Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters by Peter Vronsky Buddy Read

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Keiria and I are gonna be starting this book this week! If anyone else is as intrigued by serial killers as we are and would like to join us, feel free to do so! :)

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

I think I'm gonna start this tonight and read a little bit of it before bed. Bad idea? Who knows! We'll see in the morning. Lol.

[Keiria]

So i'm a little behind. I'll be starting this book today!

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

That's okay! I haven't read much of it. I read the preface and then like 1-2 pages of the first chapter. But so far I like it!

[Keiria]

I haven't read much either... maybe a few more pages than that (i'm at location 512 lol). I did want to point out that i used to work with people that worked with Ted Bundy's father. The day Ted Bundy was arrested, the police showed up to provide protection and escort his father home. I did find it interesting the number of times that he references Jack... i need to look for a non-fiction book on our pal Jack!

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

I'm on location 560!

Really?! That is insane! And Jack as in the Ripper?? Omg. Very interesting indeed.

I always find it crazy how people bump into serial killers, as the author talked about in the preface. And then I wondered to myself if I have ever bumped into a serial killer, completely unaware O.O

One of the last lines I read 2 days ago before I went to sleep: "I shuddered when I heard somebody explain that serial killers might be strangers—but only to you. They become very familiar with you if they pick you as their target—you are no stranger to them." This line absolutely horrified me!

[Keiria]

It's true though. I was with a guy that also had a serial killer fascination. There was a series on the crime channel about serial killers. They all seemed to have 2 things in common - 1. They were "normal" and 2. They could be charming. Ted Bundy was supposedly very charming... that's disturbing

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Yes! That's what I'm gathering from reading this book: that most serial killer are charming and have a seemingly normal life, sometimes even with a wife and kids. That's insane!

[Keiria]

So I finally finished the first chapter last night. I jumped from 6 to 7% finished & my kindle time to read said 34 minutes. I'm just now realizing how massive this book is!

[Kayleigh {K-Books}, YA Fantasy Fan]

Oh yeah they usually do. Sorry I'm not reading this but I teach Psychology and we look at criminal behaviour all the time. A lot of serial killers are very normal and have a very charasmatic personality. That's what's so fascinating.

I remember reading about one particular serial killer who was very much into bondage and he would go on dating sites to meet men and then have a bondage sexual relationship with them and then kill them and chop them up. Yet in his day job he worked in a cinema and would buy sweets for the poorer children so they weren't left out from their friends. It's such a drastic change from the two behaviours and really interesting to analyse.

The exception was Ian Brady of course. He is still the one person to score to highly on the psychopath test. He truly was just psychotic with no emotion.

[Keiria]

I have a minor in forensic science & we had to take a criminal psychology class as part of the curriculum. Eileen Wournos was one that we covered (I went to an all women's college) and as fascinating as male serial killers are, the women are even more so (at least in my opinion).

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Don't worry about it, Kay! Your expert opinion is appreciated! :)

Keiria, my Kindle was telling me it would take me 10 hours to read the whole book O.O lol

Female serial killers are certainly a bit more interesting to me, but I think that's mostly because you don't ever hear much about them as you do male serial killers. It's very strange. I wonder why...

[Keiria]

That 34 minutes was for the chapter that I just finished. My total time left is 10 hours & 45 minutes. Oy!

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

I'm at 9% and my Kindle is telling me I've got 11 hrs and 56 min left to go! It's sooooo long! Lol

[Keiria]

Haha we're going to be reading this book until the new year! especially knowing that we're both multiple book readers

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Seriously! Lol. And also, this book talks about some real heavy, disturbing stuff, and idk about you but I gotta take breaks from this book! I like it and it's interesting, but sometimes, the situations they describe, it can be too much!

[Keiria]

Oh I'm totally with you on that one! I also have to be careful of when in my day I read this book because it can change my mood.

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

I can see how that could happen--it's some dark stuff!

[Keiria]

so i'm doing a little reading during my lunch break at work and there have been so many points where i've been left shaking my head in amazment (and obviously not in a good way!). My favorite line so far: "In Copenhagen, Denmark, two surgeons, one of them a police pathologist, were sentenced to life in prison for the murders of ten women. The police pathologist had performed the forensic autopsies on some of his own victims."

Unbelievable!

