My Friend Dahmer

Jeffrey “Jeff” Dahmer is a real-life serial killer who murdered 17 people between 1978-1991. He was killed in prison while serving two life sentences for his crimes.

In the novel, Dahmer is depicted as a shy and lonely teenager who displays disturbing behavior from the start. His is a complex, strange, and terrifying coming-of-age story. Visually, he’s blonde, tall and muscular, but with an awkward stance, his shoulders bent forward.

Dahmer’s isolation only increases as he grows older. He spends his high school years mostly on his own, drinking on school grounds in order to drown the terrible urges that plague his mind. He communicates with others via assuming caricatures of people suffering from epileptic seizures or cerebral palsy tremors. Backderf frames this behavior as Dahmer’s means of venting his inner turmoil and connecting with others as he lacks the ability to mirror the “normalcy” expected of “society.”

Backderf presents an image of Dahmer as a boy who slips through the cracks of the school system, as no one pays attention to him and his anti-social behavior. Dahmer’s home life is equally disheartening as his parents constantly argue and later separate. By the end of the novel, even Dahmer’s mother abandons him, the latter remaining alone in his house—this being what finally pushes him over the edge as he commits his first murder.

The author insists that Dahmer is a “tragic figure” as adults and peers alike failed to help him. Despite Dahmer becoming one of the most notorious serial killers in history, the novel sheds light on his inner struggle (albeit with artistic liberties)—a brave yet ultimately futile attempt to stifle the urges that will make him a “monster.”