Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark are the hosts of the incredibly popular podcast My Favorite Murder. Along with gruesome tales of horror every week, they also chat about their own lives, hardships they’ve had, and what led them to start this podcast in the first place. They’re funny and interesting and aren’t bothered with always being correct in the telling of their stories. When you listen to them it’s like you’re hanging out with your buds chatting about the things that scare you.
I was a Murderino for a few years. I’ve been to their live shows twice. Lately I haven’t been listening as much because I have toddlers and TV/books are winning the competition for my spare time, but I was excited about this book. The podcast in book form! I’ll take it. That’s not what this is. And to be fair to them that’s not how it’s being sold, but I didn’t enjoy this as much as I was hoping to. It’s fine, there’s some really great moments – especially the first couple of chapters that really pack an emotional punch. But then it kind of meanders, and I didn’t really get what the point was.
It’s definitely more about the two of them and not murder (again, fine, there’s enough of that in the world), but it’s ordered around their famous catchphrases ‘You’re in a cult, call your dad,’ ‘Fuck politeness’ etc, that came from talking about true crime. So it’s kind of a memoir/self-help book inspired by their podcast but relating what they’ve learned to real life and not just how to escape a possible murderer/rapist, cos that can seem like victim blaming. And it probably works for a lot of people/fans but just didn’t pull me in all that much. I ended up skimming a bunch (which pains me to admit). I think partly it’s that I just can’t relate. I’m around the same age as Georgia but our teen years couldn’t be more different. I am also the child of divorce but that didn’t impact me the same way. I was basically pushing my mother out the door. And having watched a parent disappear into addiction, alcohol/drugs held no appeal for me whatsoever. And I didn’t have the same issues as Karen either, so it was like they weren’t speaking to me. I couldn’t take much from it.
Overall it’s fun and well written but not quite what I was hoping for, even if I’m not sure what that was.