Reviews with content warning for Rape - His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae

For those who are about to complete the same Google search I did: yes, this is fiction, but yes, it is made to appear like non-fiction. I hope I could be of service. Anyway. I wasn't really sure what to expect going into this (see also: having to Google whether it was fiction or non-fiction), maybe in part because I've not read anything quite like it before.

Told in multiple parts - through witness reports, trial notes, a psychiatrist report, and a written account from the accused - His Bloody Project does not hold back on the spoilers. Both in the blurb and in the first page, you know exactly who did it, even if you don't know quite what he did, or why. The what is made clearer throughout the book; the why is left for you to decide. That being said, it's not akin to the current trend of books that encourage the reader to play detective. More, it's a rumination on truth and evidence, on what we do when there are narratives that cannot fit into the same puzzle.

I read this shortly before I read American Psycho, and I think that provided a really interesting (if traumatising!) experience; both are very visceral accounts* that play with perceptions of truth and reality, and I think I gained a lot to both by reading them side-by-side. (*That is by no means to say that His Bloody Project even NEARLY reaches the levels of intensity that American Psycho does!).

Content Warnings

writingcaia's review

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Wow so I read this whole book thinking it was non-fiction. Fuck me!
(Totally my bad if I had paid more attention to reviews and blurbs I’d have known it before. Now I’ve to find me another non-fic to read this month.)
And, how the hell am I going to rate this?
It was interesting for sure. Gruesome and historically sound (for a know nothing me), but the characterisation, the setting, the familial and societal relationships does resonate with what I’ve come to assume and identify of the times in isolated, poor communities ruled by Lairds (Lords) and their constables in Scotland. Also, my mixed feelings towards the killer and his actions, wether insane or not, from my part were real too.
Ah, crap. I guess I liked it, if it made me feel so much, and honestly the beginning was kind of hard to get into, but afterwards I was quite eager to see where it would lead, and there was a lot of hope for a certain outcome by the end of it.
The court part in what it diverges from the biography was relevant but I did suspect it.
There’s so much at play here, age, poverty, ambitions or lack of, insanity, lust, vengeance, intellect, premeditation, we know nothing and have to infer everything with the same degree of distance and the same information as if we were a juror. It’s a hard job and I wouldn’t want it. Actually we do have more information as we have the biography, which does make you get more familiar with the young killer.
Definitely a cool play on the narrative part. It fooled me.

Content Warnings

shinysarah28's review

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dark reflective sad tense

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

4.0

Content Warnings

bootsmom3's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

a1exander's review

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dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

feebles640's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

carmen_cruz's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

A very slow read that becomes a page turner near the end. I wished it wasted less time with young roderick being clueless or had developed other, more interesting, characters further. As it is, this is an unreliable but also boring narrator story about an unhinged murderous man.

I was more taken by

his sister suicide

than I was his whole story

Content Warnings

alisonannk's review

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

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