Killing Me is a fun, fresh take on a serial killer suspense novel. It has vibrant, loveable characters and an inventive plot. The backdrop of Las Vegas adds to the excitement. The author did a great job of somehow keeping it light at times (quite a feat when dealing with a serial killer!) without being corny. I hope this story gets a sequel because I would love to follow Amber on her next wild adventure. I also would love to know more about Gunnar and Grace and their early family life. Thank you to G.P. Putnam’s Sons and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. It was great!

I enjoyed this one a lot! It’s a bit of a wild goose chase but that added to its charm. The main character, Amber, was very relatable and funny and I always found myself rooting for her. Also, THE CHEMISTRY!! The chemistry between everyone was undeniable, whether platonic or not. Michelle Gagnon did a wonderful job of making the audience feel attached to these characters. Everyone, for the most part, was living in their own shade of gray world. She made them feel like real people, which made me care about all of them that much more.

Overall this was a psychological thriller that didn’t take itself too seriously. It was witty and sarcastic and just an overall fun ride. I hope this isn’t the last we see of these characters because with great writing and story building, I know a sequel would be a hit!

This book was truly an original
I laughed and the twist at the end was great.
A good book. I thought it could have been a little better. It dragged a little bit. Overall, though very original and was worth the read

Have you watched that Natasha Lyonne show, Poker Face, yet? Because Killing Me, a new thriller(ish), has strong Poker Face vibes. From the exciting premise, eclectic characters, con-men, Vegas-set story, and bizarro killers that will have you looking over your shoulder, it reminded me a lot of the Peacock show, which I loved. Alas, in the end, this novel fell a bit flat for me.

I had a tough time getting into this one, despite it immediately tossing you into the action, and that’s mostly due to the tone. We’re dealing with serial killers, violent deaths, nationwide conspiracies, and more, but it all feels a bit . . . silly? Killing Me leans so far into its slapstick elements and jokey dialogue that none of the threats to the characters ever feel genuinely dangerous. (For book that does nail that tonal balance: Killers of a Certain Age.)

The main character, Amber, was also a hurdle for me. Her very pointedly quirky and jokey narration got realllllll tired, realllll fast. I never quite understood why the author chose her as our portal into this story, when it seems like things would’ve been 1000% more compelling coming from Grace’s perspective. Or, at least an even split between them with dueling POV chapters. Grace’s backstory is introduced far too late, which is a bummer (and genuinely confusing?!) considering how integral she is to the novel.

Overall this book wasn’t for me, but there’s still some cool, fun stuff in it if you’re looking for an entertaining thriller with a unique plot.

Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Really good. The first part of the book is a little rough (hence the 4 stars) but once it gets going, it gets going. I do have to say the backstory on one of the characters (mysterious woman) in the book. We get an infodump about what happens next, but I rather we had flashbacks on that or something, it just didn't work. All in all, the book was very interesting, funny, and sad.

When there was a Pokémon reference in the beginning of the book I became completely uninterested in the story line, however by mid-book the pot kept me wanting to read more. The twists and turns weren’t jaw dropping but good writing, and nothing was dragged out.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

We meet “Amber” as she’s berating herself for getting taken by a serial killer and is waiting for her assumed death. But then a rescuer comes out of nowhere and saves her. That should be the end, yet it seems the FBI is after her for questions now and she has a past that she doesn’t want dragged up. Amber leaves town and, once again, this should be the end, but a series of cryptic texts, postcards on her car leading her to Las Vegas, and finally some unsettling police reports get her sucked into a serial killer manhunt.
I got sucked into the story pretty quickly. The plot was fun and unpredictable. I also love Gagnon’s characters, highlighting strong, smart, independent females that are stronger because of their friendship with each other. I felt the plot’s momentum losing steam in the middle (probably just for character development but I could have lived without it personally) but then it got going strong again. The ending had me going with a twist as well so I loved the finish.
Thank you NetGalley for providing the ARC of this title!

Well…this is it. Amber is about to be the newest victim of the Pikachu serial killer. When she gets saved at the last minute, she is shocked but the girl who saved her completely disappears. When the FBI calls though, Amber knows she needs to run. Her past needs to stay a secret.

