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Crimereads top ten true crime books of 2021
“Katherine Dykstra takes a different, more thoughtful, approach to Paula’s story, examining how stifling community standards, antagonism against interracial relationships, and assumptions about “bad girls” worked in tandem to condemn Paula and bury her story.”
More than mystery: katherine dykstra interviewed
“The book doesn’t rely on her homicide to be the climax. It resists playing into the very problem it is critiquing. The book is an unspooling of all the people and systems that conspired in Paula’s death. It has not one cause, but too many.”
The best new books
“A provocative true-crime page-turner on how sexism, racism and public opinion set women up for violence.”
13 Best Book covers of june
“The color story evokes the 70s so precisely, but it’s really that haunting non-photograph, down to its creased edges, that makes this a brilliant cover.”
must read books summer 2021
“What Happened to Paula is a new reminder of how completely the true crime genre is owned and flourishing through female authors… it’s memoir sifted through institutional neglect and sexism.”
Miscellaneous files Interview:
katherine dykstra and susan taylor chehak
“She was different from them, and that’s why I loved her.”
Summer reading 2021
“Dykstra looks at the context, the life Paula lived, in all its small moments of violence and violation. Thoughtful and thought-provoking.”
New York times Book review summer issue
“In giving Paula voice, Dykstra helps heal a grave injustice.”
New York Observer’s best new summer reads
“It’s a complicated and crucial book that doesn’t shy away from personal culpability, the mythology of innocence and the assumptions we cast upon dead girls.”
People magazine’s Best Books of Summer 2021
“Investigating the never-solved murder of a young woman in 1970, the author uncovers intriguing truths about her family, her segregated community and the limits on female autonomy.”
NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER
publisher’s weekly, starred and boxed review
”Journalist Dykstra debuts with a sobering, well-crafted account of her efforts to solve a 50-year-old cold case. … Dykstra casts a searing light on racism, sexism, and the stigma of being a ‘bad’ girl.”
the shame trap: PW TALKS WITH KATHERINE DYKSTRA
HOW DO YOU HOPE PAULA’S STORY WILL AFFECT READERS?
“So much of womanhood is ensconced in shame. Women are shamed for the way they dress, the things they say, their very bodies and biology. They’re shamed for their approaches to work, for whether they decide to marry, to have children, for the ways in which they choose to mother. The judgment is endless. Paula was shamed for her behaviors in life and then she was practically blamed for her own death. My hope is that by telling Paula’s story, and the stories of the other women [in the book], I’ll be able to illustrate how this type of shaming traps women, and also that readers will feel less inclined to feel shame over their own choices.”