I've always been into the crime/mystery genre when it comes to books... sometimes the genre is even referred to as domestic thrillers because women are usually at the center of the novels. Books I haven't explored were nonfiction crime so when I saw that the daughter of the BTK Killer wrote a memoir/autobiograhy, I knew I'd have to read it eventually.
I scored this ARC on NetGalley and I was so excited when it kit my Kindle app! I finished this book probably within a week because it was very addictive. The story of the BTK is particularly gruesome but you don't get that from this book.
"A Serial Killer's Daughter" focuses on the story of Kerri Rawson and her normal childhood life, with her mother, father, and brother. However, her father carried a sick secret -- he was the BTK Killer but no one ever knew. No one even suspected that there was anything off about Denis Rader. He was a good father, a good husband and the president of his Church. He was the last person that would ever have been suspected of being a violent serial killer.
The book starts off with an adult Kerri being confronted by the FBI and revealing that her father was under arrest for being the BTK Killer. We go off from there and Kerri takes us through her childhood, talks a lot about her finding God, her beautiful relationship with her father and the struggles she had in her teenage years when her cousin passed away tragically.
We get to a point in the book when the story changes and we're seeing Kerri deal with the after effects of her father being convicted and serving consectuive life sentences. It's a wild ride and you feel for Kerri because I don't think any of us would be able to deal with finding that news out about one of our parents.
The book was incredibly well written, heartfelt, and intense. You felt all the emotion that Kerri was feeling and you really see a different side of a serial killer. By no means am I defending BTK, let's be real, but it's really strange to see him being a normal, loving, caring father when you know he had this disgusting secret and was a cold-blooded murderer. It definitely can be confusing to see both sides to someone you know is a killer so I can't even imagine what Keri went through.
I thought this was an amazing book, one that I would even read again because there is so much information, so much raw emotion, you can't even grasp it all in one sitting.
It's not scary either... at least to me it wasn't. I think if you're someone who is interested in true crime, or even just want to get your feet wet with the genre, I recommend checking this book out. Even if you're someone who just loves memoirs, this one was very interesting.
Would you read a book about a serial killer's daughter?
xoxo
B
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