Book Review: Instrument of Evil by Lori A. Lowthert

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[image error] 3 out of 5
Rebekah Johnsonhas a really big secret, one she's pretty sure will end her new relationshipwith Scott. She'd like to tell him, but she anticipates his response would beto break up with her. Or report her to the police. Most likely both. Rebekah isa fledgling serial killer, and she's not ready to put killing aside. What's ayoung serial killer to do? Can she give up killing to save her relationship?
REVIEW:
I have to admitthat I messed up. I actually read the second book in this story first, butthat's another review.
Instrument of Evil is about a female serial killer as shegrows up, and the events that led her to kill. During college, she has to writea thesis for phycology, and decides to write two separate ones. One thesis isabout children, and their habits of lying, and the other about psychopaths,which Rebekah has self-diagnosed herself as.
FROM THE BOOK:I was forced to accept the idea that Iwas a psychopathic person, a person who would lie, cheat, steal, and hurtothers, for the fun of it.
The first thirdof the book was spent solely on backstory, which seemed to serve no realpurpose other than to prove that she was brought up in a somewhat normalhousehold. Rebekah's character rubbed off on me as a spoiled, intelligent, brat,who only did things for attention. There were long descriptions of familyvacations and shopping trips, but they didn't really show us anything other thandescriptions.
There wasnothing fantastic about the first half of the book to me, and I had troublereally getting into the story, as it was just normal life of a girl growing up.She gets into trouble like most teens, and the only thing remotely disturbingis that fact that she lied and help convict an innocent man of rape.
The story istold from first person perspective, and could have easily showed us insightinto the mind of a killer, or given us opinions of what a serial killer thoughtof the events around her, but there were only a few sarcastic monologues thatreminded me of the disgruntled teen that she is.
Personally, whenI read a description about a book that includes a serial killer, I expectmurder to be a huge premise of the story. We don't really start to tread on thesubject of murder until we are almost halfway through the book.
Even thoughRebekah's character falls into the personality traits of a psychopath (forthose who study theory of mind obsessively like me), the traits actually tendto sway toward the tame side, and even then I had trouble finding itconvincing. I was hoping for more of an internal struggle from the character,and it just wasn't there. I believe that the author was shooting for a moreapathetic personality, which holds true in some cases, but I was hoping for amassive tortured soul, possibly including the audio and visual hallucinations.Rebekah's psychopathic tendencies fall under the thrill-kill category, but heroff-putting personality has you doubting that she is even getting a thrill fromit. I was hoping to either see her fighting with the urge to kill people, or tobattle keeping her life in control because of the murders, but nether seemed toemerge and flesh out. She seemed to drop in a line here or there that she stopkilling, but there was no big internal debate over the subject.
Now for thekicker. We don't know what really goes on in the mind of a serial killerbecause most of them have either been sentenced to death, or have never beencaught. There are so many varying degrees of insanity that no two would be thesame, so to say that Rebekah's character is unrealistic can be debated, andlet's not forget the fact that this book is merely fiction.
I have to giveLoria Lowthert credit. It was a fabulous idea, and I still don't know whether Ilike this book or not, so I have to settle in the middle with a 3 star rating. Thebook was well written and edited, and it had me arguing with myself over theoryof mind. I don't think I've ever had a love/hate relationship with a bookbefore, until now.   

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