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Jan 22, 2012

Paquita Maria rated it:

"Oh, I was just in the right place at the right time..."

...NOT something that many of the women in Ted Bundy's life would come to say about meeting America's Grade-A machismo pin-up boy. In fact, as far as I can tell, Ann Rule was the only person to actually benefit from knowing him. And boy, did she ever.

To state it quite plainly, Rule is not what one would call a "great" writer. Or even really a good "writer." She repeats herself to acc More...

23 comments like (30 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

S rated it:

This book was absolutely riveting. I had started reading it a while ago, but was reading another book as well and had set it aside for a while. When I picked it up again, I simply could not put it down.

Ann Rule is one of the premiere true crime writers, but what made this one special was that she had been friends with Ted Bundy (and had worked with him at a Crisis Hotline!) before he was a suspect in the myriad heinous crimes he eventually confessed to a few days before he was exec More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2008

Israel rated it:

This was a haunting book, I simply could not put it down. Ann Rule narratives are honest, straightforward accounts of events as she knows them, no sensational embellishments. An incredible true crime book.

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Una de las grandes habilidades de Ann Rule (primer libro suyo que leo) es la de poder organizar una gran cantidad de información técnica, entrevistas, evidencias y criminalistica puntual de una manera que se hace deliciosamente digerible.
More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Nov 07, 2008

Lisa rated it:

I was hooked from the first page. What an opportunity Rule had. I know that is ghoulish, but wow. This definitely made her career, and it also shows that Bundy, like many others, is more than a cardboard cut out figure of a killer.

This was really excellent. I think Rule had great insights, and I think she might be right when she said Bundy probably fooled James Dobson in the famous interview. She showed her slow realization that he was a sociopath.

I think the interesting More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 18, 2008

Tabby rated it:

Tabitha Portillo
Ms.Rogal
Strategic Reading
November 17 2008
Book Review
The book is called RULES
By: Cynthia Lord
Ms. Lord wrote Rules to show that even though, every teenager wants a normal life, and they all want to be accepted, that it’s okay to be different and have issues. The viewers to this book should be teenagers, simply because the book is all about them and the situations they may face in life. For instance this book also fits the teenagers becau More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 31, 2008

Brenda rated it:

I adore the way Ann Rule tells her stories. I read this book when I was in college...living on the bottom floor of a dormitory... I was freaked out for a few months after finishing. You will understand once you pick this one up.

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 30, 2009

Bren rated it:

TED BUNDY WAS, to Ann Rule, the sort of low-maintenance manner of friend with whom one conversed once in a great while, just to exchange news or perhaps share the occasional lunch. There were times, late at night, when the two worked together at a Washington state crisis hotline - and this bothered the then small-time crime column writer not at all. Ted Bundy made her feel safe, in fact, when local women were turning up missing - and, eventually, murdered.

In writing this book, it be More...

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Jan 18, 2009

Jack rated it:

For all that Ann Rule invokes her friendship with Bundy -both before and after Bundy's arrest - the truth is this book could have been written solely off of newspaper research and trial records. There's no real emotional-depth or analysis. And Rule's interjections of what was happening with her personal life are annoying; they don't connect to any of the other events she's writing about, and since her entire description of her feelings towards and interactions with bundy are about as dry as w More...

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Jan 05, 2009

Nick rated it:

Fascinating and extremely quick read of the story of serial killer Ted Bundy, written from the point of view of a "crime writer" who coincidentally was at one time friends with the killer. This author disturbs me nearly as much as Ted Bundy though! She is at best the most naive crime writer ever born, or at worst a knowing witness of a serial killer's career from beginning to end, possibly simply to further a dying writing career. For someone so sure of her clever criminal mind, the More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2012

Kate rated it:

Very thorough account of the life, crimes, trial, and death of serial killer Ted Bundy. Ann Rule was a crime writer who was friends with Bundy before he was ever considered as a suspect. She was hired to write the book before the killer's identity was ever known, and started work on it with Bundy's full knowledge. She starts with a brief biographical sketch, then details everything that happened in Bundy's life (the murders themselves, plus his movements and relationships and eventual arrest) fr More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 23, 2011

Doug rated it:

I've worked in prisons most of my adult life. I have looked many killers in the eyes...some who committed crimes as disturbing as Bundy's. You can see it in most of them. The most disturbing thing about Bundy is the fact that most people couldn't see it. Even his friend, Ann Rule, didn't see it.

