Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

5 reviews

readertate's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Animal death and Suicide

librarymouse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

What a strange and unsettling book. To be able to continue to care for someone, especially platonically, while knowing the atrocities they've committed against innumerable individuals; the echo of which is so deep and widespread, is unfathomable to me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

Moderate: Antisemitism and Pregnancy

christikb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

5.0

This is not by a long shot my first time reading A Stranger Beside Me. I first read it when I was 11, a burgeoning true crime afficionado, a fact that somehow simultaneously concerned and intrigued my parents. It was my second true crime book (behind Helter Skelter) and I knew clearly what murder and rape were, knew that they were crimes. But the true wrongness of these young women's deaths and assaults, the sheer emotionality of it, eluded a young me. This is my most recent re-read, completed at 32 years old with 1/6 of my M.S. in forensic psychology, six years of practicing law and writing about mental health in the law, and a thesis on the qualitative lifeworld of serial killers under my belt. As an adult, this book hurt. It isn't a great serial killer book; it is a phenomenal true crime novel. In a way that few true crime authors can because most will never have the experience to do so, Ann Rice is able to analyze the vast confusion of mourning the death, not of a person, but of something that you thought a person was. Bundy committed unspeakable crimes against women, victimizing them for years. But he created victims of the living too, those who survived their loved ones, his family, and those who knew him, cared for him, were hoodwinked by him. This book isn't just a factual accounting of the Ted crimes nor is it just for the women he murdered and assaulted; this book is for every person of whom he created a victim. Rule meanders through her account because to be snowed under so deeply by someone creates confusion of its own, a confusion that she replicates beautifully in this novel. I highly recommend that every woman read this book at least once.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Stalking, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

puglover's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Suicide, and Abandonment

bookishbabe93's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail