I chose this book based on the title and for the most part, it was an enjoyable read. The humour is dark - Claire is a serial killer - and I was never bored, however I did feel that it got a bit drawn out & over complicated at times. We only see from Claire’s perspective, and I really enjoyed seeing her thought processes, including how she selected her next victim. There were plenty of red herrings about who was going to reveal Claire’s secrets, but I never guessed who it was.

I'm not sure what it says about me, but I have been drawn to a lot of books recently, all involving female serial killers.  This was such an enjoyable read, Claire isn't a character I'd necessarily want to meet in real life but it was fun to read about her exploits.  It also delved into some serious non-murderous topics, discussing dementia and grief as well as elder abuse.  I think if you enjoyed How To Kill Your Family should definitely consider this your next read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Serpent's Tail / Viper for my approval to read and review this book.

Claire joins a bereavement group following the death of her father, which leads to things that you will not expect. Claire as a character was one that I didn't want to like but throughout the book, I started to go from hate to love. She is a serial killer. There are some chapters which swing from the present to the past. This gives you an opportunity to learn about the child, Claire, and how she came about as an adult. There are some laugh out loud moments within the book and moments where you will gasp out loud. All in all, I I really enjoyed this book and I will be recommending this book to my book friends

— 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 —

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: You’d Look Better As A Ghost
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: N/A
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Joanna Wallace
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Thriller/Humour
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 21st September 2023
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝: 17th August 2023
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★

”I have a gift. I see people as ghosts before they die. Of course, it helps that I’m the one killing them.”

Never has murder been so entertaining.

Firstly, feminist books were all the rage. Now, it seems that psychopathic females with a fondness for murder are all the rage. Which, really, seems like a natural progression. To clarify, I’m not calling feminist women—like myself—psychopaths. I’m thinking of all those times that my behaviour—particularly any emotional behaviour—which always felt proportionate at the time, was dismissed as me being a ‘psycho’ and how I know so many women and girls who have had the same experience with this misnomer. So I love how authors such as Bella Mackie, Julia Mae Cohen, and now Joanna Wallace, have taken this patronising patriarchal behaviour pretty literally by creating female murderer main characters. It just goes to show that woman can be anything we want. We can be engineers, we can be soldiers, and we can be emotionless killers.

And how I adored our antisocial psychopath, her rather ordinary name of Claire compared to her rather extraordinary ability to plot murders. One of my favourite things about her was her use of idioms to convey to society how normal she is. Each idiom is slightly awkward and often ever so slightly out of place in the mundane conversation she would have to uphold. To me, it felt like an inside joke between main character and reader whenever Claire tries to act like a regular member of society.

This created a lot of humour for this fast paced thriller. I enjoy dark humour immensely and found the black comedy in this excitedly morbid. I could not put this book down I was so amused.

You’d Look Better As A Ghost also has a tender side. There is thematic exploration of grief, dementia, and elder abuse. These are all tied into the storyline but the author also provides some insight into these topics. In particular: the individualism of grief, the invisibility in dementia, and the inimical nature of elder abuse.

Overall, this book was as fun and bold as the title and cover suggests it will be. My expectations were surpassed and my grey Thursday morning was overtaken by this delightful psychopath (meaning the main character, not the author).

—Kayleigh🤍

3.75 stars

This is a funny, little novel about Claire, who's been a serial killer for most of her life. We follow her as she joins a grief support group after her father's (natural!) death. But just like Claire, not everyone in this group is who or what they seem to be.

I really liked how layered this book is. It has a couple of funny, little plot twists that I didn't really see coming. It's pretty fast-paced, so you won't easily get bored. While I must say, towards the end things became a bit repetitive, so I'm glad the book wasn't any longer than this. (And because I already had this feeling, I feel like it kind of was a little too long anyway.)

I liked being in Claire's head. She's a pretty dark character, but in a funny way. I loved her observations of the outside world and its "normal" people. That being said, because we were in Claire's head only, the other characters became caricatures in a way. So, unfortunately they fell a bit flat.

All-in-all, I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. It was able to weave humour and darkness without issue and I really had a great time trying to figure out all of the connections between the characters.

I seem to be drawn to bonkers books about young female serial killers. I certainly enjoyed the Sweet Pea series and then along comes Claire.

Claire is mourning the loss of her dad but is cheered by the fact that her art has been shortlisted for a prize. However it's not quite that simple when it transpires that it's all been a mix up and Lucas Kane, who rang the wrong Claire, has to fess up and tell her that she hasn't been shortlisted at all. What Lucas isn't aware of is that Claire does not take rejection or stupidity in others particularly well. In fact she takes it very badly.

What follows is an absolutely crazy journey that even Claire wasn't expecting because once you've got rid of one problem another one or two are just bound to pop up.

In Joanna Wallace's very funny debut we get a seriously engaging murderer, a lot of very bad people just begging for some comeuppance and a lot of surprises. It's well written, great fast-paced plot and some interesting characters.

Definitely recommended for fans of Sweet Pea or not. It's a great debut that will make you laugh.

Thanks to Netgalley and Viper Press for the advance review copy.

A captivating and engaging story of murder, grief, suspense, lies, kidnap, abuse and it's effects.

Claire is an excellent protagonist and as the bodies start to pile up around her, we really root for her not to be caught.

I loved how the author cleverly builds suspense as we wonder who has been watching Claire and may be on to her.

There is also humour sprinkled throughout and plenty of plot points I didn't anticipate.

Claire's own backstory is cleverly interwoven with the main narrative and we gain an understanding as to why she has evolved in to a killer.

I thought the idea of Claire being at a bereavement support group was genius as even though she doesn't process her emotions in the same way as say a neurotypical person, it does provide her an outlet, useful connections and also serves as a cover for her.

Superb!

Claire is relatively likeable serial killer - she only kills bad people like the carer who abused her Dad while he was suffering from dementia. But when her Dad dies, she finds herself more emotionally affected than she realises, and murders someone who sent her an email by mistake. Her GP recommends she joins a bereavement group, to process her grief. Little does she realise that her bereavement group is about to get tangled up in her other life as a vigilante murderer.

I really enjoyed this. A fun, fast-paced, twisty read, perfect for fans of 'My Sister the Serial Killer' and 'How to Kill Your Family'.

So I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this read by Joanna Wallace. I love this genre of "good-killers" that seem to be in-fluxing the book shelves at the minute.

We meet main character Claire, a "serial killer" but a likeable character who I thought was fabulous.

Claire is heartbroken from the death of her father and is trying her best to overcome this awful moment in her life.

Even though the storyline is quite heart-breaking, this novel is full of laughs which I did not expect. Claire's secret of being a serial killer may be coming to a close and she needs to find out who or what someone knows about her.

Claire is a pretty dynamic woman and I enjoyed her character very much. I hope Joanna Wallace will write some more novels like this as it makes for really good reading material.

Thanks to Joanna Wallace, Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Claire has been a vigilante serial killer for most of her life. After her father's (natural!) death she joins a grief support group, but not all the members of the group are grieving, nor are they what they seem to be.

This is a layered story and it was interesting to find out how it was all connected and came together in the end, but I found the repetitive writing from Claire's POV rather boring and repetitive and not at all funny or satirical. We see the secondary characters through Claire's eyes and that makes them caricatures and/or props to propel the serial killer story-line forwards. Claire is an unlikable MC who, in my opinion, only gains depth through the third-person POV flashbacks to her childhood.

An interesting concept and I liked guessing how it was all connected, but I didn't care for the characters or the writing and might even have DNF'd the book had it been much longer.

"You'd Look Better As A Ghost" left an indelible mark on me as a reader. From its captivating title to the intricate narrative, every aspect is masterfully crafted. Claire, the lead character, is a force to be reckoned with—her fierce demeanor and complex psyche are portrayed with remarkable depth. The shades of darkness within her character are balanced by a raw honesty that makes her relatable and even endearing. The story's unpredictability kept me engaged, never knowing where it would lead.

The book's allure is in its ability to weave humor and darkness seamlessly, a trait reminiscent of characters like Joe from "You." Claire's journey becomes a rollercoaster of emotions, and I found myself constantly rooting for her, drawn to her authenticity.

The this book consumed me completely and I couldn't guess the outcome for even a second, which is something that doesn't happen often with me and thrillers. If you're seeking a gripping read that blurs the lines between light and shadow, "You'd Look Better As A Ghost" is an excellent choice.

"I smile, enjoying my favourite part of the process. The part when I know they're going to die soon. The part when I can anticipate every moment of their deaths. The part where I already see them as ghosts."

This refreshingly original thriller is another fantastic edition to the recent trend of stories about marvellously murderous women and I am loving it. I never want this to end.

Wallace absolutely nails the loveable villain vibes with Claire being a brutal, psychopathic killer but also being uncomfortably relatable and absolutely hilarious too. You find yourself rooting for her career to take off, even feeling the sympathy when something goes wrong for her and wondering if you’d be friends …

It’s bloody, dark and dangerous with an intense, biting edge whenever the action starts to build up — and then it’s shattered into pieces by a strangely real moment or a hilarious one-liner and the weirdly compelling cycle repeats again — as we move quickly through mundane life, work anxiety and grief support groups thrown against unsettling plots and blood soaked murder scenes one after the other in a high octane, dramatic sprint narrated in Claire’s droll, dry voice that has such flair and personality all the way through as we follow her journey and see horrific memories from her formative years.

