Rating: 
Summary: Sensationalistic garbage . . . this is entertainment?
Review: This book sickened me. Slaughter seems overly determined to churn out the most vile, mean-spirited, sensationally violent story she can dredge from the depths of her nightmares. BLINDSIGHTED contains way too many scenes of graphic rape, torture, and brutality against women, all the while beating the reader over the head with in-your-face male-bashing. Every male character in this book comes across as stupid and/or sexually depraved while every female character is portrayed as a victim of the twisted male mindset. PUH-LEASE! If the author was shooting for realism, she missed the mark by several thousand light years. I mean, come on. There is no denying that male sexual predators and clueless, stupid men exist among the general population, just as there are women who suffer because of them. But this book is so heavyhanded it reads like a self-help textbook for a battered women's support group. Basically the author is shouting, "All men are bad and evil and predatory; all women are good and noble and victimized." Is there something in the air or water in the tiny rural burg of Heartsdale, Georgia that makes these gender attributes so black and white? If there really is any such town in the U.S., I'll be sure to steer far clear of it.Quite simply, Karin Slaughter is just another Thomas Harris wanna-be hack, serving up gratuitous violence and vicious crimes against women under the guise of entertainment. She caters to the lowest common denominator among the reading public. This book offers little in the way of imagination and presents nothing new that hasn't been done better by more talented writers. BLINDSIGHTED has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I applaud the author for her six-figure book deal with her publisher, Morrow. I also applaud the PR folks at Morrow for a job well done (through their million-dollar promotional campaign they convinced the gullible book-buying public that this was a quality thriller, and that the new Patricia Cornwell had arrived). What disturbs me even more than the content of this book is that so many people find this drivel to be entertaining. I wonder, is this a reflection of our troubled society? Is it a comment on the current state of the publishing industry? Both? And shame on an excellent author like Peter Robinson to give this garbage a positive blurb on the dust jacket. But hey, isn't it wonderful that we live in a country that allows pornographic trash like this to be published?
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed Bag
Review: This was an "good listen" (I checked out the library's audio version) but also a baffling mix of both accomplished and clunky writing. The main characters -- Sara, Jeffrey, and Lena -- were well-realized and three-dimensional. I could handle the gore, though it wasn't always comfortable. In fact, I thought that Slaughter wrote far more convincingly in the creepy parts than about the day-to-day events and interactions. The book needed a once-over by a decent editor; the dialogue was often wooden and trite, and I could guess at bits of conversation before it left a character's mouth. Descriptions of appearance and action were more often than not pedestrian. For example, a laugh too frequently would be "humorless," or the dialogue would be framed by " . . .Sara noted. . ." (I'm a lawyer, and I don't speak that way!) Slaughter also pointedly inserted the title word "blindsighted" several times, as it applied to various characters -- in case we didn't get it on our own. That said, the book was entertaining and the shifts in point-of-view kept the momentum going and effectively cranked up the tension. I guessed the murderer, though not his "backstory," midway through but didn't find that a problem. The reader on the audio tape was excellent -- didn't overdo the Southern accents. I agree with the reviewer who recommended Peter Robinson's mysteries (featuring Inspector Banks of Yorkshire), which combine intriguing plots and fine writing. For those who enjoy their stories dark and their detectives fallible, haunted, and headstrong, pick up Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels, set in and around Edinburgh.
Rating:
Summary: Yuck...Gross...and at times interesting.
Review: This book is beyond graphic. There is a place for violence in crime novels certainly (and in the true crime genre). However, I'm very disturbed by this book. I usually have a tough stomach for this kind of thing, but parts of were so vivid that I wondered if they were really needed for the story. In fact, the violence overshadows the book. I had hoped the characters would shine through and that the story would make the violence secondary. Instead, it is a bit of odd end and the characters are soaked in blood. A bit much for me. Maybe not for you.
