For the past two years I have become obsessed with true crime shows. My TV is set to ID network.
Murder book is about me and all the women like me, who know every recent murder, or missing person case I the news.
The author, her sister, her mother, and every female friend sits around with wine or coffee and plays armchair detective. I see me and my girlfriends in her drawing, arguing over "is he guilty?", " think she's still alive?", and so seeing out loud why its so dang hard to just get a divorce!
Hillary Campbell hit it square on the head, with a blunt objected, as she explains why women are more fascinated with true crime them men.
I adore this graphic novel! Add it to your TBR list asap!
Thanks to @ netgalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Wasn't really a fan of the artwork, also I felt as if this was sort of glorifying murders? I am obsessed with True crime just like the nex person, but this was a bit much.

This book was okay -- it was actually interesting. To be completely honest, I wasn't amazed by the art, I kind of wished it was better. However, the theme of the book made up for it and it turned out to be an enjoyable read. Rating: 3/5 stars.

Wow! What a fun idea! I already have 3 people in mind this would make a great gift for who love true crime! This would be such a great coffee table book, gift, or conversation piece! Very creative and cool!

I finally found a book that answers some deep questions that I’ve had, like “am I wrong for being obsessed with true crime?”.
To be fair I do know that I’m not alone on this journey and apparently there is a lot of people thinking and enjoying this topic.
I loved the book, I laughed a lot while reading it, I related a lot to some thoughts, it was an overall very good time.

I laughed out loud several times during this book and it was actually a pretty funny and comical insight on the authors way of thinking and obsession when it comes to true crime. When I was reading it felt like I was being called out because I also love and adore true crime as much as this author does so I had a lot of fun. This was perfect for me really! 5 out of 5 stars!

This graphic novel is a memoir of the author's life-long love of true crime, which also tries to answer the question of why so many people are interested in the genre. She frames her discussion with recounting big true crime cases she can recall throughout her life, including well known ones like the zodiac killer and Ted Bundy. I liked these parts more than her discussions of her personal attachment to the genre, they felt more cohesive. I felt like the memoir was too stream of consciousness for me, the author jumps back and forth between cases and personal anecdotes too much and the way she's chosen to tell these stories (like telling them to the wait staff at various bars and restaurants she's sitting in) seemed like a weird attempt at humor that fell flat. That being said, I do think die-hard true crime fans will like this one, if only for how relatable the author makes her obsession seem.

I had an Advance Reader of this from NetGalley. I understand that memoir books are very personal and as such it's very hard to judge them as anything other than a very individual perspective, but this book tries to do too much. There is the memoir part of it, but there are also 2 other equal parts of the narrative. The first is a recounting of some true crime stories - unfortunately, most of these are rethreads of crimes we all know (even if you aren't into true crime you know who and what Ted Bundy is), the author touches on the fact that True Crime tends to glamourize the perp, and that the perps that tend to be glamourized are white and male, yet... well that's what she does too. Commenting on something while doing that same thing, is meta, sure, but not progressive. The second thing she's doing is trying to figure out WHY she (or women in general) are attracted to True Crime - unfortunately, here we fall into a lot of generalisms and repetitiveness. Blaming her mother, or generalizing on what women are or are not as a collective. Women are not (as much of anything that can have nuance) a monolith, and feeding into "positive" stereotypes of women as the empathetic gender or such seems counterproductive. I wish she had laser-focused on the memoir part of this. She could have talked about the crimes she talked about but much more about how SHE digested them and less about a beat by beat of the crimes (especially since we all know what the Zodiac Killer did!) The last problem I had with this book is that it was difficult to read. I am a pretty savvy comic and graphic works reader, and even I was stumped as to the reading flow of this graphic novel.. The panels were staggered in one way but when I read it according to the structure, I would quickly realize I had it wrong... This happened more than once. I think the author would do well to study graphic panel conventions so that the reading of her future works could flow better. The writing, however, was nice and the story was funny (although I wondered why there were so many scenes with the main character on the toilet!), It just took on way too much and as such lost the thing that it was meant to do which was tell a story of someone who for reasons of their own fell in love with a good murder story.

3.5 rounded up to a 4. The author is a very talented illustrator and storyteller and her illustrations were so fun.

I will say reading plenty of graphic novels I wish there had been more balance with the text and illustrations. I kept missing my place or where to read because of large amounts spanning all over the images.

If you do not have any idea on True Crime and the history behind the phenomena, this is the book for you. She breaks down the history of true crime and their enthusiasts and the reasons that they resonate so much with people.

