Like other reviewers, I had difficulty finishing this book due to the writing style. I wanted to learn more about Samuel Little and his victims, but portions of this book felt more like fiction versus true crime.

I was completely riveted when I started this book, but to be honest my interest waned as it went on. I appreciated that author Jillian Lauren shared the victims' stories -- most being told for the first time -- and her writing is very interesting to get lost in. However, as far as true crime nonfiction goes, this work leaned a lot more towards literary nonfiction than true crime. I felt the author took a lot of liberties in her writing, including victims' supposed thoughts and feelings as they met their tragic ends. To me, that just felt "off". I would have been more interested in hearing about the victims through the people who knew them, or even diary entries, letters, etc., than the author crafting scenes where she pretends to know what the victims were feeling, thinking, or experiencing as Little took their lives. The book also jumps around quite a bit, in my opinion, which made it more difficult for me to follow.

**Thank you, NetGalley and publishers, for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.**

A very interesting case and thanks to this book I have done more of a deep dive. I love True Crime it gives us so much more than we would get from even an episode of Dateline

I don’t mind when people write books about serial killers or famous criminals. I don’t mind when authors insert themselves into nonfiction or journalistic narratives. But I mind when it feels like the author is more interested in sensationalizing murder rather than offering a voice to victims. That’s the case for me here. The way that the author re-enacts situations with details she couldn’t possibly know, and recreating scenes with details that I’m certain she must have gotten from Little, but only serve to create a lurid story, make this incredibly disturbing and disrespectful to me. I did not feel like I learned about the victims or even about Little’s pathology. I felt like I learned a lot about the author.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up !
I love how this book started with an animated map entitled “Sam Little’s USA”. It was even more horrifying to see his crime spree visually!

I love that the author expressed in the beginning that it is impossible to know the victim’s thoughts and she tried the best she can to give them a voice with her creative liberties. I can’t stand when authors add in fictionalized commentary from the victims in true crime novels and don’t address it from the start.

This novel does jump around quite a bit in the timelines, but I found it surprisingly easy to follow. Jillian does a great job of truly putting you inside his head. This novel almost reads like fiction because of how well Sam Little was actualized and this is why I found it so captivating. I particularly loved the chapters on the Mansfield Reformatory as I have been there!!Also, the chapter on everyday sadism was fascinating and my favorite of the book.

As captivating as it was, I did at times find my mind wandering and that is why I didn’t give it more stars. I think part of this is because of how heavy the content is and partly because of how repetitive it could be. That is not the author’s fault- as his crimes followed very similar patterns over and over. I also found chapter 20 “Marianne” a little confusing. This victim was transgender and as a result the author wove in both her names (Marianne & Curtis) and found myself getting confused.

Overall a solid true crime read that is very informative on the atrocious crimes of Sam Little. Needless to say - I will never look at a neck the same again.

📖 ʜᴜɢᴇ ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛᴏ @sourcebooks ᴀɴᴅ @netgalley ғᴏʀ ᴛʜɪs ᴀʀᴄ ᴄᴏᴘʏ ɪɴ ᴇxᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇ ғᴏʀ ᴀɴ ʜᴏɴᴇsᴛ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ 📖

I liked this book. Was hard to get into at first but then I stuck it out and glad I did. I learned so much about Samuel. Crazy how one reporter that was persistent could gain the trust of a killer and he confessed to many crimes. Hopefully some family’s found answers. From writing letters, to hours of visiting to outright confessions was sad and interesting at the same time.

This was a hard read - mostly because of the heavy topic, but also slightly because of the writing. It was incredibly detailed, so look for CWs. I think anyone who is interested in true crime would enjoy this book.

I wanted so badly to love this book. Sam Little is a terrifying person, and I was hoping this book would be more Stranger Beside Me and less a middling attempt at The Fact of A Body/The Last Victim. Alas, the writing is just not up to par with any of those other titles, and I felt like I was trudging through to the finish.

Thank you to NetGalley for the copy I received. This was an interesting and uncomfortable read. I do sometimes find multiple viewpoints to be off-putting or confusing if not executed well, as it requires me to reread certain sections to make sure I'm understanding the content correctly.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. A must-read for true crime fans. This was an eye-opener and an interesting read, very well written.

I am absolute sucker when it comes to true crime documentaries so when I saw this become available, I knew I had to devour it.

Learning more about Samuel Little was disturbing, appalling and so intriguing. Jillian was able to deliver this in such a painstakingly beautiful way that I'm still in shock from it.

Thank you so much to NetGalley & Jillian Lauren (and team) for an advanced eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I have been on a nonfiction kick recently and the complexity of this case really stood out to me. The author captured my attention immediately and held that attention which can be difficult in books like this.

The concept of this book is intriguing. I was really looking forward to reading it but the subject matter ended up being to triggering for me. Typically I am able to read books of this genre and topic but this didn’t work for me. Thank you for the opportunity.

