Jessica Steiner (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jessicasteiner) wrote2011-05-21 08:09 pm
jessicasteiner) wrote2011-05-21 08:09 pm
Review: I Am Not a Serial Killer and Mr. Monster
I devoured these two books one right after the other, so I'm going to review them together. As with the previous books I've reviewed, I downloaded them both from Audible, and they can be found here:
I Am Not a Serial Killer
Mr. Monster
These are the first two books in Dan Wells' debut series, and the third book, I Don't Want to Kill You is now out (and I'll be getting it very soon).
The series follows the life of John Wayne Cleaver, a young teenager with an obsession with serial killers and a diagnosis of severe Antisocial Personality Disorder. Living in a small midwestern town and struggling to handle normal teenage boy issues like girls, friends, school, and family problems, John also has to cope with the fact that he lives above a mortuary, and that a demon has started killing people all over town.
Did I say demon? Yes I did. It's an urban fantasy/horror series, though you wouldn't know it for the first several chapters of I Am Not a Serial Killer. It's got a very low-key supernatural element, which ramps up slowly before you - and John - become convinced that there really is a demon in town, not just a run-of-the-mill serial killer.
As you might have been able to tell from the first line of this review, I really loved these books. John is a sociopath, and an extremely well-researched one (I've researched the disorder extensively and I still learned a lot from this book about the symptoms and what it's like to be a serial killer). But somehow John is still a completely sympathetic character. There were times in Mr. Monster when I was truly afraid he was going to go over the edge and do something I couldn't forgive him for, but Dan Wells manages to walk the line perfectly, pushing that edge without letting John fall straight over it and stop being relateable to the reader.
John Allen Nelson narrated I Am Not a Serial Killer, and I found him a bit over-dramatic at times, but the book was so engaging and exciting that it really wouldn't have mattered if it had been read by a half-literate monkey. The switch to a different reader in Mr. Monster (Kirby Heyborne) was an adjustment. I had gotten used to John Allen Nelson, but by the end of Mr. Monster I was used to the new voice, and he continues for the third book, which is good.
Though John has a hard time understanding the people around him, making it more difficult to plumb the depths of the supporting characters, that only suits the style of the novel and what Dan has done by making this book from the first-person POV of a sociopath. I found it fascinating, and at times extremely disturbing, to be inside John's head. Yet I fell in love with him as a character.
I really have nothing bad to say about the books. If you like urban fantasy, and/or are at all interested in serial killers, I highly recommend these books. They are shortish, not heavy reads, with the kind of pacing that makes them nearly impossible to put down. I've been recommending them to nearly everyone I know since about three chapters into the first book.
Off to buy the third one!
I Am Not a Serial Killer
Mr. Monster
These are the first two books in Dan Wells' debut series, and the third book, I Don't Want to Kill You is now out (and I'll be getting it very soon).
The series follows the life of John Wayne Cleaver, a young teenager with an obsession with serial killers and a diagnosis of severe Antisocial Personality Disorder. Living in a small midwestern town and struggling to handle normal teenage boy issues like girls, friends, school, and family problems, John also has to cope with the fact that he lives above a mortuary, and that a demon has started killing people all over town.
Did I say demon? Yes I did. It's an urban fantasy/horror series, though you wouldn't know it for the first several chapters of I Am Not a Serial Killer. It's got a very low-key supernatural element, which ramps up slowly before you - and John - become convinced that there really is a demon in town, not just a run-of-the-mill serial killer.
As you might have been able to tell from the first line of this review, I really loved these books. John is a sociopath, and an extremely well-researched one (I've researched the disorder extensively and I still learned a lot from this book about the symptoms and what it's like to be a serial killer). But somehow John is still a completely sympathetic character. There were times in Mr. Monster when I was truly afraid he was going to go over the edge and do something I couldn't forgive him for, but Dan Wells manages to walk the line perfectly, pushing that edge without letting John fall straight over it and stop being relateable to the reader.
John Allen Nelson narrated I Am Not a Serial Killer, and I found him a bit over-dramatic at times, but the book was so engaging and exciting that it really wouldn't have mattered if it had been read by a half-literate monkey. The switch to a different reader in Mr. Monster (Kirby Heyborne) was an adjustment. I had gotten used to John Allen Nelson, but by the end of Mr. Monster I was used to the new voice, and he continues for the third book, which is good.
Though John has a hard time understanding the people around him, making it more difficult to plumb the depths of the supporting characters, that only suits the style of the novel and what Dan has done by making this book from the first-person POV of a sociopath. I found it fascinating, and at times extremely disturbing, to be inside John's head. Yet I fell in love with him as a character.
I really have nothing bad to say about the books. If you like urban fantasy, and/or are at all interested in serial killers, I highly recommend these books. They are shortish, not heavy reads, with the kind of pacing that makes them nearly impossible to put down. I've been recommending them to nearly everyone I know since about three chapters into the first book.
Off to buy the third one!