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1.5k reviews for:
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
Curt Gentry, Vincent Bugliosi
4.05 AVERAGE
1.5k reviews for:
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
Curt Gentry, Vincent Bugliosi
4.05 AVERAGE
I am pleasantly surprised with this book despite being way out of my scope of normal reads. It was a lot and heavy at times. I can't say I will read another by this author but I was definitely interested in this subject.
dark
informative
"Vince Bugliosi Is Awesome", by Vincent Bugliosi. Seriously though, fascinating.
dark
informative
slow-paced
I found this book fascinating. I am new to the true crime genre and didn't know much about the Manson murders and family before this book. Bugliosi presents this from the prospective of his job as the prosecutor and the story he needs to tell the jury to get a conviction. Manson's insanity and the family he cultivated and controlled is chilling and this is a real page-turner.
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Well-written and a compellingly strange and interesting tale.
I thought I would be an interesting read, and it turned out to be even more interesting then I originally thought.
It's clear that Bugliosi isn't a writer, per se, but he lays out the whole thing in a very clear, compelling manner. He's slightly defensive, but I can only imagine how the whole thing played out in the press at the time. I think his afterward, added 25 year later in 1994, was unnecessary and sort of took away from the original book, but I do see why he did it. The book itself was an even more terrifying look into a Manson's story, which was already terrifying with what I knew of it. Really a worthwhile read.
I just couldn't finish this book. It was horrible what happened to the victims, but that wasn't the reason. It felt extremely repetitive, like it was a full circle. They'd present some information, and a little time later, present that same information, with some new added information to make it sound like this is entirely new to us.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, War, Injury/Injury detail