Reviews

Inside Broadmoor: Up Close and Personal with Britain's Most Dangerous Criminals by Emma French, Jonathan Levi

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olivialucy's review

4.0

Really fascinating book that gives the history of Broadmoor as well as a look at famous inmates. Some parts of it are very graphic and not for the faint of heart. Overall, a really good book if you are interested in crime or psychology.

eh_williams's review

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dark informative inspiring fast-paced

4.5

notlikethebeer's review

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2.0

As a lot of previous comments have established, this book was quite poorly written, which massively affected the readability. It was quite sensationalist at times, and often skipped from topic to topic. This made it hard to follow, but also left some key topics without adequate exploration. It felt much like a recounting of sensationalist events from Broadmoor's history than opposed to anything else, and I was constantly left wanting to know and find out more. There were some times when I really liked the points it was making- for example, explaining how/why Broadmoor's residents are vulnerable, at least briefly exploring the often horrendous childhoods of some of the patients, and talking about rehabilitation- but at other times I really hated it; notably, the comments from Gwen about Saville, and her not believing the victims at Broadmoor. I know these aren't necessarily the views of the authors, but they were included without any critique. Furthermore, I don't think it was properly established or explored that the Broadmoor patients are, more than anything, patients.

I don't think it's an absolutely irredeemable book, because it did at least give me lots of further things to look into, and as a pop culture book it did at least somewhat present a side to Broadmoor that I don't think is often considered. However, overall, it actually really let me down.