Carrie Carolyn Coco

True crime writing at its best a heartbreaking book about the murder of the authors dear friend.The authors investigation kept me turning the pages and the path her investigation took was fascinating shocking..#netgalley #zandobooks

well written and very sad true crime tale written by someone who was close with the victim. .... thank you for the arc.

I have never heard of this case before so it was definitely an interesting read to learn more about Carolyn but also to delve deep into the case with the research that Sarah has done and their relationship adds another layer to this.

The book covers the 2016 murder of Carolyn Bush, 25, who was stabbed to death by her roommate Render Stetson-Shanahan in their NYC apartment. The author, who was a friend of Carolyn’s, seeks to determine what led to her death and goes through court transcripts, media sources and countless interviews to attempt an answer. She was warned against this project, “a book about her will flatten her for easy consumption, turn her into easy entertainment, glamorize murder,” but while the author admits many motivations for the book, “a thirst for justice? Fear for my own safety in a sexist culture? Grief…? Entertainment, fame, or money? Fascination and curiosity with death? A desperate desire to know why?” She believes at base she really just wants to fully know Carolyn.

Both Carolyn and Render were once students at Bard College, and that is one weird place. Carolyn flunked out. The President of the school wrote a letter to the court on Render’s behalf, as did a number of other Bard administrators and faculty (Render’s mother was with the Office of Admissions) and, in addition, the President comes across as one of the biggest skeeves on the planet. Ick. The Bard student body is nearly as bad. “They’re living like squatters, not putting the heat on, talking about literature like they understand it when they don’t, and then they have this super-fancy bottle of whiskey? This is rich kid shit.” That pretty much sums up the Bard ethos right there. Rich, pretentious, entitled kids, slumming.

To be honest, Carolyn falls right into this as well….she’s not at all easy to like. A friend describes her thusly, “I feel like she has kind of this reincarnation of Mina Loy. She definitely wanted to be. The kind of ‘swathed in fur, holding court in a smoky parlor talking about the firmament and the fixture of the stars?’ That’s the world she wanted to inhabit.” I just can’t with these people.

Yet despite all this, and the cast of thousands that got a bit confusing at times I quite enjoyed the book. Don’t let the author fool you, this is true crime, no matter how one might try to dress it up, but add in a fairly novel legal defense, an interesting victim and the fairly loathsome nature of Bard and, especially, its President (who is connected with Jeffrey Epstein for the love of all things holy) and it is entertaining true crime. And, in line with what the author wanted, we do get to know Carolyn. So there’s that. Recommended.

This non-fiction piece, though masquerading as true crime, is a profound exploration of mental illness, violence against women, and systemic failures to support victims. Sarah Gerard's examination of her friend Carolyn's murder by her roommate in 2016 was gripping and difficult to put down. Through interviews with Carolyn and her killer's acquaintances, Gerard provides insight into Carolyn's life, her killer's motivations, and the institutional shortcomings that contributed to the tragedy.

While much of the narrative unfolds at Bard College, where both Carolyn and her killer attended, Gerard delves into the college's troubled history, though there's no direct link between the institution and the murder. As someone who lived in New York City during the same period and frequented the same bookstore where Gerard and Carolyn worked, I found the depiction of the city's atmosphere and the challenges of young adulthood in New York City to be both fascinating and evocative. Overall, Gerard's work is a remarkable achievement by a talented writer.

Powerful, Disturbing..
A powerful, factual and disturbing account of a true crime - the murder of Carolyn Bush, stabbed to death in her own New York apartment in 2016 - and authored by a close friend of the victim herself. This deep dive into the crime and into the victim herself is handled deftly and with a keen authorial but empathic eye throughout to its shattering conclusion. A tragic and deeply disturbing unravelling of a crime and its aftermath as well as an homage to its victim.

After losing her friend Carolyn in 2016 to a shocking murder at age 25, the author spent years digging into the story. This book is the result of all those interviews she undertook searching for answers and it includes the trial and its outcome. Very in depth and thorough.

This is an incredible piece of non-fiction. Thinly veiled as true crime, but much more a literary examination of mental illness, men killing women, and institutions that do nothing to help or support victims. Sarah Gerard's breakdown of her friend's murder by her roommate in 2016 was impossibly hard for me to put down. I was fascinated by this story, by the victim Carolyn's life, and by Gerard's fantastic writing.

Sown together through interviews with both Carolyn and her killer's friends, family, and colleagues, this could so have easily been a straightforward piece of investigative journalism. Instead, Gerard takes the time to teach us about who Carolyn was as a person, why her murderer may have done what he did, and the institutional failures that contributed to this horrible attack.

A lot of time is spent at Bard. where both of them went to school. So much of Bard's history is horrific (what is WRONG with that college??), and while there isn't a direct correlation between the college and the murder, it is impossible to ignore the backstory of the school, and the history associated with the killer's family of Bard and the town of Rhinebeck.

Also living in NYC at that time, frequenting the bookstore both Gerard and Carolyn worked at, and being familiar with the types of houses and roommates you're forced to put up with in NYC in your twenties was fascinating and weirdly nostalgic. It's an incredible work by an incredible writer.

Like all of Sarah Gerard's books, this was very well written and compelling from start to finish. Gerard's personal perspective on the murder case (she was friends with the victim) adds a rich layer to the story and prevents it from feeling exploitative. I enjoyed all of the passages about other things that happened within the Bard community, it gave the story more layers.