Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - In Cold Blood

I knew nothing about the murder of the Clutter family in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas before reading this novel and I think you don't really need to, to appreciate the novel.

The novel's tone was dark, gritty and, at times, disturbing. Be warned, there are several racial slurs and misogyny throughout the book.

I understand why it's seen as a 'classic' within the true crime genre. The writing itself while talking about such gruesome things is almost poetic, with insights into both the Clutter family's minds and the killers expertly built up from interviews and news articles. I can admire how much work and time to compile it.

All that being said, the pace started off well, then became almost achingly slow with a lot of details that I thought were unnecessary.

For instance, after the pair of killers were caught, there's an entire section about their incarceration and the other killers who were on death row with them.

That being said, if you have an interest in true crime or the psychology of killers, I would still recommend you read this.

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amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

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somelibrarychick's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative slow-paced

2.75

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goldyyy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative sad tense slow-paced

3.25

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lilliansbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

4.25

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archiedh's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

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directorpurry's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense slow-paced

4.0

It would be wrong, in many ways, to say I love this book. So I'm not going to.
Engaging with any type of true crime media, be it audio, visual, or literary, should bring prominent ethical questions to mind. (Believe me, I say this as a lover of all things true crime.) Thoughts of exploitation of the victims, the families, and sometimes the perpetrators, should be seriously considered. The closer the crime, the higher the cost. In this case, a book about a murder in 1959 being read (first sometime around 2013 and then a second time) in 2021 has a much lower feeling of exploitation than a book about a murder in 1959 being published in 1965 does.

In creating In Cold Blood, Capote did just as many things wrong as he did right. Reading this book is a deeply literary experience. Being a piece of history - not to mention a reread - there is considerably less suspense than, say, a brand new fiction novel. But the building sense of dread created in the first act is truly masterful. The audience knows what is going to happen, and yet... I knew exactly what was going to happen. I remembered the murder confessions in fairly explicit detail for reading this almost eight years ago; but I still found myself drawn into the story and carried along by the narrative force. The writing itself is poetic at times and plain at others, but always fitting the story this piece works so hard to tell.

When creating true crime media, I firmly believe that every action taken should be as respectful and ethical as possible in order to respect the dead, at the very least. The legacy of this book is far from spotless. Not only are there allegations that segments of this book were misleading, if not entirely fabricated, and Capote's methods of interview and investigation have been questioned both by contemporary witnesses and other journalists and authors after the fact.
There are times when the story is simply too convenient - elegant moments present themselves for a striking visual or convenient meetings and resonant conversations occur in a way that is particularly rare outside of a piece of fiction. Even while writing this review, I often found myself considering what descriptor to type out - was book or novel actually the word I wanted to use? The controversy of that line is certainly a mark against this book, but only in its ethos, not in its place in literary history or even the American consciousness of crime.

I certainly view this piece much differently than I did when I read this first as a 15-year-old. The way Perry Smith is presented as a particularly sympathetic player is both difficult and powerful. He is at once "the bad guy" and also just misunderstood. I think the first time I struggled to understand how that dichotomy was drawn - teenagers are not exactly known for their understanding of gray morality - but I see it a little better now. I can both condemn these men and understand how they saw themselves - not as the villains but misunderstood heroes. There are many depths to the human mind and it's very easy to misrepresent one's self - especially to one's self.

I don't research for my reviews, but I did for this one. Partly because I didn't want to misrepresent the controversies around this book, but also, at least a little bit, because I wanted to do what I could to respect the dead as well.

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em09's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad slow-paced

3.5

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