A review by lindagreen
The Fatal Gift of Beauty: The Trials of Amanda Knox by Nina Burleigh
4.0
I have not read other books on this trial so I can’t fairly compare this book to those previously published. I can, however, offer my review of this as a standalone title. From the beginning, the author paints the idyllic with lyric prose and then quickly gets to the brutality of the murder. This balance between beauty and violence seems to be the running theme throughout the entire book. For those that have trouble reading non-fiction and stick to novels, this would be a good book to get your feet wet. In many places it reads like that of a mainstream novel.
The author’s research into this appears quite thorough and the “cast of characters” and timeline of events at the beginning of the book are extremely helpful in following along with what occurred. As another reviewer mentioned, the author is “pro-defense” but, honestly, until the end I never felt like I was being pushed in one direction of the other. For the most part, the information was balanced and not overly biased for one side or the other. In fact, I think the author did quite well in restraining voicing an opinion so that the reader could assimilate the facts on their own and then make their own decision.
With the exception of going back and forth in time to better illustrate the story, the book moved forward at an expected pace allowing the reader to engage themselves as they so chose. I did not feel drawn to the writing like I have in so many other true crime works even though it was written with stunning detail. I think perhaps it is the balance of facts versus descriptions that seemed a bit off to me – in attempting to show us the beauty of the environ I was a reader was often drawn away from the crime itself. While this works to some degree, it also served to make this book easy to put down and, for many, once they put it down they may not bother to pick it back up. Not because it’s bad (far from it) but once that detachment from the plot of characters happens it’s often hard if not impossible to regain the reader’s attention.
ARC Galley Proof
The author’s research into this appears quite thorough and the “cast of characters” and timeline of events at the beginning of the book are extremely helpful in following along with what occurred. As another reviewer mentioned, the author is “pro-defense” but, honestly, until the end I never felt like I was being pushed in one direction of the other. For the most part, the information was balanced and not overly biased for one side or the other. In fact, I think the author did quite well in restraining voicing an opinion so that the reader could assimilate the facts on their own and then make their own decision.
With the exception of going back and forth in time to better illustrate the story, the book moved forward at an expected pace allowing the reader to engage themselves as they so chose. I did not feel drawn to the writing like I have in so many other true crime works even though it was written with stunning detail. I think perhaps it is the balance of facts versus descriptions that seemed a bit off to me – in attempting to show us the beauty of the environ I was a reader was often drawn away from the crime itself. While this works to some degree, it also served to make this book easy to put down and, for many, once they put it down they may not bother to pick it back up. Not because it’s bad (far from it) but once that detachment from the plot of characters happens it’s often hard if not impossible to regain the reader’s attention.
ARC Galley Proof