laurenreadsoccasionally 's review for:

Savage Appetites: True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession by Rachel Monroe

2.0

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There were things I liked about this book - I thought the way multiple threads were overlaid in each part was done well, I appreciated the exploration of how technology and the media landscape at the time influenced the stories (although I would have liked a deeper exploration there) - but ultimately I found the introduction and ending, about CrimeCon, to be the most compelling parts. Obviously true crime obsession is not a new phenomenon, and I'm sure that was the intent of choosing the stories she did, but from the conceit of the book I was expecting more about the modern era and the current prevalence and specifically normalization of true crime media instead of stori s about people whose obsessions were viewed as strange by their contemporaries. I also personally didn't feel like the archetypes were the strongest framing device.