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chloeardd's review
5.0
I feel weird giving this book 5 stars because it was not enjoyable and I often had to put it down due it’s disturbing nature. But, the writing and research was so well executed. I believe it’s important to put all the disturbing facts into print so that readers can see that a monster like Karla Homolka is still walking the streets.
aced_aro_rose's review
4.0
Let me start this by warning you that this is INCREDIBLY disturbing and upsetting [at least for me]. The rape’s and assaults are in great [upsetting] horrific detail.
I was a child when this ‘event’ happened. So I never heard about Homolka or Bernardo until later in life and in passing. Since I’m well into adulthood, I decided to read about the case. Honestly? It’s disturbing.. very upsetting to me that these people and these events happened. And the sheer fuckery that occurred within the police departments to allow Bernardo and Homolka to assault and murder for years.
It was difficult to read the in-depth details about Tammy Homolka, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy’s abuse, rapes and murders.
This book should have had photo’s of the victims, not from a spectacle perspective but from a compassionate one. I had to go online to see their photo’s. It helped me to connect this book to reality more and it harder to finish this book.
This author works overtime to paint Homolka [Karla] in a positive light. Yes, I did see her as a victim, originally [prior to becoming an accomplice]. Now, I do not. Once I went online and learned more about what happened after this book was released [1995] and I became far less sympathetic. It’s hard for me to believe Homolka who’s said to be ‘so’ intelligent, didn’t know how to work mental illnesses to her advantage while on the stand... However, she could have gotten her Psychology degree in jail to help understand her real mental illnesses and mind better.... I don’t know.... Understanding people’s motives is my achilles heel.
Regardless, this book and this case are very disturbing [for me] but I still found it interesting to read since I knew nothing [aside from the killers names] until I read it. I wish that author did more for the memory of the victims and not in an exploitation way.
I was a child when this ‘event’ happened. So I never heard about Homolka or Bernardo until later in life and in passing. Since I’m well into adulthood, I decided to read about the case. Honestly? It’s disturbing.. very upsetting to me that these people and these events happened. And the sheer fuckery that occurred within the police departments to allow Bernardo and Homolka to assault and murder for years.
It was difficult to read the in-depth details about Tammy Homolka, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy’s abuse, rapes and murders.
This book should have had photo’s of the victims, not from a spectacle perspective but from a compassionate one. I had to go online to see their photo’s. It helped me to connect this book to reality more and it harder to finish this book.
This author works overtime to paint Homolka [Karla] in a positive light. Yes, I did see her as a victim, originally [prior to becoming an accomplice]. Now, I do not. Once I went online and learned more about what happened after this book was released [1995] and I became far less sympathetic. It’s hard for me to believe Homolka who’s said to be ‘so’ intelligent, didn’t know how to work mental illnesses to her advantage while on the stand... However, she could have gotten her Psychology degree in jail to help understand her real mental illnesses and mind better.... I don’t know.... Understanding people’s motives is my achilles heel.
Regardless, this book and this case are very disturbing [for me] but I still found it interesting to read since I knew nothing [aside from the killers names] until I read it. I wish that author did more for the memory of the victims and not in an exploitation way.
leahcornielia's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
3.5
Dark retelling if canadas most heinous couple
rachem's review
As someone slightly younger than the victims of these crimes, the shockingly vivid descriptions within (at least, the ones I read—this book is a DNF for me) were too much to take. I’m glad, in the end, for the publication ban, because those details did NOT need to be splashed about on the news.
book_reader_laura's review
2.0
It's a really tough read.
Very graphic depictions of the violence committed by Bernardo and Homolka
Very graphic depictions of the violence committed by Bernardo and Homolka
bloodonsnow's review
4.0
Saying I enjoyed this book is far from the truth; it was difficult to read, and one of the few books where I felt no guilt in skipping sections. And certainly there was a great deal of bias in its writing. Pron, staff writer for the Toronto Star, is a human being and couldn't have possibly avoided being biased. We all are. It's up to us how we read this book and take the information contained within.
This book is right in having a warning in the beginning. Most of the reporting on it should have had a warning. (That's one thing I'm glad a lot of news stories have now, especially if they're of this nature.) But I elected to read it, and as such, I can't fault it for its content. I knew what I was getting into, just not to what extent.
It was written well, and difficult to put down, if only because I was horrified the entire time (as should anyone who reads about this case, full stop).
This book is right in having a warning in the beginning. Most of the reporting on it should have had a warning. (That's one thing I'm glad a lot of news stories have now, especially if they're of this nature.) But I elected to read it, and as such, I can't fault it for its content. I knew what I was getting into, just not to what extent.
It was written well, and difficult to put down, if only because I was horrified the entire time (as should anyone who reads about this case, full stop).