I was given a free copy of this book by NetGalley to give my honest opinion of it. Going into this book I didn’t know very much about the Gacy murders. The book went back and forth in time. Typically I have a difficult time with books like that but this one was easy to follow. I liked that this book gave plenty of information about the serial killer but that the focus was on the victims and especially about some of the victims mothers and how difficult it was for these mothers to loose their sons in such a horrific way and at such a young age. The author points out that “Love withstands all. It lasts forever. It may freeze in time, but it never goes away.” I appreciate all the years of research from this author. It was not an easy task I’m sure.

This was quite interesting. I'm a true crime lover and the Gacy case will forever haunt me. Hearing about the case from this perspective was so engaging. It tells more of the story and helps you see how much of a ripple effect murder and crime have on everyone it touches.

I found myself intrigued by this title and had a desire to learn more about a gruesome case from the perspective of someone related to it, and was excited that a survivor of these events would be able to speak freely and with autonomy. It was saddening to read (or rather, listen) to descriptions where Mrs. Kim Byers doesn’t seem to want to speak on the event. Various times I remember moments in the process of hearing about the author’s research where I didn’t feel as though she was being respectful of the lives of those who knew Gacy or any of the victims. This book also is marketed as one where the victims/survivors are the center of the narrative, yet the author hijacks some moments of real vulnerability to insert her own opinions or stories about herself, taking the focus away from those affected and placing it on herself and her personal anecdotes.
The description of generational trauma is one I’m also hesitant about, as the author is not a professional in the social services field. Any mental health advice/conversations around trauma that are written as fact by those who are seemingly not trauma-informed very much concern me, and this is one of those cases.
Some very interesting information and insight was included here, and I was inspired by the details of the photo receipt as evidence and the diary entries of a teenager providing a path to justice. Yet, I was disappointed by the author’s continuous self-insertion when she claims the book is focused on the victims.

I knew this would be heartbreaking but what makes this novel special is that it’s not a graphic return to Gacy’s crimes with him at the forefront but instead focused on those who are washed away in crimes. The ones who help put the killed away. In this case, a once young teenager, Kim, who played a big role in solving her co worker’s murder and putting his killer away.

It reminds us that this isn’t a sensational story but revolves around regular people that you never hear of but are forever changed by tragedies and horrors of the world, even for the justice they being about.

I did not care for this book.

I didn't feel that it added anything "new" to all the other books about Gacy out there (in terms of the crime itself). And the generational trauma aspect (which would have been a new angle since the writer is writing about her mother's personal experience having known one of Gacy's victims) fell flat for me.

I think the thing that bothered me most was that it seemed like the writer.... I don't want to say romanticized the crime... but I also DO kind of want to say that. There was a pervasive sense throughout the entire book that the author was benefiting from someone else's pain and trauma.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that she was GLAD it happened, but it definitely felt like a, "It was terrible, but it happened, so I might as well profit from it since I can" kind of vibe.

There's even one point where she urges his mother to buy Gacy's victim's mother a Mother's Day card. She tried to make it out like it was cathartic and sweet, but honestly, to me, that's just really, really effed up.

I'm giving it two stars because it was at least well-written. But I'll be honest. I kind of hated it.

My apologies to the publisher, who was gracious enough to give me an ARC. I always hate leaving bad reviews for ARCs, but in this case, it's all I can give.

I really enjoyed this book. It gave a unique perspective into a case I have read a lot about. I would highly recommend this book to other true crime fans.

Warning for anyone in the Chicagoland area doing this as an audiobook: the narrator says "Des Plaines" hundreds of times throughout the book and it's mispronounced. It's grating and distracts from the story so if that is going to bother you, read the book. That said, I thought the narrator was quite good at the reading.

I grew up under the cloud of Gacy, was 5 when he was arrested, spent my childhood hearing about "stranger danger" and the horrors bad men will do if they get you, all because of Gacy. I went to school with a girl whose older brother was killed by Gacy. That nightmare had rippled effects so far and so deep, creating generational trauma in so very many families. So I had to read this book and I'm actually glad I did. This book brought closure and clarity to some aspects of the case and it was good to finally hear Kim Byers' story. I truly appreciate victim and survivor stories, people whose lives were forever changed by these monsters. This story was told with heart and intelligence. Many sympathies for the victims families.

How long can we hold the burdens of "why didn't I" & "what if"? How far does generational trama reach and how does it present?
There is no question, that true crime is at an all-time high but what is accomplished by centering the story on the criminal? In this amazingly well-written story about the effects the John Wayne Gacy murders had on the victim's their families, and their friends we are faced with questions of generational trauma and the effects tragedies like this have on everyone no matter their distance from the situation. The story looks at the facts of the case while focusing on the victims rather than the clown. We hear facts of the case from many sources as well as the true story of one of the victims life leading up to his disappearance
This story not only served as a source of retelling and information but also invited us to reflect on why we respond to situations the way we do and the effects trauma can have on us generations later. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in true crime and autobiographies. Thank you for this incredible piece of work.

