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A review by feyley
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
4.0
Full review on my blog: https://leyreads.wordpress.com/2016/09/11/in-cold-blood-by-truman-capote/
Though you know the outcome from the beginning, there is this tension that rises from the first page. Almost as if the family will survive in this rendition. The killers will change their minds or the family will survive through miraculous means. However, neither of these things happens. For the first fifty pages or so, I was on edge waiting for the murders to occur. Then, just like that, they were over and we had skipped to the aftermath. It was such a masterful way to keep the reader on the hook.
The dual perspectives of this story also made for another fascinating element. From the beginning of the book, you know the identity of the killers and their movements as they parallel the family’s. Seeing the murders from their side as well gave it more clarity. This was not a senseless killing that happened to the Clutter family. Even before they were both out of prison, on previous charges; they had plans to murder this family and how they were going to do it. This doesn’t feel like a spoiler because the bare facts of the case are in the synopsis for the book. It’s also a fairly well-known case from the 50s-60s.
My biggest issue with In Cold Blood was the last 30 or so pages, where Capote gets into the sentences of the other inmates on death row with the Clutter family killers. While it was interesting to hear their unique situations, it made no sense to include this information in the book. It honestly felt like Capote was getting paid by the page and decided to throw these in to fluff out the end of the book. This is the place where the book lost a full star for me, I just found it a bad way to wrap up a book.
Though you know the outcome from the beginning, there is this tension that rises from the first page. Almost as if the family will survive in this rendition. The killers will change their minds or the family will survive through miraculous means. However, neither of these things happens. For the first fifty pages or so, I was on edge waiting for the murders to occur. Then, just like that, they were over and we had skipped to the aftermath. It was such a masterful way to keep the reader on the hook.
The dual perspectives of this story also made for another fascinating element. From the beginning of the book, you know the identity of the killers and their movements as they parallel the family’s. Seeing the murders from their side as well gave it more clarity. This was not a senseless killing that happened to the Clutter family. Even before they were both out of prison, on previous charges; they had plans to murder this family and how they were going to do it. This doesn’t feel like a spoiler because the bare facts of the case are in the synopsis for the book. It’s also a fairly well-known case from the 50s-60s.
My biggest issue with In Cold Blood was the last 30 or so pages, where Capote gets into the sentences of the other inmates on death row with the Clutter family killers. While it was interesting to hear their unique situations, it made no sense to include this information in the book. It honestly felt like Capote was getting paid by the page and decided to throw these in to fluff out the end of the book. This is the place where the book lost a full star for me, I just found it a bad way to wrap up a book.