Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell is obsessed with true crime. Born to later-in-life parents who had already raised a few kids, she grew up mainly in the company of adults, and listened in on the conversations where crimes in the news were often discussed around the table. Soon she was forming her own opinions and becoming hooked on the horrific crimes of the Zodiak and Ted Bundy.

In her graphic memoir, Campbell gives us the stories behind some of her favorite crimes and lists her favorite true crime books, documentaries, and podcasts. She looks deeper into her childhood and her family and the inherited obsession she has with the genre. Fully willing to admit it’s a strange obsession, Campbell looks at the psychology behind it and the reasoning behind why women find the genre so appealing.

This is a humorous memoir that works well in the graphic format! I enjoyed the black and white panels that reminded me of a vintage on-going newspaper strip. Weirdly relatable, this is a book that most any murderino is going to enjoy!

Thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Murder Book is scheduled for release on November 9, 2021.

This was a fun, introspective, thoughtful, and engaging graphic memoir of the author's love of (and grappling with her love of) true crime. I learned a new word ("muderino" a title of endearment for the hard core fans of true crime), learned a lot more about the night stalker and the zodiac killer, and thought a lot about the various arguments and reasons why people might love true crime (and why those fans are overwhelmingly women). The art is very loose and light, which doesn't always go with the subject mater, but it fits the author's boozy low key curious journey. Really enjoyed this.

I would like to thank Netgalley for the ARC!
When I first saw this book on Netgalley, I really thought this was going to be my cup of tea because I love true crime podcasts and Netflix shows and I love funny graphic novels. Spoiler alert: I didn't like it.
The idea is really great and original and the cartoons are well-drawn. Unfortunately, the book was quite boring. Half of it was the author talking about her mother and I just wasn't a fan. The description says this was supposed to be a funny book but somehow I couldn't manage to find anything that was even remotely funny. I'm truly disappointed because I loved the idea, but the result just isn't good, sorry.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read and review.

I am not sure how to describe what this book is. A graphic memoir? Nonfiction about murder and serial killers? Sort of comedy? All of the above. It's an exploration of why some women seem to be drawn to murder cases - in different forms (books, TV, movies, podcasts). The author shares her history of murder obsession and examines why and where she gains this obsession.

3.5 rounded up to 4!

I am not much into true crime, but it does sound interesting to me, and so I saw this book as the perfect opportunity to introduce myself into the 'true crime comunity'.

I liked this book and thought it was super interesting, especially the part about Ted Bundy; I could not stop reading. However, I also think it is a bit morbid to be so obsessed about people being murder, especially when it is not about fictional events, but real ones.

The handwritten font was a little bit hard to read at times, and I think the book could have been a bit shorter.

This felt a little too much about glorifying the killers for me and finding the humour in murder. There was a lot of information about serial killers and their crimes (and victims), backstory to the authors family and introduction to the world of true crime, but it just didn't sit quite right with me.

The pages are very busy and all formatted different which I really liked, but found difficult to read in an ebook format, especially as it's quite a long graphic memoir!

Sadly, not the book for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc of this book.
This was pure serotonin for my true crime loving self. The art, the experience of finding other people who love true crime. I had so much fun reading it!

Thanks to the publishers for sharing this one. As a true crime fan I could relate to it. I also liked the art style. My full review appears on Weekend Notes.

Murder Book is a graphic memoir by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell that explains her fascination with true crime. The book is mainly intended for other fans of true crime, but it can also explain the obsession to those who are not so inclined to follow true crime stories. Admittedly, I’m the latter. I’ve started reading (and enjoying) thrillers in recent years, so I figured that was enough reason to pick this book up.

For the author, this obsession truly began when she saw the movie Zodiac in theaters at the age of sixteen. She lived close to where the murders happened, and fixated on that for some time after. Campbell discusses proximity as one of the reasons people become interested in true crime.

Campbell also discusses Ted Bundy and Tom Capano at length, but even as someone who doesn’t consider myself a “murderino,” I felt like I knew quite a bit about these cases. It was still interesting to learn about how these cases influenced Campbell, so it’s possible that I’m missing the point.

I think the author’s section of the book on the racial disparities in true crime was well-intended, but it really missed the mark.

I liked the art style of this graphic novel because it felt somehow nostalgic to me. There were a few pages where it was difficult to follow the panels, so I had to reread them a couple of times to make sense of what was happening. It’s also much longer than most of the other graphic novels I’ve read, so I’m not completely sure I could recommend it to someone who is completely new to graphic novels.