"The Stranger Beside Me" by Ann Rule is a brilliantly constructed book. It's amazing how she transitions from not knowing anything about the murders to not believing the murders to ac More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 27, 2011

Nicola rated it:

Ann Rule’s book about Ted Bundy, The Stranger Beside Me, is undeniably compelling and well-researched, but I don’t quite think it deserves to be hailed as a ‘classic’ of true crime.

The narrative hinges on Rule’s ten-year friendship with Bundy and her initial refusal to believe he was capable of mass murder. Although this friendship clearly deeply affected Rule, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that… um… they weren’t really friends.

They met as occasional work colleagues at More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 20, 2010

Jenn rated it:

I loved reading this book...I know that sounds gruesome to enjoy reading a true crime book about one of the cruelest monsters to ever walk this earth...but it was just so spooky...I couldn't put it down, and yet I was terrified to go to sleep. I had no idea the details of ted bundy's murder spree, and couldn't believe the sneaky stealth of his midnight break ins, or his horrible treatment of the young women he killed. It was interesting to see the insight Ms Rule had through her personal relat More...

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Jul 30, 2009

Deborah rated it:

Still the most famous - and possibly the best - of the true crime genre, featuring Ted Bundy as the poster boy for America's obsession with serial killers. Rule's book stands out for a number of reasons. She knew Bundy, worked alongside him in a crisis center, and although she was a former policewoman with a real talent for researching sociopaths, Bundy was so intelligent, so charming, so seemingly "normal," that Rule never once suspected his darkness. Her fluid writing style and talen More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 18, 2009

Lori rated it:

Ann Rule's "The Stranger Beside Me" is probably the most frightening of all the accounts of Ted Bundy's murderous career. Why? Because Rule was a former policewoman, she considered Ted Bundy a co-worker and friend and never saw the sociopathic personality lurking behind his charming facade. As a society, I think we want to believe that we can easily spot those Bundys, Dahmers, Gacys . . . and Rule's book emphasizes the fact that we cannot. Those monsters blend in sometimes seamlessly w More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 13, 2009

Dreadlocksmile rated it:

Ann Rule is arguably the most talented and dedicated true crime authors ever. Her indepth research is second to none, and this book is possibly her best. She was actually one of Ted Bundy's closest friends years ago, when later the whole truth about the charming man she used to seek friendship in, came to light. This is the harrowing story of the serial killer Ted Bundy and the life he lived. Not often do you come across a true crime book with so much indepth knowledge and background information More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 13, 2009

Carmen rated it:

I don't remember where exactly I had heard of Ann Rule or who recommended her to me. I just remember walking by this title one day while it was on a special display and being very captivated by its concept. I didn't read it for any sort of morbid curiosity about serial killers or for the lurid details of Bundy's victim's deaths. I read it mainly because the idea that anyone could be a serial killer, anyone can have deep dark secrets and still appear normal in every day society can and does happe More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2011

Lucille rated it:

To all potential readers of this book, learn from my experiences. If your bedroom is in the basement, and it is midnight and you're reading The Stranger Beside Me, and you start to hear noises, just put the book down and pretend that you've never heard of Ted Bundy, because otherwise, you will not be able to sleep. And if you're in the aforementioned basement bedroom, tell the people that live with you to announce themselves when they come downstairs, because otherwise, they will scare the crap More...

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Mar 09, 2011

Dylann rated it:

I very, very much advice Ann Rule's book to any intrigued Ted Bundy mind. I read the book within a short week.

Ted Bundy was a psychopathic figure of excessive intelligence and bliss, which is seen to be distraughtly mind-blowing to the extent of his monstrous veiled behavior. As I read very persistently Ann Rule’s novel, The Stranger Beside Me, her outlook of a friend of good will and sincere nature indirectly became an excessive element of my own stream of consciousness. I was d More...

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Jan 27, 2009

Rosemary rated it:

Not long ago, true crime writer Ann Rule recalls lying on an operating table. The anesthesiologist leaned over before putting her to sleep. "Ann," the anesthesiologist said softly, "tell me, what was Ted Bundy really like?" Despite meeting Florida's electric chair in 1989, the subject of Rule's bestselling book continues to haunt her. Rule and Bundy were friends. They met in 1971 at a Seattle crisis clinic, where they shared the late shift answering a suicide hotline. Their s More...

