts of the book felt unnecessarily dense — like an information dump. despite this, the story was absolutely captivating and even made me feel nauseous at some points. would recommend to anyone with a tough stomach kr true crime lover, 4.5/5. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, and Vomit

_emma_rose_'s review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

I've found that a lot of books referred to as "classics" can be a huge pain to read. Maybe I'm too young to understand, but I really don't get why certain books achieve "classic" status over others-- In Cold Blood is one I understand. This book was the first semi-fictionalized crime book (I believe), a genre which is now incredibly popular. In Cold Blood feels both old and familiar: the first and best example of a now saturated storytelling medium. I recommend it for everyone, but I will warn that there are upsetting themes and violence (it is a crime story, after all). 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Murder, and Violence