I, Monster by Tom Philbin

Recommended For: Psychology majors, forensics majors, criminal justice majors, professionals in those fields, and anyone who likes horror movies or thriller books.

This book is different from all of the other crime books out there, because it tells the serial killers’ sides of the stories. Notebooks, interviews, pictures and letters are included with the biography of each criminal. This allows the reader to see what the criminals have to say about themselves, both before their arrests and during their interrogations.

The author definitely did his research! There are twenty chapters, each covering a separate murderer. Some famous murderers mentioned include H. H. Holmes, Ted Bundy, Son of Sam, Gary Ridgeway, Jack the Ripper and Jeffrey Dahmer. This book helps to understand why people do these terrible things.

While any other book can tell readers the who, what, when, where and how, this book is one of the few that tell the why. The reasons range from the force of the devil, hatred of women, power, and bad childhoods to just for fun. The chilling words make unimaginable crimes incredibly real. I highly recommend this book to anyone who can handle it.