Friends, I made a mistake. Recently, I set out to review a book called History of a Drowning Boy. What I thought was a book about serial killer Dennis Nilsen was instead his extensive and extremely descriptive autobiography. Gathered and prepared by Dr. Mark Pettigrew, the book shares Nilsen’s experiences in his own words, including his extensive sexual abuse at the hands of his own grandfather. There are hours of this stuff. In prison, Nilsen wrote thousands of pages about his life in prison, his interactions with prisoners and authorities, and the false reporting the media provided. He wanted to have it published while he was alive, but thankfully it was blocked until after his death.
I read a lot of true crime and listen to true crime podcasts, but even I didn’t make it very far into this book. Nielson’s experiences alone are horrifying, and I hadn’t even made it into his justifications. I just had to put the book down.
For those of you with strong stomachs who can endure descriptions of horrific child abuse, sexual assault, and horrific murder, you’ll likely be able to get through this. For my own mental health, I put the book down and walked away.
History of a Drowning Boy is available today.
