Murder Book: A Graphic Memoir of a True Crime Obsessive by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell

#eightysixthbookof2021 #arc

CW: discussion of murder, sexual assault and serial killers, anxiety, drawings of people on the toilet

This graphic novel attempts to explore why people, specifically women, seem so excited about true crime. It’s true, a lot of women my age are obsessed with the true crime genre and the victims. I listen now to all of the podcasts and watch the tv shows, never really thinking about why I was drawn to them. Twenty years ago, I asked for and received The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers for Christmas or a birthday, and my parents thought it was weird that I was excited. I was just too early for the trend!

This graphic novel does a nice job of interspersing the author’s questioning of why people are drawn to the genre with various stories about famous killers and their victims. It was interesting to see some of the details fleshed out, while also examining the faults in reporting the stories we’re likely to hear about while others are ignored. This was a solid comforting read, and a reminder to pay attention to the victims and not those who perpetrate the crimes against them.

Thank you to @netgalley and @andrewsmcmeel for the advance copy. (Pub date 11/09/21) #graphicnovel #murderbook #truecrime

This is a very amusing graphic memoir centering on the author’s fascination with True Crime in its many formats. The recent history of our fascination with the topic and its particular relevance to women are explored. Tribute is paid to the life and work of Ann Rule and the cases of Ted Bundy and Anne Marie Fahey are detailed. The victims are treated with interest and respect.
If you share the author’s interest in true crime you will especially enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrew McMeel Publishing for this eARC.

As a fan of true crime, I found myself rather disappointed by this. I did not realize going in this was a memoir, and that is my own fault. However I have read comic memoirs before and this, compared to other works did not keep me interested. The author included a lot into the story, a lot of interactions and events I felt were unnecessary in the grand scheme and felt to pad out the pages more than anything. I also feel the tone was too light about the matters at hand, which is the murder and pain of people and their families. It can interest you, but the way which the author used this interest to define them and be quirky irked me. Lastly, the page spreads and layouts are so messy, and the art is drawn in a way to be textured and looser but as a whole it can be hard to read. There is also some questionable choices the author makes later in the book, after pages 300, which felt very disrespectful and downright uncomfortable. So if you do read this, please be warned and read appropriately trigger warnings.

Murder Book was a creative memoir that delved into the lives and culture surrounding true crime fans. I thought the concept was very timely, and I liked the art.

This was a creative and interesting book that I liked. It took me a bit to get through, but every time I picked it up I was happy to get back into it.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Murder Book
by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell

• Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for providing this Advance Reading Copy. Expected publication date is November 9, 2021.

I, like many women, am a true crime junkie. This graphic novel explained why women are so drawn to this genre. This was a fascinating and educational book about the history of true crime in media and a look into why people are so fascinated by it. Did I mention that it’s also funny which a twisted thing to say about a “murder book”. My bad. The artwork was fantastic and I’m happy to say that it gave me lots of suggestions for true crime books to include in my to be read list.

An enjoyable graphic novel, but I was thinking it would be a more in depth look at why women like true crime. Mostly it was about two major serial killers.

Loved this graphic book,a hilarious real look at the authors obsession with True Crime.I can relate to her obsession with Ann Rule booksthe Zodiac Killer,Hester Skeltor.I had so much fun reading it I will be recommending.#netgalley #andrewmcmeel.

First of all, I want to thank NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the Advanced Copy in exchange of an honest review.

I will be honest: I love watching true crime documentaries. Can we say that I'm obsessed with them? Nope, but I find them entertaining from a psychologycal point of view. I mean, it's really interesting to try to desevelop how someone can be capable of hurting others in such a horrible way.

Let's talk about the good things that you can find in this graphic novel, because I want to keep the best for the start.

The storytelling: First of all, this is a memoir. You need to keep that in mind if you want to buy the book. I loved the way the author told us her story (there's something I didn't liked, but we will talk about that later) and how she ended up obssessed with true crime. And I want to state a fact: A lot of people likes to watch true crime documentaries, and I'm no exception to that rule.

Also, I learned a lot of things I didn't knew about true crime, so it's a 10/10 in that matter.

The graphic part: I liked her drawing a lot. She's got this kind of drawing that doesn't need to be extremely elaborated to stick out. I really loved it.

