2022 SQHS Your Literate Life - BOOK REVIEWS ONLY discussion

Helter Skelter by Curt Gentry and Vincent Bugliosi
Reviewed by Hope Peterson

Helter Skelter is a book about the true story of the Manson murders. Vincent Bugliosi was the lead prosecutor in the case of the murders committed by Charles Manson and his followers of a cult. Bugliosi wrote the book as a detailed account of the trial, the evidence, and interviews with the witnesses. In 1971, Charles Manson was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder of the deaths of seven people. Bugliosi argued that Manson wanted to be a rock star and was obsessed with the Beatles, specifically the White Album. He thought that the Beatles were sending him a message to start a race war by framing black innocents for crimes against affluent white people. The “race war” was nicknamed “helter skelter” after that song on the album.

I thought it was a really interesting book. True crime is one of my favorite genres of books. Although, it was really interesting to read about everything that went down about the Manson murders, I thought they left in some pointless and dragged on information that I didn’t think was necessary to add. It was a very long book and I wasn’t as engaged into it as I thought I would, because I love to read about crimes and investigation. I think that part of the reason of why the book was so long, was because it was written by the prosecutor and he was trying to justify his case to blame Manson for everything. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about very detailed true crime stories.

This sounds like an interesting book i should look into sometime. Do you think the book was accurate?