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

Links: Goodreads

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.