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k1llp0p's review
challenging
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
4.0
If you’re into true crime Ann Rule seems to be the author for you. The Stranger Beside Me being only one of her many acclaimed books this one seems to come from a personal experience. Ann Rule describes her time working in a suicide hotline with infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, as well as keeping in contact with him through writing letters well after his incarceration. This book will give you an insight into the crimes Bundy commited as well as Ann’s personal life and personal history with the man himself without glorifying his actions as many other writers seem to do. Very interesting and insightful book to anyone harboring any curiosities and interests towards true crime literature.
lesserjoke's review
3.0
I sometimes have difficulty rating pieces of nonfiction, but my general principle is to weigh a work against the best possible version of itself, by asking what the author is trying to accomplish and how well I believe they've achieved it. In the case of this true-crime title from 1980, I'm not entirely convinced that that benchmark has been met.
The story behind the story remains incredible, even four decades on: writer Ann Rule was already under contract to write a book about a string of unsolved murders when she learned that a friend she'd met as a fellow volunteer on a suicide crisis hotline had been arrested and charged with the crimes. Ted Bundy is now known as a notorious serial killer, pedophile, and rapist, and this account of his awful prolific career preying on young women and girls in the 1970s is appropriately harrowing in its details of how he would kidnap and brutalize his victims. But it doesn't yield much insight into what it was like for the journalist herself to go through this journey of discovering and confronting the truth of the matter. Although Rule can provide quotes from her personal correspondence with Bundy, her presentation of the facts doesn't read as too dissimilar from what anybody else could have written on the subject.
Now, as a reader largely unfamiliar with the man beforehand, I am satisfied -- well, horrified, but you know -- with The Stranger Beside Me. The author ably captures his dangerous charm and his reputation as a folk hero for his multiple prison escapes, as well as his cruelty and of course his terrible body count. It's all pretty thorough and shudder-inducing, and I expect I'll feel no particular urge to read anything about Bundy ever again. But if I had come to this volume previously aware of those things, I think I would be disappointed by the lack of personality exhibited in its pages. It's ultimately not a narrative about the late Ann Rule at all, even though she's the distinctive element here and one of the two parties referenced in the title. When I consider how much of herself Michelle McNamara poured into I'll Be Gone in the Dark as merely an obsessive amateur researcher on the Golden State Killer, it's hard not to feel let down by the relative neutrality of this genre predecessor that could/should have contained so much more firsthand material.
[Content warning for ableist slurs.]
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The story behind the story remains incredible, even four decades on: writer Ann Rule was already under contract to write a book about a string of unsolved murders when she learned that a friend she'd met as a fellow volunteer on a suicide crisis hotline had been arrested and charged with the crimes. Ted Bundy is now known as a notorious serial killer, pedophile, and rapist, and this account of his awful prolific career preying on young women and girls in the 1970s is appropriately harrowing in its details of how he would kidnap and brutalize his victims. But it doesn't yield much insight into what it was like for the journalist herself to go through this journey of discovering and confronting the truth of the matter. Although Rule can provide quotes from her personal correspondence with Bundy, her presentation of the facts doesn't read as too dissimilar from what anybody else could have written on the subject.
Now, as a reader largely unfamiliar with the man beforehand, I am satisfied -- well, horrified, but you know -- with The Stranger Beside Me. The author ably captures his dangerous charm and his reputation as a folk hero for his multiple prison escapes, as well as his cruelty and of course his terrible body count. It's all pretty thorough and shudder-inducing, and I expect I'll feel no particular urge to read anything about Bundy ever again. But if I had come to this volume previously aware of those things, I think I would be disappointed by the lack of personality exhibited in its pages. It's ultimately not a narrative about the late Ann Rule at all, even though she's the distinctive element here and one of the two parties referenced in the title. When I consider how much of herself Michelle McNamara poured into I'll Be Gone in the Dark as merely an obsessive amateur researcher on the Golden State Killer, it's hard not to feel let down by the relative neutrality of this genre predecessor that could/should have contained so much more firsthand material.
[Content warning for ableist slurs.]
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6288479-joe-kessler
--Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog
thetashc's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.0
The disturbing and tragic tale of the life and crimes of serial rapist and murderer, Ted Bundy, as told by his friend Ann Rule.
A very well-researched book that thoroughly conveys the events and facts know about Bundy’s crimes and subsequent arrests, escapes and trials. It can be, at times, a little too thorough, but what really lost stars was the disturbing opinions and feelings the author expressed regarding Bundy. It took her way too long to believe undoubtedly in his guilt, and even the. She was still disgustingly considerate and kind to a remorseless and depraved murderer. I also found her opinions of the other women in Bundy’s life, especially Elizabeth Kendall, to be condescending and misogynistic. I lost a lot of respect for Ann Rule after reading this book.
A very well-researched book that thoroughly conveys the events and facts know about Bundy’s crimes and subsequent arrests, escapes and trials. It can be, at times, a little too thorough, but what really lost stars was the disturbing opinions and feelings the author expressed regarding Bundy. It took her way too long to believe undoubtedly in his guilt, and even the. She was still disgustingly considerate and kind to a remorseless and depraved murderer. I also found her opinions of the other women in Bundy’s life, especially Elizabeth Kendall, to be condescending and misogynistic. I lost a lot of respect for Ann Rule after reading this book.