I didn’t really know what to expect going into this one. I think I expected a little bit more Finlay Donovan vibes, but this one was much more mysterious and edge of your seat. I loved the crazy cast of quirky characters, including Amber! This is one that has you wondering what’s going to happen, but also has you laughing out loud at some of the hijinks this crew gets up to. Overall this was a bit thriller, bit mysterious, and bit fun read!

In spite of the generally dark subject matter, this book was so much fun. It kept me turning pages and I loved the characters so much. This is the perfect summer read.

What a fast-paced fun book about serial killers!

Amber is a couple months away from getting her college degree in psychology (that comes in handy) when she is kidnapped and thrown into a white van by a serial killer. Amber definitely thought she was too street smart for this but when she wakes up naked, shaved and painted blue she has no doubt that she is the latest victim of the Pikachu killer.

Right before she is killed, the man in the the Pokemon mask is cattle prodded by a woman in a ski mask. She saves Amber and promptly plans to take off, only Amber has questions...so many questions. Amber, the daughter of con artists who herself made a living on cons had no desire to go to the police. When the FBI came to her apartment, she took off across the country.

Landing in Las Vegas, Amber made friends for the first time in years, and they are an interesting bunch. She is reunited with the woman in the ski mask and drawn into a whole other world of a serial killer. This is certainly not a world that I have any connection to, but Amber uses her skills as a con artist and her psych knowledge to navigate.

I really enjoyed the pace of the book and the dark humor throughout. Amber is a character who I could root for all though I wasn't too sure about "ski mask" woman for much of the book!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Suspenseful right to the end! I never knew where this book was taking me, This was a fun, easy read. The characters are likable, especially Dot. This is not a serious Murder mystery, this has some humor and quirky characters, just an enjoyable entertaining book.

A hard-boiled tone is set right from the get-go, with our protagonist, Amber Jamison, having just been grabbed off the sidewalk and thrown into the back of a windowless white van, feeling furious for having let herself be kidnapped by what is must be the area serial killer. Sure, she’s terrified too, but she’s a young woman with plenty of street smarts from being raised by grifters, and feels like she should never have fallen into this trap.

Instead of being gruesomely dispatched, Amber is rescued by a tight-lipped woman. Amber doesn’t want to involve law enforcement because of her checkered past, and mystery rescuer doesn’t either, so they make their separate ways out of town. Amber heads for Las Vegas, the perfect place for someone with a grifter past to make enough money to get a new identity and move on. But it seems that deadly trouble has followed Amber to Sin City.

Amber surprisingly makes new—and unusual—friends among the fringe characters of Las Vegas, and this longtime loner will have to learn to lean on her new friends and play a team game if she has a chance of escaping with her life.

It seems weird to describe a serial-killer novel as a fun ride, but this one is. Amber’s internal monolog is relentlessly caustic, and the women she meets in Las Vegas are the kinds of permanent residents you might see on the show Poker Face: knocked around by life, but not knocked out, cynical, but willing to take a chance on somebody who needs their help. It was thrilling to see this group of women band together devise a clever—though dangerous—plan to put an end to a relentless killer.

In her Acknowledgements, Gagnon writes: “See you in the sequel.” I hope so.

Killing Me is perfect for when you need a big dose of quirky humor along with your thriller.
Amber Jamison is about to be the sixth victim of the Pikachu killer. But then she’s saved by a mysterious woman. Amber has a past, one that she’s trying desperately to hide. So when the FBI call her she takes off, fleeing Tennessee even when she’s only two months away from graduating college.
She ends up in Vegas, drawn there by ads left on her windshield. Turns out, LV has its own serial killer. And she’s ended up in his cross hairs as well. But Amber isn’t about to give up easily. With the addition of some new friends she’s made, she decides to fight back.
This is great entertainment. No, it’s not at all believable. And the pacing is a tad uneven. But it’s still well thought out. Amber is a great MC - as a former con artist, she’s smart and cynical, but she’s also got her own moral code. And her new friends, Marcella and Dot, are equally engaging. Even Grace has her appeal. The book had a fun finish with a nice twist that caught me off guard.
I loved that Gagnon wrote that the idea for the book came from “the striking similarities between authors, therapists and con artists, in that they all earn a living off an ability to read people.” In her Notes, she also hints at a sequel.
My thanks to Netgalley and Putnam Books for an advance copy of this book.

Holy moly this book was quite the wild ride. What an unusual story! Really enjoyed it and the quirky characters.

