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

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae by Graeme Macrae Burnet

19 reviews

sophiejts's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-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

4.0

i read “case study” by this author and really enjoyed it, so i picked this one up from my library. i enjoyed the interesting framing of the novel as a nonfiction work, and the inclusion of various voices through documents and court proceedings. although the concept may sound a bit dry, it read as a thriller to me and was definitely a page-turner!

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jocockwell's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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

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nepentheiii's review

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challenging dark 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? Yes

5.0

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kstericker's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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vickyreptile's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Qué inmensamente entretenido que es Un plan sangriento! Por momentos, me hizo acordar mucho a Alias Grace, de Margaret Atwood. Los puntos de conexión son obvios: un acusado de un crimen que habla de su crimen con alguien que intenta ayudarlo, pero a la vez, en esa narración, se devela como un narrador poco confiable, que, a la larga, nos traiciona.
El trabajo de Graeme Macrae es preciso: nos hace querer a Roddy, su inocencia, su precariedad y desamparo, para después revelarlo como un potencial monstruo. El juicio, el de la novela, y el propio, es difícil. ¿Podemos condenarlo después de saber SU (y subrayo el SU) historia?
Magistral, entretenido y, además, enmarcado en mis preciosas Tierras Altas de Escocia. Qué más se puede pedir?

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notlikethebeer's review

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challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.75

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!).

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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.

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