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A review by beate251
Love Letters to a Serial Killer by Tasha Coryell
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Hannah Wilson is a desperate, needy pick me girl. She has no insight in how damaged she is. She has no self-confidence and fixates on a man for the slightest compliment he gives her.
She complains about being overlooked for a promotion at work but she never does any work. I wouldn't promote her either!
And now she is obsessed with serial killer William Thompson, accused of having murdered four young women. First she writes to him and uses him as a verbal punching bag for all her real life frustrations, but when he writes back in a friendly way, she soon gets sucked into his net, using him as a confidante and thinking she's falling in love with him, even though (or maybe because) he might be a very bad person.
When she loses her job because of being distracted, she travels to attend William's trial, making friends with other delusional "fans" and trying to ingratiate herself into his family, including his brother Bentley (imagine calling someone after a car!).
I was fascinated and grossed out at the same time by her. She is so deeply unlikeable in everything she does and thinks. There are a few twists but they aren't coming out of left field and are pretty predictable.
Hannah learns nothing, still self-destructive at the end and unhinged. Unfortunately, we never learn what made her this way which would have been interesting. How she makes it to the end of the book alive is beyond me.
Go to therapy, lady, you're a mess.
I was also annoyed by the consistent but grammatically wrong use of "between you and I". It's "between you and me" and I see it wrong a lot but it was really over the top here.
This is a debut novel and for that it's not too bad but it's not on par with writers like Katy Brent or C J Skuse.
She complains about being overlooked for a promotion at work but she never does any work. I wouldn't promote her either!
And now she is obsessed with serial killer William Thompson, accused of having murdered four young women. First she writes to him and uses him as a verbal punching bag for all her real life frustrations, but when he writes back in a friendly way, she soon gets sucked into his net, using him as a confidante and thinking she's falling in love with him, even though (or maybe because) he might be a very bad person.
When she loses her job because of being distracted, she travels to attend William's trial, making friends with other delusional "fans" and trying to ingratiate herself into his family, including his brother Bentley (imagine calling someone after a car!).
I was fascinated and grossed out at the same time by her. She is so deeply unlikeable in everything she does and thinks. There are a few twists but they aren't coming out of left field and are pretty predictable.
Hannah learns nothing, still self-destructive at the end and unhinged. Unfortunately, we never learn what made her this way which would have been interesting. How she makes it to the end of the book alive is beyond me.
Go to therapy, lady, you're a mess.
I was also annoyed by the consistent but grammatically wrong use of "between you and I". It's "between you and me" and I see it wrong a lot but it was really over the top here.
This is a debut novel and for that it's not too bad but it's not on par with writers like Katy Brent or C J Skuse.
Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy