The wrath of a teenage girl. An unreliable, villainous narrator. The thrill of summer, and a mystery that will captivate you from the very first page. All this and more wrapped up into Rory Power’s Kill Creatures.
A pitch promising a read for fans of Yellowjackets and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl was all it took for us to pick up this book. The dedication to Pretty Little Liars’ Spencer Hastings had us hastily turning to the first page. And from the first page, we were hooked. With such strong imagery, it was easy to get lost in the lake town this takes place in. And with each turn of the page, we felt the thrill of summer, the breeze blowing our hair. If you need a bit more convincing before you pick this up, let us tell you exactly why Kill Creatures should be your next read.
Book Overview: Kill Creatures
Content Warnings: physical violence, murder, reference to animal cruelty, drowning, gore, blood
Summary: A year ago, Nan and her three best friends took a boat out for one final summer swim—but only Nan returned. Edie, Jane, and Luce disappeared, and Nan’s story has always been the same: She has no idea what happened. At the town’s memorial a year later, Luce walks out of the river alive. No one is more surprised than Nan. Because Nan killed her. Right before she killed Edie and Jane.
Female Friendships
Kill Creatures explores not only the complex nature of female friendships, but teenage female friendships. From the start, the mystery driving Nan’s story is not who killed her friends. We know that she killed them. The mystery is what could have driven her to such an act. Nan’s heart beats for these girls. And with every chapter, more of the pieces fall into place.
With the summer thriller niche becoming more popular, it would be easy to finish with a twist we all saw coming, for us to leave feeling like we got nothing out of the book. Kill Creatures proves that the genre has plenty to offer for those with the talent to write it. Instead of a cheap twist, this feels hauntingly real. Featuring messy friendships, backstabbing, and the feeling of being an outsider, Rory Power understands exactly what it’s like to be a teenage girl.
Villainous Main Character
Let’s be honest, sometimes messy teenage friendships feel like they are deadly. Rory Power takes this idea to the extreme. With the dynamics being so true to life, we’re forced to fit Nan’s capability of violence into the relatability of the rest of the story. The obsession and cruelty that we’re faced with is not overdone at first—not that of a natural-born killer—just that of a teenage girl desperate for control. And as we face this reality, Nan is forced to do the same. Normally, when you kill someone, they stay dead. Nan isn’t that lucky.
When Luce emerges from the water, definitely not dead, Nan questions everything: her actions, her motivations. In the year since she killed her friends, she’s almost convinced herself of the story she’s fed the police. An unreliable narrator at its finest, she is faced with the unique question of “What comes next?” No denial, just a pure unhinged woman.
Queer Characters
Did we mention the main character is sapphic? Her sexuality is not a huge part of this book, but it adds so much depth to the dynamics. If teenage girls’ friendships can be dangerous, failed homoerotic friendships can absolutely be deadly. With this and her previous best seller Wilder Girls, Rory Power excels at writing deeply complex queer characters.
Driven by powerful, nuanced female characters, Rory Power’s Kill Creatures will keep you guessing until the very last page.
Maybe it’s the fact that this book is less than 300 pages, or maybe it’s just that the story is that compelling, but this is such a quick read that we finished it in less than a day. Nearly impossible to put down, we can’t think of a reason why Kill Creatures shouldn’t be your first read on June 3rd when it’s released. To make sure you don’t wait a second longer than you have to, preorder here!
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