William Snyder
- 1
- review
- 7
- helpful votes
- 12
- ratings
-
The Wilderness of Ruin
- A Tale of Madness, Fire, and the Hunt for America's Youngest Serial Killer
- By: Roseanne Montillo
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars 70
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Story3 out of 5 stars 65
In the early 1870s, local children begin disappearing from the working-class neighborhoods of Boston. Several return home bloody and bruised after being tortured while others never come back. With the city on edge, authorities believe the abductions are the handiwork of a psychopath until they discover that their killer - 14-year-old Jesse Pomeroy - is barely older than his victims.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
A jumbled, muddled mess
- By William Snyder on 05-05-15
- The Wilderness of Ruin
- A Tale of Madness, Fire, and the Hunt for America's Youngest Serial Killer
- By: Roseanne Montillo
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
A jumbled, muddled mess
Reviewed: 05-05-15
Too many irrelevant characters. Too much unnecessary detail. Poorly constructed chronology. There was simply no need for over half of the book. Why the author thought it necessary to tell Melville's lIfe story (or believed it was relevant to the main character) is beyond me. Presumably, it was to show a) Melville believed that whiteness could represent evil, and b) Melville struggled with mental illness. If that was the reason, though, surely it could have been accomplished in a briefer fashion? Regardless, the reliance on Melville turned this into an incoherent mess about a number of unconnected Bostonians rather than an interesting biography of a troubled, psychopathic youth.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful