Reviews with content warning for Grief - Notes on an Execution

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

92 reviews

thecheeseowl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book held up a mirror to reality. If Ancel Packer was on 2020 I don't think anyone would bat an eye. The cruelty of the world is on full display.

This story similar to Ancel himself was truly fascinated with morality and what serial kills say about humanity as a whole along with what does love truly look like and how can something like love be corrupted.

There have been people who argue that the book is too sympathetic to Ancel. I disagree throughout the whole book until I got to the end where now I understand what they were saying. But I would still argue that the book isn't arguing that Ancel is a good person it is just arguing that he is a person. That there was something there that could have been but wasn't because of what he did.

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roseteareads's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I like the utilization of the multiple POV though some dragged more than others. Lavender's story was the most interesting to me. I enjoyed Saffy as a character but at times her story felt more like a standard police procedural wrapped in literary style writing. Hazel's sections were the slowest for me.

What I do like is that it captured the essence of empty narcissim that drives these serial killers. These are sociopaths with a fragile ego and overblown sense of self. They aren't exceptionally intelligent or charming, and neither was the killer at the center of this novel even though from his POV you could tell that he thought he was.

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liurhonda's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Solid average read.

Pros: the set up of the novel and pacing allows for a page turner mystery/thriller. Has some good plot twists, and I liked the range of characters included.

Cons: It's ironic how the main messaging (or what it attempts to message) of this book is that female victims are only remembered or highlighted by male perpetrators, while doing so the whole book by he vily centering Ansel/the male perp. We stay in his perspective a lot and the female characters are all quite enamored with him or heavily impacted by him. It makes sense logically but doesn't work with this type of messaging that only comes in at the end, very explicitly. Lots of tell and not show.

Also peppered in the end is a weak, again explicit, critique of the injustice in the prison industrial complex in America. While true, doesn't do anything new, nor does it contribute to the overall messaging of the book. Comes across a bit sloppy and not very impactful. Uses abstract flowery language to describe emotions, atmospheres, etc. too much for my taste. Characters also felt a bit hollow.

(A bit of a spoiler: I also wonder if how Ansel heard voices and how he 'pretends' much of his life alludes to any mental illness? Maybe I missed some implications, but would have loved to see this theme explored a bit more. Or at least this thread wrapped up)

TLDR; Ultimately the messaging/themes of this book where sloppy (some where very ambiguous which I did not like but that's a personal preference) but serves as a good spooky mystery page turner.

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ellenisntcool's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I believe that this book was really good, truly. However, I think we could have taken out Ansel’s chapters and bring even more focus onto the women as I feel they weren’t given a chance to speak as Ansel would slip in with his weird stuff about his theory that I really don’t care about as I don’t care for that man and never will.

I’m struggling to know how to rate this, so I’ll come back later but or right now I’m on the fence about giving it anything higher than a three as the ending felt off especially with one of the women spoken about almost forgiving him, and we don’t get to see why.

(As I’m writing I’ll probably give it that three anyway.)

Edit: dropping my rating to two stars, the more I think and talk about this book the more I dislike it.

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arayo's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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imogenlj's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

When I finished this I felt like I'd been punched in my diaphragm- it's devastating, righteous and empathetic, yet hopeful. I felt tense the entire time I was reading. I want to push this into the hands of anyone fascinated with True Crime and say 'Look! It's not about the killers!' It doesn't dwell too much on anything but this is a dark book so check trigger warnings if you're keen to avoid something.

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