Now, let's get to the reason why I REALLY struggled to get to the end of the novel:

1) The font. I felt it a little caotic, so it was difficult for me to read this for long periods of time.

2) I'll never thought I had to say this about a novel, but, in this case, it's neccesary: It has too much humor on it. I'm sorry, but we're talking about real crimes, and sometimes I had the feeling that the tone she was using while we were talking about murderes was too much for me.

I watch true crime documentaries, but they talk about those crimes with the solelity that needs to be used when we are talking about killers and the horrors that their victims and the families went through.

I knew that the author made something quite different, that she was talking about her obsession with true crime and how it started while, at the same time, she was telling us about her 'favourite' murders, but... I don't know. Maybe I'm too sensitive, but that little thing made me incapable of giving more than two stars. It was too much for me.

I'm 100% sure that it wasn't her intention, that she respects the victims and their families (who couldn't, when the had to face such an horror?) but the fact it's that I felt that some jokes where out of the line.

3) Page 313. That was exactly when I stopped reading. <spoiler> I'm sorry, but I found extremely disgusting the fact that she saw her neighbour's cat dead and that the first thing she thought was "well, let's make a crime scene and play with it". </spoiler> Nope. Nope. Nope.

I so desperately wanted to like this.

I am a huge true crime lover and this seemed right up my alley.

But once I got started and the words were just plastered all over the pages and it was just so long, it became so hard to get through that I DNF'd about halfway.

It's a funny book, I'll give it that, but the execution and even the art style made it really hard for me to want to get through it.

Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell is a cartoonist for New Yorker magazine. She also happens to be a self-professed true crime “murderino,” the name given to people (mostly women) that obsessively follow and perseverate on true life murder documentaries, books, and news stories. Campbell writes and draws how and why she feels the way she does, while using some of the news stories she found transformative, intellectually stimulating, and overall epiphanous. The story is told in cartoon, so much of what is written appears to be tongue-in-cheek, but there are times where the memoir made me feel uncomfortable about the exploitative nature inherent in discussing true-crime. I found the subject matter fascinating; however, I do feel some people might find the irreverence, insensitive. In a case like this, I would opt for middle ground. Many thanks to NetGalley, Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, and Andrews McMeel Publishing for a chance to review this book. I was given this book for free in exchange for my fair and honest opinion. I have not felt compelled, in any way, by the author, the publisher, or NetGalley to alter my sincerest thoughts on this book. Every word of this review is solely and completely mine.

I found this book on NetGalley, and even though I read more manga than graphic novels, I requested it because of its subject matter. I’m fascinated by True Crime, and the fact that it was subtitled as a “memoir of a true-crime obsession” made me think it would be a cross between Gone at Midnight (in that the author’s journey is important) and Savage Appetites (exploring why women, in particular, are so drawn to the genre).

Unfortunately, I think Murder Book fell short of one of these expectations. It was an intensely personal book, exploring why she and her family all seemed to be into True Crime, but attempts to explore the bigger issues in the genre seemed to be a little lacking. For example, podcasts like Serial and My Favourite Murder were brought up, but the toxic culture/allegations of toxicity found in some podcasts and other problematic aspects (ahem, the host of Sword and Scale) were completely glossed over. For example, is it okay to use 911 calls in the podcast? Are jokey catchphrases fun or disrespectful to victims? Can we use podcasts as advocacy channels or are they meant to be as balanced as possible? I was hoping for some discussion of these questions because they are questions that I have, but they didn’t appear, although there was a segment on racism in the true-crime industry which led to “women make true crime better”, which is not the conclusion I was going for.

That said, in exploring her family’s personal history with murder, Hilary does talk about anxiety about one’s safety and empathy as one reason why women are fascinated with murder, and I thought that section was interesting and the closest we got to exploring the appeal of the genre. Her other reasons, like wanting to live in the 70s/80s or having very casual parents, felt a bit too specific/American and I couldn’t really relate with those.

Another thing I liked were the recaps of the cases. I already knew a few, like the Ted Bundy one because I’ve read Ann Rule’s book, but I have never heard of Tom Capano and I thought that the case was fascinating (Wikipedia link if anyone wants to look at it).