Rating: 
Summary: solid debut
Review: After reading this novel, it's not hard to see why it has garnered so many accolades-- this is just good solid writing, uncluttered with annoying red herring or multiple false endings. The characters are real, their feelings are dead-on, and the acts of the killer are horrifying yet believable. The only caveat I have is the same one that other reviewers have voiced, and that is that it is very gruesome at times-- even as a male, I found the descriptions of the sexual torture and mutilation endured by the victims hard to take. Still, this is a good debut, and I'm not sure how she will be able to top this.
Rating: 
Summary: WOW!
Review: I began this book at 10:00 PM last night and read all the way through to the end! Absolutely could not put it down! The mystery / suspense part is good - I figured out who the murderer was about 1/2 way through the book but not why. But, to warn you, as another reviewer stated, the descriptions of the victims and what was done to them is quite graphic. I have read all of Patricia Cornwell also and never had to skip descriptions of the crime scenes or the autopsies and with this book, I did. If you can stomach extremely gruesome details and are looking for an "all nighter" of a book, then this one is for you. I will definitely get the next book in the series (but will go in with eyes wide open, knowing what to expect as far as gory descriptions are concerned).
Rating: 
Summary: Rather upsetting
Review: Let me start by stating that (1) I have never felt compelled to write a review on here before or "warn" others about a book, and (2) I ADORE mystery/suspense-type novels, including Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson, Mary Higgins Clark, Tami Hoag, the whole lot. This book, while a decent mystery/suspense novel, goes much to far with the graphic rape scenes. It terrified me, particularly with its references to the rapist pulling out the women's teeth to "rape their faces," and other such graphic detailings. I had nightmares about it, and for some reason, it's all I can think about when I go to the dentist (I'm not kidding). I feel pretty traumatized just by READING it, and I don't really feel like I can talk to anyone else about it, given how gruesome it is. It's almost as if I've lived the rape and am afraid of my own "dirty little secret"; it was that upsetting for me. My mother and I usually share books, but I can't stand the idea of having her read this, and having her haunted by such awful visions as well. So, I'm throwing it away. I've never been unable to stomach a book before-- graphic detailings of corpses has never bothered me. But this one crossed the line for me. I just wanted to warn others, so they know about the graphic scenes going in.
Rating:
Summary: Don't start this unless you have plenty of time on your hand
Review: Loved the book. I read it in one day--I couldn't put it down. Very suspenseful. I have recommended it to several people and they have not been disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: Likeable debut despite the gore
Review: You rather expect that a ME-centered mystery is going to be violent, and Slaughter doesn't confound those expectations. It suffers a bit from the recent trend of making every book more bloody, more twisted, and more violent than the last. Pretty much every shocking aspect you could hope to see is seen, and the reader should beware that the violence (including sexual violence) is quite graphic. Given all that, it's a commendation that I was as interested in the book as I was. It doesn't get bogged down by all the shockadelic plot points, and Sara Linton emerges from all the blood as a robust and well-drawn character. I'll be interested to read the next book in the series-- I have some hope that Slaughter may still follow a more psychologically thrilling path.
Rating:
Summary: Eroticizing Rape
Review: I've read my share of serial killer stories, so I know the conventions. This looked to be good . . . it has a really strong female central character and appealing investigators. But I have rarely seen an author eroticize rape the way this author does. The killer tells the women he drugs and assaults that he is "making love" to them, which I know is supposed to be a part of the horror, but there's a way this writer constructs the scenes of violence that I find truly disgusting. These serial killer stories are a dime a dozen anymore, and few do more than present disgusting scenes and allow you to see the investigators become increasingly distressed. For books that go outside the genre, read something like Peter Robinson's Aftermath.
Rating:
Summary: BLINDSIGHTED
Review: GOOD LONG BOOK...BUT I FIGURED OUR KILLER IN THE MIDDLE OF IT, BUT STILL READ THE WHOLE BOOK....
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