Boys Enter the House

 

I *really* wanted to like this book. I read Tim Cahill's "Killer Clown" about John Wayne Gacy years ago, not long after I read "Helter Skelter". I was horrified by the idea that he buried the bodies under his own house, with his wife and stepkids living there. He really led a double life, playing the clown on the weekends to sick kids in the hospital, murdering young men at night. Very creepy stuff. 

That being said, I didn't like this book. I loved the idea of putting the focus on the victims rather than Gacy. These young men had lives, families, friends, people who cared about them and worried about them when they didn't come home, searched for them for years, and mourned them when their bodies were pulled out of the muck under Gacy's house. Unfortunately, Nelson's writing style was very confusing. There were almost three dozen victims, and without a single picture to help put a name to a face, it was nearly impossible to keep everyone's story straight. It didn't help that a lot of these young men knew each other, grew up in the same neighborhood. I think the simple addition of pictures of each victim would have gone a long way to helping me. Nevertheless, I'm glad he told their stories. Such a tragedy. I just wish it would have been done a little bit better.