Reviews tagging 'Death'

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

87 reviews

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. 

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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

em09's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Animal death

baearles's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Violence

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

cherryredmarlene's review against another edition

dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

i changed the rating from 4 to 5 stars because i think and talk about this so much it would be weird if i’d only give it 4

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Violence, Ableism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

mallorymce's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

4.0

The contrast given by Capote in the opposite views of the family in one chapter and the killer in the next creates an interesting emotion in the reader indicative of anxiety. It is of note that Capote is not a 100% reliable given his closeness to his research. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Death of parent

valayne's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

Beautifully told on audible! This book filled me with so many emotions. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt sympathy for the murderer as well as the victims. This book will stick with me for a long time. If you like true crime this book is a must!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

isammv's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Car accident and Child abuse

clarisseep's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

a really true crime book that I would for sure recommend!
if you want to be more in it, try to read some stuff about the actual murder and the backstory of Truman Capote and Harper Lee's research on the case!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Violence, Torture, and Murder

brittishliterature's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Rape