Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

9 reviews

gossamerchild's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Murder, and Stalking

librarymouse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

What a strange and unsettling book. To be able to continue to care for someone, especially platonically, while knowing the atrocities they've committed against innumerable individuals; the echo of which is so deep and widespread, is unfathomable to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Confinement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Emotional abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Pregnancy and Antisemitism

hdzigurski's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Sexual violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Stalking, and Gore

Minor: Cannibalism

miggyfool's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Torture, Violence, Death, Gaslighting, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Blood, Sexual assault, Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Gore, Kidnapping, and Misogyny

Minor: Abortion and Gun violence

christikb's review

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

5.0

This is not by a long shot my first time reading A Stranger Beside Me. I first read it when I was 11, a burgeoning true crime afficionado, a fact that somehow simultaneously concerned and intrigued my parents. It was my second true crime book (behind Helter Skelter) and I knew clearly what murder and rape were, knew that they were crimes. But the true wrongness of these young women's deaths and assaults, the sheer emotionality of it, eluded a young me. This is my most recent re-read, completed at 32 years old with 1/6 of my M.S. in forensic psychology, six years of practicing law and writing about mental health in the law, and a thesis on the qualitative lifeworld of serial killers under my belt. As an adult, this book hurt. It isn't a great serial killer book; it is a phenomenal true crime novel. In a way that few true crime authors can because most will never have the experience to do so, Ann Rice is able to analyze the vast confusion of mourning the death, not of a person, but of something that you thought a person was. Bundy committed unspeakable crimes against women, victimizing them for years. But he created victims of the living too, those who survived their loved ones, his family, and those who knew him, cared for him, were hoodwinked by him. This book isn't just a factual accounting of the Ted crimes nor is it just for the women he murdered and assaulted; this book is for every person of whom he created a victim. Rule meanders through her account because to be snowed under so deeply by someone creates confusion of its own, a confusion that she replicates beautifully in this novel. I highly recommend that every woman read this book at least once.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Gore, Rape, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Stalking, and Sexual violence

bookishbabe93's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Body horror, Rape, Vomit, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Death, and Child death

bekah1210's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, and Torture

Moderate: Child death, Death, Gore, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Stalking, and Mental illness

eldritch_flower's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring tense slow-paced

4.0

 This was an interesting read. It's fairly short and it follows the case of Diane Downs, a woman who shot her three kids. It's short, to the point, no flowery language, and so well researched.

In this book we follow Diane's version of events, the aftermath, how her surviving children healed, Diane's past, the court proceedings, and her stay in a women's correctional facility(and her escape and recapture).

It's short, but definitely worth reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Torture, Blood, Murder, and Rape

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Violence

claudiam's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Kidnapping