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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
The beginning was good, but the end kind of dragged. The names were way too similar for me to follow, and the story jumped from person to person in a way that made me lose track. Maybe I'm just getting old...
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
I really enjoyed the chapters giving background stories to the five women but then the rest of the book dragged while focusing more on the drama between the victims’ mothers and sisters than on the actual investigation and evidence relating to the case.
As a book that explores how women can be sucked into the world of Craigslist sex work despite its obvious risks of disease, pain, and in the case of these women: death. The book struggles in the last third because of the lack of leads/suspects in the case, and there's no satisfying conclusion to the book because there's never been an arrest or even a likely suspect or person of interest. Attempts to make one of the residents of Oak Beach appear like the killer are pretty flat.
It's a well-written book, but it almost feels like it came before it's time. So close in time to the deaths of these women, and without a lot of the answers that a coherent investigation/prosecution would have provided, it's ultimately unsatisfying. I think it would have been better edited down to a piece of long-form journalism.
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
I really enjoyed Lost Girls--this was one that I finished in one night. I love the division of the story into the different characters and think Kolker did a good job of telling the stories of the respective girls respectfully. I didn't love the abruptness of the ending and thought the pacing was a little too fast at the end but otherwise no complaints
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Stalking, Murder
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
I probably would have enjoyed this book a lot more had I read it quicker...I have been in a bit of a reading slump and it took me FOREVER to get through this. I loved that the book focused on the victims and their stories, delving deeply into their pasts and relationships.
I am fan of true crime, but sometimes it's cheesy or sensationalized. This book was throughly researched and had the goal of humanizing the victims (they were sex workers). He highlighted the families they left behind and how loved they were (the police department did not take the families/friends seriously because of the women's profession). If you are into true crime, I highly recommend.
Update: Read Megan Abbott's "By the Book," and she deftly described why this book wasn't a hit with me: I went in expecting gripping true crime, and that expectation wasn't met. As Abbott puts it: "The ostensible subject is the still unsolved murders of five women whose bodies were discovered on Gilgo Beach in Long Island. But it's really a profoundly moving story of the victims themselves -- their families, how various systems failed them. It's about class and poverty and how we as a society stigmatize sex workers and the cost of that stigma. It's the kind of book that could be dismissed as 'ripped from the headlines' true crime, but it's actually interventionist social commentary." I think she's right - and I think that's what this book did well. So: Wouldn't put it in my top "true crime" reads - but, would recommend for learning more about ^.
Previous review: Slog. Needed a better editor to hack away about half the text. Would not describe this as a true crime novel - it's really about these women and their lives, and not about how they died/the investigation itself.
Previous review: Slog. Needed a better editor to hack away about half the text. Would not describe this as a true crime novel - it's really about these women and their lives, and not about how they died/the investigation itself.
Time for another edition of Book Verses Movie!
The book: this is not your typical true crime book, because there is no conclusion. The Long Island Serial Killer has never been caught, and there are essentially no suspects. Instead, the book was written on bringing to life the five victims by focusing on their families, their lives, how they ended up as sex workers, and how they lived. I personally loved this aspect, because one of the soap boxes I will always get on is about sex work being legitimate work, and sex workers being real members of society. I’ll say it again for those in the back: SEX WORK IS REAL WORK! Let’s legitimize it and make it safe, rather than criminalizing victims of a broken system and calling them “vulnerable populations”. If nothing else, Kolker made sure you cared about these women, and I really did. I could have done without some of the family infighting at the end, but overall, it’s a recommend from me.
The movie: it’s... fine. It was well made, but the thing the movie got rid of was the focus on the women themselves, and instead focused 100% on Shannan’s mom Mari and her insistence the police continued searching for her daughter. Mari unfortunately died in 2016, and there was a sweet memorial for her at the end... but not for the victims. This is a whole movie about five victims of a serial killer, and we heard their names maybe twice the entire movie, and they didn’t even get an in memoriam at the end? Weird. This missed the mark for me. But Dean Winters was in it, and he’s a fave of mine, so, that was cool. Still recommend the book over the movie
The book: this is not your typical true crime book, because there is no conclusion. The Long Island Serial Killer has never been caught, and there are essentially no suspects. Instead, the book was written on bringing to life the five victims by focusing on their families, their lives, how they ended up as sex workers, and how they lived. I personally loved this aspect, because one of the soap boxes I will always get on is about sex work being legitimate work, and sex workers being real members of society. I’ll say it again for those in the back: SEX WORK IS REAL WORK! Let’s legitimize it and make it safe, rather than criminalizing victims of a broken system and calling them “vulnerable populations”. If nothing else, Kolker made sure you cared about these women, and I really did. I could have done without some of the family infighting at the end, but overall, it’s a recommend from me.
The movie: it’s... fine. It was well made, but the thing the movie got rid of was the focus on the women themselves, and instead focused 100% on Shannan’s mom Mari and her insistence the police continued searching for her daughter. Mari unfortunately died in 2016, and there was a sweet memorial for her at the end... but not for the victims. This is a whole movie about five victims of a serial killer, and we heard their names maybe twice the entire movie, and they didn’t even get an in memoriam at the end? Weird. This missed the mark for me. But Dean Winters was in it, and he’s a fave of mine, so, that was cool. Still recommend the book over the movie