Savage Appetites
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Savage Appetites Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession

Rachel Monroe2019
A provocative and original investigation of our cultural fascination with crime, linking four archetypes—Detective, Victim, Defender, Killer—to four true stories about women driven by obsession. In this illuminating exploration of women, violence, and obsession, Rachel Monroe interrogates the appeal of true crime through four narratives of fixation. In the 1940s, a frustrated heiress began creating dollhouse crime scenes depicting murders, suicides, and accidental deaths. Known as the “Mother of Forensic Science,” she revolutionized the field of what was then called legal medicine. In the aftermath of the Manson Family murders, a young woman moved into Sharon Tate’s guesthouse and, over the next two decades, entwined herself with the Tate family. In the mid-nineties, a landscape architect in Brooklyn fell in love with a convicted murderer, the supposed ringleader of the West Memphis Three, through an intense series of letters. After they married, she devoted her life to getting him freed from death row. And in 2015, a teenager deeply involved in the online fandom for the Columbine killers planned a mass shooting of her own. Each woman, Monroe argues, represents and identifies with a particular archetype that provides an entryway into true crime. Through these four cases, she traces the history of American crime through the growth of forensic science, the evolving role of victims, the Satanic Panic, the rise of online detectives, and the long shadow of the Columbine shooting. In a combination of personal narrative, reportage, and a sociological examination of violence and media in the twentieth and twenty-first century, Savage Appetites scrupulously explores empathy, justice, and the persistent appeal of violence.
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Reviews

Photo of bellamy-hill
bellamy-hill@emptylocket
3.5 stars
Jan 18, 2025
Dark
Tragic
Insightful
Fascinating
Page turning
Photo of Lindy
Lindy@lindyb
1 star
Apr 2, 2024
Photo of Lauren Attaway
Lauren Attaway@camcray
4 stars
Jan 26, 2022
Photo of Christina M Masters
Christina M Masters@xtina127
4 stars
Jan 3, 2022
Photo of death nurse
death nurse@deathnurse
3 stars
May 28, 2023
Photo of Catherine
Catherine@lightingfox
4 stars
Jan 3, 2023
Photo of Alli Sweeney
Alli Sweeney@alpalli
3 stars
Oct 17, 2022
Photo of Joe Davini
Joe Davini@Jdavini23
4 stars
Aug 12, 2022
Photo of Rachel McKay
Rachel McKay@jud3sgf
4 stars
Aug 11, 2022
Photo of Sarahi Flores
Sarahi Flores@thrillerromance
4 stars
May 19, 2022
Photo of Emily K McCullar
Emily K McCullar@mccullarmebad
4 stars
Jan 25, 2022
Photo of Caitlin Snyder
Caitlin Snyder@caitlinrose
2 stars
Jan 19, 2022
Photo of Paulina
Paulina @kotkulturowa
3 stars
Nov 17, 2021
Photo of Sam Spott
Sam Spott@samalot
5 stars
Nov 1, 2021
Photo of Sarah Agterhuis
Sarah Agterhuis@saphfyre42
5 stars
Oct 7, 2021
Photo of Joy Cullinan
Joy Cullinan@joycanread
4 stars
Oct 6, 2021
Photo of Lindsay Cronk
Lindsay Cronk@lindsonmars
5 stars
Sep 14, 2021

Highlights

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bellamy-hill@emptylocket
Page 219
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bellamy-hill@emptylocket
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bellamy-hill@emptylocket
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bellamy-hill@emptylocket
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bellamy-hill@emptylocket
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bellamy-hill@emptylocket
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