Overall, I enjoyed this but it was not the book for me. Thinking about it, the reason why I was not as engaged with the book as I wanted was that I didn’t know why I should be interested in Hilary’s story. Is she meant to be a typical (American) fan? Was she trying to explore meta-issues about the genre? I don’t know. Add a rather rambly and meandering narrative style to this and I wasn’t particularly interested in the book – the next book on my TBR was probably a bigger motivator to me finishing this! But I did enjoy some of the recaps, so it wasn’t a complete washout for me.

P.s. Friends who are familiar with graphic novels – is it common to have the author draw herself on the toilet a lot? I think I saw a toilet scene at least five times and it didn’t really feel like a motif/that it had any deeper symbolism (like the Psycho shower scene or something, it was just her sitting on the toilet), so I’m not sure if it’s a common thing?

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, but all opinions are my own.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC copy.

Murder Book is a strange little book that examines the author's obsession with true crime. It also looks at why true crime fans tend to be mostly women.

As a woman who is NOT really a true crime fan, I was a little weirded out by the idea. Many of the murders mentioned in the book were gruesome and terrible, but people seem to dissociate the events from the victims as if they died to entertain others. The events are not looked at as tragedies, but rather as entertainment to be consumed. That's not really the author's fault, but moving on..

I did not mind the art, but I wish they used clearer writing instead of what was probably the author's handwriting. If you're a true crime fan, you might like this one and find it relatable.. If you're not a true crime fan, then it's not a bad read. It got me closer to understanding why people find it appealing.

Murder Book, a story about the life of Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell and how she (probably) became a murderino.

It's the author's personal life story (incl. her awesome mom) mixed with some pretty interesting crime cases all about murder told in a fun, light-hearted way. As a woman who loves true crime (in books, on tv, in movies, podcasts and pretty much anywhere at any time), this was weirdly relatable and I'm here for it. This was such a fun read!

I really did enjoy this book. It was fun, funny and interesting. Even while being a bite more about specifically Campbell's reasons for being drawn into the genre of True Crime.
But it does show a nice history of how True Crime isn't a new phenomenon.

I don't see this book aging well though, when reading this it feels similar to scrolling through TikTok just in the language that is used.

Hilary Campbell's Murder Book: A Graphic Memoir of a Truce Crime Obsession lives up to its name. It tells the story of Campbell's lifelong interest in the genre of True Crime, while also detailing the history of the true crime genre with some in-depth re-tellings of very well known stories of infamous killers such as the Zodiac Killer, Ted Bundy and the murder of Anne Marie Fahey. This book is a blend of biography, popular culture studies and comedy.

Campbell presents much of the work through monologues or as conversations, sometimes as the professor of murder shit 101 with a class composed of just her mother, who also is a frequent conversation partner. Other times conversations with strangers at a restaurant bar (or the staff) or fellow passengers on an airplane, or just conversations with family.

Where this book really excels is when the focus is on "why are people interested in this genre?", or pointing out the short comings of the genre or media coverage of cases, particularly in the light of depictions of females or the almost complete avoidance of people of color.

Unfortunately, the reader is continually brought back to Campbell's personal life and how this might all be her mother's fault. As Campbell has also worked as a comedian, there is the frequent need to add levity where it might not always be best utilized or appropriate. The artwork makes frequent changes in page layout and arrangement, some pages light in textual content with others almost wholly made up text.

Campbell is certainty knowledge and worked hard to draw all of these images, but I find I think of it more so as a work of therapy for the author, as a reader I found myself skimming more and more in the latter 3rd of the book wondering where it would conclude.

If you like true crime you might want to give this a try and connect with a kindred soul.

A big thank-you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for giving me a copy of this book for an unbiased review.

1/5 - Really wasn't for me.

There are two reasons I did not like this book.

First of all, I would describe myself as someone who is very interested in true crime. I listed to all the podcasts, read all the books, and watch all the documentaries. I am fascinated by various justice systems around the world and by ways in which our justice systems can either fail or succeed within society. I am also very curious about how humans function in society - essentially we enter into a contract to avoid doing harm to one another, and crime is a deviation from this contract. I like to understand why it occurs.