This was interesting, and I can see how people want to read these kinds of books where people are personally affected by horrific events. This was annoying, though, because it seemed to be more about the writer than the victims or even the mother who was directly affected. The focus kept going back to her, and there were so many little things, like how the author wrote that she took a sip of water, she moved her leg, etc.
The author apparently decided to write this book because her mother was friends with Gacy's last victim, and it was heartbreaking to see his picture. The one really nice part was that people talked about how he wanted to make a difference, and he ended up making a difference by calling attention to Gacy's crime spree as his last victim. Several people said they felt guilty because they thought they could have saved him if circumstances were slightly different.
But you won't really learn much by reading this, and there doesn't seem to have been much actual research. Thanks to NetGalley, I got to listen to this on audiobook, and the narration was good.

Not what I expected.

The postmortem was well-written and interesting; however, it wasn't what I expected. I was hoping to get a different perspective, especially because of Gacy's crimes' tragic impact. Unfortunately, I feel like this was a missed opportunity.

Thank You to Courtney Lund O'Neil, Tantor Audio and NetGalley for the audio-digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Written by the daughter of Kim Byers the main person to help bring John Wayne Gacy to be punished for his crimes. Her best friend Rob Piest was the last victim of Gacy and this is the story seen thru her eyes. Her daughter uses her diary from those long years and her mom's first hand accounts of the night Rob went missing , his body and 32 other victims being found to the trial and the aftermath. How this event would not only effect her life, the lives of the victims families but her family for many years to come generation to generate.
Gacy may be long gone but the impact his crimes caused on a society will long out live any of us .
This book was very well written and I loved the first hand accounts and the research the author did to make sure the story was told correcly.
At times it was a little slow and may have gone off track a little. But I feel she was trying to explain how this one moment in time effected her mom though out her life.
Overall worth the read. Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this audiobook!

e-ARC & audio-ARC from NetGalley.

I've read some of the negative reviews of this book, and I don't disagree with them. Like those reviewers, I also found certain elements of this book strangely detailed and did not particularly care about the author's personal experiences outside of this case. However, I did not find them overtly offensive and appreciated this rare insight into the primary witness against the brutal serial killer.

In this book, Author Courtney Lund O'Neil is drawn to explore the John Wayne Gacy murders due to her own personal connection to them: Her mom was the witness who finally uncovered his trail of terror.

In December 1978, Kim Byers worked in a pharmacy with a boy named Rob Piest. When the owners of the pharmacy hired a local contractor named John Wayne Gacy to renovate the pharmacy, she thought nothing of it. When Rob let her wear his coat, she shoved a piece of her trash into his pocket. When Rob later put on that same coat to go outside and speak to Gacy about a summer job, she agreed to man the register. When he never came back, the nightmare began.

I'd never known this part of the history - the importance of a 17-year-old girl and a piece of trash. All I knew was that John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer who part-timed as a clown at birthday parties, routinely raped and murdered young gay men, and buried his victims' bodies under his house.

Only, what I "knew" about his victims was false: Very few, if any, of his victims was gay. Most were lured in, like Rob, by job offers. Others were trapped by their addiction to drugs. Some just needed some money or a place to stay. In total, of the thirty-three victims whose bodies were located, only Rob's reasoning can be verified. The rest comes from the brutal maw of Gacy himself.

I found this story equally devastating and enthralling. Piest was abducted and murdered on his mother's birthday, while she waited inside the store to pick him up after his shift. There's reason to suspect the store's owners of duplicity. What solved the case was the piece of trash Kim recalled shoving into Rob's pocket. The Breakfast Club was filmed at Piest's high school a few years later.

And, to this day, five of his victims remain unidentified.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a good job. I struggled with this one, I get that the author’s mother knew someone who experienced something tragic so it impacted the mother and therefore the daughter. I also felt like the book dragged quite a bit as well. I’m sure the author worked so hard on this and it will be a favorite for some, unfortunately it just wasn’t the book for me.

If you like true crime, this is the book for you. The daughter of the star witness in the John Wayne Gacy murder trial tells the story of what led up to the last murder and how it affected everyone (not only who knew the victim, but also who lived in the town where it happened) in her point of view. She uses her mother's own words via interviews as well as her journal from when she was a teen. She travels back to the very place it happens and speaks to other witnesses and family members of the victims.
It is a nice change of pace to hear the facts of the story from a witness' point of view rather than detectives, journalists, and investigators.
Well written, interesting and an overall great way to remember the victims instead of focusing on the perpetrator.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
I quite enjoyed this book. So many books written about serial killers are not focused at all on the victims. This focused not only on the victims but also on the survivors as well and how their lives were changed.
This book, I felt, gave us a new perspective on how the actions of one man changed an entire town.

I have recently attended a event regarding serial killers and I felt very chilled reading about John Wayne Gacy. Listening to this definitely showed the reach of trauma and pain that can ripple for generations after a tragic and terrifying experience.

First things first, I received this as a free copy in return for an honest opinion and that’s what you’re gonna get because well it is what it is and that’s how I would want it also. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity.

