orrantw's review against another edition
4.0
It’s a well written book that establishes a lot of themes in murder mysteries today. It’s outdated, but nice if you’d like to see where some common plots come from.
a_ma_n_da's review against another edition
4.0
WOW. This book was so much more engrossing and better-written than I anticipated. As I read somewhere (maybe in the back of the book), Capote meant to create a new genre through this book, the "nonfiction novel", and that's absolutely what this is. It was hard for me to picture how truly real this was, until I did some Googling and found pictures and evidence documents. The characters and stories told, especially the Clutters' day, was so full and rich and lovely. Also, Capote has a wonderful voice and seems to be neutral without being cold or boring. I'm so glad I read this!
laurwaur's review against another edition
2.0
I'm not sure why this is held up as some seminole work. I'm not sure why it was worth making a movie over the making of this book. I could never bring myself to care about anyone in this telling. The first book I read in this genre was Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer and after reading this I believe Mailer's book should be held in great esteem and this one fall to the wayside.
jjbaby72's review against another edition
4.0
The problem with reading nonfiction from 70 years ago is that dialect and social norms were very different from today. I had to remind myself of this in order to digest various passages while reading. Beyond this reminder, the book was an excellent example of the true crime genre in its infancy.
gwinzi's review against another edition
5.0
It's probably a good thing I don't read much true crime, because now In Cold Blood has set such a high standard that not many books of its kind could possibly measure up. I don't want to write a detailed review here, but will just say that what impressed me most about this book was the way Capote wrote about the two killers, as well as about the victims and their families. He did an excellent job of writing about all of them as individual humans rather than just generic bad guys and good guys.
This was a fascinating and heartbreaking book, and now I'm sad I've finished it.
This was a fascinating and heartbreaking book, and now I'm sad I've finished it.
hazeyjane_2's review against another edition
5.0
This read like a novel. And I don’t mean your average true crime book: I mean that the writing was lyrical, the settings richly described and interactions between the Clutters (and, for that matter, between the killers) were written as though the author had been a fly on the wall. He managed to make me feel sympathetic towards the killers at several points.
Although some of the scenes have since been disproven, this is nevertheless a fantastic read.
Although some of the scenes have since been disproven, this is nevertheless a fantastic read.
megancushman's review against another edition
5.0
The quintessential true crime book. Nothing comes close to Truman Capote's masterpiece.