A Story It's Understandably Hard to Be Objective About.

books:


	• The Stranger Beside Me (Revised and Updated): 20th Anniversary Ann Rule Signet, 2001 - 560 pages average customer review:based on 174 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

I couldn't sleep at night!

Ann Rule really knows how to tell a story so the reader can feel every emotion! I had trouble putting this book down; then again, I had trouble falling asleep at night after reading it. The story is so detailed. I learned so much more to the Ted Bundy story than I remember seeing in the movie. Rule does a fabulous job of letting the reader get acquainted with the victims...you feel like you know them. And the fact that she knew Ted makes it even more scary. This was my first Ann Rule book, and I have purchased a few more of hers. I would highly recommend this book if you want to know everything about the most notorious serial killer of our time.

for more information click here

Couldn't put it down

I originally read the book mainly for the purpose of a term paper I was doing for school. I'm majoring in Criminal Justice and find the minds of serial killers to be so interesting. So, when I chose to do my paper on Ted Bundy, I figured I would be reading a book simply to get a term paper written. However, I ended up loving the book and couldn't put it down. I found myself looking forward to having free time just so that I could use that free time to read more of the book and get further into it. Needless to say the book was great from beginning to end. I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys True Crime books, especially when they are written by someone who personally knew the person who the book is about.

for more information click here

Possibly the best true crime book ever written

This is a non-sensational, detailed and well-documented account of Ted Bundy's killing career. What makes it all the more gripping is the fact that not only did the author know Bundy but was his close friend. But, there was a side to him that she never knew. It was obviously a traumatic experience for her from which she still hasn't recovered.

What makes Bundy alternately fascinating and chilling is the fact that he had absolutely nothing to gain from his murders. They were committed, apparently, for the sheer pleasure Bundy got from killing. The killings were the ultimate compulsion. Rule documents this quite well. What she fails to do is provide an understanding of Bundy, of what "made him tick." This is not to fault her; I don't think anyone could. She provides considerable detail about some childhood traumas that Bundy suffered, such as believing for a long time that his mother was his sister, but ultimately these details don't explain anything. Many people have suffered from far worse traumas, childhood and otherwise, than Bundy, but hey didn't go on to become serial killers. So this is something we probably will never know.

Ann Rule has since gone on to a brilliant writing career, but this is the book that got it all started. Highly recommended.

for more information click here

A Story It's Understandably Hard to Be Objective About.

How many times have you heard people watching the news when a killer similar to Bundy and Dahmer make comments like, "How could anyone be friends with THAT?" For years I wondered this myself until picking up Ann Rule's book, The Stranger Beside Me.

Imperative to the story, which some people are complaining about, is Rule's own reactions to a man she never dreamed capable of committing the heinous crimes he proved to be more than guilty of in the end. She gave an account in the beginning of knowing an unsure, intelligent, bright young man whom she'd spent hours with working a suicide prevention hotline (yes, I find that baffling as well), having gotten to know and respect him well. He was not, as some people pointed out, insane, but a man who was intelligent beyond most people's grasp, and that is probably what made him more frightening than anything else. For all those people who don't understand, I empathized for years until reading this account. Given her portrait of the young college student she'd first met, I could see how a relative or friend doesn't want to believe the worst about somebody they have been so close to, yet most people don't get it because they have never, and probably never will, know a notorious sociopath who is clever enough to compartmentalize his life to the degree that Bundy did. In fact, I still find it amazing that Rule was capable of corresponding with him long after realizing that he was guilty. The individual human mind is capable of conjuring up coping mechanisms in ways science and society may never figure out, and Rule probably had to keep corresponding with him in order not to break. It is obvious from her writing the years of strain she has gone through. How did she know that, later being contracted to write about the elusive killer named Ted, that it would turn out to be her dear friend? You have to walk a mile in her shoes before judging her, and it's not an enviable position.

I'm pleased that she gave the victims a tangible quality in their lives, so as to preserve the lives of their spirits in some way. After all, as she had stated, nobody really remembers their names except those close to them, and Ted is still a "star."

The story still bothers and scares me tremendously, makes me wonder if my neighbors have something to hide. After all, the Bundy monster is gone, but how many are out there free that have taken his place? I bet some of you have contemplated the same. One thing that is more terrifyingly certain is this: Bundy was NOT insane, he was evil, and that is more frightening than a madman. When he escaped to Florida, did he think the death penalty there would keep him from killing again, or was it a death wish? We may never know. Apparently, the lack of catering to his gargantuan male ego was what fueled him to kill again when he realized nobody recognized him in the Sunshine State. This was when I really began to hate him, and it would have been sooner if not for Rule's human portrayal. After his Florida rampage, they couldn't kill that selfish, conceited, egomaniacal sociopath fast enough. To me, if it's possible, the crimes seemed even worse than if they'd never caught him at all. Then again, would they have escalated anyway?

Ann Rule's book both shows the chilling factors of a man who could seem so human, have everything going for him, yet be so emotionless as to let his violent fantasies turn him into a glimpse of hell. The only reason he confessed to so many crimes was to save his own life. The only reason he didn't confess to more was to save his own life. His tears were all for him, and in the end, none of his manipulation and tactics saved him. For this, and for the sake of his would-be victims, I am most grateful.

for more information click here

A Sincerely Heartfelt True Story

This was my first Ann Rule book I have read. What an amazing writer! I really felt pulled just as she did. I can see how she would be impressed with the "Ted" she first met; but then again after the sorrowful incidents the audacity, shock, and horror Ann must have experienced, well, I can't even imagine what she went through as someone who actually knew him.

This was a riveting, page turner that kept me hooked, and the thing that really kept me going was kind of a scary intensity that kept me reading till the very end even though I knew how it ended.

I know people may think me odd (that isn't unusual), but I actually felt sorry for him...the life as he was growing up, the lies he had to live with that he was given from the day of his birth, the sorrow of love loss, and the evil that grabbed its hooks in him that kept him in its grip till the end of his life.

Ms. Rule's style of writing and her words really made me feel what she felt. As I finished the book this evening, my heart actually hurt as her's did as she thought so much of the original "Ted" she first met. How tragic, yet amazing, the human psyche can be constructed even as a small child.

for more information click here

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

Wanna See How I Wasted My Summer?
ANN RULE NOVELS OF TRUE CRIME
UWLS Summer Reading List 2
Capital punishment
True cime books

search for books
stranger beside, 20th, anniversary, beside, revised, stranger, updated

Impressum / about us