There were moments in this book that were fabulous and also ones that made me go what did I just hear (my copy was an audiobook). The book often flips back and forth between Kim Byers the mother’s diary, the author and her take on things, and a story telling perspective. At times this can become confusing but likely less so when you are reading rather than listening. Being able to hear the thoughts that we’re going on in this young girls head and establishing how close of a friend she was with Rob Piest is incredibly interesting, previously with the knowledge that I had of John Wayne Gacy and his crimes I thought that it was just a coworker, someone she saw at work and that was all. More often than naught she was a brief mention in the story.

After the story, I realize that he was someone that was a good friend to Kim Byers, he was someone who allowed her to be who she was and was there in a way that was allowed back in the more innocent times. Knowing this made her story have more of an impact to me because you realize that it was a pivotal moment in her life, and it stole her innocence, belief in people, and made her realize it’s such a young age mortality.

The author gives us an opportunity to see how not only did the incident impact her mother, but how it then had the impact on her growing up and how it impacted her own parenting and thought process. Where her mother in many ways had to deal with her own level of paranoia and fear, this was then taught to her children by actions. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was a level of PTSD involved in her trauma also. Despite this, Kim Byers was able to become a widely acceptable and productive member of society.

I found hearing about how she was harassed by reporters, police and others quite shocking. I had been under the impression that she was widely accepted for the knowledge she had about the incident and in many ways her part was played down until now. Being able to hear about how she as there to support the family and provide them peace really hit me, it made me step back and realize on a different level that this was a family, there was the pain of losing a son, brother, friend. No longer was Rob Piest just a name in association with Gacy but he was a person, a young boy, near the age of my own boys, who had a beautiful smile and nice hair that I’m sure the girls loved. He had hobbies, friends, favorite places and love for everyone and things around him. Being able to travel through some of his footsteps from that day just made him more real.

In the end the author gave us a different look into a story that most of us already had heard. She provided input and insight that brought not only the victim but also his friends and family into a perspective unseen before. She brought them to life and gave them hopes, fears; talent, and so many other things. Courtney showed us how something as simple as a film receipt changed lives, helped catch a killer and impacted generations. I am sorry for whoever was involved and what they had to go through but I’m so glad that Kim stood for what she knew and believed. The difference she made is innumerable.

Courtney Lund O'Neil’s Postmortem is a narrative that positions itself as an exploration of dark themes, but ultimately falters under the weight of the author's self-interest and inability to separate herself from the story. While the book grabs attention early on with its atmospheric prose and promise of deep introspection, O'Neil’s performative style soon becomes apparent, overshadowing the narrative with unnecessary details and intrusive reflections that seem more about drawing attention to the author than about advancing the plot.

The tone of the novel fluctuates between an attempt at mysticism and a self-serving need to connect emotionally with the reader. However, this connection feels forced, as if O'Neil is trying too hard to invoke empathy or wonder rather than allowing the story to develop naturally. Instead of allowing the mystery or the characters to speak for themselves, the author’s constant need to assert her presence becomes glaring. This blurring of author and narrative voice makes it difficult to remain immersed in the plot, as it constantly pulls the reader back into a space where the boundaries between creator and creation are poorly defined.

Moreover, O'Neil’s exploitative tendencies become apparent in the way she tackles heavy themes. Rather than offering a measured or respectful exploration of these topics, she uses them for shock value, dragging readers through dark scenarios that feel more like voyeurism than meaningful storytelling. The resulting effect is tone-deaf and exploitative, relying on sensationalism without a clear understanding of the deeper emotional nuances these situations demand.

What could have been a powerful story is overshadowed by O'Neil’s overwhelming presence on the page. Her focus on self-promotion, unnecessary tangents, and inability to provide a balanced portrayal of the events leaves the reader frustrated. It’s clear that O'Neil’s personal investment in the narrative, though perhaps sincere, prevents the work from being the unbiased, thoughtful exploration it could have been. Instead, Postmortem becomes more about the author than the subject matter, distancing the reader and leaving little room for genuine emotional engagement.

Postmortem by Courtney Lund O’Neil is a gripping and emotionally charged account that will captivate any true crime enthusiast. Written by the daughter of a friend of one of the murder victims, O’Neil offers a unique and personal perspective on the long-lasting effects of a horrific serial killer’s actions. This memoir delves into the aftermath of a brutal crime, providing readers with a poignant look not only at the victims and their families but also at the ripple effects on the community and the lives of those connected to the case.

O’Neil’s storytelling is both raw and heartfelt, as she draws from her own experiences and the profound impact the tragedy had on everyone involved. The book goes beyond the typical true crime narrative, exploring the psychological and emotional toll a crime of this magnitude leaves on friends, family, and society at large. The author’s insight into how this dark chapter shaped her life, and the lives of others, adds a layer of depth and humanity that is often missing in traditional true crime accounts.

For fans of true crime, Postmortem offers not only a chilling story of murder and investigation but also an intimate exploration of grief, loss, and the enduring scars such events leave behind. It’s a compelling read that will resonate with readers long after they turn the final page.

In sum, Postmortem is an exceptional book that sheds light on the broader implications of a serial killer’s reign of terror, offering a moving tribute to the victims and an eye-opening look at how communities are forever changed. Highly recommended for true crime fans who crave more than just the details of the crime, but a deep dive into the emotional and societal aftermath.