Jared

I cannot believe how much I liked this.

This is my first “splatterpunk” or “extreme horror” book and I’m worried that I might have started with the best of the best.

I heard that this genre was full of the edgiest, lamest attempts at shock value for the sake of shock value. This was anything but.

Most of the horror her is purely psychological. It’s a family drama at heart. Very similar to Hereditary, in that we focus on a family crumbling through the vessel of a demonic tale. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but this book handles that concept WAY better.

This book is unrelenting. It will indeed go there, but it never feels undeserved. The reason this book works so well is because it earns its depravity. It’s not just a series of increasingly vile events, it very slowly builds to a revelation.

They pull the rug out from under you right when you start to sympathize with Lori. She is a bad person and the book slowly reveals that in some of the best usage of flashbacks Ive seen in writing.

The violence is definitely extreme, but it’s rare. A majority of this film’s horror comes from its analysis of what people are capable of. Lori is pure evil, but not in a villainous way. In a purely desperate and depressing way.

I think that’s the main reason this worked. It’s not two people being tortured in a forest. It’s two people uncovering their true selves. and that’s truly terrifying.

I certainly have my issues. For one thing, I think way too much time is dedicated to these killers. I understand that this book was one of the first ever true crime novels, but that doesn’t really excuse it from falling into the common pitfalls of the genre.

That being said, this is truly the best of said genre. In Cold Blood mainly works for me because of part one. An entire third of this book is dedicated to the lives of The Cutters. Parts 2-4 would not work at all without that first part, and while the book does get worse after that, I think it’s overall paced incredibly well.

True Crime as a genre is one of my darkest vices when it comes to art. I know how exploitative it is, I know that it humanizes people who frankly don’t deserve humanization, and I know that it melodramatizes real tragedies. But sometimes, it can be great and respectful.

I heavily doubt anything in the True Crime genre will ever top this. Capote’s dialogue is so expertly written and endlessly layered. The omniscience adds a genuinely chilling atmosphere to the entirety of the aftermath.

I’m overstating my issues with the book because it really is an incredible work of genre-bending nonfiction. Almost perfectly paced and deeply empathetic, even if sometimes to its own detriment.

True Crime will probably never reach these heights again.

Wasn't at all shocked to find out the author was writing a YA dystopian after this because that's exactly how it read. Idk if this is anti-art to say but this concept would work so much better as a film.

Reggie is a pretty fascinating person. While I quickly realized that this book wasn’t going to apply to me since I’m not going to be going into any business management, I made myself stick through it. I think it was really worth it in the end.

There was a lot to learn here about leadership. I’ve always struggled with taking a leadership role directly. I’ve wanted to be a follower all of my life. But I know that I’m going to need to change that sometime. And who else to help me learn that then one of my favorite contemporary leaders: Reggie Fils-Aimé!

Reggie was very business minded here, but the reason a lot of the advice stuck with me is because he was always personal about it. Reggie understood good sales and business, but a lot of his add campaigns worked because he understood people.

Nintendo of America from the Wii to the early Nintendo Switch was objectively more personal. The company leaders were public, interacted with fans, and overall just cared. And that’s something you don’t see anymore in advertising.

I’ll miss people like Reggie. I’ve considered going into advertising, so this book might help a lot if I go into that. Thanks, Reggie!

(The only real issue I had with the book was that I wish he went more into his time at Nintendo. I would have loved a chapter or two explaining why him and Iwata and Miyamoto became quasi-mascots for the company and why that personal nature went away after the Switch era)

While there are certainly moments here that feel way too edgy for its own good, overall it’s a pretty stellar novella.

I low-key feel like this is just what the first Joker movie thought it was. Rage works better because it’s not an outright endorsement of Charlie Decker as a person.

The last moments are what’s really disturbing here. Over the course of the book, each character slowly starts to side with Charlie. Despite him being an incellian loser, they start to treat him like a hero. It all culminates in everyone violently beating on the popular kid.

Everyone supports Charlie because often people don’t really want change. People support violent causes because they find catharsis in violence.

The final chapter of the book is a letter that a student wrote to Charlie in his mental hospital. Everyone loves Charlie and their lives are all peachy.

Nothing ever happens.