titanic's review against another edition
3.0
[ 3.5 stars rounded down ]
there were quite a lot of cases in this book, which was nice. i just wished they didn’t use the most popular ones for the categories as it gets a little boring reading pages and pages about crimes you already know about.
besides that, it was interesting! i liked how they gave small snippets of crimes similar on the side!
there were quite a lot of cases in this book, which was nice. i just wished they didn’t use the most popular ones for the categories as it gets a little boring reading pages and pages about crimes you already know about.
besides that, it was interesting! i liked how they gave small snippets of crimes similar on the side!
badpunsanduwu's review against another edition
There was no way I would have finished this without the audiobook. The narration was good but let’s just say it gives me encyclopaedia vibes or a slightly cooler textbook.
By the time I’m reading this there are some changes in cases already.
Overall a decent coffee table book that you can dip in and out of whenever you feel like it.
By the time I’m reading this there are some changes in cases already.
Overall a decent coffee table book that you can dip in and out of whenever you feel like it.
taste_of_mace's review against another edition
3.0
Overall, this book was a good read. I liked how it broke down stories into digestible sizes, and generally did a good job of summarizing details. However, I was a little disappointed in a couple of things.
First of all, some of the book was particularly difficult to read, and I found the writing style wasn't always very easy to comprehend.
Secondly, specifically with the Frank Abignale and Jeffrey Dahmer sections, I was disappointed at the length of the entries. Frank Abignale was such a brilliant man, and as I recently read his autobiography, I was disappointed that the summary skimmed over a lot of his very interesting life. With Jeffrey Dahmer, I felt the summary did that as well as left out information that was particularly damaging, as police returned a 14-year-old victim (who they found naked with a hole drilled into his skull) to Dahmer who claimed he was an adult lover of his. Considering this child was a POC, this act can be seen as discriminatory against visible minorities and the LGBT+ community. Jeffrey Dahmer was so damaging to the gay community, and his sexuality or that he targeting gay men and boys was not mentioned at all in the strikingly short section of the book. This felt like erasure of important context for his killings, and I didn't appreciate that this very notable and wide-known part of Dahmer's story was left out of the book.
Lastly, I was just sort of confused as to why Caesar wasn't in the assassinations section of the book....wouldn't he have been a more obvious choice than the first two people that were included?
Other than all of that, I found I learned some interesting things, and I thought the book did well at giving a broad overview of various crimes throughout history, and did well at focusing not just on North American crime (which is often more publicized in my experience).
First of all, some of the book was particularly difficult to read, and I found the writing style wasn't always very easy to comprehend.
Secondly, specifically with the Frank Abignale and Jeffrey Dahmer sections, I was disappointed at the length of the entries. Frank Abignale was such a brilliant man, and as I recently read his autobiography, I was disappointed that the summary skimmed over a lot of his very interesting life. With Jeffrey Dahmer, I felt the summary did that as well as left out information that was particularly damaging, as police returned a 14-year-old victim (who they found naked with a hole drilled into his skull) to Dahmer who claimed he was an adult lover of his. Considering this child was a POC, this act can be seen as discriminatory against visible minorities and the LGBT+ community. Jeffrey Dahmer was so damaging to the gay community, and his sexuality or that he targeting gay men and boys was not mentioned at all in the strikingly short section of the book. This felt like erasure of important context for his killings, and I didn't appreciate that this very notable and wide-known part of Dahmer's story was left out of the book.
Lastly, I was just sort of confused as to why Caesar wasn't in the assassinations section of the book....wouldn't he have been a more obvious choice than the first two people that were included?
Other than all of that, I found I learned some interesting things, and I thought the book did well at giving a broad overview of various crimes throughout history, and did well at focusing not just on North American crime (which is often more publicized in my experience).
on_your_raedar's review against another edition
Skim read, didn’t need everything.
readbyashleyd's review against another edition
dark
informative
fast-paced
4.0
First off, this book is bloody gorgeous from front cover to back cover and everything in between. The cover is awesome and each story has its own illustrations and graphics and it’s just drool worthy. Basically the only reason you need to buy this book is it’s good looks. Kidding, obvious because the actual contents of the book are just as captivating as it’s looks! I was absolutely fascinated by every single page of this book, each story is more interesting than the next and I just couldn’t get enough of it. I mean, who doesn’t love true crime stories past and present?! My favourite part was definitely the little section on serial killers because I’m only just a little obsessed. My only regret is that that section wasn’t nearly long enough! I absolutely loved this from start to finish and highly recommend to any true crime or history fan, this is a fantastic little blend of both that will satisfy lovers of both genres.