Customer Reviews

Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An excellent book about a Mr. Dahmer, who had so much potential -- good looks, intelligence, good work ethic. The review below me seems rather strange. I have studied philosophy for years, and I cannot see the validity of your interpretation. You seem to be focusing on tangential issues of the book, such as Freud etc, instead of seeing the book as a whole.

Brian Masters offers a very sound profile of all the facts involved in the Mr. Dahmer case. It is extremely well written, and is very humanistic in it's tone. Frankly, this, along with Lionel Dahmers book, is THE best Dahmer book....one that that is in stark contrast to many other books on Dahmer, which offer hearsay, rumours, and sometimes, plain nonsense.

I believe Mr. Masters was very astute in the writing of this book, and agree with him on almost every point he makes with regards to Mr. Dahmer, the case, the courts, etc. The respect he shows towards Jeffrey is also admirable. He doesn't lower himself to gutter media, in which Dahmer is labelled, "a monster", a "devil" etc etc Such labels are hyperbolic and do nothing except creat more hate and pain -- something which the world has enough off already.

In summary, and excellant and dignified book.

Brain masters seems to start where most author forget, before they killers were born and how the parents relationships develope. The author has done a lot of research into jeffry dalmers life before he turned the into lonley psycotic killer that america most feared. The fact that the author gives the eerie detailed account of what happened to the unfortunate individals who were at jeffrey dahmers mercy. when reading the book, Brian Masters takes into the victims familes and freinds and how he was able to keep the murders hidden from the police for so long. All in all this book is a must any for seriel killer reader

This is one of the better books about Jeffrey Dahmer. It contains much more detail then the other two books I've reviewed on Amazon, but on the other hand it doesn't have certain details that those other two books offer. It quickly breezes through his time in the army and his stay in Florida and when it comes to describing the murders themselves the author doesn't hold anything back.

The book itself is very well written and describes in the first chapter some of the items that were found in Dahmer's apartment, like videotapes ranging from Tropical Heat Wave and Return of the Jedi to an episode of The Bill Cosby Show. I learned a few new things about Dahmer that I didn't know before, such as during his trial he was taken to and from court every day in a wheelchair because of the weight of the shackles on his legs (there's even a picture showing him being wheeled from the courtroom), and that the apartment he rented at the Oxford was a furnished apartment. The only mistake I noticed was in the pictures section where their is a page of all of the victims and one photo is identified as Konerak Sinthasomphone but the picture is of his brother, Somsack.

Since the book was written in 1993 it doesn't cover Dahmer's murder in prison, but it does foreshadow it. The last chapter, called "The Shrine" isn't that good because the author spends most of it talking about the history of cannibalism by ancient tribes, indians, etc. and only briefly at the end does he focus on the shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer. A dull last chapter that ends a great book. But it still deserves five stars.

I've been reading lots of books about Dahmer and this was definitely the best. Brian Masters made a lot of research before writing it and that is visible in every line. He's also very respectfull in mentioning where he took every quote from.
SOME OTHER BOOKS I read (i'm not mentioning wich they were in respect to the author) took a 'novel' path,wich is easy-reading, but keeps you a little suspicious about the accuracy of the information.You don't get that impression at all with Masters' book. A piece of advice: You should get a brief notion of Dahmer life-line before diving into the overwhelming storm of details in the book, the amount of information unknown for most people is quite impressive! I found every one of them precious.[:)] Some OTHER BOOKS I read took a long time disserting about subject apart from Dahmer's life (connected to it in some degree,though,of course),but they spent too much time on that,it got boring sometimes..In Brian Masters' you have discussion on ohter points related to Dahmer's life,but somehow he managed to choose only interesting psychological issues and he talks about them only long enough not to lose the reader's interest.
His timing is perfect.How long he stays in each incident,how much 'poetry' he uses (he's not technical to the point of making the reading tiring,he's not 'novelist' to the point of losing the reader's credibility).. It's like eating a fine delicassy, where everything is perfectly dosed to a fine combination and nothing is too much or too less.

