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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
I have been intrigued by serial killers for years, and every once in a while I pick up a book that focuses on them. I just recently started watching Mindhunter on Netflix, and that resulted in me wanting to pick up another book on this subject. I was curious to see how serial killers have changed over the last decades. We'll probably never know what makes them do the things they do, however there are many factors that play important roles in their buildup to actual murder/violence. This book gave a great view into the minds of several serial killers, and how they think and behave. It's very gruesome but it's also was very intriguing. This book was easy to read, and kept me interested. I was glad it didn't focus too long on one particular subject/serial killer.
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
medium-paced
This was a really interesting read. Fair warning thought, it is fairly graphic. There are descriptions of murders and sexual crimes and it is pretty intense in some places. But if you can stomach it, it's a fascinating look at serial killers. And there's a chapter on how to escape them!
dark
medium-paced
I picked this up less out of a morbid curiosity about serial killers, and more out of a curiosity about any psychological similarities between these monsters. The second part of the title is what drew me in: the Method and Madness.
From that perspective, Vronsky does provide some psychological tidbits that may point to the underlying motives behind some of the most vile crimes in history. While there’s no “recipe” to make a serial killer, there are certainly behaviors and afflictions that pop up more often than not.
Some of the items that kept surfacing were predictable: abuse as a child, head injuries, and minor crimes as an adolescent. However there was an interesting section on how these people’s crimes came from an escalation of their fantasy life. They were so damaged that some wires were crossed, usually between sex and violence, and they began to fantasize at a young age. Then over time, like an addict, they needed more and more in order to feed that fantasy, and it crossed over into the real world.
Interestingly, this fantasy angle explains why some killers kind of burn out. Either the fulfillment of the fantasy doesn’t live up to what they had in their head, or they need more and more and get sloppy, etc. And for some, reliving their crimes is part of the fantasy and they will talk about anything once caught.
This psychological part of the book was small, and I would have liked to see more of this specific thing. But I don’t think there are many books out there that try to dive into the nature of evil from a psychological standpoint. It’s just considered a result of one or more items that can be diagnosed.
The book also had case studies of various serial killers as examples of various forms of classification, from organized, disorganized, and mixed, to a much more complex system based on the intentions behind the crime itself. There are breakdowns of FBI systems of classification, methods for tracking and catching these killers, and even a section on trying to survive an encounter with a killer (tl;dr always try to escape first).
I would call it Serial Killer 101, along with the Mindhunter book.
From that perspective, Vronsky does provide some psychological tidbits that may point to the underlying motives behind some of the most vile crimes in history. While there’s no “recipe” to make a serial killer, there are certainly behaviors and afflictions that pop up more often than not.
Some of the items that kept surfacing were predictable: abuse as a child, head injuries, and minor crimes as an adolescent. However there was an interesting section on how these people’s crimes came from an escalation of their fantasy life. They were so damaged that some wires were crossed, usually between sex and violence, and they began to fantasize at a young age. Then over time, like an addict, they needed more and more in order to feed that fantasy, and it crossed over into the real world.
Interestingly, this fantasy angle explains why some killers kind of burn out. Either the fulfillment of the fantasy doesn’t live up to what they had in their head, or they need more and more and get sloppy, etc. And for some, reliving their crimes is part of the fantasy and they will talk about anything once caught.
This psychological part of the book was small, and I would have liked to see more of this specific thing. But I don’t think there are many books out there that try to dive into the nature of evil from a psychological standpoint. It’s just considered a result of one or more items that can be diagnosed.
The book also had case studies of various serial killers as examples of various forms of classification, from organized, disorganized, and mixed, to a much more complex system based on the intentions behind the crime itself. There are breakdowns of FBI systems of classification, methods for tracking and catching these killers, and even a section on trying to survive an encounter with a killer (tl;dr always try to escape first).
I would call it Serial Killer 101, along with the Mindhunter book.
A very thorough treatment of the history of serial killers, but it seems to have some problems with organization. It has the same problem that most books of this type have where they focus one the sensational and skip over the rest. If it is truly trying to be the definitive book on the history of serial killers, then it needs to cover more ground. This is a book which unabashedly criticizes the media for its role in promoting serial killers (not that they do it on purpose, it is quick to point out), but does the same thing by devoting pages upon pages to the most famous of serial killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, but not spending half as much time on less famous serial killers or foreign ones.
For the most part it was an interesting read, but the excitement of the first chapters gets weighed down by the sheer amount of information it tries to pass on and the poor organizational methods of the book which takes us back and forth between history, serial killers and places. It name drops frequently, but Vronsky has a tendency to name drop three or four names in a row so you only remember the ones you knew before you picked up the book.
For anyone who is interested in serial killers, I would suggest reading the Human Predator by Kathleen Ramsland. It contains much of the same information, presented in the same way, but it doesn't get quite as bogged down as this book does. If you want basically detailed case studies of a few specific serial killers, however, this is the book for you.
For the most part it was an interesting read, but the excitement of the first chapters gets weighed down by the sheer amount of information it tries to pass on and the poor organizational methods of the book which takes us back and forth between history, serial killers and places. It name drops frequently, but Vronsky has a tendency to name drop three or four names in a row so you only remember the ones you knew before you picked up the book.
For anyone who is interested in serial killers, I would suggest reading the Human Predator by Kathleen Ramsland. It contains much of the same information, presented in the same way, but it doesn't get quite as bogged down as this book does. If you want basically detailed case studies of a few specific serial killers, however, this is the book for you.
Interesting and well written book. The book was horrifying at times, but this was expected due to the subject. The author gives some reasonable advice to readers to avoid becoming future victims, which is nice, although thankfully this would be a very rare happening.