The Wilderness of Ruin

A Tale of Madness, Fire, and the Hunt for America's Youngest Serial Killer

By: Roseanne Montillo

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

In the early 1870s, local children begin disappearing from the working-class neighborhoods of Boston. Several return home bloody and bruised after being tortured while others never come back. With the city on edge, authorities believe the abductions are the handiwork of a psychopath until they discover that their killer - 14-year-old Jesse Pomeroy - is barely older than his victims. The criminal investigation that follows sparks a debate among the world's most revered medical minds and will have a decades-long impact on the judicial system and medical consciousness.

The Wilderness of Ruin is a riveting tale of gruesome murder and depravity. At its heart is a great American city divided by class - a chasm that widens in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1872. Roseanne Montillo brings Gilded Age Boston to glorious life - from the genteel cobblestone streets of Beacon Hill to the squalid, overcrowded tenements of Southie.

©2015 Roseanne Montillo (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A chillingly drawn, expertly researched slice of grim Boston history." ( Kirkus)

Wasted credit

More of everything not enough about Jesse Pomeroy really disappointed the main character barely mentioned

Don't Waste A Credit

Would you try another book from Roseanne Montillo and/or Emily Woo Zeller?

Maybe, but I would read the reviews before trying another book by this author.

Has The Wilderness of Ruin turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, I have read other books in this genre that were very good.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I found her louder than necessary when quoting dialog or newspaper headlines. Not sure why she felt it necessary to try to deepen her voice when making these announcements, women don't generally do deeper voices very well.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Wilderness of Ruin?

Would, at a minimum,cut all of the Melville nonsense. The story line was hard to follow. I thought it was going to be mostly, if not all, about the young serial killer and the effort it took to bring him to justice. Not so. I am still trying to figure out what the message in all of the various stories is, nothing seems related.

very convoluted

This book was so confusing in how the author went off on these long tangents about authors that had nothing to do with the main character.

Not much about Jessie Pomeroy

Lots of historical information about Boston, the fire, current events and Herman Melville. Not really a true crime story. Disappointing.

Took a long turn detour in the middle

This book though offering a glimpse into the life and times of late 19th century Boston went off the rails in the middle.

Poorly written...

The story was reportedly about a young man in the 1800s who was one of the first serial killers.

Unfortunately the story itself has very little to do with him. It has a lot of strange offshoots and sidetracks including a very long one about Herman Melville and his mental state.

I gave it overall a two star because when the story DID discuss the name sake of the book (which wasn’t often) it was somewhat interesting but overall it was very poorly written. This is a little disconcerting considering of the author is supposedly some kind of English or writing professor.

The reading of the book was also subpar in my opinion.

Save your money for something better.

Not much about the purported subject

I bought this book a long time ago and finally got around to listening to it. I had read another book about Jessie Pomery, who is supposed to be the subject of this book. It was much better. Very little of Wilderness of Ruin is about Jessie Pomery. It's a hot mess of a book that is very hard to follow from a timeline perspective and also a relevance standpoint. If you are interested in Herman Melville, who has little to nothing to do about Jessie Pomery, you might enjoy this book. If you want to learn about the Pomery case skip this book. If you want a well-written true crime book, stay far away from tihs one.

Lots of pointless rants

half of a chapter is nonsense about Moby Dick. Many story’s about people that have nothing at all to do with (what I thought was) the subject matter. Maybe to practice her English accent which I also do not understand, the story did take place in the United States. My advice to the author If your book is only 4 hours long let it be 4 hours long. Don’t make it 7 hours long by adding 3 hours of nonsense. I wish I could get my credit back.

Great Back Story. Iffy Writing. Annoying Performance

A child age serial killer is a plot that should be a slam dunk. However, in addition to the story of Jesse Pomeroy, the author felt the need to augment the pages with the mental struggles of Herman Melville, in which I failed to see much connection. When attempting to create a male voice, the female reader sounded almost comical. Other than Jesse’s mother, there are no female characters in this book. A male reader would’ve done the job better.

A jumbled, muddled mess

Too many irrelevant characters. Too much unnecessary detail. Poorly constructed chronology. There was simply no need for over half of the book. Why the author thought it necessary to tell Melville's lIfe story (or believed it was relevant to the main character) is beyond me. Presumably, it was to show a) Melville believed that whiteness could represent evil, and b) Melville struggled with mental illness. If that was the reason, though, surely it could have been accomplished in a briefer fashion? Regardless, the reliance on Melville turned this into an incoherent mess about a number of unconnected Bostonians rather than an interesting biography of a troubled, psychopathic youth.