Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
This book was full of good information but it dragged for me in places. Since I knew what happened from news reports and podcasts, I was able to skim when things got slow. Overall, well written and researched with unexpected pictures at the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Murder
I have found a new favourite true crime author and this book seals it. Shanna Hogan is up there with Ann Rule and Kathryn Casey. Of her three books I've had varying degrees of knowledge of the cases from the Martin McNeill case which I followed obsessively, to the Marjorie Orbin case I knew next to nothing about Hogan lays out each of her books in a way that even if you had no clue about the subject you soon would know all you needed to by the end of the book. Which brings me to Jodi Arias. This is the most high profile case of the three books. Most people have some knowledge of the story. I first stumbled onto the case while flipping the channels and coming across a CNN report. Seeing a young woman singing O'Holy Night was enough to make me pause my channel surfing to find out what this was. And like many others I was soon dragged into this twisted tale of sex, religion and photography. Jodi Arias and Travis Alexander lived very different lives. Jodi raised in a fairly stable household with both parents and siblings. However she was troubled and hated her parents, and caused them much worry. Travis was raised in poverty to drug addicted parents and after staying with his grandmother decided to make the move permanent bringing his siblings with him. He was a motivated hard working positive young man dedicated to the Mormon church. He would soon rise to the top of his profession and achieve success most can only dream of. Then he met Jodi and it all fell apart. At first it seems he pursued her. Their relationship appeared innocent to their friends but behind closed doors it was explicit and would no doubt get Travis thrown out of his church if word got out about it. Despite efforts to end it, both Jodi and Travis seemed addicted to each other and it all came to a head in June of 2008 when Travis ended up dead in a blood filled bathroom left to rot for nearly a week. Friends pointed to only one person as the culprit Jodi. And so began a web of lies that she spun to deflect blame from her. From I wasn't there at all, to armed ninjas did it to I did kill him but only because he was going to kill me first. As the story unfolds Hogan presents the evidence without bias allowing the reader to decide for themselves. Of course it's all overwhelmingly stacked against Jodi. The camera she threw in the washing machine recorded pictures before during and after the crime, her buying gas cans and turning off her cell phone before going to Arizona all point to her guilt. And of course the constant changing of her story. The book is well plotted and paced and although it ended after the hung jury in the penalty phase we now know she's in prison without any hope of getting out as long as she's alive. While I don't think Travis was completely innocent in this story, he certainly didn't deserve to be killed three times over and he did appear to be trying to repent and become a better person but thanks to Jodi's actions we will never learn what he would make of his life.