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erindatema25's review against another edition
Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, Pedophilia, and Violence
baearles's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Violence
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 This includes but is not limited to the n-word, the f slur, and out-of-date referrals to Asian, Black, and Native American people.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
cherryredmarlene's review against another edition
5.0
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
valayne's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
clarisseep's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25
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!
Graphic: Death, Child death, Violence, Torture, and Murder
foreverinastory's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
terestand's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Murder and Violence
Moderate: Physical abuse
True crime, murderkatya_orlova's review against another edition
3.5
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
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