I’m not a big reader. I like books, but I simply don’t have the attention span to sit down for hours at a time, plowing through hundreds of pages, when I could be baking, sewing, or casually surfing the internet. However, I recently read a book so exciting and suspenseful that I not only read it in two days, but I proceeded to check out its two sequels and read each of those in two days as well.
I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells (co-host of the great podcast ‘Writing Excuses’), is a wonderful horror book on the darker side of the Young Adult genre. Written in spectacular, unique first- person, the novel is about a high school boy named John Cleaver, a serial-killer fanatic/sociopath who holds himself to a strict rule system so that he does not become a serial killer himself. For instance, he is not allowed set fires or hurt animals, and he’s not allowed to stare at someone for too long, lest he become too interested and begin to stalk them.
John decides to put his knowledge to good use and ensure justice when a real life serial killer strikes his small town, leaving a peculiar series of bodies in his wake. The novel and its sequels, Mr. Monster and I Don’t Want To Kill You, follow John as he tries to fight the monsters threatening his family and neighbors without giving into his darker side and becoming a monster himself.
Emma, Teen Advisory Group
Northeast Branch
Leave a Comment