I still think this graphic novel will interest people who are interested in true crime, whether they’ve been fans for years or are new to it. All of the cases that got more attention are well-known, though Campbell did her best to include some facts about the victims to shift the focus back to them.

I really like learning about true crime, but this book just fell flat for me. The author is a talented artist, but her storytelling abilities are lacking. Specifically, it felt all over the place, and jumped from topic to topic without a clear path.

Like many I became obsessed with all things murder after listening to the Serial podcast about Adnan Syed & Hae Min Lee, then along came Karen & Georgia with My Favorite Murder and I realised there was a whole world of people who shared the same obsession.

I've recently fallen in love with graphic novels so was really intrigued to see how the format would work with something so macabre and morbid. Hilary absolutely smashed it. There's a perfect balance of the fun, dark gallows humour that's often associated with true crime fans mixed with a real sensitivity for the victims mentioned. I really loved how Hilary concentrated on the individual victims and gave details about things such as their interests, she really showed the people beyond the crimes.

While being a memoir based on her own fascination with true crime and how it passed down through the generations, this graphic novel also takes a look at the reasons society (especially females) have developed this curiosity and compulsion to follow cases of such horrific murder.

Fun and light hearted while being fantastically dark and twisted. A must read for all murderinos and true crime aficionados.

Thank you to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for an advanced reading copy.

This book wasn't everything I'd hoped it be, but it wasn't bad either.

Everyone has their reasons for being into True Crime. This book touched loosely on what those reasons are. However, most of the book was the author telling rambly true crime stories. I could have especially done without her telling the whole Ted Bundy story, which most murderinos already know.

The book was LONG, and the pacing was off. It was so slow going.

There's also a blip where she mentions how the true crime community is inherently racist, but she doesn't get very far into it at all. While I'm glad she mentions it, she falls into the same trap that she's mentioning.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't particularly like it either.

Murder Book is a fun romp through one person's obsession with true crime. Why do serial killers fascinate us? Why are most true crime fans women? And HOW MANY people did Ted Bundy kill??? Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell explains it all with her lively illustrations and irreverent humor.

This was excellent!! A brief, fascinating tour through the true crime genre with all the laughs and a bit of memoir. Would definitely recommend for all my other murderinos out there! Or for anyone wondering why so many of us consume so much true crime.

REVIEW:

✨This is the perfect graphic novel for a True Crime lover, which is probably evident by the title and the synopsis, but it’s true! The author tries to answer the question of why women love true crime and how she became to love it herself.

✨Sprinkled with real-life true crime knowledge and true crime pop culture references, this was such a fun one to read through, especially since a lot of it was so familiar to me as someone who also has had an interest in true crime. But, not to the extent that most do. So I would say this is a perfect and quick read for someone who is a novice-level true crime buff.

✨I’ve seen a lot of less than complimentary reviews about the art style, though, and I want to say that this art style felt very familiar to me. Familiar in a comforting way, and I’m not an art critic, but I didn’t see anything wrong with it.

✨This one comes out this month and I encourage everyone to pick it up! Thank you ti NetGalley for the opportunity to read this before release!

I don't normally gravitate towards non-fiction, but I was very interested in reading a graphic memoir. This book did not disappoint! It was full of humor but I also learned quite a bit about true crime. It was very interesting seeing things from the author's perspective.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC!

I was really excited to read this graphic novel, but unfortunately I was very disappointed. At first, the flow of the story was very hard to follow. I often didn't know which panel to go next, so that was already a big no for me. I want to continue reading without having to figure out which part I have to read next. Besides, the narrative changes often, which made the flow of the story even worse.
The book also felt quite repetitive at one point.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC.

This graphic novel was not for me at all
The flow was off, I often couldn’t figure out the order in which to read the dialogue. But most of all I found this book to be wildly insensitive.

Interesting illustrations for very relatable content. I found the author's journey to becoming a true crime fan (for lack of a better word) very similar to my own. It was nice to feel seen while not feeling singled out for my interests.

This book was written/drawn for me. So spot on about all the aspects of true crime that I love. There were areas of text that felt manic reading them. I would like to be friends with Hilary. As she investigates all the reasons why she follows true crime, I found myself wondering the same. I love the bond the women of her family enjoy. Whether they are sharing details of some new crime, or making fun of one or the other for some crime faux pas. Great read!