Read from July 7th - July 18th, 2026
Kraus' genre blend of auto-fiction and true crime was a very captivating and intriguing read. I am very glad that my curiosity lead me to pick up this book and read it as I have never read this type and style of writing before.
Yet despite this centering around Kraus' (Catt's) eventual obsession with a crime that occurred on the Iron Range, I was much more engrossed in the story of her grim marriage between herself and "Paul." Her failing fights to not only find purpose and meaning and bring change within her life, but within Paul's, and the local communities she invests in were my favorite parts of the novel, as they were not only depressing and sobering to read, but their actions and the motivations behind them were beautifully paralleled and connected to the Iron Range murder.
It was depressing reading about the people of the town trying to fix themselves and move on to better pastures, only to be sucked back into the impoverished violence of the area—with many ending up even worse than where they left. Combined with Catt's parents using marriage and parenthood to fix their own childhood traumas, only for that to leave them just as alone and full of despair as they originally were in their youths to Catt using the crime was a way to escape dealing with the troubles of her own life and abusive marriage, it's almost as if a cloud of despair lightly hung over the story, with there being no real resolution to these issues making things even sadder (especially when it came to Paul being back to AA and counseling again in his 50s. That is something that really stuck out to me as it is just hard and depressing to think that one could be in their 50s, an age where people start looking towards the golden years of retirement and grandchildren, and be back fighting the same demons you have been fighting for decades at this point, which is worsened by the fact that he lost both a great job and Catt/Chris as a result!).
