Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free ebook ARC of Behold the Monster: Confronting America's Most Prolific Serial Killer.

This nonfiction book tackles a very serious case that is ultimately very horrifying. While I find this type of serial killer book intriguing, this one was especially creepy with the details of how Sam picked his victims. If his stories are to be believed, he’s killed far more women than what the police have given him credit for; that means there are families out there that don’t even know their missing person was a victim of a serial killer.

There are plenty more facts like that to take in if you give this book a chance. It’s also interesting how the relationship between the author and the killer developed over time.

I highly recommend Behold the Monster for fans of true crime.

Thank you NetGalley for this copy! Wow! You can tell this is a super detailed book about a crazy killer! I really enjoyed reading this. All the details and effort that was put in is clearly shown. Highly recommend for anyone who loves crime reading or behind the murderer type reading.

I received Behold the Monster by Jillian Lauren as an arc from netgalley. Confused because it looks like this was previously published, not sure if it has just been updated with new information.

This is true crime embedded with an imaginary narrative created by the author to give some of the victims a voice so most of the book is factual however, I appreciated the fictional narratives. The foreword is written by fictional crime writer Michael Connelly.
Lauren sets out to interview the country’s most prolific serial killer, Samuel Little, a serial killer who claims to have murdered 93 women. Over half of these claims have been verified.
Four years of interviews with not only Sam but law enforcement, legal teams, cold case files, experts in psychology and DNA analysts has led to this well researched book that takes us to the beginning of Little’s life and the murders committed between the years 1970 through 2005. Little’s victims were mostly prostitutes or drug addicts who would either not be missed or looked for which led to his getting away with his crimes for multiple decades until his final capture.
I found this story compelling and well written although I thought it would have benefited from a little more editing and kudos to the author for not only talking about Little but to by giving voice and naming all his victims.
Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC.

Really enjoyed the focus on the victims - went further than most true crime when it came to exploring who they were!

I really loved this book and really enjoyed how Lauren actually went and interviewed Sam herself. It makes the story even more real than it already is knowing that there are direct quotes from the serial killer himself. The only thing that I would say that I wasn't a huge fan of was the fact that the book really jumped around a lot. Sometimes I wasn't sure who's point of view I was reading from. But overall, it was a well written book!

What a gripping and often times heart racing book! I could not put this down and was hooked from the beginning. The way the author weaved in and out of current to past accounts was seamless and made for a more interesting read. Though some parts were hard to read, I found it was done in a way that made sense for the book.

I would highly recommend this book to any true crime fanatic. Thank you Sourcebooks for the advanced copy of this book! It’s fantastic!

Through years of jailhouse interviews, prolific murderer, Samuel Little recounts his murder spree spanning 4 decades to author Jillian Lauren revealing ninety-three murders through strangulation!! Lauren re-tells her interactions with Little in Behold The Monster, as well, as giving a story and a name to some of those murdered by Little!

Through Lauren's interviews and research, she was able to assist cold case investigators in solving more of Little's murders and giving names and stories to previous Jane Does and assist with more convictions! Lauren also gives a detailed account of Little's childhood consisting of juvenile offenses and manipulation starting at a very young age. Through her immersion into Little's life, Lauren must also come to terms with his own manipulation of her even from a visiting room of the prison where Little is housed!!

Behold The Monster is a terrifying insider view of a monster of a person! Lauren does a nice job giving a story to a few of the unfortunate soles that crossed paths with Little and I did enjoy the thorough biography on Little including interviews with some of his remaining family members. Behold The Monster fell short for me though with it's choppy timeline and unnecessary descriptions of trivial items while being very unclear on other subjects. It felt that the book would jump from one thing to the next without a rhyme or reason and subjects would randomly be brought into various sections of the book without a purpose. With some cutting and editing, this book had more potential and Lauren does demonstrate the capability for a good non-fiction book but this one just didn't do it for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I am a big fan of true crime works and I found this one interesting because I didn’t know much about Sam Little or his crimes. Aside from that though, I found this book to have little structure and jumped from topic to topic with little rhyme or reason. That put me off a bit but other than that it was ok.

