Monday, August 1, 2011

Review: I Don't Want to Kill You (John Cleaver # 3)

Title I Don't Want to Kill You (John Cleaver #3)
By Dan Wells
For fun
Source I own it

First sentence The phone rang four times before someone picked up.

Synopsis
The third installation of the John Cleaver series has John, our lovable sociopath, not just tracking a demon that's killing people in his town, but actively, obsessively hunting it.

General thoughts
My reviews of the first two books can be found here and here.The first thing I love about these books is the writing. Wells has a way of drawing you in and keeping you glued to the story from the very fist word to the last. It's not too flowery or too simple, it's just great writing! I also love reading books about sociopaths. Weird, I know, but what I love is the conflict it creates in you. Should you hate this person because they're a murderous sociopath, or love them because they're the main protagonist and you find yourself relating to them and sympathizing with them? Ah, the conflict, I love it! This book had a lot of mystery talk. It has you guessing right along with the characters about who's doing what and what's going on. There wasn't as much inner conflict between John and Mr Monster which was a relief but it also had be puzzling over why. Why was he suddenly in control? John felt like another character than the one I had read about in the other two books. I talked about this more in my Goodreads review. You can check that out if you want here. The ending was so neatly wrapped up I found it very hard to swallow but, still, I like these books too much to really complain.

Characters
John I didn't like him as much in this one. He felt different than he did in the first two books.
John's mom I like John's mom. Who wouldn't? She accepts her son, and the end??? I won't spoil it, but oh how sad!
Marci :'( I really liked Marci. I liked her better than Brooke.
Brooke She's not in this one as much but I still liked her. Even if her attitude at the end was a little hard to swallow.
Max That's how he left Max?  Are you kidding me?! Poor Max!

5 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great read! I love books that have great writing in them!

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  2. John was more in control in this book because he had something to focus his energy on, he had purpose and drive. It helped him keep that inner monster at bay.

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  3. Roxy, They're a little creepy but great!

    Suey, Yeah, I guess. But didn't you feel like maybe his attitude was an excuse for it being plausible that he'd suddenly be healed at the end?

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  4. The title paired with that first sentence gives me the shivers! I read and loved the Dexter novels (haven't seen the show) and it's always interesting to learn about the sociology behind these things. I'm going to look into the first one. :)

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  5. Kaye, They have a little different feeling than Dexter but I loved those books too so you'll probably like these.

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