You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced
dark informative reflective sad medium-paced
slow-paced

I think the author is very confused about what she wanted to write.  Memoir?  Treatise on the ill effects of lead and other metals? A history of transportation in Washington State?  An attempt to shock with details of murders and rapes?  She doesn't prove her thesis; blaming serial crimes on a single factor is too simplistic.  The detailing of the crimes just seems voyeuristic and prurient.  Specific to the audio version - the author claims to have grown up in Washington State.  If so, she didn't review the final audio product as the reader mispronounces many of the place names in the state.  See  Caroline Fraser’s Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers - The Brooklyn Rail  for an excellent review of the book. 
challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced
challenging dark informative reflective tense fast-paced
dark informative tense
challenging dark sad slow-paced
smithmd's profile picture

smithmd's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 70%

This book confuses presenting two stories that happened at a similar time as cause and effect.  I was wanting to buy the premise but there was no connection other than time, it wasn't even specific to location.  Environmental pollution was well researched and poorly presented.  Serial killers were poorly researched and presented like torture porn.  And I have no idea why a memoir was included.  I really wanted to like this book but couldn't.  

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

Challenging book. I wish there was more scientific background in the heavy metal exposure and less sensationalism of the murders completed by criminals. Despite that, she clearly was passionate and knowledgable about the subject. Felt more like a narrative identifying connections and ironies than investigative journalism. Takes you to account very dark place. Brace yourself. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings