It takes a lot for a thriller to get five stars from me, but this book fully earns it. I’m fairly certain that unless I have an exceptionally stellar rest of the year, this book will be making it into my top ten books of the year, maybe even my top five. I have made nearly all of my IRL friends read it, so now I want everyone who I have only met virtually to read it, too. It gave me joy. I do not know how many cis men it will give joy, but I’d like to think they can spot a good thing when they see it. For anyone who isn’t a cis man, you especially might like this.
It’s about a woman, a professor, who kills men who do bad things (especially to women) in order to curb her murderous urges. The book opens with her executing the very well-planned out murder of a frat-boy she’d previously had in one of her classes, and who was getting away with being a serial rapist. It just gets more wild and satisfying from there.
The other main character is an undergrad at the same university who finds herself away from her emotionally neglectful home for the first time, living with a roommate that she may have a crush on, and who something terrible happens to.
How the storylines of the two characters came together really surprised me, which is hard to do! But it helps that this isn’t a thriller that was written just to shock or titillate. It’s got bones to it, and while the twists and turns are extremely fun and surprising, what sticks with you is the simplicity of the premise and the arc of the main characters.
For all of you bi- and pansexuals out there, you will like this one as well.
All in all, one of my favorite books of the year. I finished my library copy and immediately purchased a brand new hardcover of my own to keep forever and ever.
CBR BINGO: Gaslight
Specifics would be spoilers, but suffice to say this book is chock full of gaslighting, and the main character responds pleasingly to a lot of it.