I do wish that it had gone a little more streamlined. Like the history behind True Crime and then discussing the cases. Instead of going back and forth.

as someone who has been into true crime for a while now i was really interested to hear this take. i was especially interested in her dissection of why people like true crime and what makes it so appealing. i have never read a memoir in a graphic novel style so was very excited.

i found the experiences and personal anecdotes about liking true crime to be very relatable. it allowed me to kind of laugh at yet also question myself which i did enjoy. it was generally fun and lighthearted which feels contradictory but here we are. when she was talking about her and her families personal anecdotes it did begin to get a little bit repetitive after a while. i don't think it was necessary to deep dive into her and her families experiences too much. i would have preferred if it just provided context without spending too much time in it as i was looking more for hilary's perspective rather than the history. other than this, there were some lags in the story that kind of slowed the pace and weren't very necessary that i did find myself skimming.

i didn't expect there to be exploration into actual cases like ted bundy and the zodiac killer so that was a pleasant surprise. since it was in a graphic form i found it easy to understand and gather case details quickly. i appreciate how she remained respectful to victim by including their names, faces and what they liked. a thoughtful yet crucial touch.

additionally, the look into why women like true crime was very interesting and one of the parts i was most excited about. i found the look into systemic racism and the romanticisation of the 70s such good topics to include. she really brought a perspective with depth and nuance which i appreciated.

at some points the way murder was discussed did feel a little bit conflicting. for example, 'i want to get murdered'. it was a bit weird for lack of a better word. also, something that did bug me at the end was when the joke 'a dingo ate my baby' was used. adopting this as a joke has always rubbed me the wrong way as an australian. since, it was such a devastating and shocking case of something that actually happened which has been taken out of context to be used as a punchline.

i would rate this a 3.5 but will be rounding up on NetGalley since i think that it would definitely appeal to a wide audience who would get a lot of out of it.

Really enjoyed this ode to true crime. I normally don't enjoy graphic novels, but this one was my speed.

soo .. i love comics and i love murder and true crime and all that jazz. At bits I loved it but overall it was not my favorite read.

Firstly, thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. This is quite a fun book to read revolves around the obsession of true crimes. There are plenty visually interesting graphic and information provided here was a joy to read. Although, it can be quite cluttered and messy so making it a bit hard to read but overall, its an interesting read. For someone who loves true crimes, i can relate so much to the author's obsession and its always fun to see the true crimes in here explored in more details.

5 *stars*

I wish my mom was obsessed with thriller and murder mysteries as I am. That would made our connection stronger. Hilary you are really lucky to have your mother. That bond with your mom is so good especially when you have something in common: CRIME OBSESSION for an example!

My thoughts:
It was really funny and easy to read. (I must say it was quite hard to read it from a phone) After reading this graphic novel I think I will pick up some of the mentioned books and read those myself. I have heard something about those cases, but at that time I was too scared and I clearly haven't found my passion for murder/mystery books. ha ha :D The plane part was so good. I was laughing when she went to bathroom and reminded to not sit on the toilet when peeing. I do the same in public bathrooms. :D

I haven't thought about why I like murder/ thriller mysteries. It was interesting to read your thoughts about it.
Thank you for the graphic novel!
You both are happy to have each other!

#MurderBook #NetGalley

General Impressions

This was another book requested because of the shambles my Goodreads Reading Challenge has become and because true crime entertainment is so ingrained in our culture that I was curious about what I might learn about the phenomenon.

This was by no means an unforgettable book but I did find it interesting if nothing more because I liked the rambling style the narrator employed and to learn about famous serial killers and crimes from her. I would learn about every crime from her.

The negative part of me was that this was very difficult to read: the entire book was drawn in a cartoonish style that can be very hard on your eyes and is not the most digital-friendly.

Conclusions

This is as good as it is because the passion and knowledge the author has for this subject seep from every page. Not only is she talking about something that matters to her but that matters to a lot of people we know so she takes the reader on a journey as to why.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for this DRC.

Rating: 3/5

It may seem a bit weird to call a book about murder a “fun and light read”, but it really was!

Murder Book is a non-fiction graphic novel about the writer’s obsession with true crime. We learn more about some famous murder cases and how Hilary’s specific interest in serial killers came to be.

My favourite parts were the “story times” about the specific killers. They were told in a light and funny way while also remaining respectful to the victims.

After a while, it did start turning into more and more of the same and I have to admit I started skipping some pages to get to the more “exciting” bits .

This is such a niche book that most readers will probably already know serial killer stories like Ted Bundy and The Zodiac Killer. Though it is nice to learn how hearing these stories influenced Hilary personally and to wonder if it may have influenced us in the same way.

If you’re into true crime and graphic novels, this is a MUST READ! Murder Book is coming out November 9th so definitely keep an eye out for that!

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me this ARC!

This was fairly enjoyable. I did feel as though it was a little longer than it needed to be but it did give me a few good chuckles.

