Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Helltown: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer on Cape Cod by Casey Sherman

5 reviews

ruthypoo2's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

3.75

This book felt like an odd construct for me. I struggled through the initial chapters that interrupted the flow of the crime story to introduce renowned authors Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer who have peripheral connections to the time and location where the murders took place. The story of their lives are interwoven throughout the book and while I get the author’s intention in including them, I can’t say it added to my enjoyment while reading the book since I often skimmed over the chapters dedicated mostly to Vonnegut and/or Mailer.

Otherwise, when the book was telling the story of the perpetrator of a series of horrible murders, it was interesting. While a lot of liberty is taken to fictionalize the dialogue and actions of many characters, the basics are faithful to real life events and historical record. I really didn’t mind that the author, Casey Sherman, “created” possible scenarios and dialogue between the killer, their victims, and others. As long as the reader understands this is something of a hybrid combining true crime and fictionalized actions and encounters, it does bring the story to life.

I liked that the layout is familiar: crime - discovery - police investigation - trial - outcome. These are the elements I enjoy learning about, as well as the incidents being set in the late 60s/early 70s in a part of the United States with its own unique identity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Car accident, and Death of parent

makcrowley's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

If you read this as a fiction book with a few facts, it’s interesting, though a little chopped up. 
Because the author meshes facts with fictional convos, it is hard to determine which are real facts based instances and which are fictional. So it should not be read as true crime. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Medical content, and Murder

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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!  

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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

ceeemvee's review

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/

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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.

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

3.0

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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