Reviews - The Stranger Beside Me

2.32k reviews for:

It's a true crime classic. It's great, everyone knows it. It was my first Ann Rule book and although I really really enjoyed it I have to say the most recent edition is hella long.. Like hella long. But it's because of the updates and the re-writes and the extra information.

I was, obviously, aware of Ted Bundy but I wanted to learn about his victims and his crimes, this book was excellent for that. I personally prefer the first half to the second, maybe because I feel like I want to know the victims stories more than Bundy and his infamy and escapes and all that madness. Nonetheless, my boyfriend who doesn't like reading or true crime, would ask me to read this out loud to him and was equally as engaged in the book as I.

mrakkol's review against another edition

3.0

The fact that on the cover Ann Rule's name is three times bigger than Ted Bundy's is a hint.

Rule has had an unparalleled chance to write the definitive Ted Bundy book. She was a friend or at least a close acquittance of Bundy's since before he started his crimes (barring, perhaps, one or two unsolved cases) and she was in correspondence with Bundy nearly until the end. Unfortunately Rule has gone for a 'human interest' approach, spending a lot of pages discussing her own feelings at different points of the investigation and judicial process. Personally I much prefer to more matter-of-fact approach of works like 'Helter Skelter' and 'The Evil that Men Do'. Equally, I don't think fans of more emotion driven writing will find the book too riveting. While Rule writes a lot about her feelings and thoughts, the overall picture is still rather shallow, skipping quickly over the point where she first began to suspect and when she became sure that her friend was the 'Ted'-killer.

It should also be noted that the 2009 contains two prefaces and three prologues, most of which overlap and which go a long way of accounting for the nearly ridiculous length of the book.

Still, for a fan of true crime -books 'The Stranger Beside Me' is an OK read.

andrea521's review against another edition

4.0

2023 PopSugar challenge-A book published the year you were born

trashmermaid's review against another edition

4.25

dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

smaugsroomie's review against another edition

4.5

dark informative medium-paced

As someone almost pathologically interested in serial killers and what makes them tick, this book was phenomenal! Written by one of his former friends, it gives readers an insight otherwise missed.

Content Warnings

seattleslayyyer's review against another edition

5.0

dark informative tense fast-paced

In this book, Ann Rule delivers a fantastic, investigative, and revealing account of her lengthy friendship with one of America’s most infamous—Ted Bundy. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator was phenomenal. I did recoil upon hearing the R word the first couple of times out of shock, but I had to remember that this book is a bit older now and that term was more accepted at the time. It was interesting to learn about the progression of the bizarrely unique relationship between Ann Rule and Ted Bundy. Beginning simply as empathetic coworkers, Ann likely never could have imagined that she would be maintaining a deep friendship with an admitted serial killer. Even through his admissions of guilt and up until his execution, she remained an ally to Ted: writing to him, providing him with cigarette money, and never betraying his trust. The entire account of his crimes, beyond merely what he has admitted to, will likely never come to light. With this, I am left to wonder how many undiscovered bodies of innocent women and girls across America will remain buried, without so much as a hint of justice.

heyheycharly's review against another edition

5.0

This book is intense and terrifying and very, very thorough. The fact that Rule was already Bundy's friend/coworker while at the same time working with the police department to chronicle and organize the information regarding local dead and missing girls is almost too perfect- if it was a movie premise, it'd be unbelievable that the crime writer was one of the serial killer's closest friends. It wasn't until chapter 49, the epilogue, the afterword, and the last chapter-1989 (pgs 357-450 in my book, the updated twentieth anniversary edition) that Rule really delves into what she believes made Bundy tick. You also finally read about how he carried out these heinous crimes as he confesses before his execution. Of course now, decades later, it seems insane to ever think he was innocent. But Rule writes about her state of mind at the time, the evidence against Bundy, and his seemingly normal behavior and you honestly start to think maybe he was innocent, maybe it was just a case of wrong place, wrong time. But she continues to explain and explore and you realize the truth right along with her and it's sickening. This book is 450 pages and the book itself is 9.5" tall, so it's no small read by any means but like I wrote earlier, Rule is very, very thorough. A fascinating book in itself, but don't be surprised if it gives you nightmares.