Unsure how I feel about this one. On one hand, this book was propulsive and kept me reading, I thought the narration was good and the writing decent. On the other hand, I have conflicting feelings about if the point of this book was realized (i.e. focusing on the women harmed by a man and the criminal justice system). I feel like this story was at its core still a ~ true crime ~ story, aimed at sensationalizing through gory details and the defendant’s hijinks in the court. Especially because this is a true story, it’s seems a bit icky to be imagining final thoughts and intentions of real people who were harmed by this crime just to turn this around into a thriller-adjacent book. Is this a thoughtful book centering victims’ perspectives? Or is this just another voyeuristic rehash of trauma that continues to get us nowhere new?

The indictment of the criminal justice system and police was very weak, like it was mentioned but not really investigated in a meaningful way. I also found the dual POV and structure of it to be lack-luster, and the ending was a bit of a letdown. I don’t know, I feel like this is a very surface level “feminist” kind of book that doesn’t do much to unpack itself, I’m sure someone smarter than me could explain what I’m trying to say a bit better, but that’s how I am feeling!