I appreciated the perspective this author wrote from. The beginning chapters were a bit annoying with all the same rhetorical questions but the author soon found her groove and told a compelling story. I liked the inclusion of the testimonies of others and how they were able to pack a punch on their own. It was a fascinating glimpse at a child coming to terms with her childhood memories

This is a great book. I am still getting through it and I wish the chapters were shorter but it still manages to keep me reading which is definitely something. So interesting to hear about just "Ted the man" from a regular person as opposed to a crime writer or law enforcement officer. There are times you could actually feel sorry for him until you remember what he did.

This is an interesting read, but it’s more of a memoir than a true crime story. The book concentrates as much – or more – on her own life and her parents’ lives as it does on Ted Kaczinsky’s, bringing us not just details about the Unabomber case, but her own personal interactions with “Teddy” when she was a small child, details about the town, the Montana mountains, her parents and how it affected all of them to learn the truth about their harmless hermit neighbour.

There isn’t a whole lot in here about Kaczinsky that I didn’t already know, but it was interesting to get her take on this serial killer she’d known her whole life. I appreciate and commend the author’s dedication in trying to understand her old neighbour, to understand what motivated him, what caused his anger, and to acknowledge his pain – not in excusing his murders, but in understanding why.

So much has been written about Ted Kaczynski in the decades since his arrest. What else could there to be said about the Unabomber? Well, in this memoir from Kaczynski's neighbor, not much. Jamie Gehrig's "Madman in the Woods: Life Next Door to the Unabomber" brings little new to Kaczynski. That's not surprising considering she was a child for much of the time her family lived next door to him. There is enough here to merit an essay, but certainly not a whole book. It's a memoir that repeatedly focuses on Gehrig's "need to know more" about the man who held her once as a baby. Her father was heavily connected to the case, but it feels like Gehrig is grasping at nothing to find her own.
Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Diversion Books for sharing this advance copy with me in exchange for my honest review.
2.5/5

Full disclosure, I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review:

I started this somewhat skeptical of the subject. Often with second hand peek into the vicinity of a criminal can seem reaching and self inserting. At the beginning of the book I felt like this was the case.

It started with very casual encounters and had a slow lead-up to increasingly alarming interactions. Half way though, Jamie had me hooked. I loved her descriptions, her categories, and her exploration of the lives Ted hurled into disarray.

Her writing is humanistic and compelling. She captures madness and murderous rage; she also captures and searches for scraps of Ted that are are "normal" and caring. This would be a wonderful book for book clubs.

I was a bit unsure if I would like this book, but it turns out I loved it. This is one that will stick with me for a long, long time.

Jamie Gehring grew up next door to Ted Kaczynski. He held her when she was just a baby. He dined with her family. And then he deliberately, brutally, killed people via packages. Sometimes even those that he didn’t intend to kill. And he felt no remorse about it. Could this be the same man that brought Jamie a hand-carved cup as a gift?

Jamie explores her memories about Ted, as well as factual accounts from others that knew him, investigators on the case, and Ted’s own journals. She dispels myths about Kaczynski’s environmental agenda, and brings the truth of a brutal, calculated psychopath to light.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this free arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I'm sorry to say I found this memoir pretty boring. There is enough new here about Ted Kaczynski for a decent essay, but not an entire book. There is a lot of information about the author after her childhood, which I didn't find particularly interesting, and what felt like endless repetition of some version of "I needed to know more." I can understand her fascination with Kaczinski, since she knew him when she was a child and he was sending bombs to people and trying to blow up airplanes, but what she writes about her relationship with him wasn't fascinating to me. The author also jumps around in time a lot, which I sometimes found hard to follow.

The worst new thing I found out about Kaczinski is that on top of sending inexact bombs that didn't even kill the right targets, he poisoned and shot many pets over the years. This book might appeal more to readers who enjoy memoirs by ordinary people than people wanting insight into the Unabomber. The author was working through grief over the loss of her young sister and her father when she started this book. I hope she found some solace.

