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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
reflective
medium-paced
I'm no stranger to true crime, so this is a refreshing (reading it for the first time in 2025) change. I appreciate Rule's openness about her feelings and her very human connection with Bundy. She never makes excuses for him. We could never fully understand her position (nor should we want to)
As for the audiobook version, Loreilai King is incredible.
As for the audiobook version, Loreilai King is incredible.
informative
fast-paced
dark
informative
medium-paced
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
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.
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.
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.
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.
2023 PopSugar challenge-A book published the year you were born
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
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
Graphic: Rape, Murder