Now, I'm not much of a true crime reader. Let's get that out of the way. Because if you're into that kind of thing, you'll likely love this book. because you will be able to relate. Me, not so much. I find the genre exploitative and of questionable taste; to go and turn the very worst experience someone can have (and I mean the victims as well as their families, friends, colleagues, neighbors, anyone who suffers the fallout of the actual deed) into entertainment fodder (because let's face it, nobody reads this stuff for scholarly purposes) and, by extention, into nice hard cash for themselves... nah. Not. My. Thing.
But this autobiographical (!) graphic novel sounded like, um, not *fun* exactly, but maybe the author might take a similar approach to herself and her outlook on things as Alison Bechdel did with "Fun Home"? Like, turn a sharp eye on why we are the way we are and why we do things and find a lot of absurdity and heartbreak and humor along the way?
Yeah, well, I guess that joke was on me. Because this book is on True Crime, and how fun and fascinating it is in all its shapes and sizes, and what a cool and crazy chick the author is for loving it. I think "oh dear" sums it up pretty nicely.
In fact, about half of the book is spent on cataloguing the author's idiosyncrasies -- that she loves the 1970s and has loads of obsolete technology in her apartment; that she was a precocious "old soul" type of kid who watched "The First Wives Club" on opening day, when she was, apparently, five years old; and, unsurprisingly, that she can't tell a story. It looks like she did some stand-up comedy as well, with laugh-out-loud lines like "Hope to be murdered someday!", which struck me as something only a truly vapid person would say or even just consider funny. (That same less-than-juvenile kind of humor shows up again in the section dealing with the Zodiac, where she inserts herself into the action with the types of funny questions and quips and asides that would make an 8-year-old groan. God help us.)

As for actual True Crime, we get the usual suspects -- the Zodiac, Ted "Enough Already" Bundy -- as well as, for some reason, Tom Capano and that wife-and-unborn-baby killer Scott Peterson; I'd be tempted to skip over this whole section, because it really brings nothing new to the table, were it not for some misplaced righteousness, or may I even say hypocrisy. Because the author quite correctly points out that it's the white serial killers that get all the love, while you can literally kill 60 people (Wikipedia lists an even higher number) and not enter public lore just because you're a POC, which really is totally unfair and everything. Which in itself is quite an, er, interesting line of thought, I guess, but does the author anything to "rectify" this injustice? Does she hell. We get a little side panel showing the mugs of six Black serial killers, *and* one tiny mention of the Night Stalker as well as some fairly lame lip service as to how media coverage of violent crime is historically racist, but Ms. Campbell herself is covering only white perps and victims, so moaning about lack of representation feels a bit icky.
Which brings me to my main issue with "Murder Book".
The way the author talks about the victims is for the most part as callous as it is puerile. Take for example the panel that ticked me off the most, on page 48, which shows David Farraday and Betty Lou Jensen, the Zodiac's supposed first victims, leaving the burger place where they just had their first (and final) date with this happy exchange: "Where next!?" "Our untimely demise!" Just in case you're a bit fuzzy on the details, these are two kids, 16 and 17 years old respectively, real-life teens who died a brutal, senseless death, terrified and in pain and alone; an act that shattered their families and traumatized their friends to this day. There are people out there who still miss these kids. So yeah, let's please joke about it. Show the world how super quirky you are.
This display of utter callousness is then followed by a hypocritical spread on how it's really "all about the victims" for the author and "what lovely young kids these two were", which actually made me puke in my mouth a little. Because, you know, actually it's *not* about these or other lovely murder victims (it never is, to be fair; it's just the way this whole genre works -- the victims are just the fuel that keeps the sensationalist machine that is True Crime running), it's mostly about how endearingly weird and quirky and flat-out fascinating-in-that-bumbling-cutesy-dumb-way the author is, and it's just as "ugh" as it sounds. Also, it's about her family, mainly her mom. Who is also into true crime. So if you're interested in two not overly interesting women talking about other people's tragedies like it's some sort of competition set up for their amusement, well, here you go. Along the way, lots of wine gets drunk (on ice cubes -- WTF) and passes made at unsuspecting guys in bars; there's some bonding over shared True Crime passion and lots and lots of toilet sessions, as the artist seems to have a weird obsession with drawing herself on the bowl. (All that watered-down wine, I presume.)

On the technical side, I was not impressed with the artwork. That kind of style probably works fine for a New Yorker cartoon, but at 330+ pages I found it fairly unfriendly on the eyes. Same goes for the lettering, which is truly atrocious. There are some attempts at true-to-life drawing (most of the victims as well as, strangely, Jake Gyllenhaal, Dick Wolf and the cast of Law & Order), none of which do their subject any justice at all; their only purpose seems to be to show up the artist's limitations, at which they admittedly succeed well. Ever scribbled a face in your notebook with your ballpoint pen instead of paying attention to algebra? Yup, that's the skill level I'm talking about. Just try and put names to those celebrity portraits; I dare you.

