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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Savage Appetites: True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 13 reviews on
A "necessary and brilliant" (NPR) exploration of our cultural fascination with true crime told through four "enthralling" (The New York Times Book Review) narratives of obsession. In Savage Appetites, Rachel Monroe links four criminal roles--Detective, Victim, Defender, and Killer--to four true stories about women driven by obsession. From a frustrated and brilliant heiress crafting crime-scene dollhouses to a young woman who became part of a Manson victim's family, from a landscape architect in love with a convicted murderer to a Columbine fangirl who planned her own mass shooting, these women are alternately mesmerizing, horrifying, and sympathetic. A revealing study of women's complicated relationship with true crime and the fear and desire it can inspire, together these stories provide a window into why many women are drawn to crime narratives--even as they also recoil from them. Monroe uses these four cases to trace the history of American crime through the growth of forensic science, the evolving role of victims, the Satanic Panic, the rise of online detectives, and the long shadow of the Columbine shooting. Combining personal narrative, reportage, and a sociological examination of violence and media in the 20th and 21st centuries, Savage Appetites is a "corrective to the genre it interrogates" (The New Statesman), scrupulously exploring empathy, justice, and the persistent appeal of crime.
Book Details
- Publisher: Scribner Book Company
- Publish Date: Jul 7th, 2020
- Pages: 288
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.30in - 5.40in - 0.80in - 0.50lb
- EAN: 9781501188893
- Categories: • Murder - General• Criminology
About the Author
Monroe, Rachel: - Rachel Monroe is a writer and volunteer firefighter living in Marfa, Texas. Her work has appeared in The Best American Travel Writing 2018, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere.
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
"Enthralling ... Monroe zeroes in on the aftermath of murder, on the morbid curiosity that draws eager civilians toward the crime scene and catapults them into starring roles. She avoids the formulaic professional tropes of true crime...Monroe has a knack for nosing a new story out of an old one, like a detective casting fresh eyes on a cold case." -The New York Times Book Review "[it] goes deeper than just recounting the details of various crimes, but looks more closely at what, exactly, makes true crime such a fascination for women" -Politico "Necessary and brilliant...Monroe treats each individual narrative with nuance, empathy and transparency, allowing both the protagonists and their supporting cast to remain complex. She delves into the social and political ramifications of each narrative, making accessible and visible what so often gets overlooked in these stories because it's too complicated to put into a headline or summary. Monroe's book is a pleasure to read because it is smart, well-researched and well-written...But more than that, Savage Appetites is important because it refuses to sit inside binaries of good vs. evil, victim vs. perpetrator, innocent victim vs. mastermind criminal. It doesn't give us easy answers for why women are the main consumers of true crime narratives, because there aren't any because women as a category are not monolith and because it's complicated and nuanced and different for everyone. The book is important also because I suspect there are more than a few of us who, like Monroe herself, feel conflicted about their desire to consume stories of murder and mayhem and wonder what it reflects about the world around us and ourselves." -NPR "Monroe resists the need to sweep all of her material into a single, tidy narrative. Her prose-consistently lyrical and probing-does a lot of the work towards making it feel cohesive...In allowing for messiness-narrative as well as moral-her book is a corrective to the genre it interrogates." -The New Statesman Savage Appetites is required reading for those who understand that women aren't just reading true crime to protect ourselves-we're investigating cold cases, getting close to the families of victims, leveraging power to get men to embrace the validity of our "hobbies," and much more. -CrimeReads "An illuminating exploration rooted in a convincing thesis, and even the most dedicated true crime reader will find something new within it to enjoy." -Buzzfeed, 29 Amazing Books Coming Out This Summer "Monroe has written a brilliant book where cultural criticism meets sociological survey in a methodical examination of just what it is about murder that obsesses us." -Esquire, Best Books of Summer 2019 "Rachel Monroe's searching essay collection asks all the right questions, and even better, doesn't attempt to answer them (or at least, not completely). Why do women love true crime, the introduction asks, and posits several likely theories; each following essay takes us into the idiosyncratic existence of a woman and her obsessions, from Francis Glessner's tiny crime scenes and love of forensic science, to Lorri Davis' decades-long quest to free a wrongfully convicted man who later became her husband. Unsettling, brilliant, and impossible to put down!" -Lit Hub, Most Anticipated Books of 2019 "I usually stick to fiction, but one standout nonfiction read was journalist Rachel Monroe's forthcoming Savage Appetites, which looks at the connection between women and the mania for true crime. My favorite section was about Frances Lee, an upper-class Boston spinster whose foremost obsession was creating dollhouse-proportioned murder scenes that she called her 'nutshells.'" -Lauren Mechling, Los Angeles Times "Savage Appetites is a chilling, compelling examination of the darkness in us all. This is obviously a book for true-crime fans, as well as anyone interested in human nature. A powerful, well-researched inquiry into why we find violent crime so fascinating...