The most riveting part by far was the last quarter or so of the book, which details Kaczinski's crimes, arrest, and trial. Readers who already know a lot of about the Unabomber probably won't find anything new in that section.

I read an advance reader copy of Madman in the Woods from Netgalley.

I can't even begin to imagine what the Gehring family must have gone through when finding out who they thought was just their eccentric hermit neighbor know as "Teddy" was in fact the elusive Uniabomber. Jamie Gehring takes us both through her family life next door to Ted Kaczynski, and how her dad helped the FBI in their pursuit and eventual capture of one of the worst and longest acting criminals in history. This book is detailed and has experts from some of the victims' families, so it's not for the faint of heart.

For a true crime buff looking to gain insight into one of the most notorious cases of the 20th century, this book makes for a fascinating read, able to delve into Ted’s mindset and motivations without losing sight of the victims he left in his wake.

A superbly written, fascinating, compelling, and often disturbing account of growing up next to one of America's most infamous serial killers. This isn't Dateline; it's an inside and thorough look at what it was like to be in such close proximity to a deeply disturbed individual. I'm just glad Jamie Gehring was able to tell the tale! And what a tale it is. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and Diversion Books for the ARC.

Also reviewed on Goodreads

I enjoy non fiction and true crime but unfortunately I didn’t find my interest become anchored in this book. Perhaps it’s the subject matter, it just isn’t a case that I particularly felt like diving into (I have watched Manhunt: Unabomber on Netflix so am already quite familiar with this widely-known case). Thanks to Netgalley for the arc.

Fabulous truestory that I could not put down. Would highly recommend to fans of this genre. Great writing.

Sure, most everyone knows who the Unabomber is. But this goes beyond what is typically known on the subject. Such a creepy book, yet I couldn’t put it down. Imagine having the Unabomber as your weird neighbor. The author was even held by him as a baby. This just really would make you question everything you thought about your childhood, after it came out that he was the bomber. Gehring really did a deep dive into Kaczynski’s life, trying to sort out why he was the way he was. She has a few insights she gained during her research that were intriguing. A really good true cime read. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I receive an ARC of Madman in the Woods, by Jamie Gehring. I found this book to be boring. Everyone knows Ted Kaczynski, him and I grew up in the same town, not at the same time though. I did not really learn anything new.

When I saw this title, it immediately lured me in…..Realizing it was about the Unabomber just continued that intrigue to find out more. . I vaguely remember hearing about him in the passing news being young and self-centered at the time but I didn’t know much about him.
This gave me the opportunity to learn about the questions people may have had about him.
An easy read which is always appreciative. I like to read to wind down from daily life.
Thank you giving me the opportunity. Certainly a title and story to pass along. .

Never in your wildest dreams would you imagine being 'involved' with an infamous criminal and, thankfully, most of us probably never will. So you can certainly understand why, if you had lived next door to one, been brought presents by him, watched your parents have dinner and play cards and chat along without any cares or concerns, you would want to try and unpick some of this when you got older.
Every infamous case has a plethora of books spring from it's existence, viewed from every angle and everyone trying to get 'their side' across and this one has more accessibility for the 'layman' than most as it isn't through the eyes of a 'professional'.
I really enjoyed the feeling that the author was learning and uncovering elements about the situations they had found themselves in just as we were and some of the revelations were chilling to read, so I can only imagine the impact they must have felt.
The input from a very wide range of sources (police, family, other 'locals', even the man himself) into the writing gives it a breadth and depth that really captures the physical, emotional, spiritual and actual. I thoroughly recommend this book.

This is a haunting, informative and extremely interesting story about the enigmatic Unabomber John Kaczynski.
It is refreshing to read a story from the perspective of a young girl who grew up near John, as he for so many years was extremely elusive and managed to escape the attention of the authorities.
A great read, well written.

