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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Yes, reading about unsolved true crime is not gratifying since, of course, it's unsolved. However, that's not why the book was so frustrating.
It seemed as if the author got involved in the case through a Facebook group, mostly comprised of adult female relatives of the deceased victims. It seems like this Facebook group had drama and in-fighting that took over the book.
The book was not organized well. It was difficult to keep the victims and their respective family dramas straight. There weren't any interviews with the police and very few facts.
Frustrating, frustrating, frustrating.
It seemed as if the author got involved in the case through a Facebook group, mostly comprised of adult female relatives of the deceased victims. It seems like this Facebook group had drama and in-fighting that took over the book.
The book was not organized well. It was difficult to keep the victims and their respective family dramas straight. There weren't any interviews with the police and very few facts.
Frustrating, frustrating, frustrating.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
This was my first foray into true crime books. I'm not sure this was the best place to start, but I will definitely continue reading this genre. This book wasn't bad, but I wouldn't say it was good either. It was certainly an interesting read, but not exactly what I was looking for. That might not be the fault of the author, it might just be the information isn't available for this particular case.
The author spends a lot of time telling you about the victims. That's great. Too often the media sensationalizes the killers and the victims get lost. This book did not do that. The author did a phenomenal job of humanizing the victims. However there was too much detail about the victims. Or, not the victims, but their families. 5 victims were detailed in this book. That's already five people to keep track of. Then the author wrote about their mothers, grandmothers, siblings, friends, boyfriends... It was just too much to keep track of. It was like keeping the characters straight in a Song of Ice and Fire.
What was missing for me was speculation of who the killer was, their motive and what actually happened. Again, this isn't the fault of the author if that information is simply not available. I guess the lesson I learned from this book is maybe I should stick to true crime that has already been solved.
The author spends a lot of time telling you about the victims. That's great. Too often the media sensationalizes the killers and the victims get lost. This book did not do that. The author did a phenomenal job of humanizing the victims. However there was too much detail about the victims. Or, not the victims, but their families. 5 victims were detailed in this book. That's already five people to keep track of. Then the author wrote about their mothers, grandmothers, siblings, friends, boyfriends... It was just too much to keep track of. It was like keeping the characters straight in a Song of Ice and Fire.
What was missing for me was speculation of who the killer was, their motive and what actually happened. Again, this isn't the fault of the author if that information is simply not available. I guess the lesson I learned from this book is maybe I should stick to true crime that has already been solved.
3.5 stars.
This book was relatively boring. I liked the portraits of the missing girls but there wasn’t a lot of true crime information on the case, so I was often losing interest.
Would have loved to learn more of the forensic/investigation side, or more information on the bodies found.
This book was relatively boring. I liked the portraits of the missing girls but there wasn’t a lot of true crime information on the case, so I was often losing interest.
Would have loved to learn more of the forensic/investigation side, or more information on the bodies found.
It's hard to say I "loved" this book because at times it made me physically ill and at other times it made me cry. Certainly worth a read to make sure these ladies aren't forgotten.
Maybe true crime just isn't for me. I thought Robert Kolker was a good writer, but his execution was clumsy. The way the book is written and the vast number of different people the book talks about it made it hard for me to follow who was who, and eventually I just gave up. Maybe if I read it in one sitting I could have kept track, but the book is long for me to read in one sitting. I thought he was also unnecessarily critical of the "lost girls" in his description of them, in particular their childhoods. I did like the look at sex work industry and thought that was interesting. Unfortunately the rest of the book lost me.
I wanted to love this book but it just never really captured my attention. It left me feeling sad that no one has caught the killer or killers and I don't feel like I have any idea who it could be.
medium-paced
dark
informative
slow-paced