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smilesgiggle's review against another edition
4.0
Capote simply told a story based on his research and public findings. I think this makes these events from 60 years ago not only more realistic but terrifying. This is one of the first, if not first, true crime novel. Hence the beginning of our culture's obsession with true crime, serial killers, violence, etc. We want to understand how a person becomes a monster. The glimpses into the killers' childhoods lent some insight - both experienced traumatic accidents with long term health impacts. Yet there is no answer. We want point our finger and say there it began. Yet we can. Consequently this story remains relevant to today as well as terrifying.
p_t_b's review against another edition
5.0
I would read an entire book or shelf of books about how Capote wrote this book, and how much of IN COLD BLOOD is his language and how much of the words and thoughts come directly from Smith and Hickock and the other subjects. By the end I found myself strangely attached to Smith and Hickok. Before their arrest and sentencing, Smith seems damaged beyond saving and Hickock seems repulsive. By the end of the book, after the extensive correspondence and interviewing that Capote must have done with the pair already on Death Row, I felt attached to both men in a strange way, I felt I knew them. I didn't understand why they did the wretched things they did, and neither did I forget how loathsome they both were, but I felt a true sympathy for them, or at least the version of them that Capote brings across. The two killers as depicted evince a surprising amount of humanity, however malicious their varietal was. Still working through my reaction to this one, but a true classic. Definitely will read again at some point in my life, even though the subject matter is repellent in places -- just so much insight about guilt, memory, and the inscrutable emotional knots that compel and control us.
abicaro17's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
2.75
This took forever to finish because it was boring. Perry and Dick are two ex convicts who after going on parole, decide to attempt to rob a family in Kansas. The beginning of this book tells you that not only did that not happen but all four members of the Clutter family were brutally murdered. Capote goes on to describe the Clutters home life, Dick and Perrys childhoods/home lives, and their lives in and after prison. The reasons this didn't work for me are that the audience knew who killed the Clutters from the beginning, I didn't care about anyone in this book, and this book is so incredibly long for only being about one night of murder. This could have been a good short book but the length of this was so unnecessary.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
jatiekane67's review
5.0
give me flowers while i’m living - flat t, scruggs
folsom prison blues - johnny cash
el paso - marty robbins
singing the blues - marty robbins
i come to the garden - reverend claude jeter
folsom prison blues - johnny cash
el paso - marty robbins
singing the blues - marty robbins
i come to the garden - reverend claude jeter