Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar

8 reviews

adventgeekgirl's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Animal cruelty, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Stalking, Body horror, Child death, Death, and Murder

ruthypoo2's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I was enraptured by the concept of this book. The author, Richard Chizmar, has created a murder mystery story that's based on a real-life series of murders that occurred near his hometown, and has inserted himself into a fictional narrative where he has a direct connection to a key victim and their family, which ends up pulling him into being an armchair detective who has his own observations and theories about links between the victims and ideas about who could be the killer.

Surprisingly, it's not a far reach how the recent college graduate, Richard, becomes embroiled in the murder investigation. In the time between college graduation and starting a career, with a series of grisly murders impacting his hometown, he ends up writing a personal account of how he's affected and driven to investigate the murders himself and follow-up on some of his own hunches. While this is a fictional account, the book includes pictures and documents that represent characters, locations, and information sources related to the murder investigation. These additional touches really heighten the reader's investment in the story. 

I found myself liking Mr. Chizmar's writing style quite a lot. I both read the Kindle digital edition and listened to the audiobook, narrated by Chris Andrew Ciulla who did a very good job with the reading of the story. While I can recommend both, it's important that the reader has either the physical or digital version of the book if they want to see the photos and documents added to enhance the experience of consuming this story.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder and Violence

nickcallebs's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Death, Child death, Rape, and Grief

jjreads331's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The metafiction of this story is great, and it is what kept me going. The author clearly read into the genre and managed to create a story that confused at least half of my book group as to whether this was a real memoir or fiction. The issues that I had are with the pacing. There isn't really any denouement and I think the book needed that. One thing I really did love was the loving depictions of Maryland. I wanted to immediately go back to visit. Oh, one last nit:

the pictures included were hilarious and an excellent addition, but like HELL are those girls with their perfect 2020s middle part hair from the 80s. insert *sure jan* meme here.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Rape, Violence, Child death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual violence

Minor: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Suicide, Mental illness, Animal death, and Cancer

readbycarina's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder

griskusse's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I have a lot of mixed feelings because on one hand it was very gripping and I felt compelled to the story and then other times I felt like I was forcing myself to get through some of the parts. I was pleasantly surprised about the narrative being the author himself and I’m curious to read other books told in this way in a fictional sense. It’s not quite a 4 cause I could pretty much predict the killer and I wanted more interviews but I understand why it was written in the way it was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Stalking

Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Suicide, and Violence

odrib's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, and Death of parent

mariiapon's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Murder, and Violence