Review of Twisted But True
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Macha Marumo Mphela
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Review of Twisted But True
[Following is a volunteer review of "Twisted But True" by Darren Burch.]
Some of the most popular television shows and movies around are about crime. Crime holds such a strange captivation on the general populace that it is no surprise that such shows and movies continue to see a soaring popularity. One of the most popular formats of these shows and movies involve real life criminal acts. Set in the 1980s right through the 2000s, and seeing Darren Burch as he graduated from patrol officer to sex crimes detective to sergeant, Twisted But True is a real life retelling of some of the most outrageous incidences the author encountered whilst wearing (and not wearing) his police uniform.
In the first three chapters, Darren Burch talked about personal details of how he came to be a police officer and the powerful motivations behind all of his major life decisions to that point. This was an important section because it introduced the man behind the uniform and gave him a "humanity" about him that made me instantly connect with him before we even got to the first police story. And I also loved that afterwards, before each succeeding chapter, he would first relate it to a relevant personal experience. This gave the book an extra dimension and made it relatable in another way.
Some of the stories shared in this little book involve gang members, rapists, murderers and victims, rookie mistakes done on the job and just plain weird instances that left me puzzled. The stories are harrowing, disturbing and absolutely horrific at times. I flinched as I read through, but the author smartly scattered some humour around that was the perfect "temperature" to cool the intensity of some of these stories he shared.
Chapter 24 was particularly difficult for me because of how detailed it was. It was especially difficult because as a man, talk of any form of injury to penises makes me recoil in "phantom" pain. As I've already mentioned, the author used humour to lessen the impact of his stories, and in this chapter, I must admit, he ended with a slam dunk of a sentence. I guffawed senselessly.
The only part of this man's stories I side-eyed was his use of the word "transvestite." It is an outdated term and the more accepted term today is "trans" or "transgender." Cross-dressing doesn't necessarily mean that the person is transgender (or even homosexual) since the person, as it appears, never claimed to be transgender. This was an unnecessary assumption on the author's part as it may or may not be true, and may be highly offensive if not true.
Also, the editing for this book was very questionable. I noticed too many grammatical errors involving the usage and non-usage of commas. Comma usage errors are a difficult point for me because my knowledge on the matter isn't that great, and so I second-guessed myself a lot when reading a book with so many apparent mistakes. Anyways, the errors led me to my rating of 3 out of 4 stars.
This is otherwise a surprisingly great (and sometimes funny) book. It's excellent in all the other departments and will get a recommendation for true crime lovers and those who enjoy typical crime novels. It's trippy. It's wild. It's outrageous and unbelievable. It's simply the most ridiculous thing I may have ever read.
******
Twisted But True
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Some of the most popular television shows and movies around are about crime. Crime holds such a strange captivation on the general populace that it is no surprise that such shows and movies continue to see a soaring popularity. One of the most popular formats of these shows and movies involve real life criminal acts. Set in the 1980s right through the 2000s, and seeing Darren Burch as he graduated from patrol officer to sex crimes detective to sergeant, Twisted But True is a real life retelling of some of the most outrageous incidences the author encountered whilst wearing (and not wearing) his police uniform.
In the first three chapters, Darren Burch talked about personal details of how he came to be a police officer and the powerful motivations behind all of his major life decisions to that point. This was an important section because it introduced the man behind the uniform and gave him a "humanity" about him that made me instantly connect with him before we even got to the first police story. And I also loved that afterwards, before each succeeding chapter, he would first relate it to a relevant personal experience. This gave the book an extra dimension and made it relatable in another way.
Some of the stories shared in this little book involve gang members, rapists, murderers and victims, rookie mistakes done on the job and just plain weird instances that left me puzzled. The stories are harrowing, disturbing and absolutely horrific at times. I flinched as I read through, but the author smartly scattered some humour around that was the perfect "temperature" to cool the intensity of some of these stories he shared.
Chapter 24 was particularly difficult for me because of how detailed it was. It was especially difficult because as a man, talk of any form of injury to penises makes me recoil in "phantom" pain. As I've already mentioned, the author used humour to lessen the impact of his stories, and in this chapter, I must admit, he ended with a slam dunk of a sentence. I guffawed senselessly.
The only part of this man's stories I side-eyed was his use of the word "transvestite." It is an outdated term and the more accepted term today is "trans" or "transgender." Cross-dressing doesn't necessarily mean that the person is transgender (or even homosexual) since the person, as it appears, never claimed to be transgender. This was an unnecessary assumption on the author's part as it may or may not be true, and may be highly offensive if not true.
Also, the editing for this book was very questionable. I noticed too many grammatical errors involving the usage and non-usage of commas. Comma usage errors are a difficult point for me because my knowledge on the matter isn't that great, and so I second-guessed myself a lot when reading a book with so many apparent mistakes. Anyways, the errors led me to my rating of 3 out of 4 stars.
This is otherwise a surprisingly great (and sometimes funny) book. It's excellent in all the other departments and will get a recommendation for true crime lovers and those who enjoy typical crime novels. It's trippy. It's wild. It's outrageous and unbelievable. It's simply the most ridiculous thing I may have ever read.
******
Twisted But True
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Latest Review: Advanced Lotto Rotation System by Joseph Z Vlasic
