Title: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark
Author: Michelle McNamara
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count: 334
Rating: 4/5
This book was pretty hyped up and so for a while I was kind of worried about reading it. Loads of people talk about it on BookTube and in a hugely positive light, and historically that’s been kind of a red flag.
Luckily, I also had a sort of vibe about it and so I left it on the back burner for a while. By the time that I finally picked it up, I’d opted to go with it as a bedtime book, because reading about rapes and murders is always a good idea before sleeping. I think those factors helped to make sure that I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting.
I think a lot of the hype around this book actually comes from the story behind the story, rather than the book itself. I don’t want to focus on that though, because you probably know all about who wrote it, what happened to her and what eventually happened to the Golden State Killer.
Fortunately, even when you go into the book with that knowledge, it doesn’t hamper your reading. For me at least, most of the enjoyment came from following McNamara’s journey, and if you read this as almost a journal or a series of blog posts, you’re probably going to enjoy it a lot more than if you expect it to be a simple linear story following a single case from start to finish.
But the good news is that McNamara was a decent writer, and it really comes across here. I think it deserves all of the good press that it’s received, and that it’s a generally well-written book with a lot to like about it. I’d recommend it if you’ve been thinking about it, and I’d also recommend it as a good book to give to a true crime fan.
