As someone who has consumed much true crime through television, podcasts and books, reading A Serial Killer's Daughter by Kerri Rawson was definitely a perspective you often don't get to hear. I'm sure this book truly just touched on the surface of the experience of Rawson and her family. I appreciated the perspective that Kerri shared. It's truly hard to rate a book like this because no one can put a rating on one person's incredibly traumatic life experience.

I’ve personally read a lot of true crime memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies as part of my degree. So, picking this up, I was really expecting the inside story of the family who are left behind in the devastation that their loved one has caused. However, this book left me feeling beyond uncomfortable and not in the way you’d expect.

This is Rawson’s experience, narrative and truth about her family and life. Whilst at points it could be argued this was tone-deaf and narcissistic. This is someone’s real-life story and therefore, I can’t comment on how they should act, relive, or narrate their life. I do think elements of this did offer valuable insight into the side of BTK as a ‘Dad’ and so from an academic perspective, I did find it interesting.

Personally, my actual issue was the religious aspect. Whilst I’m all for people believing what they want. As a reader who doesn’t subscribe to religion in that way, I found it to be very overwhelming and heavy. Whilst I’m glad Rawson has found comfort in Christianity, this left me wanting to skip a lot of the book.

I don’t rate non-fiction or memoirs but for me, I don’t think this is one I’d read again.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Yeah this was hard to read. I feel sorry for Kerri. It is interesting to read about the home life of a serial killer. It’s pretty eye opening. Thank you for granting me access to this arc. Overall I enjoyed it.

I have read my fair share of memoirs and I have never read one that is bad…until now. The purpose of this book was just to make money and ensure everyone knows that BTK’s daughter is the biggest victim of while still being in contact with him.

Kerri is deep in self-pity and selling Christianity. She is still contacting her father because religion tells her to forgive and that means she has to keep contacting him even though it’s clear how toxic it is.

I’m sorry to give bad reviews but this was just that bad. I guess we will see if I keep getting ARCs after this but I cannot honestly give a good review of a religious book that is trying to be sold as a true crime-related story and promoting very disturbing and toxic family practices.

Only good thing about this book is if you can read this as a guide book how people in toxic family think and reason for themselves why to keep doing wrong things to themself and their family around them and thus how do avoid yourself to let that happen.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

This book made me think about the strength of family ties. I found it meaningful to learn about their history, how Kerri and her family coped with the challenges they faced, and everything they went through and experienced after Dennis was arrested.

This memoir offers a unique and undeniably compelling perspective on one of the most infamous serial killers in American history. Kerri Rawson, daughter of Dennis Rader—better known as the BTK killer—shares her emotional journey after discovering the horrific truth about her father in 2005. What unfolds is a deeply personal account of grief, betrayal, and an ongoing attempt to reconcile the man she knew with the monster he actually was.

Rawson writes with honesty, and the trauma she describes feels real and raw. The book’s strongest elements lie in her struggle to redefine her identity and survive the emotional fallout of learning her entire life was built on a terrible lie. Her love for her family and her pain over what happened are palpable, and it’s easy to understand how deeply this revelation would shake someone to their core.

However, it’s important to note that this book is heavily steeped in religion and faith. Rawson relies heavily on her belief in God as a guiding force through her trauma, which may resonate with some readers—but as an atheist, I found this aspect difficult to connect with. At times, it even felt disingenuous or frustrating. There’s a recurring message that God helped protect her and her brother from their father’s evil, which—considering the many innocent women and children who weren’t “saved”—comes across as jarring and, frankly, comical in its contradiction. While I don’t doubt that her faith is sincere, it sometimes reads like she’s clinging so tightly to it that it borders on being emotionally disconnected from the wider tragedy.

If you’re looking for a detailed true crime narrative about the BTK case, this book isn’t that. It’s very much about Kerri’s internal process rather than her father’s crimes. And while that’s a valid and important story, readers should go in knowing this is more memoir than investigative.

Overall, this is a unique and personal story that will speak to those interested in the emotional aftermath of living with someone who hid such darkness. But the heavy religious framing and lack of broader reflection on the victims may limit its reach for secular or more critically-minded readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Nelson Books for approving me to read this eARC.

This book follows (and is written by) Kerri Rawson, the real life daughter of the serial killer BTK. The killer who bound, tortured and killed.
We get to follow along Kerri’s life as a daughter to a man who later turns out to be a killer but also her road through trauma towards healing.

This is such a hard book to review for me as it is written by the person who went through it all. This isn’t fiction where everything is just pretend. But at the same time I did not enjoy my read sad to say.

I understand the important points of showing the man behind the monster cause that’s what they all are. Mortal men and females who commit awful acts. I don’t have a problem with that but it was a slow read. Some parts could have been shortened or even removed but like I said, this author experienced this and has her right to write whatever she wants.

My biggest issue with the book is how much God plays apart in it. As an atheist (technically Christian but not a believer) I really don’t get how Americans can BELIVE so much. In a way it feels like they’re putting every good thing on God instead of their own power. Kind of sad.
Kerri is a strong woman who overcame something that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Own it. Don’t say that it’s Gods wish or whatever, she did it. She actively worked on conquering depression, anxiety and PTSD. SHE.
But I’m also happy for her that she had something to believe in cause I bet it was a comfort to her. It’s just not something that I think should matter AS MUCH. But that’s a whole other discussion for another time.

This book is such a good read but hard to read at the same time. No one thinks their family member who they love is capable of such horror. It also shows us how these monsters can have 2 sides and blend into to society better then we think. This is great for any true crime fan

What would you do if someone you loved, someone you thought you knew, turned out to be a serial killer? This book was slow at times and contained a lot of Biblical references, but it was still an informative and emotional read.

