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juushikaMorbid nonfiction on audio: a collection.
There's two reasons people hate on true crime, united by the throughline of "women consume this": 1) The Ann Rule problem, these pulpy paperbacks that are easy to obtain and women/the masses like them, so they must be garbage. The Stranger Beside Me was my first Rule, and is really just so good, so nuanced, so thoughtful; it contextualized and dismissed that criticism for me. 2) The My Favorite Murder problem, where the obsessive soundbiting of true crime builds a mentality of proto-/assumed-victimhood while erasing/fetishizing the lived experience of actual victims. I binged a good bit of that same podcast while replaying Breath of the Wild and ... with copious caveats, these criticisms are more valid. Valid enough to encourage me back towards more diverse, less strictly-true-crime morbid nonfiction reading. Still on audio, though, this time to listen to while playing Animal Crossing!
Title: The Stranger Beside Me
Author: Ann Rule
Narrator: Lorelei King
Published: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2012
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 379,345
Text Number: 1413
Read Because: came up a few times on My Favorite Murder and it's been on the longlist of my TBR for an age, but I couldn't find a copy until: audiobook borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library! the Portland library only has the abridged version (3 hours! versus 18:30!)
Review: Rule had the unique and unenviable position of writing about Ted Bundy's crimes and trials from the position of his friend. It's perforce a study of serial killer pathology, of Bundy as a complete person: his youthful insecurities, his capacity to grow and adapt, his friendship, his fundamental need to kill, the parts of him which were to Rule inaccessible—explicating but refusing to idealize the personality capable of this sort of compartmentalization and manipulation.
An ex-cop working with police contacts, Rule has a more of an agenda re: the justice system than most of the true crime I've read lately; an agenda unconsciously complicated by her familiarity with prison and with Bundy-as-complete person. Her growing belief in Bundy's guilt doesn't make prison any less claustrophobic; it doesn't make his death sentence a lesser waste of money or human life. This is a long read, with significant autobiographical detail and multiple addendums that follow Bundy post-conviction. But it's worth buckling in for the long haul for thoroughness and insight.
That said, I live in the Pacific North West & the audiobook narrator pronounces Willamette wrong. Petty, yes; do most non-Oregonians pronounce it wrong, also yes. But it makes me wonder how often placenames in audiobooks are butchered & I just don't recognize it.
Title: Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction
Author: Grady Hendrix
Narrator: Timothy Andrés Pabon
Published: Blackstone Audio, 2018
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 255
Total Page Count: 380,420
Text Number: 1427
Read Because: horror genre criticism counts as morbid nonfiction to listen to while gaming; audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Absolute chaos, and as a result a breezy, speedy read. This makes no attempt to differentiate quality (although an appendix offers a more selective list of recommendations) and focuses instead on the delight and, well, the value of shock value. There's a lot of plot summaries; the arguments re: genre influences and trends are facile but convincing. Cover art is a big part of the discussion, so the audiobook is perforce incomplete; but I didn't care enough to seek out missing images, which is indicative of my overall response. I learned a little, maybe even thought a little ... but mostly learned that I hate Hendrix's humor.
Title: Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And Other Questions about Dead Bodies
Author and narrator: Caitlin Doughty
Published: Recorded Books, 2019
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 230
Total Page Count: 380,300
Text Number: 1430
Read Because: fan of the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: I found the audio of this is a little forced, which is a pity—I know & love Doughty first from YouTube; she can read from a script! But on the whole, a fine reading and a fine book: cute, short, engaging tidbits, but honest and informative; well-targeted at but not limited to a young audience; I knew all this already, but would happily recommend it as an introductory text.
There's two reasons people hate on true crime, united by the throughline of "women consume this": 1) The Ann Rule problem, these pulpy paperbacks that are easy to obtain and women/the masses like them, so they must be garbage. The Stranger Beside Me was my first Rule, and is really just so good, so nuanced, so thoughtful; it contextualized and dismissed that criticism for me. 2) The My Favorite Murder problem, where the obsessive soundbiting of true crime builds a mentality of proto-/assumed-victimhood while erasing/fetishizing the lived experience of actual victims. I binged a good bit of that same podcast while replaying Breath of the Wild and ... with copious caveats, these criticisms are more valid. Valid enough to encourage me back towards more diverse, less strictly-true-crime morbid nonfiction reading. Still on audio, though, this time to listen to while playing Animal Crossing!
Title: The Stranger Beside Me
Author: Ann Rule
Narrator: Lorelei King
Published: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2012
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 379,345
Text Number: 1413
Read Because: came up a few times on My Favorite Murder and it's been on the longlist of my TBR for an age, but I couldn't find a copy until: audiobook borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library! the Portland library only has the abridged version (3 hours! versus 18:30!)
Review: Rule had the unique and unenviable position of writing about Ted Bundy's crimes and trials from the position of his friend. It's perforce a study of serial killer pathology, of Bundy as a complete person: his youthful insecurities, his capacity to grow and adapt, his friendship, his fundamental need to kill, the parts of him which were to Rule inaccessible—explicating but refusing to idealize the personality capable of this sort of compartmentalization and manipulation.
An ex-cop working with police contacts, Rule has a more of an agenda re: the justice system than most of the true crime I've read lately; an agenda unconsciously complicated by her familiarity with prison and with Bundy-as-complete person. Her growing belief in Bundy's guilt doesn't make prison any less claustrophobic; it doesn't make his death sentence a lesser waste of money or human life. This is a long read, with significant autobiographical detail and multiple addendums that follow Bundy post-conviction. But it's worth buckling in for the long haul for thoroughness and insight.
That said, I live in the Pacific North West & the audiobook narrator pronounces Willamette wrong. Petty, yes; do most non-Oregonians pronounce it wrong, also yes. But it makes me wonder how often placenames in audiobooks are butchered & I just don't recognize it.
Title: Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction
Author: Grady Hendrix
Narrator: Timothy Andrés Pabon
Published: Blackstone Audio, 2018
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 255
Total Page Count: 380,420
Text Number: 1427
Read Because: horror genre criticism counts as morbid nonfiction to listen to while gaming; audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Absolute chaos, and as a result a breezy, speedy read. This makes no attempt to differentiate quality (although an appendix offers a more selective list of recommendations) and focuses instead on the delight and, well, the value of shock value. There's a lot of plot summaries; the arguments re: genre influences and trends are facile but convincing. Cover art is a big part of the discussion, so the audiobook is perforce incomplete; but I didn't care enough to seek out missing images, which is indicative of my overall response. I learned a little, maybe even thought a little ... but mostly learned that I hate Hendrix's humor.
Title: Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And Other Questions about Dead Bodies
Author and narrator: Caitlin Doughty
Published: Recorded Books, 2019
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 230
Total Page Count: 380,300
Text Number: 1430
Read Because: fan of the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: I found the audio of this is a little forced, which is a pity—I know & love Doughty first from YouTube; she can read from a script! But on the whole, a fine reading and a fine book: cute, short, engaging tidbits, but honest and informative; well-targeted at but not limited to a young audience; I knew all this already, but would happily recommend it as an introductory text.
