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andrew298's review against another edition
2.0
This book started off with so much promise, but ultimately I was left feeling like I had wasted my time.
This story (be it true crime or a memoir) was fascinating to start off with, and you really could feel the connection between the author and Ricky. However then it just turns into a long and winding mind-splurge of feelings without much actual knowledge and no real substance, never mind a coherent timeline.
The author also becomes very repetitive covering the same issues and moments in time over and over again to the point where you can start a chapter and really already know what is going to happen.
Overall it's a long-winded look at a crime that could have been interesting (which is very well told) and an author that tells you that she is putting her heart on the page, but leaves you with the feeling that we didn't get the whole thing, which makes me feel this book is at least 50 pages too long and not a great read.
This story (be it true crime or a memoir) was fascinating to start off with, and you really could feel the connection between the author and Ricky. However then it just turns into a long and winding mind-splurge of feelings without much actual knowledge and no real substance, never mind a coherent timeline.
The author also becomes very repetitive covering the same issues and moments in time over and over again to the point where you can start a chapter and really already know what is going to happen.
Overall it's a long-winded look at a crime that could have been interesting (which is very well told) and an author that tells you that she is putting her heart on the page, but leaves you with the feeling that we didn't get the whole thing, which makes me feel this book is at least 50 pages too long and not a great read.
bexlrose's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. A true story about a pedophile/murderer and the author's separate relationship with her child-molesting grandfather. When the book begins, she makes it seem like the two stories are going to intertwine in some sort of amazing and coincidental way that would make the book worthwhile...but that doesn't happen. Instead you just learn about two pedophiles for the price of one. It's all very depressing.
I guess it could be good for people who think pedophiles are innately evil, as it dwells in the grey area of human existence, showing that people are just people and are neither good nor bad, but I have never been someone who believes that anyway...
All in all it took me 5 months to complete this 309 page book, which should give you some sort of measure of just how gripped I was. 2 stars.
I guess it could be good for people who think pedophiles are innately evil, as it dwells in the grey area of human existence, showing that people are just people and are neither good nor bad, but I have never been someone who believes that anyway...
All in all it took me 5 months to complete this 309 page book, which should give you some sort of measure of just how gripped I was. 2 stars.
daja57's review against another edition
4.0
A six-year-old boy is murdered by a paedophile. The author encounters this case while working as an intern for the law firm appealing the murderer's death sentence. The story haunts her because it awakens memories of when she was a child and was abused by her grandfather.
The narration flips backwards and forwards between the story of the murder and the subsequent trials and the story of the author's own childhood and young adulthood. As usual with American literature - both fact-based and fiction - the narration includes a vast amount of specific detail and this makes the verisimilitude visceral. The ambiguities and uncertainties in the case are brilliantly brought out: there are many discrepancies between the confessions the murderer made; there are moral questions over the behaviour of the neighbour's family with which the murderer was living; the mother of the victim appeals for mercy for the murderer. It's a remarkable story, powerfully told.
The narration flips backwards and forwards between the story of the murder and the subsequent trials and the story of the author's own childhood and young adulthood. As usual with American literature - both fact-based and fiction - the narration includes a vast amount of specific detail and this makes the verisimilitude visceral. The ambiguities and uncertainties in the case are brilliantly brought out: there are many discrepancies between the confessions the murderer made; there are moral questions over the behaviour of the neighbour's family with which the murderer was living; the mother of the victim appeals for mercy for the murderer. It's a remarkable story, powerfully told.
caitlinluter's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
emrodav's review against another edition
4.0
A really devastating and difficult book. Marzano-Lesnevich's writing style is so capitvating, though, that it really draws you in to both sides of the story.