So far the year of 2017 has been a dumpster fire for multiple reasons…many of those reasons you can guess, but also because I haven’t been able to find a book that I could lose myself in. It’s my turn for my book club selection and so I was feeling the pressure of trying to find something that ten women might like–no small feat. I’m glad that when I made my search for “suspenseful books” on the Internet that when I read the blurb about The Kind Worth Killing the comparisons were to Strangers on a Train as opposed to Girl on a Train (not a fan) or Gone Girl (liked, but realized it’s not actually that great). I’ve been burned by books like that in past as seen here. Amazon, however, is promoting it for fans of both books, take that for what you will.
Ted and Lily (yeah, if you’re fans of How I Met Your Mother it takes a few minutes to adjust that they are most definitely not that Ted and Lily) meet on a flight from London to Boston. Ted, having had a few too many cocktails opens up to the beautiful, mysterious Lily about his fears of his wife cheating on him. He jokes that he could kill her for what she’s done, Lily suggests that she’d like to help…because some people are just worth killing. From there we learn who Lily is, what has shaped her in the past, and what things she just cannot forgive. Ted’s over his head but the ball is already rolling and rolling fast.
Finally! A book that I picked up and didn’t want to put down. The first of 2017 for me (seriously, I thought I might be over reading or something because I couldn’t get into ANYTHING). Ditch the comparisons to The Girl on the Train (they are similar in that there are two female characters and the story is told from different perspectives per chapter), it’s much better. While Lily isn’t a sweet lady, you “understand” her psychopathy because she’s a well developed character. Like Amy from Gone Girl, Lily has expectations of behavior. When people (particularly men), disappoint her or hurt her, she hurts back. There are some serious twists and I’m not sure if I loved the ending or not…but it was kind of perfect. If you’re looking for a suspenseful book with some really surprising twists, this might be the one for you.