Reviews

An interesting blend of true crime and memoir. It's neat to see the personal reasons why the author gets so obsessed with this particular crime, and the criminal's backstory is weird and intriguing, although I don't think I find it quite as fascinating as the author does. The audio narration by the author is excellent, as is the writing itself -- even though I wasn't completely sold on the story as the most interesting thing ever I still found myself listening for an extra minute or two anywhere I could to find out what happened next.

theskyisnew's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

I know the writer so there was a lot of deep connection and trepidation in reading this. It was both painful and personal, and it was also beautifully written. I hope it goes far, and so does she.

ridgewaygirl's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

The Fact of a Body is Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich's book about her childhood and how it affected her adult life. It's also a story about a murderer, his life and crime and how the criminal justice system dealt with him. Both stories are interesting. Marzano-Lesnevich was molested by her grandfather from the age of three, until she finally spoke up many years later. Her family believed her and reacted by never allowing the grandfather to babysit or spend the night again. But they continued the normal visits and dinners with him and never spoke of what happened. Marzano-Lesnevich was left to deal with these multiple rapes on her own and without any support system. She encounters Ricky Langley's case as a legal intern working in on capital case appeals in Louisiana. Langley murdered six-year-old Jeremy Guillory and, once arrested, quickly confessed to the crime. His own childhood was not a good one, and Marzano-Lesnevich looks at the family history, the crime and the investigation and at the subsequent trials, in the hopes of understanding his motivations. Langley was a pedophile and the author hopes that if she can understand him, she might understand her grandfather.

The two halves are good on their own but lose intensity and focus as they are alternated and mashed together. The connections between the two are tenuous at best, and in trying to give the criminal case as much life and immediacy as her own personal recollections, the author resorts to making up the content of conversations she has only the broadest of outlines of. She's upfront about this, but it does lessen the reliability of the work she's doing in telling Langley's story.

smittenforfiction's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Hey all! With this lock-down situation, I have to admit I've been feeling a lot of anxiety and struggling with insomnia. I've been reading, in fact, reading is the one thing that can take my mind off the pandemic, but I've fallen behind on my book reviews. I've read 9 books since my last book review and I'm going to try my best to get these written and get some reviews out for you. I'm sure you're looking for book recommendations during quarantine too! Without further ado, here's a review for The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich.

About The Book

mamagames's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

A fascinating memoir + true story; it was interesting to learn how she was drawn to this particular case and in what ways it paralleled her own life.

More...