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corriejn's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.25
I don't actually think I've read anything else by John Grisham, so can't compare style/voice/etc. to his novels; this one is a nonfiction true-crime/criminal justice system story. It's pretty straightforward and dry, nothing remarkable about the structure or how the events are conveyed.
At times I found it a tad hard to keep straight who all was who (as it's mainly about one accused murderer, but also features a second main story of another person accused of a crime-- or... two other people? I legitimately never got it all fully sorted) plus just a lot of additional people (relatives, friends, lawyers, witnesses, others incarcerated with them, etc.) to keep track of. I got the sense that folks with the Innocence Project were actually fairly influential in these cases, but they were mentioned fairly in passing.
In short, it's not the greatest writing/storytelling; if you're interested in reading about miscarriages of justice or work to exonerate wrongly-convicted folks, I'm confident there exists more compelling coverage of those topics.
I was also not a fan of the amount of really ableist language the author used in regards to mental illness.
At times I found it a tad hard to keep straight who all was who (as it's mainly about one accused murderer, but also features a second main story of another person accused of a crime-- or... two other people? I legitimately never got it all fully sorted) plus just a lot of additional people (relatives, friends, lawyers, witnesses, others incarcerated with them, etc.) to keep track of. I got the sense that folks with the Innocence Project were actually fairly influential in these cases, but they were mentioned fairly in passing.
In short, it's not the greatest writing/storytelling; if you're interested in reading about miscarriages of justice or work to exonerate wrongly-convicted folks, I'm confident there exists more compelling coverage of those topics.
I was also not a fan of the amount of really ableist language the author used in regards to mental illness.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Confinement, Murder, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Blood, Suicide attempt, Self harm, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Cancer and Excrement
karlybug's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
1.75
i zoned out SO much. i feel like the most telling thing i can say is that i'm not sure i could give you a quick overview of this case after reading the entirety of this book?
i've never read Grisham in my life and now i don't think i ever will. this was so incredibly dry for my taste. maybe it's the unfortunate product of listening to so many of them, but i just kept thinking about how many podcasts could do this story in an absolute fraction of the time. there was so much information i didn't need OR want, but i guess that was because i was hoping for less of a story of this man's life, and more a story of the crime and subsequent arrests & whether or not they actually solved it. (i know it was about this awful thing that happened to this man, but i felt like there was TOO little focus on the actual brutal murder for my taste.)
i didn't check the publishing date until after i finished it, and it makes sense. i kept thinking it was so weird how heavy a focus there was on how much the system was designed to keep innocent men in jail, as if this were groundbreaking information. obviously, having been written literally 17 years ago, it probably was much more unknown then. but there was something about reading all of this about a white man who had quite a few issues of his own (i kept thinking, he's innocent of this crime, but he's certainly not an innocent man) that felt hollow with the understanding of how often this happens to non-white men who've done less and with less to go on. either way, though, anything calling attention to this kind of injustice is important.
i've never read Grisham in my life and now i don't think i ever will. this was so incredibly dry for my taste. maybe it's the unfortunate product of listening to so many of them, but i just kept thinking about how many podcasts could do this story in an absolute fraction of the time. there was so much information i didn't need OR want, but i guess that was because i was hoping for less of a story of this man's life, and more a story of the crime and subsequent arrests & whether or not they actually solved it. (i know it was about this awful thing that happened to this man, but i felt like there was TOO little focus on the actual brutal murder for my taste.)
i didn't check the publishing date until after i finished it, and it makes sense. i kept thinking it was so weird how heavy a focus there was on how much the system was designed to keep innocent men in jail, as if this were groundbreaking information. obviously, having been written literally 17 years ago, it probably was much more unknown then. but there was something about reading all of this about a white man who had quite a few issues of his own (i kept thinking, he's innocent of this crime, but he's certainly not an innocent man) that felt hollow with the understanding of how often this happens to non-white men who've done less and with less to go on. either way, though, anything calling attention to this kind of injustice is important.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Forced institutionalization, and Murder
Moderate: Rape, Death, Alcoholism, and Physical abuse
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