Kill Your Darlings

by Terence Blacker

Gregory Keays is a writer whose brilliant future is behind him. But when an extraordinary student enters his life, Gregory is offered one last, glorious chance to save his career. Soon, however, Gregory’s Faustian pact with success unravels around him, and he must turn to darker, more duplicitous means to secure his fame. Set in the dangerous world where real life and literary ambition collide, Kill Your Darlings is an unforgettable novel of ego and delusion, villainy and the betrayal of love.

Genres: Dark Academia, Fiction, LGBT, Classics, Gothic, Mystery, Academia

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Terence Blacker wanted to be a jockey when he grew and up. In fact, he could ride before he could walk, and his childhood hero was the great steeplechaser Mill House (a horse). He lives in Norfolk, England.

Reviews

[Jule · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very meta story. It was all about writing, the harsh reality of writing non-fiction or teaching Creative Writing classes when you can't live off your fiction, writer's block, finding inspiration, publicity, envy and the resulting greed, style and the publishing process. Add to that very on point observations about human nature that made all of the characters feel completely realistic, and you have got yourself a good book. I liked the pacing and the internal and external struggles the author-protagonist had to face. The plot-twist at the end was unexpected and I am not sure if that was realistic, within the character motivation or necessary. The trivia information about famous authors that ended each chapter was the cherry on top.

[Maura Heaphy Dutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very dark and very, very funny story of has-been (if he ever was) literary darling Gregory Keays -- a man who puts the added "unreliable" in your unreliable narrator. The less you know, the better you will enjoy it, but it might help to say a couple of things: Gregory is an APPALLING human being. Please don't let that put you off -- keep reading, there will come a moment when ... no, I can say no more.

My only other advice: if you have ever taught a creative writing class, or have been forced to suffer through a bad creative writing class, you might want to put aside hot beverages or sharp objects as you're reading. You might do yourself an injury ...

[Ebenmaessiger · Rating 3 out of 5]

id imagine books about writers struggling with writing are among the easiest things to write, and therefore the subject least subject to writers block possible. probably why we get (got?) so many of them. blacker, to his credit, knows this and laces reflections from our otherwise wholly unreliable narrator (that delusion the best part of the book) with a smattering of self(blacker)-recriminations: “since [my lauded debut] … my writerly horizons had, with every uncompleted work, contracted daily: from the world at large, to a particular social group, to the small field representing my own domestic experience, to the page or screen on which I was writing. Now, researching THE BOOK OF LITERARY LISTS, I was that pitiably limited creator, a writer writing about writing. What next? A writer writing about a writer writing?” good joke. who is it on?

[RU · Rating 1 out of 5]

just saw someone say that the best thing about this book was the surprise ending. they were right.

have you ever read a book and thought, 'is this the character being sexist/misogynistic? or the author? difficult to tell in this case. here's an example of what i mean: '...jeans that were too tight and a t-shirt which cruelly mocked her lack of womanliness.' with male authors it's difficult to tell if they've made a conscious decision to make the character an asshole towards women, or whether the writer is just an plain old asshole towards women. few women were called whores, too, which - well, what do we expect?

the author seemed to be fairly self-aware, though, and this book is full of dry and satirical humour that provided a few laugh-out-loud moments.... buuuttttt i fucking hated the narrator jeeeesus i was fully rooting for literally every single other person in this novel. let me not even get started on poor old peter. the ending of this novel was honestly completely satisfying and YES i'm aware of how psychopathic that makes me sound and NO i don't really care

[Djrmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A one hit wonder author plagiarizes a student's work to put himself back on the publishing A-List. That's the short summary. To include every thing else that is going on in the life and mind of the main character would give away a very funny and dark story.

[Mark Ramsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives Lit Biz the kicking it deserves, especially the strange cult around Martin Amis. Funny, knowing and thought provoking, as always with Blacker.

[becca ☆彡 · Rating 5 out of 5]

JESUS CHRIST WHAT A RIDE

[Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my absolute favorite book! The other reviewers that complain about the misogyny of the main character are absolutely correct. The first person narrator is an insufferable blowhard and from the first page you, the reader, have his number. Gregory Keays is a washed up novelist-turned-professor with a modicum of past success and a surplus of cockiness that belies his professional jealousy.

What made this book deliciously unsettling to me was how I, after confidently identifying these faults at the beginning of the book, was slowly sucked into Gregory's self-delusion so that by the end, a sudden shift in narrators pulled me sharply back to reality, forcing me to recognize the pieces of Gregory's story that I had believed after all.

If you just can't stomach the bloviating of a deeply self-important man, this book is not for you. But if you enjoy a good unreliable narrator, please give this book a try!

[Geoffrey Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Witty satire of the intense, incestuous little literary world. The narrator (of all but the last few pages) is Gregory Keays, a writer so desperate for recognition he will commit any crime to get it. He sprinkles his text with the useless literary trivia often found in magazines for would-be authors, including the Faulkner quote "Kill your darlings" and "Five Great Authors with Physical Oddities: 1. Ben Jonson weighed nearly 20 stone. ..." Keays bête noire, and no doubt the main model for this book, is Martin Amis.

[Faith-Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The surprise ending was the only good thing about this book.

[Sam Pariera · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read this book about two times now. The second time reading it made a lot more sense and was like reading it again for the first time. This is one of my favorite novels by far. The perspective from a very flawed character Gregory and his ideologies about love and the world can be somewhat relatable at times but also very perversed and disgusting to read about. He is definitely a terrible character. Peter Gibson is by far my favorite character. The most relatable with a lot of potential and it’s really sad to see how things turn out for him. I definitely think he deserves better.

[Sian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible and pretentious. 10/10 would NOT recommend. To put things in perspective, this is only the third book / series out of the hundreds of books I have read in my life that I just have not been able to finish.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The movie was better.

[Jules · Rating 3 out of 5]

the main character and narrator sucks so bad so it’s hard to enjoy this book

[Shaun Rensburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unputdownable.

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gregory Keays is a writer whose future is, as they say, behind him. One novel, a short period spent on the “young writers to watch” list, and the only thing he has produced since is a dozen unfinished novels and a series of not-yet-published volumes about other writers. He writes a column for a writer’s magazine and teaches a writing class at a local institute, while his wife has become one of London’s leading interior decorators, earning far more money than he ever will. His relationship with his teenage son is in the toilet. Gregory’s envy of those who were once, potentially, his peers has been eating his guts out for years. Most of those working writers, in his opinion, are mere authors; only he is a real “writer.” This is especially true of his opinion of Martin Amis -- whom he always refers to as “Martin.” (One must wonder about the true relationship between Amis and Blacker, if any. . . .) Then Peter Gibson shows up in his class and Gregory recognizes true talent. He casts himself as Peter’s guide to the literary world -- and discovers the young writer has just completed an amazingly mature, groundbreaking novel. A novel that should have been his. Will be his. This book started out witty and ruefully funny; you shake your head while smiling at Gregory’s corrosive ego and self-delusion. After awhile, though, he’s not so funny. And by the denouement -- which I, for one, did not see coming -- he has become downright scary. This study of the decay of an admittedly intelligent man’s self-image is a remarkable piece of work.

[Tina Wilkins]

This book is hilarious, dark and a tremendous read, punctuated with brilliant and funny literary lists. I consider it a masterpiece, one if my favorite reads ever. For those who are just "meh" about it, you obviously weren't paying attention.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I would like this better than I did, but it has its moments.

[Albie]

Kill Your Darlings by Terence Blacker (2001)

[Lynn Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great academic satire.