What a powerful story about the women who often get forgotten when the media talk about serial killers. This book is about how these women are reduced to the moment they are brutally murdered, instead of the memories of who they were before. That serial killers are immortalized, but they are reduced to numbers and gruesome images. I like how this book was not explicit about the deaths, because what it is really about is how these women's future, their potential, their dreams, their happy pasts, were stripped from them. Having the past told from the perspective of women in Ansel's life was powerful. You feel the love of the mother, but also the fear, the pain, the claustrophobia of motherhood tied to an abusive man an older child who is clearly different. Then you meet Ansel as a foster child, good looking but cold and indifferent. Knowing the power of his face, but also understanding he does not feel as others do. Saffy is attracted to his quietness, but quickly fears his darkness. Hazel reveals the most about his character as she worries for her sister, who she is already feeling drift away from her. The only real moments where you hear from Ansel he is already behind bars. So mostly, you are in his brain as he relays what it is like to be on death row, how he has worked to sway a female guard to his side. You feel no real connection or sympathy for him, just sort of listening to his words and wondering if he will be able to get away with escaping. It was a look at how generally people want to hear from the man who kills women, and less from the women he impacts. This novel subverts that when he has no one to really listen to him, when his words are destroyed. It is the last few pages of this book that absolutely gutted me. I was in tears and angry and just felt so hopeless that this is often a reality for many women, for families who lose loved ones.
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