Book Review: The Killer In Me by Margot Harrison
Media Type: Ebook (ARC)
Title: The Killer In Me
Author: Margot Harrison
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Pages: Hardcover; 368
Release Date: July 12, 2016
Source: FFBC Tours / Publisher
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Content Screening: Violence
HDB Rating: 4 Keys to My Heart
Recommended to: Readers who enjoy a good, tense read with vividly written characters.
Add it on: Goodreads | Amazon | BookLikes
Seventeen-year-old Nina Barrows knows all about the Thief. She’s intimately familiar with his hunting methods: how he stalks and kills at random, how he disposes of his victims’ bodies in an abandoned mine in the deepest, most desolate part of a desert.
Now, for the first time, Nina has the chance to do something about the serial killer that no one else knows exists. With the help of her former best friend, Warren, she tracks the Thief two thousand miles, to his home turf—the deserts of New Mexico.
But the man she meets there seems nothing like the brutal sociopath with whom she’s had a disturbing connection her whole life. To anyone else, Dylan Shadwell is exactly what he appears to be: a young veteran committed to his girlfriend and her young daughter. As Nina spends more time with him, she begins to doubt the truth she once held as certain: Dylan Shadwell is the Thief. She even starts to wonder . . . what if there is no Thief?
Whoa. Seriously, I don’t know what else to start this review out with other than that one word. Even though the synopsis promised a wild ride through a killers mind, I don’t think I was quite expecting how intense this book was going to be at times. In fact, I’m impressed. I don’t know how she did it, but Margot Harrison has managed to write a book that is equal parts wonderful and terrifying. If that doesn’t make any sense to you yet, just trust me that you need to pick The Killer In Me up.
Nina’s character was a grade A example of an unreliable narrator. What I love about that, especially in this case, was that it adds that extra tension to all of the drama taking place. See, Nina sees the Thief in her dreams. She knows where he goes, what he does, and who he kills. She has all the information, but no proof and no way to stop him. Her humanness, her powerlessness, these were the powerful tools that Harrison used to make Nina a questionable main character. I didn’t know whether she was crazy, whether she was right, or whether everything would end up being a dream. I love every single minute of it.
What further impressed me was that Warren was so perfectly settled into this story. While the main focus is definitely on Nina and her night time companion, Warren has his own rich back story. He’s that kind of guy that you can’t help but fall in love with. Compassionate, intelligent, and with maybe just a little too much bravado for his own good. I loved watching these two together, and further loved the fact that there was no instant relationship between them. They had history. They had issues. What grew between them was full of questions, and trust, and it was perfection.
Oh, were you waiting for me to get to the part about the killer? Well now, you’ll have to read this book to find out what’s going on with that. There’s so much beauty in the way that this whole story plays out. Little hints dropped, little moments that fly by, and so many questions left unanswered until the very end. This is one of the few books I’ve read lately where I actually approve wholeheartedly of the ending! As I said, consider me impressed. The Killer In Me is a must read.
FTC Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for my opinion.
