Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Murder'
Helltown: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer on Cape Cod by Casey Sherman
20 reviews
miss_honey_91's review
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
2.5
Parts and even an entire character were completely made up (?). The charters about Vonnegut and Mailer were far too dense. It was fine but not great - way too long for what the story really called for in my opinion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Murder
adogmomsbookishlife's review against another edition
Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
This story is definitely creepy!! Tony Costa makes the Manson Murders seem like rainbows and butterflies.
This book is graphic! There are details of how the bodies were gutted, dismembered, and skinned. The killer carried around a book about taxidermy, and it’s something he studied in great detail. There are scenes that describe the killers acts of necrophilia. This is a horrid series of murders!!
The creepiest part of this book is that you’re in the killers head for some of the time. I thought this was the fictional part of the story, but I discovered the author read Costa’s unpublished memoir to obtain these thoughts and details for this book.
Disturbingly enough, those were the parts of this true crime story that I was “enjoying.” However, there is a HUGE focus on two rival reporters throughout the book. At 47% I decided to DNF as this seems to have become the focus of the story and it is putting me in a slump. I tried skimming to parts that pulled me back in, but I’ve hit a point where it’s just not flowing in a way that intrigues me. The story itself is intriguing, but the writing isn’t keeping me entranced.
I think any true crime fans should definitely try this one. Maybe it’s just my mindset that isn’t able to focus on the writing style where others could enjoy the details I do not.
This book is graphic! There are details of how the bodies were gutted, dismembered, and skinned. The killer carried around a book about taxidermy, and it’s something he studied in great detail. There are scenes that describe the killers acts of necrophilia. This is a horrid series of murders!!
The creepiest part of this book is that you’re in the killers head for some of the time. I thought this was the fictional part of the story, but I discovered the author read Costa’s unpublished memoir to obtain these thoughts and details for this book.
Disturbingly enough, those were the parts of this true crime story that I was “enjoying.” However, there is a HUGE focus on two rival reporters throughout the book. At 47% I decided to DNF as this seems to have become the focus of the story and it is putting me in a slump. I tried skimming to parts that pulled me back in, but I’ve hit a point where it’s just not flowing in a way that intrigues me. The story itself is intriguing, but the writing isn’t keeping me entranced.
I think any true crime fans should definitely try this one. Maybe it’s just my mindset that isn’t able to focus on the writing style where others could enjoy the details I do not.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
cervinlibrarian's review against another edition
tense
slow-paced
4.0
I thought it was well written, but found all of the details on Vonnegut and Mailer distracting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
elizabethjane's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, and Murder
Moderate: Drug use and Mental illness
avidreaderandgeekgirl's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
2.5
I don't think authors should narrate their own books most of the time, but this author did okay. However, the book was at least 5 hrs too long with all the Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonget stuff. Also, the gruesome narrator of the crimes was graphically described WAY too many times, it was just over and over again. I did appreciate the amount of research the author put into the book, but I probably wouldn't recommend this book. It's simply just too long!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicide
theoceanrose's review against another edition
The background information on the killer was interesting, but there was so much that seemed irrelevant that it was frustrating.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder
ceeemvee's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
2.25
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
This was a very hard book to get through. The author is the nephew of 19-year old Mary Sullivan, the last and youngest victim of The Boston Strangler. Sherman’s previous books are predominantly true crime. I thought that perhaps his style would center more on the criminal mind and the trial proceedings, however, there were some very graphic and gruesome descriptions of the murders which are repeatedly referenced.
We begin on Cape Cod in the late 1960’s, where young women are starting to disappear. While there is some effort on the part of law enforcement, the disappearances are attributed to the drug and counter culture mantra: turn on, tune in, and drop out. But then their bodies begin to surface. The common denominator is Tony Costa, who will soon be arrested, convicted, sentenced and commit suicide in his cell.
The author fictionalized Costa’s relationships with the women, as well as the actual murders. Costa always maintained his innocence, blaming others as well as an alter ego, and Costa’s conversations with his alter ego are also fictionalized. The details are gruesome, and they are again repeated in the court proceedings. Once was enough. My feeling is that the author should have noted up front, not at the end of the book, that this is a work of fact told with elements of fiction storytelling. That left me wondering what parts were true, and why the author didn’t just market the book as a fictionalized account based on a real event.
There are also so many side stories which give us a sense of the times, yet are not directly relevant to the case itself. We have stories of Charles Manson, the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Mary Jo Kopechne’s fateful night with Ted Kennedy and the Apollo 11 moon landing. There are also in-depth biographies of Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer, both residents of the area that wanted to write about the case. While the author could have touched on all of these subjects, it was just way too much information, and fictionalized information perhaps.
https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/
This was a very hard book to get through. The author is the nephew of 19-year old Mary Sullivan, the last and youngest victim of The Boston Strangler. Sherman’s previous books are predominantly true crime. I thought that perhaps his style would center more on the criminal mind and the trial proceedings, however, there were some very graphic and gruesome descriptions of the murders which are repeatedly referenced.
We begin on Cape Cod in the late 1960’s, where young women are starting to disappear. While there is some effort on the part of law enforcement, the disappearances are attributed to the drug and counter culture mantra: turn on, tune in, and drop out. But then their bodies begin to surface. The common denominator is Tony Costa, who will soon be arrested, convicted, sentenced and commit suicide in his cell.
The author fictionalized Costa’s relationships with the women, as well as the actual murders. Costa always maintained his innocence, blaming others as well as an alter ego, and Costa’s conversations with his alter ego are also fictionalized. The details are gruesome, and they are again repeated in the court proceedings. Once was enough. My feeling is that the author should have noted up front, not at the end of the book, that this is a work of fact told with elements of fiction storytelling. That left me wondering what parts were true, and why the author didn’t just market the book as a fictionalized account based on a real event.
There are also so many side stories which give us a sense of the times, yet are not directly relevant to the case itself. We have stories of Charles Manson, the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Mary Jo Kopechne’s fateful night with Ted Kennedy and the Apollo 11 moon landing. There are also in-depth biographies of Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer, both residents of the area that wanted to write about the case. While the author could have touched on all of these subjects, it was just way too much information, and fictionalized information perhaps.
https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcohol
Really not worth the time or effort.bookedbymadeline's review against another edition
This is not at all what I was expecting from this book. I enjoy true crime and was looking forward to learning about Costa as I had never heard of him. But the way it’s written is just cringey. It’s sensationalized and has elements of fictional storytelling which I feel is disrespectful to the victims. True crime should provide the facts and give a voice to those who can no longer speak for themselves, not “entertain readers” with dramatization. I also found it weird adding in a storyline with Kurt Vonnegut-I understand he wrote articles on the murders but there’s no point in creating a fictional plot line for him. Honestly infuriating what this author has done, shame.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
reading_under_covers's review against another edition
2.0
HELLTOWN by Casey Sherman tells the story of serial killer Tony Costa as he rampaged across Cape Cod in the late 60’s.
This book is being marketed as nonfiction and true crime, yet, in the author’s note, Sherman concludes that he took fictional liberties in the telling of this story…Imagine reading an entire (wild & lengthy) book to then hit that statement…
HELLTOWN also jumped around from one person to another (seemingly unrelated) person and their story, and it just became convoluted and unnecessary, with the pieces barely clicking together by the end.
This one was a slog to get through, and I’m not even sure who I’d recommend it to by the end of it (there are also better books already written on Tony Costa if you want an actual nonfiction recounting).
Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review - unfortunately, it ended up not being the book for me.
Publication Date: July 12, 2022
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Drug use, and Murder
amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, and Abandonment
Minor: Homophobia and Outing
More...