I Am Not a Serial Killer

Dan Wells, you may very well be my best author discovery this year. I Am Not A Serial Killer is the second book of his I have read this year, and I am enjoying his unique take on the genre more with each reading.

When I first started reading I A m Not A Serial Killer I immediately started to make comparisons to "Dexter" from Jeff Lindsay's fabu novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter. And rightly so. Both are about Sociopaths dealing with their aberrant behavior by following a strict self-imposed set of rules. I thought to myself, well this novel is what Dexter would have been like as a teen. I can dig that. Right up until chapter 7. That is when Mr. Wells turned the whole damn book on its ear, and then smacked me upside the head with the same book. There is no way to give this book the justice it deserves without giving away major plot spoilers, so am not going to really try to give a book description.

I would like to discuss John Wayne Cleaver for just one moment. I found him to be a rather difficult character to love. His response to the events was deeply disturbing to me, and unlike Dexter, when he told the reader that he did not feel emotions or have empathy, I did not believe him, because his actions at time betrayed his words. But when Mr. Cleaver said he did not have empathy, I truly, truly believed every word of it. The scene with his mom in the kitchen still gives me the shivers, not because of the actions he took, but because of the utter glee he experienced.

I would qualify this novel as a YA novel. Not because the main character is a teen, but because the writing felt young adult. By that I don't mean simplistic, I mean it just had the voice of a YA book. This makes sense, because his other series "Partials" is also a YA series.

I definitely plan to red more about John Wayne Cleaver in the near future.

3.5 of 5 stars.