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

I just read that part a couple of days ago! It's insane! And surgeons no less! As a medical professional myself, I'm always shocked when I read about something like this 😔

[Keiria]

lol how about as a human being?! I think that's why i find serial killers so fascinating (not always in a good way). I could never and would never harm someone else so learning what makes someone, who derives pleasure from killing someone else, tick really fascinates me.

[Keiria]

Also, I figured out the perfect time for me to read this book... if i read it during my lunch break at work, i then get so focused on my work in the afternoon that it doesn't really change my mood or anything. So i'll most likely only read this book Mon - Thurs (it really is going to take me forever to read!)

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Good point. I guess what I was trying to say is that it's just unbelievable to me how they can betray the trust of someone who is quite literally putting their health and safety in the hands of these doctors who took an oath to save lives and do no harm. People trust them! You should be able to trust your doctors/other medical professional, and yet, you just never know with people...

That's a good system of reading this book! Lol. I just read it when the mood strikes. Lol. So I'm a home care nurse and I take care of this little girl with a tracheostomy, and last week we started to go back to preschool (I obviously have to go with her to monitor her airway... although things are mostly boring 'cause she's super stable!) I get quite a bit of down time while she's doing her thing at school so I always have something with me to read. Well, one day last week I pull out this book to read but I stopped almost immediately because it just didn't feel right! Not in front of a bunch of toddlers. Not that they knew what I was reading, but still. I don't why I thought that would be a good idea. Lol. Anyway, that's the one place I probably wont be reading this book.

[Keiria]

I totally understand what you're saying. You should be able to trust your doctors completely. With them being surgeons, they could easily "slip" in the OR and write it off as a medical complication. Disgusting!

As for not reading at school, I can see where that would be weird. I'd feel just as off reading a romance novel there lol

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Exactly!

Right? Lol. I don't even read romances, but when I read an adult urban fantasy or whatever and things start to get sexy, I feel weird wherever I am lol. Like other people know what I'm reading... lol

[Keiria]

Lol that's my favorite reason for owning a kindle! No one can see what I'm reading!! Although, my other half will often lean over and read the page I'm reading just to see what I'm reading. He informed me that Red Queen was weird & messed up based on her early description of Silvers.

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Oh my gods, that is so funny! But true! When you're on your kindle no one knows what you're reading lol. Although I do tend to prefer physical copies of books.

[Keiria]

its funny, i'm reading so many books right now and only 2 of them are paper. One i read roughly 10 pages/week with my department at work. The other, i try to read 1 chapter/day but its so easy to switch back and forth between the other 6 that i'm reading on my kindle that the one paper book that i'm reading at home often gets ignored. I have been a kindle user since the gen 1 version came out in 2007 and i still predominently read on the kindle.

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Yeah that is so nice that you can switch between books just like that on Kindle! For me, I typically always carry around a hard copy of a book and my Kindle, so I can read whatever strikes the mood whenever I want! I've been really good about reading one book at a time because I also like to read many books at once. But this can also get overwhelming for me sometimes and these last couple of weeks I just started one book after another without finishing a single one. I'm finally back down to one: this one, and it feels so good! But I'm gonna be starting another fiction book pretty soon here... I just don't know which one yet. Lol

[Keiria]

Lol I told my other half that after I finish War Storm (Red Queen book 4) that I'm not starting another fiction book until I get my currently reading list down to 3 books max. I'm up to 9 now & it's a bit ridiculous

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

NINE! Wow! And I thought my 5 were a bit much! Lol

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

So I was just about to start the part with Jack the Ripper before my library loan expired lol. So that's were I'm at. I decided to buy the book from Book Outlet since the library loan is only 14 days long and I am going to need more time than that to finish this book! Lol.

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

I just got it from the library again for 14 days... I forgot I had put it on hold again. Lol. Anyway I'm on location 1375. Now that I have it again, I'm hoping to get a bit of it read these next couple of days.

[Keiria]

I'm at location 1623... about to start reading about the Boston Strangler

[Keiria]

We definitely have some killers we need to talk about chick! Elizabeth Bathory, that rich French dude that killed little boys (i can't remember his name)... and the Boston Strangler. Wow... that section left me feeling astounded and unresolved. I didn't get the closure by learning why he did what he did and why it was so all over the place... Also, those stats! Albert was a serial killer waiting to happen!

