Book Review: The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe by James Patterson and Imogen Edwards-Jones (2025)
Synopsis: On August 5, 1962, Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe is found unresponsive in her bed and is later determined to have died of a drug overdose raising questions about if it was an accidental overdose, suicide or something else. This true crime book explores Marilyn's life, career and tragic death at the age of 36.
Review: I wasn't sure what I was getting when I checked out The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe from my library. I'm always interested in a good biography, even one with a "true crime" twist to it, but the library had this listed as fiction, so I didn't know if it would be educational or just a book taking advantage of a tragic life/death.
In the end, I think it fell somewhere in between but more toward the former than the latter.
I think the thing I liked best about this book is how it manages to bring her back to life in the pages and humanizes her. She was an actress that died 13 years before I was born and my only familiarity with her was through her movies, iconic photographs and legends. Having her story told more from her point of view helped see her in a different light, even if the authors did take some liberties.
While the book spends a great deal of time on Marilyn's love life, including a romance the authors suggest led to her overdose, the part that interested me more was the timeline of her career. I thought it was interesting how someone as beautiful and glamorous as Marilyn Monroe had more than a fair share of career setbacks and financial struggles even as she was becoming a household name. In particular, I thought it was odd how the studios that were making big dollars from her were reluctant to let her have a say in which roles she wanted, forcing her to be a sex symbol when she wanted to be taken serious as a dramatic actress.
The book also gives a solid glimpse into Hollywood culture during her lifetime as well, especially when it came to the pills that were handed out like candy to actresses looking to stay thin or just trying to get a good night's sleep. It brought to mind more recent deaths, like Matthew Perry's for example, and made me wonder if the people who prescribed her drugs would have been prosecuted for murder today.
This isn't a complaint and more of a warning to those who read it, the book starts out with a somber tone and pretty much sticks to that tone throughout, painting Marilyn's life as tragic even as she became successful. In other words, it's not a book you want to read if you don't want to feel depressed or just want to remember Marilyn Monroe for the icon she became.
Final Opinion: It's an interesting true crime book that provides a great deal of background of Marilyn Monroe's career, romances and life leading up to her death. While I'll stop short of saying it was 100 percent factual, I think it does a great job of telling her life story in a way that made it hard to put it down.
My Grade: A
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Here are some reviews of other books about Hollywood celebrities:
Book Review: Room 1219 by Greg Merritt (2013)
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