Behold the Monster by @jillianlauren is a true crime/ nonfiction that will knock your socks off! This book follows the life and victims of Sam Little, Americas most prolific serial killer that no one knew about. This book covers Sams childhood, his victims, his travels, those closest to him, the investigators, the locations important to him, and so much more.

This book was well written, extensively researched, and, on the whole, wild. I can’t imagine what it was like to talk to Sam the way that Jillian talked to him. I’m also amazed and how much she was able to do to aid investigations and even solve cold cases. So many cold cases were solved due to the work on Jillian and the investigators along the way. I loved that Mississippi played a large role in this story being that’s where I’m from and that Hilda and Leila were such strong Mississippi women.

Overall, the focus on victims and continuing to name them was very profound for me. The magnitude of what he did just hits you when you have a page of just names and nicknames because no one knows who these lost victims are. Most of all, it is just wild to me where his body ended up when he eventually died. I won’t spoil it, you’ll have to read it to find out! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!

This one was especially interesting to me because there are many mentions of Lorain, Ohio and that's where I was born and raised!

This book features serial killer Sam Little, who was incarcerated when he met the author. He talked to her during visits and on phone calls (which he knew were being reported) and began confessing to her all of his murders.

Sam is disturbing and creepy, but was obviously a little smart about his prey. He focused on women like prostitutes and drug addicts, who were distanced from family.

He has to killing 93 women and 60 have been confirmed by the FBI.

If you like true crime, this is a detailed, interesting telling of Sam Little's life.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Very in depth. It was interesting how the author used different perspective, but at times felt a little too fictionalized. If you are a fan of true crime, I would recommend this book. If you’re not really, it is very graphic and may not be for you.

While I think that Jillian Lauren is a fantastic writer, I'm afraid this was a rare DNF for me. There didn't seem to be enough of an interesting angle or throughline to tie together the recounting of these terrible murders, so it seemed like I was just reading about cases rather than experiencing a larger vision about these crimes and what they might express about the location, the time period or society.

I got about 25% in and couldn’t finished the writing is all over the place and hard to follow along.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

I did not get to this title, so I don't feel comfortable rating it fully, hoping to get to it at some point soon!

This was beautifully written and such a unique way to portray “nonfiction” in a new away!

It wasn’t what I was originally expecting but was still fascinating and entrancing to imagine the victims stories.

Like Ann rule, this author has jumped right into the mind of a serial killer. Spending time getting to know him and his kills- his manipulation of the system and his victims. This is a dark tale- be warned!

Thank You to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this free digital book.

I usually love true crime and was so excited to read this book. Jillian Lauren's interviews with serial killer, Samuel Little, were a bit creepy. He loved to talk about how he strangled his victims and sometimes some of that information was too hard to read. Jillian did a lot of research to write this book and took the time to contact the victims and their families, law enforcement, and experts to try and understand Sam Little and why he did what he did. Was he born this way? The book is a mix of fiction and nonfiction. The victims stories are based off of Jillian Lauren's her research. It gives details into what the victims were thinking and doing during the interactions with Samuel Little and right up until their time of death. I have mixed feelings about the fictionalized stories. To a certain extent it gives depth to the book, but it seems to throw off the true crime notion of the whole book.

I was really looking forward to a good true crime novel, however I have mixed feelings about Behold the Monster. When I read non-fiction, especially true crime novels, I really want it to be about that...actual events and research. Jillian Lauren mixes fiction within this one, basing the stories of the murdered women off her research. It may not be that way for others, but for me it threw off my non-fiction flow.

I did enjoy the background and history of Samuel Little. Reading her meetings with him were eerie and chilled my entire being. He is pure evil.

Overall, not a bad read and I am sure other readers will wholeheartedly love this one. The format for this one just wasn't my cup of coffee. If you have this one on your radar, I would say to give it a read. You may enjoy a lot more than I did.

I sincerely appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Such an interesting book. THe story was so intriguing and I honestly couldn’t put the book down. Ten out of ten would recommend.

BEHOLD THE MONSTER by Jillian Lauren

Summary: New York Times best-selling author Jillian Lauren’s personal, haunting account of confronting serial killer Samuel Little, and her determination to lift up the voices of his victims for the first time.

My thoughts:

The concept of ‘true crime’ media is at an interesting crossroads in American culture, and I was so curious to see how this book would unfold, especially considering that Samuel Little is a relatively ‘new’ serial killer. Lauren’s determination to lift the voices of Little’s almost-countless victims is a highlight of the book. It’s done with compassion, grace, and a holistic lens that is refreshing compared to much other true crime media.

I struggled with the stream-of-consciousness format of this book. At almost 500 pages, it almost felt like there were simply too many directions and material that Lauren wanted to include. Too much material plus no structure to the story made the pacing very inconsistent and the story threads very difficult to track. I understand that such a ‘structure’ is similar to Lauren’s conversations with Little, but this definitely impacted my ability to enjoy this read.

Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I don’t know what I was expecting out of this story but it wasn’t what I got. I think I need to stick to fiction and stay out of the true crime lane. I’ve tried several and they all leave feeling the same - glad to get to the end.

If you’re a true crime fanatic, then this book is for you.

I’m not one to pass up a good true crime story and this one, featuring a POS whose life’s work was to strangle almost a hundred women as a way to get off, seemed like it would be up my alley.
It was pretty interesting, for the most part, but I’ve definitely read better serial killer books. I found myself occasionally spacing out while listening to the audiobook, which is never a good thing, especially given the subject matter.
Thanks to #netgalley and #sourcebooks for this #arc of #beholdthemonster in exchange for an honest review.

This was a well researched, interesting book. It was difficult to read because of the horrors that the killer inflicted on his victims and their families. But Lauren does a great job of leading the reader through the muck.

From the introduction by Michael Connelly, I knew I was in an excellent book. Jillian Lauren's writing is over the top good. I did find the book to be keeping me awake even when I wasn't reading it. When the storyline is about Samuel Little, prepare to lose sleep. The story of America's most prolific serial killer is soundly researched, and I was totally engaging throughout. The saga of Samual Little reads like fiction. With his victim count at 93, his story seems impossible. Samuel Little revealed details of killings he committed to journalist Jullian Lauren. Lauren worked relentlessly with law enforcement to uncover, connect, and confirm the identities of the victims, with information gleaned during visits to the prisons housing Little. Little chose his victims carefully, selecting women in sex trafficking, disenfranchised from law enforcement. How Lauren was able to get through her visits with Sam is its own incredible story. While honoring the dead and their families, the book also gives the reader insight into Sam's history and the twisted criminal he became. Although, this was a hard read, it was a good one. Julian Lauren's contribution to the families of Little's victims who were able to see their loved ones cases move from cold to closed is moving. Easily deserving of four stars

In Behold the Monster, Jillian Lauren looks to discover what separates everyday people from the truest form of the monster, prolific serial killer Samuel Little. She traces back to the night of his birth to understand if he was created like Frankenstein’s monster or simply born a murderer. But Lauren takes it a step further than many true crime writers and befriends Little in jail, even becoming his documented next of kin.

Little is infamous- he targeted marginalized women that society did not miss, landing him with the highest confirmed count of murders in the United States. Lauren uses her relationship with him to not only dig deep into the nature vs. nurture controversy, but also to try to achieve justice for his forgotten victims.

Overall, this was an interesting, extremely well written book. Lauren’s chapter on the murder of Marianne/Curtis was amazingly crafted. And Lauren achieved something close to resolution and (probably) what all true crime authors dream about: she connected an unsolved murder to Little based on information he provided her. It was somewhat hard to keep the narrative thread with shifting topics in each chapter, making it somewhat lose momentum. There also was some context lacking in instances, which interrupted flow- such as when Lauren was stopped by the female guards at the prison with pictures of a potential victim. It was understood that this was an important interaction, but there’s a question as to why and what it meant to show.

I love true crime, and I love crime fiction. I don’t love when the two are blurred together and presented as nonfiction, which is the case with Behold the Monster.

At the start of the book, the author tells us that she included an imagined version of the victims’ lives, in order to “give them back their voices and their names.” Jillian Lauren would have no way of knowing these women’s thoughts, emotions, wishes, dreams, or style of speech, much less what they experienced in those horrific final moments, and so these real-life victims became fictionalized versions of themselves, which to me only further victimized them.

We’re also treated to a fictionalized version of Sam Little’s early life, from the events leading up to his mother’s pregnancy onward. Family members are assigned thoughts, feelings, and dialogue that might or might not be a close version of the truth.

Then we have the twisted, unnecessarily graphic content that doesn’t appear to be from Sam Little himself, but, again, from Jillian Lauren’s imagination. I read a lot of true crime. I’m not squeamish or easily offended. This, however, felt more like a sick fantasy than a serious true crime book.

The major problem with the author adding her imagined scenarios and dialogue is that we readers have absolutely no clue how much is actually fact. The story has no clear indications or divisions between the two.

I wish this issue had been made clear in the book’s description. This is not narrative nonfiction; it’s a sensationalized, fictionalized version of a serial killer’s story.

To further frustrate me, the writing is all over the place. The story isn’t linear. And for some reason we have a lot of unnecessary filler, such as lots of irrelevant information about a lighthouse and memoir-like content about the author herself.

My frustration won out at the 48% point, and I gave up.

DNF

I will automatically pick up anything serial killer related as it's been a fascination of mine since childhood. This is one of the best well written and most informative books of the sort that I have read. I feel like but only did i get in his mind but i got in the mind of the final moments of his victims. I love that it was just as much their story as his... seems strange to develop such a bond with someone so evil, yet you feel it as you read. Loved it

Heavy content warning on this one. The author did a fantastic job researching and covering this dark story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me this Advanced Readers Copy of Behold the Monster by Jillian Lauren!