Nina sees the Thief every night in her dreams. Unable to keep his secrets anymore, she travels to New Mexico with her former best friend Warren to stop the Thief in his tracks. But, of course, nothing is as it seems.

THE KILLER IN ME is a delightfully suspenseful tale examining the power of family and dreams. This book kept me up at night and stayed with me long after I closed it. This is a book to keep you up until 3 am because you can't sleep until you know what happens next. I can't wait to see what Harrison writes next. ( )

A bit slow but an overall imaginative YA novel. Plus bonus points since part of it takes place in. New Mexico :-) ( )

Whoa. Seriously, I don't know what else to start this review out with other than that one word. Even though the synopsis promised a wild ride through a killers mind, I don't think I was quite expecting how intense this book was going to be at times. In fact, I'm impressed. I don't know how she did it, but Margot Harrison has managed to write a book that is equal parts wonderful and terrifying. If that doesn't make any sense to you yet, just trust me that you need to pick The Killer In Me up.

Nina's character was a grade A example of an unreliable narrator. What I love about that, especially in this case, was that it adds that extra tension to all of the drama taking place. See, Nina sees the Thief in her dreams. She knows where he goes, what he does, and who he kills. She has all the information, but no proof and no way to stop him. Her humanness, her powerlessness, these were the powerful tools that Harrison used to make Nina a questionable main character. I didn't know whether she was crazy, whether she was right, or whether everything would end up being a dream. I love every single minute of it.

What further impressed me was that Warren was so perfectly settled into this story. While the main focus is definitely on Nina and her night time companion, Warren has his own rich back story. He's that kind of guy that you can't help but fall in love with. Compassionate, intelligent, and with maybe just a little too much bravado for his own good. I loved watching these two together, and further loved the fact that there was no instant relationship between them. They had history. They had issues. What grew between them was full of questions, and trust, and it was perfection.

Oh, were you waiting for me to get to the part about the killer? Well now, you'll have to read this book to find out what's going on with that. There's so much beauty in the way that this whole story plays out. Little hints dropped, little moments that fly by, and so many questions left unanswered until the very end. This is one of the few books I've read lately where I actually approve wholeheartedly of the ending! As I said, consider me impressed. The Killer In Me is a must read. ( )

“If he were a killer, he wouldn’t wonder or guess. He wouldn’t care what I thought or felt. My story would be his to write.”

This sounded like a deeply twisted mystery novel and it instantly caught my interest, but the lack of personality on the character’s part and a disgruntling plot left for one dissatisfying read.

Nina’s character is mostly flat. You see glimpses of what she could be, but she never fully develops. It would have helped if the author wasn’t so keen on repetitively making sure the reader knew Nina was ‘bullied’ for her lesbian mother, which didn’t help the story or the character. You never saw others bullying her (you never even saw other kids from the school!) and the bullying didn’t affect her character, but it’s unnecessarily brought up over and over and over…

Warren is slightly less flat, but really creepy for a love interest. He’s a redneck/former-drug-dealer who has a bit more than a normal crush on Nina. He seems a bit stalker-ish sometimes? Or maybe just a bit obsessive. And again, just as with Nina, we have Warren’s brothers and father (whom never make an appearance in the book) that are constantly mentioned as having a big impact on Warren and Nina, but you never see just what was effected in Warren’s character.

Dylan probably has the most life in the story, which isn’t that much. It’s a big disappointment for me because I’m all for great characters even if the plot is a little wobbly.

A major problem with this book is the TALK. Everything is just talk. A big fat case of telling and no showing. We are TOLD about Warren’s brothers and father and what big jerks they are, but we never see them. We are TOLD that Warren is a sweetheart to his mother, but we never see her. We are TOLD Dylan is great with his girlfriend’s daughter, but we never see them interact. We are TOLD Nina is bullied, but it’s never seen. It’s the most likely reason the characters are so flat and lifeless.

The plot is very interesting and intriguing, but not well executed. At points in the story I know the author is trying to turn the reader for a loop and start making them question Nina’s sanity, but there’re too many plot holes and predictable moments for anything to be really suspenseful. You know the characters, they haven’t changed since the beginning of the story, and you know what they’re going to do in situations. ( )

Meh.

DNF at 64%.

Honestly, I just found this book underwhelming. Perhaps my boredom was mainly due to the curse of misplaced expectations: I pictured an antihero in the vein of Alex Craft, but what we get is an indecisive, somewhat timid, and blandly average teenage girl. You know, except for the serial killer whose mind she shares when dreaming.

Making matters worse is the introduction of Nina's childhood friend/teenage drug dealer, Warren. The story is told from their alternating perspectives, even though Warren really doesn't add much to the narrative. He has even less of a personality than Nina, and there's absolutely zero chemistry between the two (though I assume they hook up by the end of the book).

He’s also the one who tries to rationalize Nina’s visions, leading to scene after tedious scene of self-doubt. This also gives rise to some weird plot stuff; for example, even though there’s never been any question in Nina’s mind that her connection to Dylan only goes one way, she sets up a series of tests to see if she can trick him into acknowledging her existence. Like, why though? They…don’t prove anything?

Anyway, the book isn't terrible; I just couldn't bring myself to care enough about anyone to finish it. I think if you shaved 100 pages off you'd have a much more tense and compelling psychological thriller.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2017/01/04/the-killer-in-me-by-margot-harrison/ ( )