The Perfect Father - Review

 

Author: John Glatt

Genre: True Crime

Format: Hardback

Pages: 304

I'm going to do my best to review this, but this was a hard book for me to read. Despite being a small book with only three sections, I split it up even more. So hopefully what follows my mixed bag of feelings and opinions about The Perfect Father.

What I appreciate about John Glatt's writing style is how easy this book was to read. It didn't read like a court manuscript, but it also wasn't a dry announcement of facts. Glatt wove the information he got from all of his sources into a narrative, that perhaps because of the terrible nature of this crime, that was hard to put down. I also appreciated how Glatt was able to remove his own opinions from the narrative. The story he told was the story we think happened as pieced together by interviews, evidence, and the few times Chris Watts has spoken. 

The Perfect Father is very a one-sided story. It's very much about Chris Watts and how he could have done something like this. There are a great number of times that Shan'ann Watts isn't framed in a good light, and there are whole chapters where it feels like a lot of victim shaming. We will never know what happened that day, but no one deserves what happened to Shan'ann and her daughters. I also understand why it's such a one-sided book. Only two years have passed and I can only imagine how had that has been for Shan'ann's family. 

So with the information that Glatt could get from open records and interviews, this story paints a horrific picture. But, one that police and prosecutors also seem to agree is the chain of events. The other this book does well makes you ask questions about the case.  Colorado already has a past of not handling high profile cases well, and once again I had questions about the investigation. Questions about Thrive. Just questions, which is what I like about a True Crime book. I want to be left with questions, to fall down a Google research hole. I don't want the author to tell me here's the story, I really like that Glatt left it open enough to leave me with questions.

What I wasn't fond of was the have that Shan'ann's name isn't spelled correctly through the entire book. In fact, the only time it is spelled correctly is when quotes were pulled directly from Newspapers or Letters. It is such a little thing, but once I learned it was incorrect I couldn't look away.

The other issue is the book's time skips to the point I was forced to go back and re-read to make sure I didn't miss anything. The chapters are short, covering major events that Glatt feels lead up to this horrific crime, which is what makes the book a quick read, there isn't anything to drag it along. However, in those chapters, Glatt will say later that day and start a narrative. Then a new chapter will start about that evening with any indication of the jump, and the next chapter will go back to talking about that afternoon and the story that was previously being told. So there would be this moment when reading where I had to stop because the timeline didn't add up.

All-in-all this was a book. I honestly can't tell you I'm glad I read it because it's a terrible tragedy and my heart goes to both the families. But, at the same time, it left me with questions about what happened that night and was a semi-compelling read. I'll definitely be passing this copy along to my friends.

Buy, Borrow, or Skip: If your a True Crime fan and like me didn't know much about the Watts case, I say borrow this from your local library. I just don't see myself going back to re-read this one.

HAPPY READING!!