A review by maddypat
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

dark reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

This book made me feel some kind of way. Overall I would say it was a fantastic book. I was practically glued to it, so eager to know what happened next despite knowing the ultimate ending from the start.

While reading it, though, I couldn't help but think about the current discourse about true crime as a genre. A lot of people feel that true crime seems to focus a lot on the murderers and barely treat the victims as people, and often spreads misinformation about the case or the people involved. I think this is fair to say about a lot of true crime podcasts and, I'm sure, also about a lot of true crime books. 

In Cold Blood, I think, does a pretty good job of humanizing the victims. Accounts from friends and family of the Clutters help paint a picture of who they were before they were killed, and throughout the book we never forget how brutal of an end they were met with at the hands of Dick and Perry. But then on the flip side, well over half of the novel is dedicated to talking about those men, their lives leading up to the murder, and what happened following it. After finishing the book and looking up the case, it turns out Capote had actually befriended Perry during his research. 

At first, I was not really happy with this. Who are these men, these two people that murdered a whole family
(for no more than $50!)
, that I should feel bad for them? Or feel any kind of way except disgusted? I again kept thinking about the true crime discourse and how victims are so often drowned out by the coverage of their killer. But then, as the book went on, I realized it simply isn't that black and white. Dick and Perry did something horrible and unforgivable, but it doesn't mean they aren't humans with complicated lives - and understanding those lives can go some way in trying to understand why they did what they did. I grew to appreciate that I learned so much about these two, and similarly wrestled with the punishment they ended up receiving. I have never given much thought to the death penalty, but as it's reasoned in the book, it was urged because even life in prison could result in a parol in as few as (if I remember correctly) 15 years in that. These two men would be barely in their forties by then, and from my view of them, very much capable of making similar choices again. But who are we to decide who dies and who lives? 

In the end, I think what sets this book apart is that it paints the full picture. Sure I learn a lot about the perpetrators of the crime, but I also am thinking of the victims around every curve, and that is the difference between good true crime and bad.

I know I'll be thinking about this book for a long time. I'd recommend it even for people who don't read much other true crime. 
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