What I absolutely do NOT enjoy within true crime communities is when our discussions of victims strip away their identity and/or fetishize the crime. There were jokes in this book that were just... SO uncomfortable for me. Key among these were probably all the mentions of getting to the "juicy stuff" in a crime, or "your brain on crime" being " a little horny." I'm sorry, but what? I know these are meant to be jokes and I'm all for using laughter to cope with pain. In fact, I would say that several of my favorite true crime podcasts could safely be labeled as comedy as well as true crime. But this book crossed a massive line for me.

The other reason I did not like this book was because it really wasn't even about true crime... I thought it would be an examination of why we as a society are interested in true crime, with highlights of prominent cases. But in reality this was just a repetitive saga of how the protagonist is obsessed with true crime because her mother is obsessed with true crime and her grandmother is obsessed with true crime. No matter what case was briefly covered, it always went back to this exact same plot.

Bottom line is, maybe this kind of humor helps some people cope with the horror and depravity of crime but this book really was not for me.

I received an arc of this book from netgalley in return for an honest review. Okay... I loved this book way more than I was expecting too. Most graphic novels I find to be quite shallow and whilst they're interesting they tend to lack depth. That definitely can't be said for this comic. The author manages to entertain the reader with amusing anecdotes about life as a true crime fan, whilst simultaneously managing to teach the reader so much about the history of true crime and the role it plays in gaining justice for the victims. If you've ever been interested in true crime or better want to understand the mind of someone you know who is, I'd highly recommend reading 'The Murder Book'.

I enjoyed the gist of this, particularly the start and the end, alongside the insightful thought process throughout, but that was it. As a fellow true crime lover, I really struggled with the re-tellings of some of true crimes most notorious cases, because as a book advertised to true crime lovers, they seem a bit defunct. I can imagine if you didn't know many of the stories or the ins and outs of the cases then it would be much more enjoyable. Having said this, I love how this book recognised how weird it is to enjoy true crime. I love love loved the conclusion about what's important in the true crime world, focusing on what stories get notoriety and why, highlighting how women are more interested in true crime as a form of protection through knowledge, but also how black stories get such a different gaze in reporting as a whole. This graphic novel really draws attention to the historically sexist and racist reporting that many cases had and I did truly love that, I just felt that the middle was a bit like re-reading stuff you already know (like when you repeatedly study the same things in history at school). So, if you're new to true crime, absolutely give it a read, and if you're not and are a morbid fan like many of us, then it's still worth a read, even purely for the humour and insights.

Release date: November 9th, 2021!!

I did not like this. I didn't even ~get~ this to be completely honest. It's a memoir depicting the creator's own personal experience with becoming obsessed with true crime. But it's also an account of specific serial killers and crimes and it describes what it's like being obsessed with true crime in general and it goes on random unnecessary tangents and it's all over the place. Ugh.

The art style and page layout instantly threw me off and made the story extremely agonizing to get through. I consider myself pretty capable to get through all kinds of different page layouts (avid graphic novel reader, have taken college classes on the topic of panel design, etc.) and this was too much. The panels were all over the place, the writing/font was really hard to read, and the drawings were random and sometimes weren't even cohesive. I just didn't enjoy it at all.

The next, and main, issue is the topic overall. I wouldn't consider myself a "true crime junkie", but I do listen to some podcasts, have watched a few movies, and sometimes watch videos on YouTube talking about it. But I've found myself leaning further and further away from it because it's become so saturated and seems more like a fandom than anything else. Which is EXACTLY what this book did. It seemed more like an ode to being a true crime junkie and viewing it more as some strange fandom than discussing true crime in general and placing the appropriate sympathy with the victims. I understand wanting to know more about true crime (as I said, I sometimes indulge myself if curious enough), but the way she talks about being OBSESSED with murder is very out of pocket and gross. This book just made me feel SUPER icky and I didn't like that at all. I definitely do not recommend this, even if you are obsessed with true crime. It's not only not a very good graphic novel, but it turns real-life murders into some gross fantasy. Ew ew ew ew.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for an advanced reader copy. All thoughts and opinions are my very own, as always.

Super-fun graphic novel memoir of that author’s lifelong true crime obsession. I am a smidge surprised that given the huge focus that she gives on several notorious crimes and staples of the genre, she doesn’t spend a little bit more time on the true crime mania.