I purchased both this book and audiobook for my own collection.
Publisher: Ecco / Harper Audio
Published: July 28, 2020
Summary:
A brilliant anthology of modern true-crime writing that illustrates the appeal of this powerful and popular genre, edited and curated by Sarah Weinman, the award-winning author of The Real Lolita.
The appeal of true-crime stories has never been higher. With podcasts like My Favorite Murder and In the Dark, bestsellers like I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and Furious Hours, and TV hits like American Crime Story and Wild Wild Country, the cultural appetite for stories of real people doing terrible things is insatiable.
Acclaimed author of The Real Lolita and editor of Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s (Library of America) and Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives (Penguin), Sarah Weinman brings together an exemplary collection of recent true crime tales. She culls together some of the most refreshing and exciting contemporary journalists and chroniclers of crime working today. Michelle Dean’s “Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick” went viral when it first published and is the basis for the TV show The Act and Pamela Colloff’s “The Reckoning,” is the gold standard for forensic journalism. There are 13 pieces in all and as a collection, they showcase writing about true crime across the broadest possible spectrum, while also reflecting what makes crime stories so transfixing and irresistible to the modern reader.
My thoughts:
As someone is who still relatively new to true crime, I grabbed this anthology as soon as it came out because I had seen some really good reviews for it. And of course, I didn’t get to it and it just sat on my shelf until now. And now, I’m kicking myself for waiting so long to read it because I really enjoyed it!
Of course when you read an anthology, you are going to like some of the tales more than others and I definitely found that to be the case here. But what I found to be more interesting was that I actually was familiar with some of these cases that were mentioned. I didn’t expect that! I loved the approach this book took – the essays were broken down into three parts and were written through the lens of those personally involves with the cases or somehow involved in the research. It added a unique perspective to the cases and gave you pause when reflecting on them.
The cases I was familiar with were the Gypsy Rose case and the Slenderman case because I had read fictional accounts of those cases and done a little of my own research into both those cases on my own. And of course I’ve heard of Bundy…though I will admit I don’t know all the facts about his history. I did learn quite a bit from this book and am eager to read more about the other cases referenced from the other essays. I have a feeling I’ll be referring back to this book quite often!
I’m so glad I finally got around to picking up this book. It was really fascinating to see what makes this genre so facinating to so many of us, myself included! And, it was a great kick-off to my #NonfictionNovember reading and I can’t wait to see what else this month brings in terms of nonfiction reading!
Audio thoughts:
I listened to this and was completely engaged all the way through. The narrators, Gabra Zackman and Graham Halstead, were new to me but I thought they did a great job. Their pacing was spot on and I found myself completely consumed by the essays from start to finish. I tend to do better with nonfiction on audio and that certainly the case here.