“My dad was raising children, yet he chose to take another mother away from her children. He was about to have a daughter yet took two more daughters away from their families.”

“But he was still my father, and I loved him—no matter what he had done.”

This was a book I read a few years ago, at its' original release. It was so good, I devoured it again cover to cover years later. The way the author is so real, genuine, and authentic with her feelings. The way she chooses to forgive her dad, and invite the reader into her forgiveness process and the way she is honest about the PTSD, and coming to grips with the fact her childhood wasn't as "perfect" as she truly felt it was, all help the reader step into her life and her healing. I hope this author will write more because she is truly gifted and has a story to share.

I received this book from netgalley and was not required to write a review. All opinions are mine exclusively.

I think this was interesting as it’s easy to forget about the family of the killer and they’re often unfairly tarred with the same brush. It is also eye opening to read and have examples of how someone could parent ‘normally’ but at the same time equally torture people!

Very interesting and insightful read! It gave a great outlook on what people's families go through. It's something that I think most people don't give a lot of thought to.

Serial killers' relatives are also called "secondary victims" as I can't imagine what is the choc of discovering that someone near you was ruthless killer
This is a personal memoir about BTK's daughter and not about BTK. I read that in a review that we are not able to understand why he became a killer.
Got a news for you if you are expecting to reading about the killings or the mind of a serial killer: nobody know why they became what they are and there's plenty of true crime.
It's moving, it's very personal. It's also a book on how to surive
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

BTK is one of the serial killers that I have heard a lot about. This book gave a unique inside since it was written by his daughter. I found it very interesting and hard to put down.

Because of the publisher and the number of quotes from the Christian bible throughout the text, readers should approach the book with an understanding that this is an autobiography infused with the author's faith. It is also the story of Kerri Rawson, not of her father. It is about her childhood with the father she knew and how she reacted when he was arrested. There are not explicit details about the crimes themselves; it is about her struggle to accept that the father she knew and loved was a serial killer. There are passages about how she and her family felt which are valid given the focus of the book.
A reader who approaches the book as written will find a story of a family devastated by terrible crimes and how she used her faith and community to find something like peace.

It's pretty impossible to imagine what it's like to one day be standing in your home in your pajamas, open the door to an FBI agent and learn your dad is a prolific serial killer. But that's Kerri Rawson's story. In this memoir, Rawson walks you through the two sections of her life: before and after finding out her dad was BTK.
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I listened on audio and was touched by how gracefully Kerri handled not only relating her story, but how she handled finding out what her dad had done. She pressed into her relationship with God and let her faith be a pillar of her healing. She also openly discusses her mental health and the various healthy and unhealthy ways she sought help.
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If you are interested in true crime stories, memoirs, and/or faith accounts, you will enjoy this book.

A brave effort to tell the BTK story from an often overlooked perspective. For those seeking insights into BTK’s background and possible motivations, this book offers no answers. It exposes the simple fact that killers can come from all walks of life, with no prerequisites to point them out. The ordinariness of the Rader family makes the BTK killings all the more shocking. The heavy focus on religion is a little off putting for me as a reader, but I understand this was key to the author coming to terms with her father’s crimes and what this meant for herself and her family.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Books for gifting me a digital ARC of this true crime memoir by Kerri Rawson, daughter of self-proclaimed BTK serial killer. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 3.5 stars!

In 2005, Kerri Rawson was informed by an FBI agent that her father had been arrested for murdering ten people, including two children. It was then that she learned her father was the notorious serial killer known as BTK, a name he’d given himself that described the horrific way he committed his crimes: bind, torture, kill. As news of his capture spread, Wichita celebrated the end of a thirty-one-year nightmare. For Kerri and her family, another nightmare was beginning.

I feel for Kerri and her family. I believe that they didn't know that their father was a serial killer. I believe that they are victims of him as well. And that's what this book is about - the victimization of Kerri and her family and how they dealt with their trauma. I found it interesting to have Kerri look back and correlate what was happening in her family when her father was committing these brutal murders. Trust the title of this book and know that it is about her and her family and their trauma, rather than a true crime story of how he committed and got away with these murders for so long. We all know that story. There is a lot of religious conversation in this book, and that's how Kerri was able to cope. More power to her. This book may bring hope to those suffering from PTSD.

As others have mentioned, this is primarily a Christian memoir about Kerri‘s life. The book is at 45% before she finds out her dad is a serial killer and the entire book before that is about camping trips, breaking her arm, playing at her grandparents, her cousin dying in a car accident, meeting her husband and God. After she finds out, the rest of the book is about her crappy jobs, her and her husband’s apartment and furniture, how awful everything that happened was for her and her mom, her pregnancies and births of her children, letters back and forth with her father in prison, and lots more about her relationship with God.

We don’t really get much of a glimpse into what on earth made her father such a psychopath and she mostly tries to still portray him as a mostly good guy, which is dumbfounding since even her so called happy memories of him show that he was an abusive, misogynistic, angry, horrible person.

It also was extremely offputting the way she glossed over the horrific things her father did and focused so little on his poor victims, calling her family his other victims. She couldn’t even write what he did in this book, focusing instead on her ptsd from her father’s arrest as if it compared to what others suffered, like the three children her father locked in a bathroom while he murdered their mother.

Lastly, it was rather sickening how often she suggested that God intervened for her in helping her brother during a camping trip, helping her get through upsetting times, etc as though God chose not to save her young cousin from her car crash or to save the men, women and children that her father brutalized, tortured and killed.

I now know all about every minutia of her life but it wasn’t very interesting and she wasn’t very likable, even though I do feel pity for her (not for being BTK‘s daughter as much as being so brainwashed in such a patriarchal, abusive culture that her whole family seems still stuck in).

I read a digital ARC of this book via netgalley.