Spooky and sad.

Full review coming soon. ( )

Surprisingly compassionate and humane, while, of course, still taking pains to condemn Dahmer's crimes. Most of Backderf's anger is directed at the adults who failed to recognise the pain and problems that Dahmer was suffering as a teen. Backderf went to school with Jeffrey Dahmer, and so has an amazing insight into the man. Fascinating, painful. ( )

Written by a man who went to high school with and was sort of a peripheral friend of teenaged Jeffrey Dahmer, this is not a particularly sympathetic portrayal of the notorious serial killer. Backderf states in the introduction, "Dahmer was a twisted wretch whose depravity was almost beyond comprehension. Pity him, but don't empathize with him."

It's a well-researched story of what it was like to be around Jeff before he became the infamous Dahmer. Jeff is portrayed as a sad kid who started drinking heavily in high school in an attempt to quiet his demons, but also as a kid who all the other kids knew was "off" for reasons other than just the drinking.

Backderf's biggest takeaway from the experience was that the adults who should have noticed Jeff's behavior either weren't there or didn't care. As he says on p. 67, with a haunting illustration of Jeff as he is becoming Dahmer, "Where were the damn adults?" ( )

Chilling ( )

I’m not sure what to say. It was sad and disgusting at the same time. The author raised good points, such as “Where are the adults?”
Because as someone who has had a traumatic childhood and my mother was pretty much like Dahmer’s mother (Makes me feel gross that we have something similar… but I’m sure a good chick of the population does as well with bad mothers.) life can suck as a child/teen and adults don’t seem to care and wrapped up in their own problems.
Making fun of the disabled does make me uncomfortable, but that’s what it was like before more knowledge came about (and middle schoolers tend to be assholes) so keep that in mind if you’re sensitive to that. ( )