The Perfect Father: The True Story of Chris Watts, His All-American Family, and a Shocking Murder in Obsessed with True Crime

Feb 23, 2020 Stephanie rated it it was amazing

The outline of the story of what happened to Shan’ann Watts of Colorado in August 2018 is fairly well known. She, along with her two daughters and the son who was due the following January, disappeared and her husband Chris was all over the media, pleading for their safe return. TBH I had no idea what had been going on in their lives that led up to the grisly conclusion to this mystery, and being a true crime junkie, I was happy to receive an advance copy of The Perfect Father by John Glatt from The outline of the story of what happened to Shan’ann Watts of Colorado in August 2018 is fairly well known. She, along with her two daughters and the son who was due the following January, disappeared and her husband Chris was all over the media, pleading for their safe return. TBH I had no idea what had been going on in their lives that led up to the grisly conclusion to this mystery, and being a true crime junkie, I was happy to receive an advance copy of The Perfect Father by John Glatt from St. Martins Press and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The subtitle of the book is “The true story of Chris Watts, his All-American family, and and a shocking murder,” so there’s no spoiler to say that there was a horrible resolution to the disappearance and subsequent search that was all over the media that summer. Also, it is pretty well accepted that Chris is a monster, and NOTHING justifies his actions…but it’s a real train wreck, and sometimes it’s hard to look away…

I wasn’t aware that although Chris and Shan’ann Watts appeared to be the “perfect family” and she posted EVERYTHING on social media to reflect that perfection, the true story is that the reality didn’t match the presentation. (As my friend says, “I wish I had the life I put on Facebook.”)

After moving from North Carolina to Colorado, Chris worked for Anadarko Petroleum and Shan’ann sold weight loss supplements (Thrive). He made over 60K a year and she was VERY successful in the world of multi-level marketing, selling $720, 699 (!!) worth of Thrive products in 2017, winning vacation trips, a Lexus, etc.

But no matter how much they earned, they spent way more. Shan’ann was pregnant with their second daughter in mid-2018, and they filed for bankruptcy in June. At that time, despite their combined earnings, they owed almost $450,00 (including $70,000 in credit card, medical, and student loan debt). They lived in a huge house and she drove a Lexus but they had less than $10 in their two savings accounts and $860 in their checking account. So no matter how it all looked on social media, things were not good financially, although she tried very hard to always appear as the happy, successful, beautiful family.

In addition to the financial issues, there were ongoing problems between Shan’ann and Chris’s parents, and because she was ALWAYS the dominant person in the marriage, she basically told him his parents couldn’t visit the grandkids. In a very creepy passage, one of Shan’ann’s friends was relating a conversation she had with Sha’nann about that visit: “I told him over my dead body…they don’t get to disrespect me and him and his kids and get rewarded.”

At some point in 2018, Chris began an affair with a woman who also worked for Anadarko, and it got very hot and heavy over that summer when Shan’ann and the kids were gone for several weeks on vacation. Shortly after she returned from that vacation, Shan’ann went on a business trip, and the morning after she got back to Colorado, she and her kids were reported missing. They apparently just vanished, and Chris was seen all over the media as the distraught spouse. It wasn’t long before the horrible truth came out…and OMG was it horrible. That man is the WORST.

The book is well done, and although it didn’t make my feelings about Chris in ANY way positive, I found it very interesting to. find out that the reality was SO different from my perception (admittedly derived mostly from media sources including mainstream news and People magazine). For a true crime book aimed at a general audience, this is definitely five stars. It includes grisly details, possibly (OK, definitely) more than some readers want to know, but I’m not sure there is any way to tell this story without that level of detail. True crime fans will love it. ...more

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Sep 20, 2023 Autumn rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, true-crime, crime, murder, kindle-unlimited, kindle

This was okay. I thought the narrator did a good job, but it felt like the whole entire book was rushed and could not end fast enough. The information was good, but I especially liked (? Is that the right word?) seeing what became of the individuals involved such as the police. It was hard to hear their struggles, but it was important to show what this can do to every person involved. I hope Chris Watts has truly found religion, as they like to say, and he is trying to become a better person. I ...more

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Aug 28, 2020 Linda Garcia rated it liked it

3 stars because the victim blaming was vile. She may have been narcissistic, controlling and bipolar but that doesn’t mean she deserved to be murdered

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