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Aug 11, 2011

Jason rated it:

The story of Ted Bundy written with a twist. The author, Ann Rule, has made a name for herself writing true crime books. But years before she was writing books she was a single mother solely supporting her children as a late shift employee at a crisis hotline center. Working beside her...Ted Bundy! The most interesting sentence in this entire book came when she said that despite all the horrible things Ted did, she'll always remember him for all the lives he actually saved. She had to visit More...

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Feb 15, 2011

Fawn rated it:

Ted, just admit it....
-P. Farrell

I am embarrassed it took me *this* long to read such an iconic piece of true crime fare.

What are the odds? That a fact-detective writer of notable skill could unknowningly befriend one of the most hated and feared serial killers and live to tell about it with fantastical, page-turning clarity? I am intrigued by the drive and psyche of human monsters, and Rule was lucky enough (or cursed) to have been able to peek into the abyss of More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 11, 2011

Allie rated it:

Ann Rule was in a position any crime writer would be jealous of: she starts writing a book about a series of incredibly awful crimes and finds out the central suspect is a person she knows. Yet as the book went on, it seemed more like she was just another Ted Bundy "groupie," fascinated with him and unable to believe such a "nice" person would do such awful things. She doesn't go into much detail on the crimes, obviously wanting to believe, and for us the readers to also beli More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 12, 2011

Caroline rated it:

Very interesting read. The only reason I gave it four instead of five stars is because I often felt bugged that the author, who had been an old friend of Bundy's, spoke of sending him money (totalling several hundred dollars over the years) and stamps while he was in jail and continuing her communications with him for years and years and years. There seems to be an underlying sympathy toward Bundy that is hard to understand much less accept. I don't think Rule intended that, but it is there. Wit More...

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Jan 04, 2010

Amy rated it:

I've glanced at this true-crime book a lot over the years. It sounded contrived. Seriously, Ann Rule, the grande dame of true-crime writing once spent time with Ted Bundy before he was outed as the notorious serial killer that he was? But, one day I needed a quick read and if nothing else, I know Ann's writing is reliable. I wasn't expecting much. I thought perhaps their lives intersected briefly and she milked it for miles. Happily, I was wrong! Ann and Ted became fast friends in the early 1970 More...

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Mar 03, 2009

Caitlin rated it:

I'll cop to having a fixation with Bundy because one of his victims - who happened to be dating my uncle at the time - was kidnapped from the parking lot of a high school I attended. In addition, another one of his victims was abducted from a place that was right on my walking route to school when I was a kid. So reading this book was kind of weird in the way that it recast environments from my formative years as backdrops to some really heinous shit.

Aside from that, I found the book More...

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Oct 15, 2011

Joe rated it:

This book is fantastic, Ann Rule is brilliant. I always heard of Ted Bundy and the crimes he committed. I had already read a book by Ann Rule and I liked her style of writing. I was surprised to read in this book that she knew Ted personally, but he was a different person before he was known as a serial killer. He was slick, he managed to escape from the law twice. He knew how to engage with his victims well. And they never suspected he was a monster. I remember hearing about his executio More...

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Feb 17, 2009

Tara rated it:

I have to admit to being remarkably freaked out by this book. Rule has a way of capturing the emotion of a scene that I really appreciated. It's amazing to believe that despite the fact that I already knew the outcome, I was prepared to believe in her original belief of Bundy's innosence. In the 80's, when Stranger Danger and so many similar programs went into effect on after school programs and in schools, the "stranger" was always the dark unknown. He was never the paperboy, the swee More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 01, 2011

Sam rated it:

The Stranger Beside Me was a great read. Given it's a book about one of the most prolific serial killers that America has ever seen, it's a truly unique interpreation of the life of Bundy, written from someone who knew Bundy on a personal level. Ann Rule met Bundy before any of his convicted murders (although many believe he killed much earlier than he was convicted), and they formed a friendship that spanned well into Bundy's arrest, trials, and convictions. She writes intimately of Bundy as a More...

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Feb 16, 2009

Bob rated it:

Ted Bundy fascinates the heck out of me as a unique case study of an intelligent, competent and completely unrepentant sociopath.

Social scientists and psychologists predict that 5% of the U.S. population is comprised of sociopaths, though most arguably don't behave as Ted Bundy did (so far as we know). In the Criminal Justice field we're taught that approximately 6% of criminals are responsible for a disproportionately high percentage of crimes committed; some being your generally non More...

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