Book Chop: I Don't Want to Kill You (John Cleaver #3)

Title: I DON'T WANT TO KILL YOU
Author: Dan Wells
Genre: Paranormal horror

What a bittersweet ending to a darkly clever trilogy. I don't read a lot of horror, but since I like Brandon Sanderson's work and I enjoy the Writing Excuses Podcast, I gave Dan Wells' books a try two years ago and I've never regretted it.

The I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER trilogy is unique and tremendously entertaining. It follows John Cleaver, a teenage sociopath who is obsessed with the history and pathology of serial killers. When a real killer shows up in his town, John saddles up and defeats him as only another serial killer can. This unleashes a hornet's nest of problems, not the least of which is John's own dark side.

If Dan Wells is good at one thing, it's giving you what you don't expect, while still keeping you interested. I didn't have many predictions for how this book would end, other than the generic "everything is fine" ending. But I didn't get that.

Everything wasn't fine.

In fact, to many characters, things got very bad before they never got better.

And yet it wasn't a tale of despair, but one of costly triumph. It showed just how hard it was to fix a broken human being, and who had to pay the price to fix him.

One thing I'm impressed with is Wells' ability to present horrific topics without delving into long psychosexual scenes, or lacing the dialogue with profanity. The strength of the story is much more chilling than that.

I recommend the whole trilogy. Mild language throughout, though.