EQ 1

[Kaitlyn Root]

When reading a true crime book, the story is more raw and real. As the reader you know that this horrific thing actually happened to someone. We as humans are sympathetic and sad toward the affected people/person we read about something like that. I think that true crime books also try to make the bloody, gruesome facts a little less in-your-face while violent fictions entire purpose is to be as graphic as possible. So, in that aspect it might be easier to read a true crime book than a fictional one because the grotesque imagery, or what have you, may be easier to read. Also, when reading these books, its more psychologically disturbing for the reader to become attached or even begin to like the killers in a true crime book (like In Cold Blood) than in a fictional crime book because it didn't actually happen.   

[benemery]

Kaitlyn, I agree with almost everything you said. Like you said, the reader of a true crime novel is much more connected to not only the characters, but the plot as a whole, because the events ACTUALLY happened. That leads to a sense of intimacy that is 100% unable to be replicated in fiction novels;despite the authors admirable attempts to bring the reader closer to the fictional killer/victim, it only brings part of the intimacy of a true crime novel, because the events and people simply aren't real.

I have to disagree, however, with your idea that fictional crime novels present more "in your face" details. True crime novels may not EXAGGERATE the details to the extent of a fiction novel, but the facts are cold, objective, and equally as emotionally shocking as those found in a fiction work.