The Jeffrey Dahmer Story: An American Nightmare

I really did think this book did a good job of explaining the story behind Dahmer’s murders. It definitely does not glorify the violence, or dwell on the macabre details unnecessarily. However, there are wide swaths during which there are some very long tangents describing the areas, and the economic forces at play. At first, these were enlightening scene setters, almost world crafting narratives. But after a while the formula began to feel rote, and I started skimming. (I HATE skimming.) It just felt like the book became formulaic: Dahmer commits a heinous crime—Bath township was set in the, blah blah blah, good old days—Dahmer commits a heinous crime—Milwaukee was a prospering city before it became a part of the rust belt, blah blah blah—Dahmer—Bath township—Dahmer—Milwaukee—Dahmer... you get the idea. The book is definitely worth a read if you are in too true crime. I learned a ton that I never knew, and enjoyed the book—for the most part.

A lot of people seem to dislike the book, as it does go off on a lot of tangents to things not directly related to Jeffrey Dahmer. Since I love history I had no problem with that and I really enjoyed those parts, but this book might not be everyone type of read. But the author does have all the basics in the book so I'll give it three stars. I have the feeling that this book was written rather quickly to "cash" in on the Jeff Dahmer interest but even books like that will still have good things in them that make them worthwhile.

If you are in to true crime stories, this one is a must to read. It is a true account of one of the most publicized serial killer crimes in American history. The author of this book, Donald A. Davis, did an excellent job of bringing the true crime story of Jeffrey Dahmer to life. His style of writing reminds me of the famous true crime author, Ann Rule, as he delves not only into the actual specifics of the crime, but also into the psychological history of the serial killer himself. This book contains actual photographs of Jeffrey Dahmer and some of his victims. The photos are not graphic, so those of you who are squeamish need not be concerned. The author did an excellent job of describing the horrific details of the crimes committed.

First off I'm really into true crime books. I definitely learned new and interesting things about Mr. Dahmer. Although, I agree with some other reviewers that this author would start rambling about history of Wisconsin or current events at the time. It felt like filler and I believe a good third of the book was unnecessary. Other than that its not that bad and it took me only around a week to finish.

I thought it was a decent read and the unnecessary details did not detract too much from the overall story. I would recommend it to someone that has no previous knowledge of Jeffrey Dahmer or his crimes. I hope the other two books I purchased about JD will contain more information. Much of the information from this book can probably be found in Wikipedia or by a google search.

My review isn't going to be much different from the others.I have become quite fond of true crime books, and this was the second that I have read. I knew very little about Dahmer before reading this book, and I found much of it to be very interesting.Unfortunately, the author has prioritized quantity over quality. It seemed to be loaded with all of the bare bones of the crimes, but contains very little meat. It also seems he relied on geography and the history of the regions where Dahmer did his deeds as filler. Believe me, there's plenty of it. I could almost swear that entire paragraphs were duplicated throughout the book just to take up page space.I'm not a great author myself, which is why I haven't made an attempt at getting paid for it. The fact of the matter is that most of the book could have been written using tourist brochures and local newspaper coverage of the crimes as the only resources.

The book did it’s job by informing the reader of the events that took place but overall it’s not the most well written book. It’s worth a try to see if there is a better rated version of a Jeffrey Dahmer story.

This author has a lot of great details and interesting facts, but insists on adding irrelevant ramblings about the history of cities, families, and other boring subjects that have very little to do with the subject of the book. I found myself actually becoming angry when he would start one of these side tracks.

It could be unfair of me to be saying this only 73 pages in, yet so far I'm growing frustrated with Don Davis.The whole point of buying a book about a Serial Killer is that you hope to find things out which documentaries and newspapers have left out or couldn't mention, or that the author has gone to ridiculous lengths to dig things up by doing extensive research (maybe they've spoken to people the killer was close to and knew personally etc). But, 73 pages is quite a way into a book, you should be hooked, but so far I haven't yet read anything particularly shocking or new, whilst ONE murder has so far been brought up and weakly described - 1 IN 73 PAGES?!More annoying than that is every now and then Davis takes up 5 pages to describe the history of town, lake or factory. It's like he's attempting to build suspense to something we're meant to be satisfied by but it just leads to a flat, anti-climatic sentence you could tell was coming a mile off... 'And then Dahmer arrived...'Moreover, Davis seems to start talking about one topic then goes back in time or sometimes forward to bring something else up - yes, they're usually always linked in some way but it comes across as poor writing, sloppy, a bit all over the place.I started with 'The Stranger Beside Me' by Ann Rule about Ted Bundy, perhaps I was just hoping this might be at the same level. With that, I was hooked 5 pages in. Ann Rule is not only more concise and to the point, but she tells it so damn well where you feel like you're actually at the crime scene or that you yourself knew Bundy as she provides so much exclusive and private information about him. Yes, it helped that she knew him personally but I've read other accounts of Bundy which are just as good from those who didn't know him.It seems all Davis has done is pull together some newspaper articles, watched a few documentaries and thought 'yeah go on then I'll write something... Rents due soon anyway.'Bit harsh? Maybe so. I'm hoping so. Only time will tell...233 pages to go and I want to be proved wrong and will happily admit this on here straight away. Watch this space!

Great value great book very interesting can be quite disturbing due to the content

Didn't realise it was just a cover change as I already have it. Wasted my money really.

astounding

Was hoping for more insight on his early life but over all an easy read that was well paced and did not get too gruesome.