This journey with our heroine was quite an adventure! I was hooked on page one and stayed hooked til the last page!
I loved all the eccentric characters our heroine ends up involved with...the thriller and suspense aspects were on point and the end had me questioning everything!
Both exciting and chilling but also laugh out loud funny with these characters!
A Five Star Read...Highly recommend!

This book was so much fun! It was a great combination of humor and suspense. I really enjoyed the quirky characters. I hope the author wasn’t kidding about a sequel, because I can’t wait for it! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Maybe I’m in the minority, but I really didn’t love this book. I felt like I was pushing myself to read it and not enjoying it much. Once I got to the 50% mark, I figured I would just try to grin and bare it and fly my way through the last half of the book.

There were some parts that I liked, and at some points I felt myself getting into it, but then something would take me right out of it again. I didn’t love the main character, I didn’t love the writing style, or the “quirkiness” that it had to it. I felt like there were too many twists and turns and “gotcha!” moments that were trying to leave the readers unsure of what the truth was. I didn’t like how there were a bunch of secrets that were hinted at and referenced to multiple times but we (the readers) weren’t told until we were nearly done with the book. I really didn’t care that much at that point what your past was like.

It was definitely something original and unlike other books I’ve read, so I’ll give it that, but it definitely wasn’t my favorite.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the eARC.

FIVE MASSIVE STARS!! Okay but seriously, I absolutely loved this book. It's the current front runner for the best thriller I've read this year and I don't see how it's not making my top overall books of 2023. ⁠
First, the story is so original. Our MC is kidnapped by a serial killer in the first chapter, escapes (this is not a spoiler if you read the description), then mayhem ensues. And that feels like an understatement.⁠
Second, the cast of characters was brilliant. What a unique lineup of (mostly) lovable people. They were so flawed and authentic, and they brought this story to life. ⁠
And finally, the pacing of the book was perfect. It was witty, laugh-out-loud funny, and brilliantly written.

Sometimes with thriller books that have a lot of darkly dramatic and suspenseful plot lines, I get annoyed by how implausible it all seems. This wasn’t written in a super serious manner though; it’s written from the viewpoint of a sarcastic and darkly funny 24-year-old. The tone of the book made all of that work in this case, and made for a very fresh read.

The synopsis doesn’t tell us much for a reason - you want to go into this fresh. Amber was drugged and kidnapped by a serial killer (this is the opening scene in the book) and right as she’s ready, albeit pissed off, to die, a
miracle happens. A strange woman in a ski mask comes in and saves the day, then disappears. Amber doesn’t go to the police because of “her past” (which is actually interesting and at times, touching), so she decided leaving town was the right choice to make.

Eventually, for a variety of reasons, she finds herself driving to Las Vegas. Soon after arriving, she meets her two new best friends: the owner of a seedy motel, and a sex worker who lives there. Sex workers aren’t allowed to bring work home at this motel though, so most women go to a nearby even crappier motel to make their money. That motel becomes the scene of a murder, and that’s when things REALLY get crazy…

I’m dying to say more, but I can’t! This was super fast-paced and I thought the characters were well written and at times, even heartwarming. The story was suspenseful from page one, and I was going to give this a 4 or 4.5 star rating… then I got to the ending. There were tons of great twists, and the story was also wrapped up neatly for those who cared about the characters. The author hinted at a sequel in the epilogue, and I AM HERE FOR IT! Five stars.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(Thank you to Penguin Group - Putnam, Michelle Gagnon, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on May 16, 2023.)

Thank you #NetGalley and #PenguinGroup for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.

Killing Me is a fast moving roller coaster of a thriller. Amber Jamison is a bit a con artist, but trying to get her life back on track by going to college to study psychology. One night she's grabbed and thrown into a van by a serial killer but rescued in the nick of time by a mysterious woman, whose motives are unclear. Her rescuer kills her attacker, but then just disappears. When law enforcement starts investigating Amber decides to pack up and head out to Las Vegas and start anew, staying in a seedy motel while resuming some of her favorite cons to earn some money. But then ANOTHER serial killer is after her...

Of course the mysterious woman who saved her before shows up and complicates things. Amber also befriends a number of quirky characters in Vegas (a prostitute and crime obsessed motel manager to name a couple) to help her figure out what's going on. To add any more details would spoil things. Hope the author is planning a series featuring this LBGTQ heroine. Recommended.