The Sound of Burning: A Mother, a Daughter, a Murder begins the night then fifteen-year-old Kristi D. 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 early 2000s “copaganda” to the Scream franchise 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.

Forthcoming on October 1, 2026 from the University of Georgia Press. Pre-order here. Cover design by Erin Kirk.