natreviews's reviews
420 reviews

I really liked the cases in this novel. I found them all well written and informative. I did skip two chapters on cases I already knew really well and didn't need to read about (one was the Somerton Man, and I can't remember the other at the moment). Overall, a really good read!

After reading up to Chapter 5, the writing and subject matter isn't really my cup of tea

I have been fascinated by cults, so once I stumbled upon this book, I knew I wanted to buy it and read it. Took a while, but after reading I can say that this is a good one. It takes a look into the language that cults and not-cults-but-culty-things use and how they can influence us.

It ranges a broad stroke of topics from well known cults to MLM's (multi-level marketing, I always think of men loving men when I hear MLM) to fitness to social media. When reading this, I could totally see cultish language in my old workplace and finally made sense why I was rubbed the wrong way by some of the language they used.

I highly recommend for anyone interested in how cults use language to manipulate, or really how companies can use cultish language to influence you, to read this book!

So this was not what I was expecting. This focused a lot on Buddhist teachings and less on ghosts and mythology. I think there was really only 2 or 3 stories that focused on mythology and ghost stories. Which isn't bad, just wasn't what the book was advertised to be. 

I also found it hard to relate to the book. There is such a big culture and language difference that a lot of the stories were hard to follow, half because I didn't have the cultural context needed, the other half because the translation I think missed some of the cultural context and refused to explain it past the most basic description.

There was also a TON of editing mistakes. From grammar to spelling to a sentence that wasn't supposed to be in an information section pasted in for no reason. I have a feeling this book was thrown together and not looked over as these mistakes would've been easy to recognize.

Just not the right time

Im already in a depressive episode, so maybe not the right time for this book. 

So this book has a really good start. I liked the characters and their motivations (well, except for William, obviously). Where it got knocked off a star was for two reasons. First, there were two times where a character did something, and then it magically didn't happen. For example, Mattie puts down a loaf of bread on the table, just for two paragraphs later having the loaf back in her hands and having her put it down again. I get really annoyed when this happens and makes me wonder why the editor didn't pick up on it. It also happened a second time! Like... what? The second reason for the star removed is because the ending was rushed and cliché. 

I did like the creature though, and it reminded me of the monster in The Ritual.

After this most recent shooting, I kindof need to not read this right now

I got this book from the Night Worms October 2022 box, and let me tell you, it is worth the read.

I remember reading Adam's other book The Ritual, and I really hoped that it wouldn't end on the same note (I found the second half of the book not as great as the first half), but I am so happy to report that this isn't the case!

If you liked the movies The Wicker Man or Midsommar, I highly recommend this book. I think it will also make an interesting re-read to see how much I can pick up that gets revealed in the end.

So this book really shouldn't be apart of the Conversations with a Killer series. I've now read 2/3 currently published, and this one is very different from the first. It seems both the first (Ted Bundy) and the second (Charles Manson) are written by people who actually interacted with them, rather than getting second and third hand accounts as this book does. It really throws off the tone of the series, and diminishes why these books are apart of the series in the first place.

I also found it had a weird stance. See, when reading true crime, a lot of books tend to be neutral in their feelings towards the killer. Like, we all agree what they did was horrible and awful, but you're reading this book so you know that already. Well, this one seems the need to interject all the time how horrible he is and how you should know this because you, dear reader, have never even heard of true crime before!

It also seems very victim forward. It totes on diving into the victims lives, but when you look at it, it really doesn't. Just the simple 2 page write about about who the victims were and what they did before they got murdered. 

Another thing is how dismissive it was about the original diagnosis Ed got. See, they kind of jab about how the original psychiatrist were throwing every diagnosis onto him, and how a diagnosis can't rationalize what he did (which I'm of the opinion that it can rationalize and explain why a killer does what they do, but isn't an excuse). Meanwhile, a little later into the book, they constantly bring up how Ed's bipolar, which I don't think was one of the diagnosis that he got (at least of what was mentioned in the book).

I'd recommend skipping this one and listening to an episode on Ed from your favourite true crime podcast.