Savage Appetites

Four True Stories of Women, Crime and Obsession

De: Rachel Monroe

Narrado por: Jayme Mattler

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.

©2019 Bright Bell LLC. All rights reserved. (P)2019 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Rambling and Repetitive

I was really disappointed that this book has little substance and a lot of filler. I thought the information of the Nutshell Miniatures was the only interesting part of the book. The profiles of the other women just seemed superficial.

Thoughtful

This book deeply engages with something we think about too much and not enough. These stories permeate our culture and we don’t interrogate what that means and what impact it has in the way we should. I was worried it would be sensational or glamorize interest in violence. It isn’t and it doesn’t.

A bit disappointed..

The book starts off strong but it seemed as if she should have developed her ideas more before publishing. I almost felt as if this was more of an excellent draft than a complete piece. It ends on a very unsatisfying note, as well. It seems like a hastily wrapped up ending.

SPOILER ALERT: The main problem with this book is that she spend way too little time going into the psychological dynamics at work when discussing how these women are identifying / relating to true crime. The story that she does this the best is the last one but the point that could be made with that case is marred by her overlong attention to the details in the letters between her and her accomplice (you don’t even find out what she thought after her boyfriend killed himself and their plot was stopped).

Another weak point: the author spends large sections of the book including things that, though very interesting, are never quite related back towards the main points of the chapter.

She introduces an excellent point, such as women getting into true crime so they feel they can be in control of frightening feelings of victim-hood...but then doesn’t really explore that in detail. She talks about women identifying with violent men as a way to work out their own vengeful feeling via proxy...but then doesn’t really develop that enough either.
Also, the “experiment” she talks about in the end sounds like bullshit. If anything, I would expect the women to try something in which they turn the tables. Otherwise, it sounds like taking a self-defense class in which you only get the crap kicked out of you but never learn how to defend yourself.

I wanted her to spend a little more time equating what the (mostly) white, middle-class and above young men from “good” families with women who also came from a similar background have in common. All of these women have something in common with their male counterparts.

Excellent for the true crime obsessed

I really enjoyed this. The readers voice fit perfectly with the story and was never distracting (this is often a turn off for me). I appreciated the self aware approach to the true crime phenomenon without condescension.
Rachel Monroe did such an incredible job researching these characters. People I was previously familiar with took on so much more depth and dimension. Well done!

Not what I expected

I thought that this book was going to be more about the obsession of true crime with some people. In a sense, it is, but not really. It’s more like 4(?) different stories that talks about certain cases that an individual was involved with. If that’s what you were expecting, you might enjoy this book. I was looking for a more broad, researched book about the underlying reason why people were obsessed with true crime.

Wow

This book left me with alot to unpack, as far as how I feel about it.. It touches a bit on the darker side of when interest in true crime crosses that somewhat tenuous line into obsession. The last case titled, The Killer, was a particularly unsettling section to listen to. I do feel Munroe caught something here worth reading, it's fascinating and at times disturbing.

An Excellent, Empathetic Dive into Obsession

Monroe does a great job telling the story of our obsession with true crime though four well-researched stories. A template for writers and researchers looking to reckon with murder, mass shootings, and the like.

I was in a reading rut and this book got me out of it

The narration was simply perfect and the content was everything I like (true crime, research, and Damien Echols).

That Stephen King is a damn liar, Man.

I came to find this book through a recommendation by Stephen King. Naturally, I expect his recommendation to lead me to something compelling and creepy. Nope. Not this time. Turns out this is a boring listen, filled with the author's own experiences and obsession with crimes depicted in miniature models. I admit, I can see how (at the time) the models would be helpful for detective training, but it's hardly worth an entire book.

Boring, long and drawn out

I would return this title if I could...but Audible will not allow it. This book misses the mark and never quite gets to the main point. Rather this story is rambling and repetitive with very little substance. Save your money/points. No wonder it was discounted.