The Monster of Florence

The Monster of Florence

2008 • 354 pages

Ratings19

Average rating3.5

15
bunnykaiju
EmilySupporter

I wanted to like this but I found it to be convoluted at times. There were a lot of unnecessary historical descriptions and personal anecdotes from the author that just didn't have to be made. The focus was not really on the monster murders as much as it was a strange memoir about a ,”famous author and his family” in Italy and his experiences with the corrupt justice system there. Every time things got interesting the focus would suddenly shift and I found myself skimming through to find out where the story picked up pace again. Preston also kept weirdly name-dropping and propping himself up as a “bestselling author” throughout. Overall, the language is dated, the tone is distracting and it ended up being three books jammed into one. I feel like I still don't know enough about this case and will have to learn about it elsewhere.

November 4, 2019