"She Kills Me: The True Stories of History's Deadliest Women" by Jennifer Wright explores the lives of 40 women throughout history who have committed murder. From revenge to survival, and even for pleasure, these stories are presented with a mix of historical accuracy and a touch of dark humor, making for an enthralling read. The inclusion of lesser-known female killers alongside infamous figures like Lizzie Borden and Elizabeth Bathory offers a fresh perspective on historical crime, challenging the reader’s preconceived notions about female violence.

Overall, "She Kills Me" is a great read for anyone interested in true crime and the often overlooked stories of women who defied societal expectations in the most extreme ways. Wright's blend of humor, historical detail, and feminist commentary creates a compelling narrative that stays with you long after you've turned the last page.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

An excellent historic overview of deadly women throughout history, featuring warriors, scammers, serial killers and more.

The chapters were so short but I liked it as a taste of all the different women and if I wanted to learn more I could listen to a podcast or research them

This was the first book I've read from this author and it was just okay. It was hard for me to get into and the characters didn't keep my attention.

I don't know what it says about me that I absolutely LOVED this book. This book is a collection of many different true stories of women killing men. Yep, you read that right. From poisoning their husband to leading an army into war, this book has everything.

Each story is relatively short so you could easily read a little bit, take a break, then come back. They are also very easy to read - I read them aloud to my husband with no issues (aside from a few names). The author has a great voice and sense of humor that shows in these stories, even though they're non-fiction. I 100% would recommend.

This book had the potential to be something really good but fell short. The chapters were so tiny (and this is coming from someone who loves short chapters!) to the point that the book was really just a glossing over of a bunch of different women throughout history who did bad things. I might have been able to be okay with that because now I have a bunch of names to rabbit hole myself with but I really couldn’t get down with the author’s speculation and attempts at humor. I found it a bit cringey and pointless and it detracted from the story that was being told.

Absolutely loved this collection of stories documenting that many murderous females throughout history.

People typically think of killers as males but in reality there are just as many females that commit crimes and atrocities.

This was well written and mixed fact with humor in certain aspects.

A great coffee table book for true crime lovers.

A Deadly Collection..
A deadly collection of tales of forty women who murdered - for a myriad of reasons or, indeed, without any apparent reason and simply for fun. It’s disturbing but brimming with historical detail. The author uses a fluid pen and is never, ever stale. Sometimes the reader may need reminding that this is no book of fiction.

This was a fun little book that gave brief little accounts of female murders and why they murdered and who they murdered. The book was inspired by the author who was fascinated by society’s disbelief at female violence and females having the ability to kill. This book is a compilation of the worlds most brutal women and their crimes and motivations. While this book deals with everything from female cannibals to female pirates and warriors, it included more historical female figures than modern serial killers for instance. This would be a great coffee table book if you and your friends like dark things (like female killers) as they are short little focused chapters on individual women you can dip in and out of. It was interesting but I would have preferred more detailed chapters and less women selected as I think it left the reading very surface level. I love true crime non-fiction that really reads like compelling narrative non-fiction so I think this book felt more like a coffee table book/young adult gruesome history book. I wanted more academic exploration into criminology theory or true crime archives to really understand why the women killed instead of statements the author inferred about the female but with no real strong explanation/ intellectual reference behind it. But that’s just my personal preference but I still enjoyed reading it.

Thanks to the publisher Abram image, author Jennifer Wright and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a series of short biographical essays about murderous women, some of whom are commonly known (like Lizzie Borden, Elizabeth Bathory, Jane Toppan) and many lesser-known women.

•-•-•-•

“To deny women full-throated, murderous anger is to refute that they possess the full range of human emotions. Anger still has a way of seeping out. Let the following women show you moments when it did.”

I was torn about this book. I’m always up for a true crime read, and there were things I really loved about it: it was smart and feminist, the author’s commentary was often funny, and I learned about some fascinating women.

But… something felt off about the tone when she was discussing people like Delphine LaLaurie, a torturer and murder of enslaved people, and Irma Grese, a nazi concentration camp guard. Like maybe don’t lead with their stories right after talking about how women’s anger is a good thing? I don’t know. It didn’t sit right with me. Evidently I’m a-ok with husband poisoners, ax murderers, nazi killers, and mercenaries, but not those two. (?) I did appreciate the content warnings at the start of each profile — good to know what you were in for.

Overall, I’d recommend this book for anyone interested in reading about historical true crime and learning a little bit more about women who have done awful things for sometimes good - but often terrible - reasons.

I liked this for what it was, a small collection of female killers throughout history. It's been sitting on my TBR for over a year and was sadly one of the ARCs that fell through the cracks. I saw it was available through my local library, and I needed a nonfiction book for my BINGO card! Wins all around.

I liked that Wright broke the book into sections: Psychos, Pretty Poisoners, Bad Family, etc. While the book is short enough to read in one sitting, I broke up the sections to one, or two, a day. It meant I could take my time with this book because I have a hard time reading nonfiction books even when the topic holds my interest. It also collects the stories into their categories so you know what kind of crime, or event, you read about.

Normally when I read these there is always a handful of chapters that I skip. This was not one of these books. I only knew three of the women in this book, everyone else was a new name for me. And, since each section is so small about one, there is a handful I want to do my research about. So this was not an introduction to some badass women in history, but parts of history I hadn't known.

This is another thing I liked about this book, it wasn't just serial killers or traditional murders. Some of these women did what they thought was best for their country, for their people, or just to protect themselves. Women imagine history would like as all to forget.