[Keiria]

So I'm scrolling through Netflix and I come across a series called Ripper Street... wanna guess what it's about? 🙂

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Our good old pal Jack! Omg! I added it to my watchlist!

And yes we need to talk about a lot of stuff! I actually have heard about Elizabeth Bathory before, but only very briefly. It was very interesting to see all the details regarding her kills. She was insane! I can't believe she bathed in the blood of young women thinking that it would help her maintain her youth!

And the guy who killed the little boys... that was disgusting! Especially when he actually sounded like a decent guy... before we were told about the awful things he did.

Tomorrow I'm gonna sit down and dedicate some time to this book--I'm so behind! Lol

[Keiria]

Elizabeth Bathory comes into play in . i won't spoil it for you since i know you haven't read it yet... but i didn't realize she was as depraved as she was until i read that section about her in this book.

It was pretty sad that the townspeople were aware that boys were going into his castle never to be seen or heard from again but that nothing could be done until the church got involved. It often feels like there was very little law & order back then. I know that forensics weren't really a thing so crimes often went unpunished for that reason but in this case, the whole town knew he was murdering boys and nothing could be done.

Back to Ripper Street... i watched the first episode. Its not really about Jack, more like crime in a post JTR society. It's still pretty interesting.

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Really?! That is awesome! Every time I learn something new about this series it just makes me want to read it that much more! I really need to get to it asap!

Yeah, I agree! It's so insane it makes me frustrated! But I guess they had different societal rules back then...

Aw :( I do like true crime stuff so I might give it a shot anyway.

I just finished reading the part with the Boston Strangler (and am currently in the middle of reading about Ted Bundy) and you are right! All those statistics were just stacked against him! It's so crazy how many of those statistics he fell under! One quote that kind of made me pause was: "DeSalvo had been given a psychiatric examination at Bridgewater mental hospital, and it was recommended that he be put into a psychiatric unit instead of prison. It might have worked in this case, because it appears that DeSalvo was aware of his compulsions and sincerely wanted to be free of them." I also found it kind of funny how he was apparently the Measuring Man, the Green man, AND the Boston Strangler. Busy guy.

[Keiria]

He was a busy guy but if you think about it he was merely upping his game. Peter talks about how Ted would take another step toward becoming a serial killer and then find something to distract himself and step back until eventually, he couldn't resist killing anymore. I feel like DeSalvo was very similar but his "step back" came after he was finished killing.

I just finished chapter 3... I feel like I'm going to be reading this book FOREVER. lol

The 3rd book in the Stalking Jack the Ripper series comes out in September. I'm not sure if she's working on a 4th book or not but I can't wait to read the 3rd one!

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Yeah that was very interesting how they would take a step back and they knew what they were doing wasn't right. But I guess that's what a compulsion is, right?

"When serial killers “realize” their murderous goals by killing, they frequently find the experience of murder disappointing and need to commit another in some improved way, hoping for a better payoff to the fantasy."

It's fascinating in the most messed up way.

I finished Chapter 3 yesterday too! It does feel that way, doesn't it? Lol.

Oh! You mentioned that Elizabeth Bathory appears in the second book, do you happen to know of any nonfiction books about her?

[Keiria]

There's a book by James Oliver that looks promising & it's available on KU

[Keiria]

and Legacy of Histories Most Prolific Female Serial Killer

[Keiria]

Sorry, that should have said: Elizabeth Bathory: Life and Legacy of Histories Most Prolific Female Serial Killer

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Thank you! It looks really interesting!

[Keiria]

I thought so. I'll probably read one of the many books about JTR next

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Awesome! Speaking of our good old pal Jack, you were wondering whether there would be a 4th Stalking Jack the Ripper book, and I just found out there is!! The author on Twitter mentioned something about the 4th SJTR book earlier today!

[Keiria]

Good to know! I really love that series. When are you going to jump into that one? Lol

[Liliana, YA Paranormal Lover]

Ummm... soon. 😅 Lol. I actually hope to get to it before the month ends!

[Keiria]

haha i really think you're going to like it! so confession, i haven't read any of this book this week. My co-worker is on vacation for the week and i'm her backup when she's out of the office so i've been pulling double duty all week at work. I haven't been able to read over my lunch break at all this week :-(