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A review by notlikethebeer
His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae by Graeme Macrae Burnet
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
For those who are about to complete the same Google search I did: yes, this is fiction, but yes, it is made to appear like non-fiction. I hope I could be of service. Anyway. I wasn't really sure what to expect going into this (see also: having to Google whether it was fiction or non-fiction), maybe in part because I've not read anything quite like it before.
Told in multiple parts - through witness reports, trial notes, a psychiatrist report, and a written account from the accused - His Bloody Project does not hold back on the spoilers. Both in the blurb and in the first page, you know exactly who did it, even if you don't know quite what he did, or why. The what is made clearer throughout the book; the why is left for you to decide. That being said, it's not akin to the current trend of books that encourage the reader to play detective. More, it's a rumination on truth and evidence, on what we do when there are narratives that cannot fit into the same puzzle.
I read this shortly before I read American Psycho, and I think that provided a really interesting (if traumatising!) experience; both are very visceral accounts* that play with perceptions of truth and reality, and I think I gained a lot to both by reading them side-by-side. (*That is by no means to say that His Bloody Project even NEARLY reaches the levels of intensity that American Psycho does!).
Told in multiple parts - through witness reports, trial notes, a psychiatrist report, and a written account from the accused - His Bloody Project does not hold back on the spoilers. Both in the blurb and in the first page, you know exactly who did it, even if you don't know quite what he did, or why. The what is made clearer throughout the book; the why is left for you to decide. That being said, it's not akin to the current trend of books that encourage the reader to play detective. More, it's a rumination on truth and evidence, on what we do when there are narratives that cannot fit into the same puzzle.
I read this shortly before I read American Psycho, and I think that provided a really interesting (if traumatising!) experience; both are very visceral accounts* that play with perceptions of truth and reality, and I think I gained a lot to both by reading them side-by-side. (*That is by no means to say that His Bloody Project even NEARLY reaches the levels of intensity that American Psycho does!).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Rape