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jobustitch's review
4.0
Part travel log, part history, and part true crime. This book is an interesting mix. While it was hard in the beginning to jump between chapters of history and chapters of the contemporary murder in the beginning, I enjoyed the book and it has made me want to visit the Cape Ann area. I especially enjoyed the recurring themes of how man influences the land and how the land influences the behavior of the people. While it is easy to see the influences we have on our environment, it is not always so easy to see how the place we live affects our own psychology. I am glad I found this book in the stacks.
jen_jacob's review
5.0
This is the second time that I've read this book and I love it even more now that I've been to Dogtown and experienced it first hand. I'm glad that I now own a copy of it and can read it whenever I want. Although it is a work of nonfiction, East has woven two stories together in a way that makes it read like fiction. Although I think that many, especially so many years after the Natti murder, are connecting the murder and setting together, I don't think that is a wise thing to do. I agree that Dogtown itself has a different feel however I found it to be inspiring instead of haunted. Perhaps had I been in the woods alone I would have felt otherwise and I certainly can see the strange way that the setting can get one lost and turned around. This is a must read for anyone that visits Cape Ann, as is a walking tour of Dogtown.
epruski's review
3.0
Learned some things I didn't know about Dogtown and Cape Ann. How did I spend the first 18 years of my life living there and never hear about the murder in Dogtown?? Hmmm...well, now I know!
duparker's review
4.0
Really enjoyable history and murder mystery. The story of Gloucester and Cape Ann is interesting and the focus on the once important, then forgotten and now I'm transition area of the community is very interesting and a worthy read.
stevenyenzer's review
3.0
A very strange book: part history, part memoir, and part true crime. I was interested in Dogtown but less interested in East's obsession with it, which made the portions that recounted her visits less interesting to me. The crime that is at the heart of the story was also not particularly interesting or unique, and although its effect on the area was significant, I don't think it deserve such a significant role in the book. Overall, Dogtown managed to keep my interest — but I wouldn't really recommend it.
martialia's review
4.0
Knowing just a little about Dogtown and feeling drawn to it, I was excited to find this book last weekend on a clearance table in a Sherman's (locals all know they are great!). I cracked it open a day or 2 later and was immediately anxious about the focus. The author spent a great deal of time on a real and horrible crime that happened in Dogtown in 1984, going deeply into the families of both murderer and victim as well as the murderer's psyche and many details of the crime and trial. She also had a near obsession with an artist who found his salvation during a time of personal crisis by healing and painting the very woods and stones of Dogtown. She spent a good deal of time on this artist's path and her own. It took a couple chapters before I was feeling more comfortable but gradually I was not wanting to put the book down. The attention to the details and the way she was able to tie the far past right in to the present and down the whole line of years was stunning...it was like the teasing apart of a complex tangled rope. From the glacier that deposited the boulders across the landscape through settlement, loss, growth, devastation, neglect, inspiration and a spiritual pull that many feel but are unable to explain it all was connected and beautifully observed. I would suggest this book as a read to nearly anyone with an interest in history or social change...and true crime. The last part is why I didn't give the whole 5 stars...though very well written, I chafed...I'm just not comfortable with the true crime genre.
judyward's review
3.0
Interesting book. Dogtown is an isolated wooded area in the town of Gloucester, Massachusetts that has attracted attention since colonial days. In this book, Elyssa East alternates the true story of a young woman in 1984 and the trial of her murderer with chapters describing the history of the area and the colorful characters (witches, pirates, runaway slaves, hobos, and destitute Revolutionary War widows) who have lived there.