A review by netflix_and_lil
The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire by Chloe Hooper

4.0

True crime in mainstream culture can very easily turn exploitative, and as someone who remembers reading about the Black Saturday bushfires happening in my country, close to people I loved, I felt this hit a little closer to home than the American serial killer brand of true crime. I liked the way Chloe Hopper wrote about the titular arsonist and hypothesised about his motivations through the cool lens of lawyers and the legal proceedings, sharing his sympathetic history without forcing the reader to necessarily sympathize with him. The book opens on a pretty harrowing recount of the bushfire and lives lost, so your led into the second half with a bias that matched the country when this guy was arrested. It's cleverly paced, harrowing at times and highly informative.