There are probably hundreds of books about serial killers and misunderstood youths, but one of the most chilling stories is nonfiction. Ann Rule documents the hunt for a brutal serial killer in her true crime book, The Stranger Beside Me (1981). The killer turns out to be the seductive, cunning Ted Bundy, Rule's friend and co-worker.

The recent fiction work that comes closest to this novel is Patrick McCabe's The Butcher Boy (1993). It is the story of Francie Brady, an Irish schoolboy from a dysfunctional family whose mother eventually commits suicide. When Francie begins to feel that all his problems are the result of prying and disapproving neighbors, he strikes out against the adults who he feels have terrorized him. Francie's loss of innocence and escalating brutality make him a soul mate of Eric Poole.