Every other character we meet gives us a visceral reaction too — intense anxiety, disgust, cringing or empathy but always so distinct and full of life … for a while, anyway. Everyone had a purpose that is revealed over the pages, everyone representing some part of human nature and modern society that connects us to them in uncomfortable ways.

If you like your thrillers with a huge dose of irreverently dark comedy and sharp witty observations about how weird life is - this book will knock you dead.

At first i was really enjoying this but as the book went on it bored me, the story was fun but definitely not my fave.

Rating: 4.5/5

Warning! If you are of faint heart, are easily offended, or have a dislike of fiercely dark humour, then this probably isn't going to be the book for you. Otherwise, I would heartily recommend that you grab yourself a copy of Joanna Wallace's debut novel and spend a few hours in the company of her creation, Claire.

If you are familiar with "Sweetpea" by C.J. Skuse then it will be impossible not to make comparisons and draw parallels with that novel when you read this. In fact, ever since Luke Jennings's creation, Villanelle, found an approving wider audience through the tv series "Killing Eve" there seems to have been an increase in the number of books featuring a strong female character with a penchant for killing people. It may now have actually reached the point where darkly humorous thrillers featuring a female serial killer has become a sub-genre in its own right.

In addition to the aforementioned "Sweetpea" series, in recent times I have also read Katy Brent's (very good) "How to Kill Men and Get Away With it" and Julie Mae Cohen's (good, but not great) "Bad Men", which both have similar themes. Working on the basis that this is now indeed a sub-genre rather than writers simply copying the idea of another author, I would have to say that Joanna Wallace has produced something that ranks above most of the other offerings in this category.

"You'd Look Better as a Ghost" is a mightily impressive debut that works wonderfully well - right from its unexpected, intriguing and discomfiting opening, all the way through to its suitably satisfying conclusion. In common with some of the other books I have mentioned, the narrative is packed with highly entertaining dark and acerbic humour, but it also raises its share of serious social issues. However, where I feel that Joanna Wallace's novel has the edge over some of its female-serial-killer-contemporaries is that it successfully addresses a backstory for the lead character, interweaves various background mystery elements and manages to create other wonderfully engaging protagonists other than just the central figure of Claire. There are astute observations, clever and unexpected plot developments, some gorgeously effective underplay and lots of highly amusing references to clichés than run throughout the narrative.

I believe that Joanna Wallace has signed a two book deal with Viper and I am very much looking forward to reading her next offering.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

I've read a few books in this new sub-genre of "comic serial-killer" (or whatever it is described as) and this is ok, but the other books were better developed. I felt as if Claire's back-story was really good and the descriptions of her childhood were well-written. The main plot didn't fair as well and although light and funny, I felt as if it was lacking something.

One of my favourite books of late. An excellent, well paced plot with a cast of intriguing characters. There was nothing not to like. The main protagonist was both scary and funny, not a trait you would attached to a serial killer. I look forward to the authors next book. Highly recommended.

Wallace's debut features a young woman, Claire, who is grieving the death of her father and attending group sessions of bereavement counselling.

However, Claire is a serial killer who selects victims who annoy or disappoint her - often in trivial ways - and enjoys inflicting pain before snuffing out their lives.

This is a dark, twisted tale with a delightfully rotten female lead that I couldn't help but root for! Flashbacks to childhood and a vicious, narcissistic mother, offer insight to the formation of Claire's character but it becomes obvious that Claire makes no apology for who she is and what she does.

A good pick for those who enjoyed titles such as How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie.

I love a “good” serial killer and as such, I loved Claire! There definitely are some people in this world that deserve their comeuppance and without the likes of Dexter and Claire where would we be 😜
This definitely has to be one of my favourite darker reads. It’s a great holiday read and an easy 5⭐️ rating.

'You'd Look Better as a Ghost' is very dark, very sharp and very funny. I suspect it'll receive a lot of comparisons to 'How To Kill Your Family', and I feel it's stronger and more interesting, with a depth to the main character and a fascinating back story which leads the reader to understand her and her motivations. There are shades of 'American Psycho' here, too, in a very good way, although on occasion the subject matter was a little too gritty for me!

I would thoroughly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys their books a little darker than usual.

This was thrilling and a little gruesome but I loved it!