Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse

 

SWEETPEA is one of many female serial killer books that's come out recently but of the ones I've read so far, it's my favorite. Picture HOW TO KILL MEN AND GET AWAY WITH IT or AMERICAN PSYCHO, except narrated by a grown-up Georgia Nicholson-turned-card-carrying-psychopath who works as a newspaper assistant editor and hates her job only slightly less than she hates everyone else.

As you can imagine, this book is pretty violent. Rhiannon thinks of herself as a vigilante because at first her victims are rapists and abusers. She has rules for masking in public, which she refers to as The Act, but it's pretty clear she has little regard for human life. Every chapter opens with a list of people she'd like to murder, alongside a list of their "crimes." And it's interesting that, to someone like Rhiannon, bagging your groceries wrong warrants the same punishment as child abuse.

I would also caution readers who don't like intentionally unlikable characters not to read this book. In true fashion with someone who has no empathy, Rhiannon is very superficial and makes very cruel fat-shaming, bigoted, and ablelist remarks, including a few minor slurs (like the R-word). I think it fits the character, but not everyone may agree.

This would have been a five in the beginning, but I think the book was too long and the last 20% of the book got weird. The fortune-telling and the talking fetus were just a bit much, you know? It felt a little like the author was in a rush to wrap things up, and so the ending felt a little choppy. I still really liked this book though and I think I saw the author saying on Instagram that it might become a TV series, and that makes me happy because the pacing of this would be perfect for a TV series.

3.5 to 4 out of 5 stars