Reviews - Notes on an Execution

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11.7k reviews for:

Notes on an Execution

Danya Kukafka

4.11 AVERAGE

itsmaggadelic's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I read this after seeing Lexi (aka newlynova) rank it on her best books of 2024. I tend to agree with her reviews, and so I put a hold on this one immediately, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I do agree with her thoughts that this is Bright Young Women, but better. This really focuses on the victims and the women who loved them, which so much true crime doesn’t do. That said, I HATE 2nd person perspective, so Ansel’s chapters were particularly awful to read. If we had just had the 3rd person perspective, I would have absolutely given this 5 stars. Highly recommend!

helsiebaby's review against another edition

3.0

I wanted to love this, or I wanted to write this review to call it unenjoyable but at least it was thought-provoking or interesting or something like that, but it just ... wasn't. Really I think it comes down to: if you're going to tell a story that centres the women victims of male serial killers, rather than the serial killer himself, then you have to actually centre the women. But the book very much puts him front and centre, while the women drift in and out living their Other Lives That Might Have Been in exactly the way the serial killer's grand "theory" describes, lol.

All this with an increasing side of how the police are good, actually, and anyone who disagrees is ignorant, and the death penalty is good and deserved too, actually, and and and. Nah.