I started listening to the My Favorite Murder podcast a few months after it first started, but didn’t really get into it until about a year ago, when I started binge-listening to it, feverishly trying to catch up with current episodes. I have always been fascinated by true crime, and I love a podcast with good banter, so MFM scratches a good itch for me.
The book is a collection of personal stories and anecdotes — I wouldn’t call them essays — from the two hosts, and the honesty and humor that infuse the MFM podcast are there in spades. Unfortunately though, the things I like the most about the podcast did not carry over into this book, and the structure of the book and the writing didn’t do it for me at all.
Karen and Georgia structured the book by taking some of the famous catchphrases from the show, and creating themed chapters around these. The phrases are so random, however, that they don’t actually translate to themes at all. The chapters also have odd semi-sidebars that are really distracting.
To be frank, storytelling is not Karen and Georgia’s strong suit on the podcast, and neither is it on the page. And while you can get away with meandering stories and tangents in a conversation because it feeds the energy between the hosts, in a book it’s just sloppy writing.
No one is going to pick up this book unless they’re fans of the podcast, and if you are a fan, this is worth a read. Karen and Georgia’s openness about mental health and about their imperfections are on full display here with their signature humor, and the book is entertaining enough. I just wish their editor had been a little more rigorous.