Review by volsairine - Notes on an Execution

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volsairine 's review for:

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

3.5

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I thought this book was very well written, but I don't love how much blame the women took for Ansel's choices. I understand that the book is trying to tackle the complexities of the death penalty, the prison system, and additionally how our system fails children. However, I think that something the book fails to acknowledge is that there are plenty of children who grow up in foster care or with parents who abandoned them who don't go on to

murder four women

. I think I found that to be a frustrating narrative throughout the book. The implication that

his brother turned out better because he grew up in a wealthy family

just doesn't sit right with me. The implication that

he hurt those women because he was trying to understand love

also just doesn't sit right with me. As a domestic abuse survivor who grew up in the same environment that my abuser did but chose to not hurt people, the argument that men's environments mold them into what they are beyond their capabilities is very old and overdone. Women grow up in these same environments and don't murder men on a systemic scale. I also understand the author exploring the ways that

women blame themselves for the actions of men, but I don't think that the author pushed back on this narrative enough and perhaps even leaned into it quite a bit. I did not get the impression that the author thought that these women shouldn't bear the weight of his death. Perhaps the author doesn't feel that way, but I did not get that from this book.

Ansel had the chance to make different choices and he continued to hurt women over and over and over again. He didn't stop hurting women

after the initial 3 murders, he continued to manipulate them and hurt them, all the way up to the prison break escape

. And he didn't feel the capacity to change

until he found something that made him happy, not that he felt any actual remorse.

I mean, he was talking about

getting to the Blue House after the prison break, WHILE manipulating Shauna the prison guard into falling in love with him

. I get people are complicated but I don't feel any empathy for him, and I'm a leftist who is very understanding of the ways that our justice system and social systems fail people. Ansel gets a ton of compassion in this book, but

the compassion for the families of his victims felt like an afterthought.

As the professor said it best: “Ah, yes... From what I remember, he was—how do I put this? An average student who believed he deserved more." Ansel could have made better choices, but he didn't. Even up until the very end, he continued to make bad decisions. Ansel is just another man who continues to blame his environment and the women around him for the way he became.

Content Warnings