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amn028's review against another edition
4.0
The author does a good job of capturing all the players and relevant information, and putting it into a readable book. He vacillates between portraying the girls as soulless monsters and mentally unbalanced lost souls, which highlights the complexity of the case and everyone involved. It is well researched and put together. There were a few sections I found dull, but they are necessary within the book.
bethanyread's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting book. I had no idea of this murder and I've been reading Anne Perry's books for decades. Chilling to see how the author portrayed these two teenaged girls who murdered one of their mothers. You never know how accurate it was, but definitely gives me a different view of the author! Lots of background into the area, her parents, the schools she attended, the care she was given as a child, etc. Will definitely look at my next Anne Perry book differently as I read it!
1outside's review against another edition
4.0
While I'm not quite as fascinated by this case as many people have been over the course of the past half a century+, I did end up reading this book a couple of months after watching Heavenly Creatures. The story presented in the film was just too interesting for me not to eventually read a non-fiction about it.
I had never heard of Anne Perry until after I read about the film and the case that inspired it on Wikipedia. Had never read any of her books, haven't since, and this book would certainly put me off wanting to anyway. That lady has sure been full of bullshit since her identity had been discovered.
A psychopath if there ever was one. Since she was 16 she has learned what a reasonable, repentant human being should act like, and has been doing her best. Miss me with that.
Pauline Parker presents a tougher nut. Not so easily diagnosable, harder to pin down and understand. Have to admit I found her reclusiveness in later life sympathetic. And the mural (if we decide to consider her its author).
This woman didn't lack feelings, sadly a lot of them were feelings of anger - and that's something that she had a problem with even before Juliet entered her life.
Despite that, I do not think she would have ended up murdering her mother had she never met Juliet. She'd just be one of the many many women who have very complicated relationships with their mothers.
The book is thorough, well researched, and a good, if somewhat unsettling, read.
A good read proving one thing: you can't always define real persons' motivation for committing a terrible crime as easily as you can with fictional characters.
I had never heard of Anne Perry until after I read about the film and the case that inspired it on Wikipedia. Had never read any of her books, haven't since, and this book would certainly put me off wanting to anyway. That lady has sure been full of bullshit since her identity had been discovered.
A psychopath if there ever was one. Since she was 16 she has learned what a reasonable, repentant human being should act like, and has been doing her best. Miss me with that.
Pauline Parker presents a tougher nut. Not so easily diagnosable, harder to pin down and understand. Have to admit I found her reclusiveness in later life sympathetic. And the mural (if we decide to consider her its author).
This woman didn't lack feelings, sadly a lot of them were feelings of anger - and that's something that she had a problem with even before Juliet entered her life.
Despite that, I do not think she would have ended up murdering her mother had she never met Juliet. She'd just be one of the many many women who have very complicated relationships with their mothers.
The book is thorough, well researched, and a good, if somewhat unsettling, read.
A good read proving one thing: you can't always define real persons' motivation for committing a terrible crime as easily as you can with fictional characters.
kindlereads's review against another edition
3.0
What could have been an interesting story about a perverse and sordid event has been sanitize and overwhelmed by benign and boring details.
pn_hinton's review against another edition
3.0
I read this book for a handful of reasons. One was because it had been on my TBR pile for a few years, after watching the Hallmark movie "Mystery Woman: Mystery Weekend" and realizing that it was inspired by this real world case. The other was that I was participating in the Book Riot's 2018 Read Harder Challenge and this fit the true crime aspect. However after reading this book I can say without a doubt that true crime is not my bag. The reason is because with regular murder or cozies, everything exists in the author's mind. Even if inspired by true events it is still fiction. True crime is true which means it really happened to someone and it is really hard to read that since reading for me is a form of escapism.
The murder and reason behind it is horrific enough. I do feel the author showed a good balance of giving enough information without being too graphic or putting unnecessary details for shock value with regards to the actual murder. There were some chapters that seemed unnecessary and put in just for filler such as the background and updates from the police officials and lawyers that were involved. I can understand having to read about Pauline and Juliet's upbringing to understand why there was such a dissociation with their parents (and by extension mothers) that they felt murder was okay but the background on the other people involved were completely unnecessary. It felt like it was put in to pad the pages count and make it longer than it needed to be.
The recap of the murder itself happened fairly early and then back tracked before going into the trial which I thought was well planned since most people who read true crime likely want the crime aspect introduced quickly. But there were still some fluff to the novel which made it a bit tedious to get through. After the initial telling of the murder it took awhile to get to the trial and see what happened. After that it seemed things were rushed through to get to get when they were released and what happened after that, leading up to the release of the movie "Heavenly Creatures" and the unveiling of author Anne Perry as a murderess. Because quite frankly if that movie had not been released I doubt ant of this would have come to light.
For me the toughest thing to deal with was the lack of remorse or responsibility on behalf of the Juliet, who would became author Anne Perry. Her reasoning (as it were) that she gave for participating in the murder were lukewarm at best and she did not accept her part in the murder. She seemed content to blame it all on Pauline instead of admitting that yeah she was a bit messed up herself and by extension messed up royally. And that is putting it mildly. Murder is one of the things people have the hardest time forgiving but most people repent and honestly? She never did. Or at least it was not portrayed that way in the book. Because no matter the reasoning at the end of the day she along with Pauline killed a woman and took her before her time. And that is hard to process especially when someone has such a nonchalant attitude towards it. Pauline at least (who is now called Norah I believe) will not talk about it at all which to me seems to indicate some form of remorse but the harsh acceptance that there is nothing she can do to change it. To pass the buck, as it were, seems a bit worse for me.
