Outside Valentine

I admire the way Ward pulled together three distinct viewpoints--of children and an adult--in order to explore the repercussions of a wave of murders taken from history, as well as the murders themselves to a certain extent, but the suspense and mystery that the blurb suggests exist in this book are, to a large extent, more imagined than written. As artful as Ward's writing is, this is a literary juxtaposition of viewpoints and ages in relation to a particular set of crimes, and the flat, harsh, ease of the prose actually lessens what might have come across as shocking crimes, making the whole of the book's events feel rather more ordinary than they truly should. I'm also, I admit, not wholly sure where love comes into play--more than show more love, this book is an examination of apathy and discomfort, and though I hate to say it, I couldn't bring myself to care enough about the apathetic characters to be bothered by the fact that They were at turns obsessed with and at turns haunted by the murders.

I don't think this book will stay with me long, and I can't really see myself recommending it unless someone is specifically setting out to look for literary fiction inspired by true crime. The language just wasn't enough to carry the book for me, lovely as it was, and I often found myself more bored or annoyed with the book than anything.

I don't see myself picking up another of Ward's books. show less

Having grown up in Nebraska, I remember this event that occurred in a gentler time and place. The reign of Charles Starkweather was terrifying and previously unknown to most Nebraska residents. This novel is told in three separate voice, and is extremely well researched and written. Each of the voices is believable and never lets the reader forget that the perpetrators are people in their teens with the motivations of that age group.

In 1957 in Lincoln, Nebraska, Charlie Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate went on a killing spree that ended the life of 11 people. Caril Ann is one of the narrators of this fiction novel based on the crime. She narrates the 1957 section while a young girl named "Puggy" tells the story of 1962. Puggy lives a few blocks away from the home of 3 of the muder victims and she has developed an obsession with the crime and the teenaged son who was away at boarding school when the murderers entered his home. In the 1991 section, we meet Lowell, a middle-aged husband and father who has never had a closeness with his wife or children. The three stories have a thread in common and the story jumps between the three narrators throughout the book.

This show more is probably one of the most depressing books I have ever read and it was a struggle to finish it. Of course the murders cast a large shadow over the story but no one, and I do mean not a single person, is ever happy for 5 minutes. This was certainly not what I had expected. show less

Interesting fictional take in three time periods of the true story of the Starkweather murders in the late 50s.