How did we not know about this guy sooner? Thank you Jillian Lauren for bringing this serial killer to our attention. How he flew under the radar for so long is beyond me. I think the book was informative and provided interesting details about Samuel Little. I liked the conversational tone but I found myself at times forgetting who was talking and would have to go back and reread parts to figure it out. It also felt like it jumped around a bit too much. All in all I think the author brought an important story to light and for those true crime junkies you can't go wrong with a book about serial killer.

Unfortunately for me this is a DNF at this time. I am at 25% and I feel like this is so much fluff and no substance. I will take blame on that. I thought I was reading a true crime novel and not a mix of fact or fiction. I feel like the author was very ambitious and tried to tell the story from the victim's prospective but for me it didn't work.

I am still in shock from what I just read. Sam Little, was America’s most prolific serial killer, but he was unknown to the world the entire time he was committing his crimes. We all know the Green River Killer, the Golden State Killer, the night stalker and others because they had “nicknames” and police/ the media were tracking their murders. Sam Little had no one tracking him, He killed the people no one would miss, and he was constantly moving around the country so the similarities in his crimes were virtually untraceable. In 2014, thanks to DNA science and a cold case detective, Little was convicted of the murders of three California women. Reporter Jillian Lauren believed that Little had more secrets up his sleeve and began meeting with him in jail to find out the truth. Through her visits and phone calls she came to gain Little’s trust and would go on to hear 93 confessions from Little, 60 of which have now been confirmed by law enforcement. Little gave her a deep dive into his history as well as hand drawn portraits of the victims themselves. Jillian passes on Little’s story but also gives voice to the victims, she transports the reader into their minds so that they might imagine what their last hours on earth were like. Despite his excessively long rap sheet, and previous rape and attempted murder charges Little had an undetected 40 year killing spree that makes you question why the judicial system doesn’t treat sex crimes with stronger sentences. I have NEVER heard of a serial rapist/murderer who wasn’t first arrested or accused of some sexual crime early in his life. The overall story is obviously dark and it’s a little scattered which makes it hard to follow at times, but if you are into non-fiction serial killer exposé novels then this is worth the read.

I wanted to like this one, but I don’t. This feels so disjointed between the “based on a true story” parts and where the author is talking about her personal experiences. I wish she had stuck with one or the other, then I might be able to give this book a higher rating.

I and grateful to sourcebooks and Jillian Lauren for the ARC in exchange for an unbiased review. These are all my own thoughts.

The premise is really interesting, but as I said above the author needed to choose which way to go with all inspired by a true story or just her own experiences. Both were interesting but putting them together made it harder to read for me. I also didn’t love the use of slang such as “twinsie” and “bazillions”, it made it feel like the author wasn’t taking this as seriously.

My true rating would be a 2.5 if I could give half stars.

Such a creepy read!

Everything about Sam is disturbing.
He’s smart with the women he preyed on. Women that wouldn’t be missed, people wouldn’t immediately start searching for, and women who wouldn’t be believed.

The FBI had found 60 confirmed cases. He has admitted to 93. He could be “the most prolific serial killer”. If you are a true crime fan. You’ll like this read

Behold the Monster, is about serial killer Sam Little. Everything about Sam Little is disturbing! This books gives us a view into the the eyes of Sam and his victims. We hear not only from him as he speaks with Jillian but also from the victims families along with the four women who were able to escape from him. Sam might be the “most prolific serial killer in American history of record.”

This was great read for those who like the world of true crime. I definitely recommend it.

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher and author for my ARC !

As so many of us are, I am fascinated by the mind of a serial killer. How could someone be so damaged that they feel justified in killing people? That somehow the rules of society don't apply to them. This book looks at that question. Unfortunately, this was a much darker interpretation of the material than I expected. The author related what each murder victim's experience could have been, and beyond feeling voyeuristic, it was concerning that it was unlikely that those details could be corroborated. Perhaps that was by design. Perhaps the author wanted the reader to experience more fully the horror of each victim. I would have preferred not to imagine the lives of the women in details that could not be fully known. Wanting to understand what makes a serial killer tick is different than facing the experiences of their victims. It is horrific whether we know what the victim's experience was, or not. I appreciate the author's viewpoint and experience, and the book was well written. My takeaway is that I'm not convinced that serial killers will ever give us a true picture of what and how they think.

I did not enjoy the writing style of this book at all. The author seemed to jump around and include a lot of extra information including a bunch of imagined things/scenarios. I would not recommend this book to any of my patrons.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review, opinions are my own.

I found Behold the Monster to be an interesting true crime read. I like learning how they used old and new police work to learn about the crimes that Sam Little committed.

This book is definitely a book any true crime lover should check out.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for a copy of Behold the Monster in exchange of an honest review.

If you are a true crime addict as I am, you’re going to want to get your hands on Behold The Monster by Jillian Lauren. Can you imagine having any kind of relationship with a killer? I cannot, therefore I will read books like this and live vicariously through the author’s experiences.

He was sitting right across the table…and he would have killed her if he could. Jillian Lauren had no idea what she was getting into when she wrote her first letter to prolific serial killer Samuel Little. All she knew was her research had led her to believe he was guilty of many more murders than the three for which he had been convicted. While the two exchanged dozens of letters and embarked on hundreds of hours of interviews, Lauren gained the trust of a monster. After maintaining his innocence for decades, Little confessed to the murders of ninety-three women, often drawing his victims in haunting detail as he spoke. How could one man evade justice, manipulating the system for more than four decades? As the FBI, the DOJ, the LAPD, and countless law enforcement officials across the country worked to connect their cold cases with the confessions, Lauren’s coverage of the investigations and obsession with Little’s victims only escalated.

Lauren delivers the harrowing report of her unusual relationship with a psychopath–but this is more than a deep dive into the actions of Samuel Little. Lauren’s riveting and emotional accounts reveal the women who were lost to cold files, giving Little’s victims a chance to have their stories heard for the first time.

This book gives information and details about Sam’s victims, which is not easy to read. It’s out now!

A deep dive into Samuel Little, his crimes, and the impact he had on everyone around him. This was an incredible true-crime read that should be a must-read for true crime fans everywhere.

The author began this book thinking she would write a feature piece for a newspaper…and instead spent YEARS interviewing Little, working with law enforcement across the country, and eventually becoming Little’s next of kin upon his death. She’s the only media who spent this kind of time with him, and because of her work, multiple victims were identified that had previously not been associated with Little’s killings.

Overall, this is a story that a) needed to be told and b) was done in a masterful way, while telling the stories of the women who were taken too soon.

"Behold the Monster" by Jillian Lauren offers a detailed and informative account of America's most prolific serial killer, shedding light on a dark chapter in history. The book delves deep into the life and crimes of the serial killer, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of the events that unfolded. The level of detail and accuracy in recounting the investigations and legal proceedings is impressive and allows readers to gain insight into the complexities of such cases.

Jillian Lauren's writing style is engaging and keeps the reader invested in the narrative. Her ability to humanize the victims and examine the impact of these heinous acts on their families adds a poignant dimension to the story. While the factual presentation is solid, there is a missed opportunity for the author to provide deeper insights or offer her own unique take on the case. Additionally, the pacing felt uneven at times, with certain sections dragging while others seemed rushed.

In conclusion, "Behold the Monster" is an informative and well-researched book that provides a comprehensive account of America's most prolific serial killer. While it might not offer groundbreaking analysis, it remains a worthwhile read for true crime enthusiasts seeking a detailed exploration of the case. With some refinements to pacing and additional contextual information, this book could have even greater potential to captivate its audience.