A review by livlovelit
Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death by Ann Rule

In the spirit of not finishing books I don't enjoy and am not otherwise learning/growing from, I put this one down after about 200 pages. I've read Ann Rule before and I know the woman is capable of nuance. Shit, she had no problem showing the humanity of Ted Bundy. But she was either lazy, over it, or straight up showing an absurd level of misogyny with this one. I'm not asking for objectivity in a true crime novel, we know who the "bad guy" is and we don't have to pretend like she's not a murderer. She is a criminal, she is guilty, and she deserves conviction and condemnation for that. But according to Rule apparently anything this woman has ever said, felt, or done is the worst thing in the world. Doesn't keep her house clean? Terrible person. Wants her husband to show interest in or literally any support for her career? Monstrous. Wants some time for herself without the children? How dare she. The husband wants to go bicycling before he spends time with his family after being gone for work and she doesn't like it? Awful. Rule literally paints this woman negatively for wanting her husband to "babysit" the kids more. Seriously Rule, you wrote this book in the 21st century, do we not all know that it's just called "parenting" when it's your kid?! After reading 200 pages of Liysa Northon's flaws and what a terrible wife she was, and virtually no discussion of the actual crime she committed or frankly the presence of any decent writing or storytelling, there was nothing to do but set this book down and walk away for good.