In Cold Blood in Read With Me!

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In Cold Blood

Truman Capote

Start date: December 1, 2024

Finish date: December 31, 2024

Discussion: December 2024

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December 2024

Where'd You Go, Bernadette
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The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic鈥攁nd How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
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Jan 18, 2024 Robin rated it liked it · review of another edition

so this is a true crime book which isnt usually in my preferred wheelhouse, but i have read a few other books that fall into that genre. plus, a couple of my friends are in another book club that focuses specifically on true crime and have both encouraged me to join it so i figured i would try to read a few books to participate. although truman capote is a famous writer of many books, this is my first read by him. i do have a background in journalism and i took both psychology and sociology in c so this is a true crime book which isnt usually in my preferred wheelhouse, but i have read a few other books that fall into that genre. plus, a couple of my friends are in another book club that focuses specifically on true crime and have both encouraged me to join it so i figured i would try to read a few books to participate. although truman capote is a famous writer of many books, this is my first read by him. i do have a background in journalism and i took both psychology and sociology in college so i do find some of these types of stories to be quite fascinating, though some of them are definitely too much. luckily this one didnt elaborate on that aspect aside from shooting/ hanging.

while this is nonfiction being that it is based on true events, the way it is told is interesting enough that i wanted to keep reading and didnt feel like i was watching the news or 20/20 or one of those types of shows. told from the perspectives of both murderers, the murdered family, many townsfolk, law enforcement, and of course the interviewers telling the story, there are definitely a lot of people to keep track of throughout this book, but it almost feels like you are there, part of all of it in the small town where it takes place. the victims seem to be a nice normal family that are well-liked by everyone, and it almost seems impossible to believe anything bad could happen in this quiet small town. but tragedy strikes, the family is killed, and everyone questions what motive the killers could possibly have had. apparently, the murderers thought that the family was wealthy with a safe on their land, so they thought it would be an easy score. however, much to their dismay, they learn there is barely any money on the property, so they go ballistic and kill everyone. blaming their actions on a crappy childhood or car accidents that did physical and emotional damage doesnt exactly justify things either. and even though one of the killers fought that they werent given a fair trial, given the horrific way the murders were committed it was hard not to side against them.

the only reason this book took me a full week to read is because this isnt exactly the kind of light reading you want before you go to sleep and i didnt have much reading time over the weekend so i basically just read this during my lunch hour on workdays. there are a lot of true crime stories i have heard about, but this isnt one i am familiar with being that it took place so long ago. even so, it was definitely worth reading this. ...more

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