COMMENTARY ON Jason Cullen's review (below mine)
You should know that the way you put things in a text has great influence upon its meaning..The way you transcribed the 'masturbation' part of the book in your review was careless, trying to make it sound funny, but you forgot to mention this piece was one of the cases when missing the context really affects the whole idea of the author. You didn't even transcribed the FIRST sentence COMPLETELY,you started it in the middle.If you had posted the text without any intention of 'making up minds' into your opinion or trying to make fun of the author,if you had not omitted the first part of the sentence, and if besides that,one had had acess to the former sentence and the context, it wouldn't have seemed ridiculous at all.
The chapter is about Fantasies, with special reference to the 'dark' ones.
'Most fantasies are so peculiar and unfulfillable that they are never admitted,and perish with their host in the grave.It is well for society that we do not know all the fantasies wich accompany,consciously or unconsciously,every erotic indulgence. (...)Sexual fantasy promotes marturbation and is generally satisfied by it. To that extent, masturbation is not merely forgivable, but blameless (...)'

and there goes the part you transcribed.

'But because there is omnipotence in fantasy and restriction in reality, the two must be kept rigorously apart;(...)Reality poisons the spring of fantasy,whereas fantasy,when it erupts into the real world,brings destruction in its wake.'

Obviously someone with fantasies of muitlation and extreme violence at the age of 15 will develop a different relation with masturbation than ordinary kids. What may seem 'laughable' in your universe may not in someone else's. The idea exposed sounds very reasonable.
You said your interested in extremes of human behavior, but you surely appear not to have lived with it (not even in a minor degree).Anyone with any minimum tendencies to darker fantasies would understand that part cristal clear and not think it's funny. So I guess it's not a problem with the author's idea, but with the fact that this idea doesn't fit in your universe,that's why you see 'laughability' in it.
About the poor writing, I'm honestly not able to talk about it, as i'm not a native english speaker. It surely didn't
sound like literature to me, but if I was looking for something 'philosophical' I wouldn't read a crime book, I would look for Francis Bacon and Anotonin Artaud, for instance. [:)] I was sincerely more interested in Dahmer's history.

By far the very best book on any one specific serial killer I've ever read! This is book is extremely graphic in details regarding the Jeffrey Dahmer murders, but it's necessary to fully grasp how utterly insane he was. The author is English and is an amazing writer who delves into multiple subjects regarding Dahmer's influences, psychology and criminal pathology, philosophical concepts regarding good and evil throughout history, etc. It's really an awesome read. It's not like a typical Ann Rule true crime book nor a "profiler book" but really a journey into good and evil, mental illness vs. personality disorders, etc. I can't praise this book enough. After reading I understood how completely different Dahmer was from other killers such as Ted Bundy. They both struggled with an intense compulsion to kill and there are several arguments and ideas reagarding the "origin" of compulsion, but it was obvious that Dahmer was almost a pitiful person who was downright sick whereas Bundy was psychopath, big difference. Psychopaths don't suffer from a mental illness, it's a personality disorder unlike Dahmer, who was virtually deranged when he was in his prime. Enough said, best Dahmer book period, most thorough and articulate true crime book I've ever read.

Im a Dahmer continuer and this book was exquisitely detailed and executed. It shows the man and the monster in GRAPHIC DETAIL.

This is hands down one of the most over rated true crime books I've ever come across. I had loads of people telling me how good it was, but... it's not. It's not at all. It's so biased towards Dahmer being insane that it feels like the author is trying to force you to feel sorry for this sick monster. Not to mention that 90% of this book has to do with psychology, which could have been a good aspect of this book, only it's nonsense spewed over page after page, making the book feel like it's barely about Dahmer. I had to struggle to actually finish this. At one point I actually fell asleep reading one chapter in my college library and ended up waking up about an hour later drooling on the inside of this book. That's literally how boring this book is. Not to mention that the author gets simple details wrong by stating that Dahmer was obsessed with Exorcist II, while it's known that he was obsessed with Exorcist III. I know that seems small, but when it's mentioned everywhere it becomes a big deal.

All that being said it has it's good parts, there's some interesting details that the author manages to put in when he's not busy talking about psychobabble. One of them being that Dahmer wore yellow contact lenses and details his shrine to the devil. Due to this I atleast gave the book 3 stars.

The author really stands out among true crime authors because of the philosophical attitude he has toward his subject. Masters doesn't sympathize with Dahmer, but he preserves a reflective attitude when dealing with absolutely horrifying events. Unusual perspective in a genre bogged down with moralizing and sensationalism.

Thanks, Brian, for portraying Jeff as a human being. This book brought tears to my eyes. All poor Jeff needed was to be loved and feel special.

I wish I had contacted Jeff, but, hindsight is always 20/20.

RIP, Jeff, With Love

i have read other books about jeffrey dahmer and this is by far the best.a good job from brian masters