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A review by bookofcinz
While the City Slept: A Love Lost to Violence and a Young Man's Descent into Madness by Eli Sanders
3.0
3.5
I am not one to read non-fiction on crime but I decided to give this one a go because I had just finished binge watching “Making of a Murderer”. I think this book should have been made into a TV series instead of a book. There were so many moving parts, so many angles to cover that a lot of these issues that should have been looked at more in-depth was done on a surface level.
Yes, the book was well written, it is clear Sanders did a massive amount of research on this piece but sometimes I felt too much irrelevant information was presented. For example, Sanders spoke a lot about the jury selection; he gave detailed reasons why some persons weren’t selected and why others were. I felt this was a little unnecessary because it added nothing to the story and was overall not interesting. I want to hear about the trial itself, not about a cyclist that was selected and had to leave because he is the leader of his cycle team.
With that said, this was a difficult book to read, I got nauseated reading Jennifer’s testimony. It was so overwhelming at times reading Isaiah’s decent into mental illness. All of these were a lot to take in. I also felt- and I feel a little bad saying this- but I felt like enough was not done to “humanize” Jennifer and Teresa, they were presented in such a clinical way. It wasn’t until Jennifer took the stand at the trial that my heart genuinely went out to her and Teresa.
I am interested to see how other people review this book because I feel so many ways about it.
I am not one to read non-fiction on crime but I decided to give this one a go because I had just finished binge watching “Making of a Murderer”. I think this book should have been made into a TV series instead of a book. There were so many moving parts, so many angles to cover that a lot of these issues that should have been looked at more in-depth was done on a surface level.
Yes, the book was well written, it is clear Sanders did a massive amount of research on this piece but sometimes I felt too much irrelevant information was presented. For example, Sanders spoke a lot about the jury selection; he gave detailed reasons why some persons weren’t selected and why others were. I felt this was a little unnecessary because it added nothing to the story and was overall not interesting. I want to hear about the trial itself, not about a cyclist that was selected and had to leave because he is the leader of his cycle team.
With that said, this was a difficult book to read, I got nauseated reading Jennifer’s testimony. It was so overwhelming at times reading Isaiah’s decent into mental illness. All of these were a lot to take in. I also felt- and I feel a little bad saying this- but I felt like enough was not done to “humanize” Jennifer and Teresa, they were presented in such a clinical way. It wasn’t until Jennifer took the stand at the trial that my heart genuinely went out to her and Teresa.
I am interested to see how other people review this book because I feel so many ways about it.