Synopsis:
A riveting psychological portrait for readers of true crime classics such as My Dark Places, The Stranger Beside Me, and I’ll Be Gone In the Dark. In Magnetized: Conversations with a Serial Killer one of Argentina’s most innovative writers brings to life the story of a killer who, in 1982, murdered four taxi drivers without any apparent motive.
Over the course of one ghastly week in September 1982, the bodies of four taxi drivers were found in Buenos Aires, each murder carried out with the same cold precision. The assailant: a nineteen-year-old boy, odd and taciturn, who gave the impression of being completely sane. But the crimes themselves were not: four murders, as exact as they were senseless.
More than thirty years later, Argentine author Carlos Busqued began visiting Ricardo Melogno, the serial killer, in prison. Their conversations return to the nebulous era of the crimes and a story full of missing pieces. The result is a book at once hypnotic and unnerving, constructed from forensic documents, newspaper clippings, and interviews with Melogno himself. Without imposing judgment, Busqued allows for the killer to describe his way of retreating from the world and to explain his crimes as best he can. In his own words, Melogno recalls a visit from Pope Francis, grim depictions of daily life in prison, and childhood remembrances of an unloving mother who drove her son to Brazil to study witchcraft. As these conversations progress, the focus slowly shifts from the crimes themselves, to Melogno’s mistreatment and misdiagnosis while in prison, to his current fate: incarcerated in perpetuity despite having served his full sentence.
Using these personal interviews, alongside forensic documents and newspaper clippings, Busqued crafted Magnetized, a captivating story about one man’s crimes, and a meditation on how one chooses to inhabit the world, or to become absent from it.
Edition:
E-ARC
Disclosure:
I received a review copy of Magnetized from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. They give me no money, nor do they in any way influence my thoughts – those are 100% my own for better or worse.
Awards:
- XXV Premio San Clemente Rosalía Prize
Advanced Praise:
“Busqued unnerves and entertains readers with this forensic tale synthesized from more than 90 hours of dialogue with a serial killer. The author’s interviews with Ricardo Melogno detail not only his crimes, which took place during one week in 1982, but also his motivations—or lack thereof—and the killer’s fascinating,disturbing psyche . . . Artfully rendered . . . The narrative is perfect for anyone fascinated by the criminal mind, the distinctions between mental illness and possession, or the concept of predestined evil. A truly visceral read that will not let readers look away.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A true-crime book that pulls no punches in covering a killer, but doesn’t skimp on humanity, either. A solid effort not to be missed.”
—Booklist
“A fascinating profile . . . This is a chilling look at a prison system unable to meet the need sof mentally ill inmates.”
—Library Journal
My Thoughts:
I know I haven’t yet posted a lot of it on the blog, but I really enjoy reading true crime. Like, a lot. I think that delving into what causes people to do terrible things is endlessly fascinating. And also, I love seeing the baddy get caught. I was really excited to find Magnetized, because it is pretty rare for me to find true crime that doesn’t center around American or European killers. So, I went into this one really excited!
Sadly, Melogno is not very forthcoming about what caused him to kill. I left the book unsure if this is because he legitimately doesn’t know (which is what he claims), or if he simply doesn’t wish to share. It just sucks that my biggest reason for loving this genre is totally absent here.
Overall though, at least this book made me think. It also brought to mind the following quote:
“It strikes me profoundly that the world is more often than not a bad and cruel place.”
Maybe sometimes horrible things don’t even make sense to the person doing the horrible things. Maybe sometimes, our disconnect from reality can become so severe that we legitimately don’t know why we do the things we do. Who knows?
About the Author:
Carlos Busqued was born in the northern Argentinian province of Chaco in 1970. He currently lives in Buenos Aires. Under This Terrible Sun is his first novel.
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About the Translator:
Samuel Rutter is a writer and translator from Melbourne, Australia. His work can be found in journals such as Overland and Meanjin and his translation of Cristina Sánchez-Andrade’s novel The Winterlings received a PEN Translates grant in 2015. With a special interest in the fiction of the Cono Sur region of Latin America, he has translated contemporary authors including Hernán Ronsino, Matías Celedón, Carlos Labbé, and Selva Almada. Currently a PhD candidate in Spanish at the University of Melbourne, in 2016 he will undertake an MFA in Creative Writing at Vanderbilt University.
Rating:
It can be hard to rate true crime because you have to remember you’re really just rating the author’s storytelling and information gathering. And it’s harder still when the true crime is in an interview-type format. And more so again when it’s translated. But I tried. Magnetized was an interesting book, and certainly tells a lot about the state of mental health care and criminal justice in Argentina (it doesn’t seem a whole hell of a lot different than in America, and that’s not a compliment). However, I wish there was a little more meat to it. I’m just not sure how much I really learned about Melogno that I couldn’t have learned on my own.
Magnetized: Conversations with a Serial Killer Original Title: Magnetizado By: Carlos Busqued Translated by: Samuel Rutter Catapult ISBN: 1948226685 Published: June 2, 2020 Originally published: February 21, 2018 Hardcover, E-book, Audio Spanish Edition: Paperback, E-book 192 Pages
