Finding yourself the latest victim of a serial killer is never fun, but somehow surviving and then finding yourself the target of another is much, much worse. Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon is a witty LGBTQ+ thriller that follows Amber Jamison, a psychology student in Johnson City, Tennessee, as she falls for the ploy of the city’s serial killer on his recent “rise to fame.” Barely escaping death thanks to the help of a mysterious woman, Amber flees to Las Vegas in hopes of keeping her seedy past just that—the past. But, trouble isn’t done with her when she finds herself partnering with the owner of a rundown motel, a spicy sex worker, and none other than her mysterious savior to bring down one crazy psychopath.
The novel throws you straight into the action introducing Amber in the back of the serial killer’s van. Of course, she feels dumb, because who wouldn’t have seen that coming? As the main character, Amber feels rooted in reality at the beginning of the book. We all find ourselves in situations we could’ve easily avoided (maybe just not to this extent). But, she’s a very realistic character as she’s trying to survive a serial killer; she struggles with the belief of her situation and is doing what she can to try and survive. After she’s saved by this unknown woman, her character takes a bit of an odd turn. When Amber is seemingly finished with her serial killer encounter, she turns from someone who can fall right into the hands of a serial killer (literally) to a scam artist/mastermind nomad who constantly carries a handgun with her. I mean, the author gives us some background on Amber and why she knows exactly what to do in this situation, but the sudden flip in her character was jarring and took me out of the trance the book originally had me in.
That said, once you’ve come to terms with her background and who she is now, throughout the rest of the novel Amber is a well-developed character. When the goings get tough (which they will when you're trying to outrun a serial killer), she lets emotions sway her decisions, sometimes making not-so-smart choices. As you may know, this makes her character much more realistic to me because she's not portrayed as a perfect being who knows exactly what to do in her very niche situation.
Now, the pacing of the novel is set up really well. There’s a lot of action, but not all at once. It never feels unprogressing or as if it’s moving too quickly to process exactly what is happening. Gagnon also sets some scenes and chapters in third person which helps relay any background info Amber doesn’t know. Sometimes, jumps from first person to third person and back again can get confusing, but here I thought it worked really well. There was a distinct difference in the tone of those chapters that easily helped me separate those scenes.
As much as I did enjoy this book, and even when I got over Amber’s character switch, the rest of the characters felt unfinished and simply placed into the story for Amber’s convenience, which of course every character is at the end of the day, but I wish something was added to these characters to make them a bit more believable. For example, Dot and Marcella meet Amber as she attempts to pass through Las Vegas and almost overnight develop this best friendship that feels out of place. I mean Marcella introduces herself to Amber and the next time they interact Marcella is knocking on Amber’s door at 4:00 am to come inside and hang out like they have been best friends forever.
But, convenient characters and all, I really really enjoyed this novel and it was my first favorite of the year. I have to give this one a SAVE purely for the mix of humor and suspense Gagnon does so well. Definitely give this a read if you’re a thriller fan, or if you want to get into thrillers! (This one’s not too scary).
Ciao, for now,
Wednesday :)
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