06 October, 2013

Review: I Hunt Killers (& Why I Don't Like Crime Fiction).



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Rating:



I thought I'd try doing something a little different this time. Thing is, I'm not very good at promoting books, especially if it's a book I liked. My review end up being a mess of gushing and incoherent words. 

So today, I'll flip things. I liked I Hunt Killers, even though crime fiction is one of those genres I loathe, so in order to get my point across, I'll show you why this book is different, and why I hate crime fiction:

It's usually gory. 

I'm not a person who minds gore, yet crime novels usually break that high standard of mine. Many of the books I read were cringe-worthy, and downright sick.

I Hunt Killers is not. In an interview with Libba Bray, Barry Lyga even says that he doesn't consider to be anywhere near goriness. Many of his beta readers said otherwise, but I agree with him on this. Don't get me wrong, this book doesn't sugarcoat things. There are crime scenes, and there are explicit descriptions, but none of them made me uncomfortable.

It's too dark; characters feel detached or unlikeable. 

This happens with most of the Crime fiction I read. Either the characters were straight up dull, of they were just unlikeable.

Jasper Dent is neither. He has a strong inner struggle, and I was interested in how that will turn out. He was three dimensional; and he had a strong, likeable personality. Everything he did was explained. For example, he acknoweges the fact that he is handsome, and both attracts and can charm women. This is not smugness though. He attributes this fact to him being the famous son of a serial killer. Women are attracted to him because of the mystery that surrounds him, and guys are scared of him because his father could hide their bodies of the surface of earth.

Jasper Dent is no fool, ladies. He's smart.

As to the dark element, yes, the book is dark, but sidekicks like Howie and Connie help settle the equation. Whenever a laugh was in order, Howie was more than happy to report for duty. Connie, Jazz's girlfriend, has got to be one of my favourite love interests ever. She wasn't pushy, she gave Jazz his space, and she was an all around awesome person.

It's predictable,

It's safe to say that this doesn't apply to all mystery/crime fiction. After all, the point is to not be predictable, but even when the villain is exposed, it's anticlimactic. There were no clues or foreshadowing.

And yup, you guessed it, I Hunt Killers comes off of this one too. It does what all good mystery books/movies do, gives you a plethora of suspects, and throws your attention everywhere. The ending was quite satisfying, and while there was a cliffhanger, I felt like most things were closed up.



Final words: This book is equal parts entertaining, dark, and funny. Also, Barry Lyga scares me. No man should have that much information about serial killers or methods of body disposal. I'm almost convinced he doesn't exist, and his name is an acronym of Libba Bray.

Their secret is out.



13 comments:

  1. Wow, this book sounds really good. And for someone who claims not to be great at promoting books (I think otherwise), this review really sold me!


    I I'm a huge fan of crime fiction but I have definitely noticed all of these in the crime novels I've read recently. I've grown to be rather wary of them especially the predictability so it's amazing to hear that none of these applied to the book. I think I'm going to make a trip to the bookstore just to get this book!

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  2. LOL! Yes! Barry Lyga is totally Libba Bray. But there's one unanswered question. Who's the real one? Libba or Barry?


    I'm so glad that you enjoyed this, Reem. I Hunt Killers is one of my favorite books, so I'm always excited when I see a positive review for it pop up. I agree with everything you said. Jazz was an amazing character (loved reading about his struggles and just being in his head), Howie was hilarious, and Connie is great, too (she gets a *little* bit more pushy in the second book, but for decent reasons).


    I also agree with the killer being hard to guess. I mean, I did guess the right person in the beginning, but Barry Lyga threw all my attention to other people that I wasn't even thinking about him when the big reveal happened >_<


    Great review!

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  3. Wohooo!! My first *cough* victim*cough :P

    And if you are a huge fan of the genre, I bet you'll like this! Let me know once you get to read it! Link me the review :D

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  4. I know, right? I totally like.. discovered this on my own because I'm secretly Sherlock Holmes. And I'd say Libba is the real deal.

    I did see your convo with Eve on Twitter, and I'm kind of scared I'll end up disliking Connie. She was one of my favourite characters in I Hunt Killers!

    Me too! But there was always the question of "If he isn't the killer, then why was he introduced?" But I did like how Barry threw our attention everywhere.

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  5. "Thing is, I'm not very good at promoting books, especially if it's a book I liked." I'm bad, too! (I don't think you're bad at it, by the way, because you did an amazing job with this review!) But I always find it hard to write reviews for books I liked. For books I hated? Oh that's too easy.



    And I agree with you about everything! The book wasn't predictable, Jazz's inner struggle gave me a reason to root for him... because if he'd been totally okay with Dear Old Dad being a serial killer, I would have killed him. Or the book. Seriously, though - Jazz is like no one else I've read about. He's not like those "angry bad boys with a bad past" that use it as an excuse to act like jerks. There IS something wrong with Jazz, but instead of going with the flow, he's fighting it.


    Also, Connie and Howie? Best Girlfriend Awarrd and Best Sidekick Award. Howie was hilarious!

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  6. To be fair to Connie, she does get better after the whole drama thing she decided to do... It's just that I couldn't help but get mad at her for how she handled to conflict between her and her parents and how irritated she was about Jazz being afraid to sleep with her >_< Also, Barry had a little bit of trouble settling into a female POV in the beginning, I think.... BUT BUT BUT! It seems like Connie will be the hero in the third book so I'm excited for that :D


    Woah. Long ramble about Connie... I'm sorry!


    After I stopped suspecting him because of all the other suspects, I started to think he was introduced to give Jazz a look at how the death of a loved one could hurt a person... So yeah, Barry had me wrapped around his finger :P

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  7. I think you did a great job. If I hadn't already read it, your review would have sold me on it without question :) I don't mind gory books, but it's ya so it shouldn't as gory as an adult book, imo. I Hunt Killers has just the right touch of gory and creepy to make the story realistic without turning it into a gore-fest.
    "It's too dark; characters feel detached or unlikeable." I've noticed this too. But I really liked the characters here.
    Argg, I hate predictable mysteries. It's such a turn off, but, like you said, IHT managed to avoid that mistake as well :)



    Great non-review!

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  8. Yaay! That makes me happy :D I should probably do more of those part review part discussion posts because they seem to be working :P

    Yup! The author thought it was too light and fluffy, so I can't imagine what was in the first draft :p And Howie was amazing, although I would have liked for his character to be more fleshed out, or atleast have a more seperate story line (wasn't there a college girl he had a crush on? I'd love to see Howie having a crush on someone :P It would be hilarious).

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  9. This is probably one of the only times I convinced someone (Annie) of buying a book. I should keep a score somewhere :P And are you kidding? I bought two books and requested an eARC because of your reviews :P You haz za power, man.

    I loved his inner struggle! You don't see that much in YA, usually the problems are either too superficial, or external.

    And oh, god! Howie was amazing! The part where he describes the knife had me laughing! (it's shiny and yaay long) :p

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  10. Hmm, I can see that happening. I mean, he does the male POV very well, so I guess the transition might be difficult for him.

    And as far as I can remember, her parents had problems with her dating a whiteboy? Err.. I can see things getting messy in the second book. (Although I wouldn't blame her parents if they asked her to stop seeing Jazz. The dude was a suspect in murder for crying out loud!).


    Naah, I was always waiting for him to have a bigger role, and.. he did!

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  11. Hmm, I can see that happening. I mean, he does the male POV very well, so I guess the transition might be difficult for him.

    And as far as I can remember, her parents had problems with her dating a whiteboy? Err.. I can see things getting messy in the second book. (Although I wouldn't blame her parents if they asked her to stop seeing Jazz. The dude was a suspect in murder for crying out loud!).


    Naah, I was always waiting for him to have a bigger role, and.. he did!

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  12. In the second book, Connie wants to go with Jazz to New York so she can help him with a case... Something the parents did NOT want. And Connie tries to be independent, which I found admirable, but the way she handled it, threatening her parents, was horrible. (So Jazz being white isn't the main issue in the second book.)

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  13. I can see where her parents are coming from. Travel with the son of a serial killer to a city faraway to investigate a crime scene? Umm.. there might be some problems there :D

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