A review by minimicropup
This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead

1.5

At best, this tries to explore the psychology of those drawn to tragedy while being cathartic, theoretical, and championing amateur sleuths. At worst, it reads like armchair detective hero fanfic that stole from real tragedies. Either way it seemed thinly veiled, sensationalized, very Scooby Doo, and sometimes felt icky. 
 
If you are someone affected by the 2022 Idaho student murders or any similar loss, use caution. I don’t know that it’s inclusion is respectful or well-handled. 
 
Energy: Choppy. Sad. Melancholic. 
 
🐺 Growls: Giving fictional victims near-identical details to real-life ones while arbitrarily swapping out elements of their lives and personalities made the whole experience feel uncomfortable and exploitative (it’s giving “change it to avoid a lawsuit”). It was distracting wondering if the author meant to atribute speculative and negative traits to the real victims in the fictionalized ones. The clunky dialogue and amateur sleuth wish-fulfillment requires suspension of all disbelief
like the police chief doxxing them at a press conference or the FBI clearance to access crime scenes, speak to media, and psychologically profiling the perp based on…vibes?)
. So many cringeworthy and absurd plot devices like how “hacking” conveniently uncovered major clues whenever they were needed. 
 
🐕 Howls: The whiplash of confessional-style emotional outpouring and sensationalized plot points from recent cases. The gorey imaginings of what victims went through felt dangerously close to dehumanizing the people whose stories it took from. The footnotes, monologues, and dialogue were often long-winded info-dumps. The characters were one-dimensional caricatures. 
 
🐩 Tail Wags: Hints of a meaningful narrative and insightful commentary that came through, especially at the beginning. 
 
Scene: 🇺🇸 Near Indiantown, Florida, and Delphi, Idaho, USA. 
Perspective: Our 24 yo main character is a psych major grieving the sudden death of their father. They find solace in a true crime forum and as they become more involved in the cases, they help in the solving of a local crime, leading to life-changing decisions to do this full-time. 
Timeline: Linear. 2023-2024. ☀️ Summery. 
Narrative: Character speaking to readers. Armchair sleuthing, being told a story (first person). 
Fuel: Mystery, scandal, chaos. Memoir-style rebuke of rumours and assumptions being made about the main character. 
Cred: Over-the-top, unbelievable events + realistic emotions 
 
Mood Reading Match-Up: 
Sudoku. The Real Crime Network. Face chats. Hacking. Sliding glass door. Dive bar. Spiral bound notebook. 
  • Direct, simplistic, self aware writing style
  • Mix of pitiful, questionable, spiralling, and sympathetic characters
  • Memoir-ish alternate history metafiction
  • Not-like-the-other-true-crime-consumers
  • Not-like-the-other-online-sleuths
  • Dark tourism found family road trip 
  • Armchair detectives becoming investigative prodigies procedural
  • Exploration of ambition, grief, legacy, purpose, loss, and voyeurism
  • Surveillance, obsession, and monsters in the mirror
  • Serial killer whodunit
  • Ripped from the headlines “What If” scenarios

Content Heads-Up: Animal cruelty (dog; implied/suspected). Borderline personality disorder (mention). Conduct disorder. Dismembering. Gambling (addiction; mention). Grief (descriptive). Incel (mention). Infertility (mention). Murder. Physical health (medical obesity, high blood pressure, heart attack). Racism (media, police, resource allocation; discussion of). Rape (mention). Violence against women, misogyny.

Rep: American. Nigerian descent (peripheral). Cis. Hetero. Black, white, pale, tan, light freckles, translucent skin tones.

📚 Format: Kobo

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