I am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells - (spoilers permitted) - June 2019

[Jenny]

Hello fellow Crime, Mystery & Thriller readers! This discussion is about I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells, your host is Danny
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about spoilers

Please note: If you have not finished reading the book spoilers are permitted in this discussion from the start.
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Summary

John Wayne Cleaver is dangerous, and he knows it.

He's spent his life doing his best not to live up to his potential.

He's obsessed with serial killers, but really doesn't want to become one. So for his own sake, and the safety of those around him, he lives by rigid rules he's written for himself, practicing normal life as if it were a private religion that could save him from damnation.

Dead bodies are normal to John. He likes them, actually. They don't demand or expect the empathy he's unable to offer. Perhaps that's what gives him the objectivity to recognize that there's something different about the body the police have just found behind the Wash-n-Dry Laundromat---and to appreciate what that difference means.

Now, for the first time, John has to confront a danger outside himself, a threat he can't control, a menace to everything and everyone he would love, if only he could.

Dan Wells' debut novel is the first volume of a trilogy that will keep you awake and then haunt your dreams.

[Danny]

Hello readers!

Sorry for not properly introducing myself before. But there was some confusion about your host.

I'm looking forward to discussing this book with you.

[Seth]

Hey guys. First time doing a book discussion here but I just finished reading this one and was hoping to kick it off. Is this the right time and place? Thanks.

[Pamela]

I find where to post here very confusing, let's run with this if the commentator does not tell us differently. Here is my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jenny]

Seth wrote: "Hey guys. First time doing a book discussion here but I just finished reading this one and was hoping to kick it off. Is this the right time and place? Thanks."

Seth, you can start a discussion on a book any time after the book threads are open.

Seth, what were the main problems with this book that you can only gave it three stars?

[Jenny]

Pamela wrote: "I find where to post here very confusing, let's run with this if the commentator does not tell us differently. Here is my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show......"

Pamela, you are correct by leaving your review of this book here. Also, Pamela, you can share your review with other members at Social Conversations > What are you reading?

[Seth]

Thanks Jenny,

So three stars as in "I liked it" but at the end of the day felt that it had a few things holding it back.

1) Genre confusion. The first (maybe 75 pages) bit of the book is screaming "psychological thriller" In every way. The narrative is confidently proclaiming that this is going to be an intimate portrait of a kid struggling with sociopathic tendencies. It is going to be the type of story where the main character gets into increasing amounts of trouble due to flaws in his own nature, only to find some redemption and comfort with himself in the end.

However, that was not the case, or at least not in the way I was led to expect.

Because once the lead in of "Psychological thriller" has been well established, the story takes one of the hardest left turns I've ever experienced.

Oh, now there is a demon? Suddenly? So, we aren't in the real world anymore, after all. Now we are in some sort of supernatural vampire story, where the main character's struggles with himself are going to abruptly take a back seat to a mythological/religious threat. Perhaps this is personal bias, as I tend to favor stories set in the real world, but it felt VERY jarring to me. Almost like I was tricked somehow. I know that "toying with reader expectations" is a big thing right now, but this felt almost as if the author suddenly decided he wanted to write a different book 70 pages in. Others may disagree and find this to be a pleasurable twist, so I'm interested in hearing opinions to the contrary.

2) The prose - not a whole lot to say here, but I can forgive almost any structural/genre issues if the prose pops. This prose did not pop for me. It fizzled, felt mundane, straight forward to a fault.

Those two issues made the experience less seamless than I would have liked, knocking me out of the story, and causing me to take two stars off.

Now for what I did like.

1) The character arc was excellent. Despite jarringly taking focus off of the main character a third into the book, I felt that, in the end, his character arc was very well paced all in all. I could feel him struggling with his own inner demons as he struggled with the external one (And yes, I'm aware of the fact that this could be some super extended metaphor, but I chose to read it at face value). In the end, despite nearly losing it, the character changes subtly but powerfully, and I felt the payoff of his struggle to come to terms with himself and his place in the world. So, I gave two stars just for this precisely crafted and rewarding arc.

2) I gave an extra star for the author's ability to craft a very difficult character. It isn't easy to write from the perspective of someone like this. A killer (even a latent one) does not easily create sympathy in the reader's mind. Yet I found myself on the kid's side throughout. Not entirely sure how the author accomplished it, but it was a neat enough trick to earn another star.

TL/DR - Points for a difficult, yet well drawn character in the protagonist. Jarring changes in genre and flat prose kept it from excelling.

What did everyone else think? Looking forward to seeing your review posted here Pamela.