I Am Not A Serial Killer by: Dan Wells

 

The late 2000s and early 2010s media saw an increase in appearances of sociopathic characters.  From Steven Moffat’s reimagining of Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock to Hannibal and Dexter, the internet grew in fervor around sociopathic characters and generally misrepresenting anti-social personality disorder to such a degree that they must be unempathetic serial killers (or detectives).  I Am Not A Serial Killer is Dan Wells’ debut novel which sets itself up as a thriller about John Wayne Cleaver, a teenager diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder, living with his mother and aunt, and tracking down a serial killer who has been stalking male victims and stealing body parts.  Wells using sociopathy as the defining characteristic for John Cleaver makes for an interesting protagonist and attempts to avoid going into a lot of the issues with portraying a protagonist, using I Am Not A Serial Killer to examine what could be happen when someone breaks down.  There are points in the book where John is about to snap and let Mr. Monster out, the part of him that he thinks he is going to go and kill somebody.  John’s narration is fascinating but there does seem to be an issue with Wells writing him as going to be a serial killer and the climax of the book involves him killing a sentient being and nearly getting off from it.  There’s also a lengthy scene of him pushing away his friend due to essentially being a fake friend and unable to make any real connection to other people.

 

More importantly I Am Not A Serial Killer is a book which after 1/3 of being a normal thriller, though one aimed at young adults, there is a twist.  While this twist is executed well, it is one that some people will genuinely dislike due to it shifting the genre from a realistic thriller to a paranormal game of cat and mouse.  I personally like where the story went, but I completely understand the criticism that it doesn’t give the reader fully what they were expecting when they picked up the book.  It was also a twist I was aware was coming, and the villain that it reveals is perhaps the strongest character in the book outside of John Cleaver.  The villain has this persona and is a mirror to John in a lot of ways, and there is most definitely a reading of I Am Not A Serial Killer where the paranormal elements are just in the mind of John Cleaver and not actually happening.  The villain may just be a normal serial killer and the paranormal are a point to make it clear that it’s something John is not, but future books in the series, and yes this is a series, along with the ending make it clear that the villain is literally a demon.  There are literal paranormal creatures in this universe and the humanity put in the villain while not accidental was not meant to be common.  It is something which almost cheapens points of the book.

 

Overall, I Am Not A Serial Killer may be a great debut from Wells but there is definitely some baggage from the pop culture zeitgeist of the time as well as adding in a twist that is not going to be for everybody.  John Cleaver is not a serial killer and while he lets out a monster at the end it seems that he may be becoming a serial killer which is perhaps the problem of what this book was trying to do.  A brilliant thriller is marred by becoming a series and being partially beholden to paranormal tropes.  7/10.