All in all, this was fairly disappointing. I would have liked some exploration on a personal level into what it is that intrigues so many readers, the vast majority of them female, about depictions of real-life violence against women, and how they justify (even just to themselves) supporting that blatant exploitation of other people's tragedies and pain for their own entertainment. It's obvious that something about the idea of women meeting brutal ends at the hands of men and the feeling that in our society, this could happen at any time, in any place, to anyone, deeply resonates with the author, who claims to consume nothing but True Crime; unfortunately, she never explores those deeply subjective, personal issues in any depth, instead going for stupid jokes and over-the-top antics, completely devaluing her concerns in the process. Behind all the not-funny banter and me-so-crazy deflection, there is another, deeply personal story we only catch fleeting glimpses of -- Ms. Campbell, in passing, mentions eating disorders, body issues, unhealthy relationships, and general, therapy-level anxiety. Add to this her obsession with violent death, and you have a woman who clearly has much more to tell than she does in "Murder Book"... once she feels like shedding her clown costume and finds the courage to step out into the open.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an ARC of "Murder Book" in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this graphic novel! It was everything I was hoping for and more from the description. The cartoons made me laugh at times and I really related to the author. I loved how each page was arranged differently. I will be doing a blog post for this book so when I do I will come back with a link.

I’ve spent so much time watching, reading and listening to all things true crime and I’ve wondered at times if my interest is too weird, too morbid or too much. I love that Hilary shares my obsession.

In this graphic memoir, Hilary traces her true crime obsession, from members of her family whose obsessions sparked her own to the movies, books, TV shows and podcasts that kept the flame burning.

David Fincher’s Zodiac had a huge impact on Hilary, in part because she lived so close to some of the crime scenes. True crime even got her back into reading as an adult, first with Robert Graysmith’s Zodiac and then anything by Ann Rule.

Hilary considers why the majority of people who watch, read and otherwise devour true crime are women. She also tracks how the types of true crime that have been written about have changed throughout the decades.

Although this is a memoir, Hilary also explores some crimes that hold special significance to her, including the murder of Anne Marie Fahey and the murders committed by Ted Bundy. I never expected to see true crime explored in a graphic novel, but it worked.

The victims of crime are often practically invisible in their own stories but there was a focus on them here. I especially appreciated learning what their interests were. For example, Betty Lou Jensen liked art, school, studying and fashion.

“I know I like to joke, but in all seriousness, a large part of the reason I love true crime is the hope of justice for the victims.”

Of course, all of this talk about what started Hilary’s obsession got me thinking about my own. I think I can blame my Nan for planting the seed. Her father was the superintendent of ambulances in our state when she was growing up and he had plenty of medical books showing graphic injuries in the home. My Nan grew up reading these gruesome accounts. I grew up listening in awe as Nan regaled me with the stories in those books, always describing the accompanying pictures in detail.

When I was sixteen, the older sister of one of my childhood friends was murdered. She grew up around the corner from me and I had sleepovers at their house when I was a kid. The police officer who lived down the road from me told me more about the crime and subsequent investigation than they probably should have. Obviously I followed the case as it went to trial and the media appearances by her family over the years.

My obsession really took off at university, though. My favourite assessment was when my psychology class was given a murder scenario. Our task was to profile the murderer. I loved trying to get inside the mind of the perpetrator.

This assessment led me to John Douglas books, which only fuelled my obsession. I wanted to be a criminal profiler years before Criminal Minds premiered. Naturally, I was obsessed with that show (especially with Reid).

It’s only been recently that I’ve come across someone who shares my love of true crime and I personally blame them for my latest true crime obsession: Crime Junkie.

Within a few short months, I’ve devoured dozens of episodes. I always knew but now I’ve had it drilled into me that it’s never a mannequin. I now answer “And I’m Brit” at the beginning of each episode. “Be weird. Be rude. Stay alive.” has become a new mantra.

If you’re a true crime junkie, you will find a kindred spirit in Hilary. If you know someone who loves true crime but you just don’t get the fascination, this graphic novel may help you understand what it’s all about.

There’s a lot more text in this graphic novel than most I have previously read. I had difficulty figuring out which order I should be reading panels on some pages but the majority of them were easy to follow. I enjoyed the artwork.

There’s humour, like this all too accurate description of movies that are ‘based on true stories’.

“It’s the DRAMATIC, SEXY version of a REALLY HORRIBLE situation that you would never find sexy if it happened to YOU!”

It’s relatable. Hilary’s ability to love true crime, Disney, horror movies and Peanuts simultaneously mirrors my own strangely contradictory loves.

It’s a graphic novel I definitely want to reread.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.