Despite, each chapter being so small, it was clear Wright did a lot of research for this book. I also really liked that Wright cited everything at the end of each chapter. This way you can see where Wright got their information, but also pick those books up yourself for more information on these infamous women.

I also really liked the bit of sass that Wright added to each story. It was a reminder that most of these women were bad people, just people in bad circumstances. Stuck in a morally grey area of doing bad things for sort of decent reasons. Kind of. Maybe. That's for you to decide.

My biggest issue with She Kills Me is the illustrations at the start of each chapter. I understand that it's supposed to be an introduction to the women, a first look, but for me, it felt unneeded and a little child-like. I could have done with it out. But, all-in-all I enjoyed this read, glad I finally got around to it. If you are into true crime or forgotten women in history, I suggest grabbing this one from your local library.

This comes across as a very odd book about murderous women in print. It's slowly becoming clear to me that Jennifer Wright's books are 100% meant to be listened to and it was a far better experience that way. Wright's sense of humor is dry as a bone (just the way I like it) and I loved the mix of stories that ranged from warrior women to complete psychopaths (and some tips on how to spot them in the wild.) I'll forever find Jennifer Wright's perspective on history to be an absolute delight.

Nothing new here. It was a quick read, but not groundbreaking or even that informative. Lurid details (many unproven) were chosen over facts and history.

I found this a fascinating book - tales of female killers, some you will have heard of and many you won't have. If I had anything to suggest, it would be that I would have loved to read a little more about each woman, especially the ones that are not as well known as the others.

I liked the authors writing style and would happily read more of her work.

This is a nonfiction book about female serial killers, largely from before the 20th century. It was good, at times aiming for humorous/ light tone. It was a bit of an odd combo for me, but if you like podcasts like My Favorite Murder, this might be your jam..

This was an interesting book about women serial killers, or just killers. The information on the subjects was brief and gave the main points of the woman's actions. They author did give a little bit of back ground on the women but I felt that there could have been more. The information on the women felt like it was just the high points from other works on the women. It was interesting that out of the 41 women profiled that only 10 were born in the 20th century onward. Not all of the women in this book were serial killers, some only committed 1 murder usually of a spouse. These women were caught and convicted of their crimes. I did find it unusal that one chapter was of women who fought during World War II included in this book. I am not sure what the author was trying to show by highlighting them. Over all this book is a quick read but not much information that isn't already out there in other works.

While I enjoyed the read I was hoping for more. There were definitely areas that could have been expanded or more information provided.

A book on female killers technically has no right the be as funny as Jennifer Wright's She Kills Me is. I honestly laughed during this book and then felt bad, because my housemates knew I was once again reading about True Crime and must have sounded like a psychopath. Thanks to ABRAMS Image and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

She Kills Me begins with an introduction that strongly refutes the idea that women cannot kill. It is something of a positive yet damaging adage that female serial killers quite simply don't exist, or that they always have extenuating reasons that meliorate their actions. She Kills Me is here to, in part, vehemently disagree with that. Ranging from queens leading their armies into battle to female concentration camp guards, Wright introduces us to a whole range of women who killed, for one reason or another. It is in the similarity and the difference between them that the real message of She Kills Me lies, I believe. Each of these women was in their own way underestimate because of her gender or damned by it. Wright also does not avoid the many ways in which race, ageism and attractiveness come in to play. A white, rich, beautiful young woman is much more likely to get away with murder than a woman of colour, or an elderly woman. Society and the justice system will respond very differently depending on the offender and it is worth highlighting this again and again until changes are made.

She Kills Me is split into different sections, each focusing on a different "kind" of female killer. We get avenging angels, the rash of female poisoners trying to escape shitty marriages or trying to get that money, female killers for hire, female cult leaders, we truly get a whole buffet of murderers. Every woman gets her own little bio, usually a few pages long. It's not just serial killers, it is also women who only killed once, but Wright makes sure to give each women her due, both positive and negative. As a True Crime obsessive, I was familiar with quite a few of the women discussed, but many of them were also new to me, especially the non-European ones. (I know, what does that say about the True Crime I've been ingesting?) While She Kills Me is of course anti-murdering people, Wright doesn't shy away from contextualizing where necessary. Murder is bad, but killing Nazis in WWII shouldn't be scoffed at. Similarly, the Night Witches are simply epic.

I absolute loved Wright's tone throughout She Kills Me. We're talking about horrible things, yes, but the lessons that are meant to be learned can be delivered in an engaging way. For some this may feel flippant, but I can honesty say that nothing in She Kills Me is disingenuous, mean-spirited or cruel. Naturally, when looking at killers, one is going to encounter topics that don't always fall well on an empty stomach. Each little biography is preceded by warnings about its contents, whether it is enslavement, cannibalism or other horrifying things. She Kills Me is definitely geared towards women, both in its humour and in its criticism. Men don't always come out of this looking great, but then how can they when misogyny is such a red thread throughout most of these tales? However, we're not "bashing men" here, Wright is just laying out facts with a strong dash of humour mixed in. What else is there left to say except: I wholeheartedly recommend She Kills Me to everyone with even a mild interest in True Crime or female killers in history!

I very much enjoyed reading She Kills Me. Full of brief biographies of all kinds of women, from true monsters to avenging angels, you'll walk away wiser. And remember kids, don't murder, a divorce is cheaper!

I absolutely LOVED the idea of this book! A book about stories of women in history who have taken things into their own hands?! Great in concept. However, poor in execution. Honestly, the stories felt like they were written by an amateur with an inconsistent voice. This could have been so great, but it fell very, very short for me.

This review was also posted on Goodreads.