The Sound of Burning: A Mother, a Daughter, a Murder

The Sound of Burning: A Mother, a Daughter, a Murder begins the night then-fifteen-year-old Osorio's mother murdered her grandmother while the author was in her bedroom down the hall. But this book is not simply about that crime. Instead, Osorio examines the true crime obsession that arose in popular American culture parallel to her life, from the Scream franchise and the early 2000s "copaganda" to the more recent podcast boom. She uses her own story to interrogate the ways that true crime narratives often dehumanize the very real people at the center of those stories. Part memoir, part cultural critique, Osorio brings together memory, the lyric, and archival materials to tell her story of coming of age in the shadows of violence.

Author: Kristi D. Osorio
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 10/01/2026
Pages: 200
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.62lbs
Size: 8.42h x 5.60w x 0.59d
ISBN13: 9780820378091
ISBN10: 0820378097
BISAC Categories:
- True Crime | Murder | General
- Biography & Autobiography | Memoirs

About the Author
KRISTI D. OSORIO is the winner of the 2023 Indiana Review Creative Nonfiction Prize selected by Camonghne Felix and the Sonora Review "Mercy" Contest in Nonfiction selected by Maggie Nelson. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Teachers & Writers Magazine, New Delta Review, and elsewhere. She currently lives and writes in Texas.