Again this is all taken with a grain of salt since true crime is not a genre I normally read, but this was an unsettling book for me. I doubt I will read any other true crime since this book left me feeling that way and that there was no resolution for this because at the end of the day no one learned anything or grew from this. And a woman was dead leaving a man without his wife and children without their mother.
The murder and reason behind it is horrific enough. I do feel the author showed a good balance of giving enough information without being too graphic or putting unnecessary details for shock value with regards to the actual murder. There were some chapters that seemed unnecessary and put in just for filler such as the background and updates from the police officials and lawyers that were involved. I can understand having to read about Pauline and Juliet's upbringing to understand why there was such a dissociation with their parents (and by extension mothers) that they felt murder was okay but the background on the other people involved were completely unnecessary. It felt like it was put in to pad the pages count and make it longer than it needed to be.
The recap of the murder itself happened fairly early and then back tracked before going into the trial which I thought was well planned since most people who read true crime likely want the crime aspect introduced quickly. But there were still some fluff to the novel which made it a bit tedious to get through. After the initial telling of the murder it took awhile to get to the trial and see what happened. After that it seemed things were rushed through to get to get when they were released and what happened after that, leading up to the release of the movie "Heavenly Creatures" and the unveiling of author Anne Perry as a murderess. Because quite frankly if that movie had not been released I doubt ant of this would have come to light.
For me the toughest thing to deal with was the lack of remorse or responsibility on behalf of the Juliet, who would became author Anne Perry. Her reasoning (as it were) that she gave for participating in the murder were lukewarm at best and she did not accept her part in the murder. She seemed content to blame it all on Pauline instead of admitting that yeah she was a bit messed up herself and by extension messed up royally. And that is putting it mildly. Murder is one of the things people have the hardest time forgiving but most people repent and honestly? She never did. Or at least it was not portrayed that way in the book. Because no matter the reasoning at the end of the day she along with Pauline killed a woman and took her before her time. And that is hard to process especially when someone has such a nonchalant attitude towards it. Pauline at least (who is now called Norah I believe) will not talk about it at all which to me seems to indicate some form of remorse but the harsh acceptance that there is nothing she can do to change it. To pass the buck, as it were, seems a bit worse for me.
Again this is all taken with a grain of salt since true crime is not a genre I normally read, but this was an unsettling book for me. I doubt I will read any other true crime since this book left me feeling that way and that there was no resolution for this because at the end of the day no one learned anything or grew from this. And a woman was dead leaving a man without his wife and children without their mother.
kurtwombat's review against another edition
3.0
Regarded as the MURDER OF THE CENTURY in the middle of a century that would see truly greater crimes, I opened this book eager to take the pulse of those tumultuous times. All too often this book flat-lined. It struggled as a history to find a point of view and seldom found a dramatic drive and instead just drifted. The author discusses in the forward that learning of this murder trial made enough of an impression on him that he immediately wanted to write about it—but then apparently life got in the way and he didn’t get around to it for over 30 more years. I squinted with some concern when I read that and that’s how the book felt. Something interesting would happen. Then it just seemed to lay there for 30 years. The resulting book feels more like just the notes he collected rather than a narrative designed to bring this history to life.
When I first heard about this 1954 murder on a podcast, I couldn’t believe that I wasn’t familiar with it already. Famous mystery writer Anne Perry when she was a teen and living under her real name in New Zealand took part in a brutal murder—helping her best friend kill her friend’s mother. Covered internationally at the time of the murder and then again when Ann Perry’s identity and past were uncovered at least partly due to the release of the murder inspired movie HEAVENLY CREATURES, I knew nothing about it. I do know a lot about it now. The author, despite the passage of time and likely passing of a lot of memories, did gather a lot of information. It is clearly written the way directions on a map are clear but a map doesn’t tell me much about a city. The editors must have sensed this lack of inertia as they present the murder in great detail up front as if trying to hook me rather than draw me in. Still, the story does fascinate despite the presentation. Much of what we now know of psychology and child rearing put an entirely different spin on what spun these girls out of control. The author does bring this up but only at the end as almost an addendum.
A well written history makes you feel like you have spent some time in the past and wonder how it connects to the present world. While this book did little to make me wonder about comparisons, real life has presented an example. The teenage girls in Wisconsin who stabbed their friend 19 times in an attempt to impress a fictional character called Slender Man bear a striking resemblance in character and tone to Anne Perry and her childhood friend.
corrinpierce's review against another edition
4.0
Creepy story, made more interesting by the later career of one of the girls. I've read a lot of Anne Perry, and it's interesting to consider how the author's early violent acts may have influenced her.
princesszinza's review against another edition
4.0
I first became fascinated with this story when I happened upon the movie "Heavenly Creatures". I like girl friendships and found something charming in two girls being lost in a self created world. Of course, then the story becomes ugly. There is a Simpson's episode where Lisa has a similar creepy friendship. It's one of my favorites. The thing about this book, is that it took the allure right out of the picture. These girls were selfish, arrogant, unlikable, heinous killers. I'm glad I read this book and learned the truth of the murder and the heartless girls who did it.
cook_memorial_public_library's review against another edition
4.0
A 2013 staff nonfiction favorite recommended by Jane.
Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Sanne%20perry%20and%20the%20murder%20of%20the%20century%20graham__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=pearl
Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Sanne%20perry%20and%20the%20murder%20of%20the%20century%20graham__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=pearl
judyward's review against another edition
3.0
I've been reading Anne Perry's books for years so imagine my surprise when I discovered that she and a teenage friend killed that friend's mother in a particularly brutal attack. This book provides the background of the attack, describes the murder itself, and follows the resulting trial. A deeply disturbing book.