Behold the Monster: Confronting America's Most Prolific Serial Killer was a great read by Jillian Lauren. Jillian wrote her first lett to prolific serial killer Samuel Little and she didnt know what she was getting into. Her research led her to believe that he was guilty of a lot more murders than the three he was convicted of. Lauren gained his trust by exchanging dozens of letters and doing hundreds of hours of interviews. He maintained his innocence for decades but then confessed to murdering ninety three women. I enjoyed listening to this true crime story and cant wait to read more by the author.

I was excited to read this book because I've always been interested in why we don't talk about Samuel Little that much, despite him being, as the book title says, America's most prolific serial killer.

Unfortunately, the writing wasn't there for me. This was an example of a book that I think could've benefitted from some more editing.

I'll begin by saying that Behold the Monster is probably the most confusing book I've ever read. Let's see why:
1) it can be categorized as "not-so-true crime", since the greatest part of it is fictionalized. This might also be ok if we clearly knew which parts are fiction and which are not, but unfortunately we have no such luck: the reader is often left wondering if they're reading what the author learnt via interviews and research or what she's evoking with her imagination
2) some dialogs or personal musings of the author (which, by the way, very often delve into her private life for no reason, recounting misleading details) go on and on and on for so long that at a certain point you can barely remember what it is being talked about
3) the book does not follow a chronological or topical order, the time line feels totally random, in that the author keeps bouncing between the 1970/80s and present day from chapter to chapter. She goes off a tangent so often, jumping from one topic to another, that you find yourself wondering "what am I reading now?" (at some point she mentions her technique to recollect what she hears without using a note pad, basically by associating each memory in her mind to a physical place she knows in order to be able to conjure up the memory later. I found it fascinating but, well, I guess the book shows that this unfortunately doesn't work). Of course, this also does not really help you remember the names of the people in the narration (be them Samuel Little's victims, family or some detectives who worked on the case)
5) [premise: I'm not a native speaker of English but I am a translator and read mostly in English] the language used by the author is colloquial (to use an understatement) to the extent of being, at times, unintelligible to someone who's fluent in English.
Honestly, I'm really sorry for my review, I really wanted to like this book but I felt the author desperately wanted to talk about every single detail she lived, learned and experienced while interviewing Samuel Little but organized the information in such a haphazard fashion that it feels incomplete, it's too much even if at the end of the day (and of the book) you basically only learned what you could read in the blurb.

Behold the Monster is a true crime book written by Jillian Lauren. It is the story of [one of IMO] America's most prolific serial killer, Sam Little along with his many victims. Not only does it cover Sam Little, his victims, but it also dives into the psychology of what could have potentially made Little behave the way he did. You know, nurture vs nature.

I studied psychology, mainly cognitive and behavior, so it was interesting to learn about Sam Little's childhood and upbringing. Jillian Lauren did try and help you see the victims' stories through their eyes - which can be difficult to read. However, the book did seem to jump from situation and/or perspective to another. It did seem unstructured and a bit hard to follow at times. When I read true crime, I like to stick with the facts (think textbook/documentary) whereas Jillian Lauren interjected a lot of her own perspective. While I agree Same Little was beyond a horrible person, I wish it would have covered more about his upbringing and victims. It's too common that we, as a society, focus too much on the killer, their name (which is what they want, to be infamous) rather than spending time on the victims and even their horrific endings.

With that being said, I did enjoy this book even with the constructive criticism. If you are like me then you should still enjoy the book, especially going into it knowing that it has the author's opinions in it as well versus being straight to the point.

All in all 3/5 stars.

This book is an interesting blend of memoir, true crime investigation, and the creation of narrative from the victim's perspective. The presentation of this story is unique, but I struggle to change perspectives as frequently as these chapters require. It's not a fault of the book, it's a personal preference. As a prosecutor, I wanted to know more about certain aspects of Sam's story and prosecution, but it's not my story to tell. I almost wish the author had written two books - one about his crimes, capture, and confessions and the other about her experience getting to know Sam. It was helpful for me to appreciate this story to know in advance that it was a mixture of storytelling styles so my expectations didn't go unmet. Thank you Net Galley, Source Books & Jillian Lauren for the advanced copy for my honest review.

4 stars. *

A beautifully written, emotionally wrought story of a journalist who develops a relationship with the most prolific serial killer in American History. Sam Little was unequivocally a monster. Somehow Jillian Lauren also makes one understand that he was also a human, with a complicated history. By the time he died of COVID-19, she had managed to get him to open up enough to her that she became part of the story of corroborating his stories and solving unsolved cases. She also became his next of kin and has his remains on a shelf in her garage.

This book was weird. It made me uncomfortable. But I liked it. If you're a true crime aficionado, I highly recommend this book.

*with thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book in exchange for this honest review.

Wow, this is a dark one. Enter at your own risk as it’s about the most prolific serial killer of all time. I could never have gotten as close to this guy as the author did, she’s got massive courage. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