Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

34 reviews

unluckycats's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

awalsh1212001's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and War

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. 

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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

tamarant4's review against another edition

dark informative tense medium-paced

3.25

“Am I sorry? If that’s what you mean—I’m not. I don’t feel anything about it. I wish I did. But nothing about it bothers me a bit. Half an hour after it happened, Dick was making jokes and I was laughing at them. Maybe we’re not human." [loc. 4734]

Capote claimed to have invented the 'non-fiction novel' with In Cold Blood. Serialised in the New Yorker in 1965, the decades since its initial publication have cast considerable doubt on Capote's 'immaculately factual' account of the Clutter family murders. Still, this work provides a thorough, if dramatised, summary of the case.

Capote's prose reads like fiction, with metaphors aplenty (the stray cats gleaning roadkill from radiator grills, for instance) and explorations of character. His study of Perry Smith (who may have committed all four murders, or just two of them) is sympathetic, and reads as a depiction of a closeted gay man at a time when homosexuality was illegal. The album of bodybuilder pictures; the protests such as 'Some queers I’ve really liked. As long as they didn’t try anything'; the way that Dick, his co-defendant, calls him 'honey'. Perry's own letters show that he's articulate and ambitious ('I happen to have a brilliant mind. In case you don’t know. A brilliant mind and talent plus. But no education...'). Capote makes it clear that Smith was psychologically damaged by a rough childhood. Dick, on the other hand, is a rapist, a paedophile and a man who enjoys running over stray dogs. (Perry, by way of contrast, tames a squirrel after he's imprisoned for the murders.)

The Clutter murders were opportunist, difficult to tie to the culprits because so random: Smith and Hickock drove hundreds of miles to rob a man they'd never met, a man who a fellow prisoner told them had a safe full of money. (He didn't.) Capote writes 'The crime was a psychological accident, virtually an impersonal act; the victims might as well have been killed by lightning.' And though his depiction of the victims is sympathetic and touching, he never met them: it was the murderers, and especially Perry Smith, who held his attention.

Read for a 'true crime' reading challenge on StoryGraph, and because it's a classic work. I liked the prose more than the subject matter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Animal death and Homophobia

savduggan's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

Minor: Animal death and Sexual violence

jmkendall0218's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Grief, and Death of parent

bg_oseman_fan's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

4.5

The hype is real. A fascinating true crime lead. Capote weaves a tale that is very captivating. You can see the gaps on the narrative, but that is only a minor distraction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Pedophilia, Racial slurs, and Rape

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

ibby2's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

matcha_cat's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Violence, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Gore, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Pedophilia, Racism, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and War

sarah_zaffiro's review against another edition

dark informative reflective slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Cancer, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, and Car accident