There are those experiences in life that when we look back have somehow come to define our life journey. For "Madman in the Woods" author Jamie Gehring, one of those experiences is the subject of her work here as "Madman in the Woods: Life Next Door to the Unabomber" explores a childhood spent living in the deep woods of Montana with Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, as her family's closest neighbor.

"Madman in the Woods" vividly captures the uniqueness of this experience, simultaneously humanizing Kaczynski while also attempting to reconcile this man who would display occasional kindnesses, especially toward her, with the man who would also become known as the longest active domestic terrorist in U.S. history who would eventually be known as responsible for mailing explosives to strangers that would kill three and wound 23 others before his 1996 capture and subsequent eight lifetime prison sentence that is being served at Colorado's notorious Supermax.

One can practically feel the psychological wheels turning for Gehring in "Madman in the Woods," a book that spends nearly as much time processing Gehring's own unique childhood as it does Kaczynski's connection to it.

While "Madman in the Woods" does, at least on some level, humanize Kaczynski it does not, it must be acknowledged, romanticize or excuse him.

"Madman in the Woods" plays out like a psychological drama, a young woman forced to look at the distorted innocence of youth when it's realized that the same odd hermit who brought her painted rocks as a gift in childhood was also far more menacing than initially realized to locals who conflicted with his worldviews and who was also, quite simply, a killer who actively desired to kill far more than he was able to kill with his destructive yet often crude bombs.

The book paints a portrait of a young man whose genius was obvious early on, though his inconsistent childhood left him ill-prepared emotionally and developmentally to deal with his childhood, his parents, his genius, and his remarkable promise. Entering Harvard at age 16, Kaczynski was thrust into a world for which he had almost no coping skills and it became a world that altered a psyche that was already a bit distorted. From failed attempts at relationships to work experiences that would implode when those around him failed to live up to his standard, it seems almost inevitable that Kaczynski was headed toward a different sort of life but few could imagine it would include a path of destruction.

"Madman in the Woods" finds Gehring trying to reconcile this chasm of different life experiences, an effort both internally and externally realized. The book finds Gehring's research, admittedly a term I find somewhat loosely utilized here, to include established correspondence with those who investigated the Unabomber, those who were impacted, Kaczynski's former friends and family and, yes, finally Kaczynski himself as he would even respond to her inquiries.

"Madman in the Woods" is an engaging read, a book both intelligently realized and emotionally resonant with a deep core of heart amidst all of its fact-finding. As "Madman in the Woods" begins to wind down it becomes, at least for me, a little too procedural in nature as I found myself most enthralled by Gehring's vivid descriptions of her Montana life with an eccentric oddball nearby who was never quite friendly but was often sociable enough for his eccentricities to be dismissed and for him to be welcomed into the Gehring family home.

How do you reconcile it when everything you thought you understood about your childhood turns out to be a combination of rose-colored glasses and based upon unrealized truths? This question is at the heart of "Madman in the Woods" and Gehring explores her own answers with intelligence, insight, honesty, and heart in a book that doesn't necessarily reveal a lot of new information about Kaczynski but adds layers of depth to its meaning.

"Madman in the Woods: Life Next Door to the Unabomber" will be released in April 2022 by Diversion Books.

Madman in the Woods tells the story of author Jamie Gehring, who as a child lived with her family in the wilderness of Montana. Little did they know that Ted Kaczynski, the infamous Unabomber, lived in a cabin adjacent to their home. The book is an interesting and unique perspective of the author’s interaction with Kaczynski, and her attempt to reconcile the neighbor she knew only as Ted, to the murderer he was, and the unknown dangers she and her family faced living so close to him. It’s an intriguing read, interspersed with passages from Kaczynski’s journal along with her recollections and those of her family and friends, as well as interviews with the FBI agents who worked the case and Kaczynski’s brother, who ultimately provided the tip that lead to the Unabomber’s arrest. Well worth a read. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Madmen in the woods is a good enough book. However, there really is not any new info here. Those who have never read about the Unabomber would like this book.