She's a Killer is a hilarious romp of a story, set in a futuristic New Zealand. The world is going to pot and NZ is the closest thing to safe haven, leading to an influx of 'wealthugees' into the island.

The novel follows protagonist Alice as her world is turned upside down when she meets Pablo, and by extension, his daughter Erika. Alice, despite her 159 IQ, lives a simple life, maintaining a terrible job to keep enough money coming in to support her fairly low-maintenance lifestyle. Erika's arrival in her life is just the beginning of a tumultuous adventure for Alice, involving murder, lies and dangerous behaviour. A wild ride that she never asked for but can't seem to escape, Alice recounts the story in a very comedic and sarcastic manner. The writing is very witty and the characters are really realistic - I found myself sincerely disliking Alice for most of the novel which is one of my favorite things about it.

Highly recommend if you're into the cli-fi genre, although I did feel that it was missing a little more background info about the state of the climate crisis and the movement that Erika is a part of. But overall it was a pacey story and kept me interested!

Usually I am not a fan of dystopian novels but I really enjoyed reading 'She's A Killer' by Kirsten McDougall. It is funny and entertaining but also dark at times, all in all very cleverly written. The main character Alice is a 37 year old who has a very high IQ and an invisible friend. When Alice meets the wealthugee Pablo the storyline turns into a rollercoaster.
This satirical dystopian cli-fi (climate fiction) thriller was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2023.
Thanks so much to @netgalley and @gallicbooks for my eARC. I am looking forward to discovering more works from Kirsten McDougall

I really wanted to like this book but for me it just fell a bit flat unfortunately. I did enjoy the main character, her humour and sarcasm really was right up my street in terms of characters I'm drawn to. I felt there were quite a few similarities between the main character and Rhiannon from the Sweet Pea series. While the story was engaging, for a book called 'she's a killer' there wasn't a hint of who was a killer until I was 50% through. Gutted I didn't enjoy this more but happy I read till the end!

There are a lot of things to like about this book. The apocalyptic aspects feel familiar as you read through it, lending a familiarity to the authors created world which might add to the sense of unease that readers feel. Additionally, I loved how completely average Alice was, and her numb ambivalence to the world was frustrating but relatable. Additionally, I thought the story itself was wickedly creative with some valuable social commentary on the impact of socioeconomic inequality in a warming global climate with an interesting application of utilitarian ethics. However, overall I had a tough time reading this book. By the time I finished, I personally had some reservations.

I think my difficulties reading the story began as the plot began to truly take off towards the second half of the book. It became more and more difficult to find any likeable character, any character to ground me as a reader, someone I could root for. I just felt a sense of dread continuing to creep up on me the farther in I got. Normally I don't have much of a problem with unlikeable characters, but if the characters are entirely unlikable, they need to be well developed and I need to be able to understand their motivations. This brings me to my other critque of this story. I felt the plot began to lose it's believability the further into the story I got... No longer could I really understand the progression of events or the characters true motivations.

There are for sure people who will pick up this story and absolutely love it. But, in the end, I just don't think it was quite my cup of tea.

2,5
I have mixed feelings about this one. It was smart, occasionally funny, unusual and original. I also liked the social and political criticism. But the main characters didn’t convince me and around two thirds in I thought things were getting kind of ridiculous. I see that a great many people loved this, but in the end I’m afraid this wasn’t for me.
Thank you Gallic Books and Netgalley for the advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

Not what I was expecting, and at first it kept me intrigued, but ultimately I didn't end up enjoying it. I didn't like any of the characters, and I found the ending to be rushed with its change of pace compared to the first half of the book.

Fun and entertaining read, in the same area as Birnam Wood, but for me much more readable. The premise of the book is original and the satire hits its target every time. It is clever, and reading this has inspired me to put Kirsten McDougall's other novel on my TBR pile. This is a book that I would recommend to anyone looking for something for a Gen Z with a short attention span.

dnf at 16% (for now... might go back to it sometime) i've been reading this book on and off and it's taking me so long. these first few chapters do sound interesting but don't read like what i signed up for and it's making it hard for me to continue. though i can say i definitely would enjoy this in audiobook.
still, thank you so much for the copy!

Alice lives in a future dystopian New Zealand. She is an almost genius but has spent the last 15 years working as a clerk in a university admissions centre. When we first meet her, her childhood imaginary friend, Simp, has suddenly returned. Alice is happy to admit that she lacks empathy. Maybe that's why she was never like other kids and never fitted in. Alice has one real friend, Amy. She and Amy have had a very complicated relationship. But not as weird as that of Alice and her mother. They each live on a separate level of their two storey house and communicate only by Morse code.

In the background climate change is causing havoc all over the world, the historical highly ethical New Zealand has been selling off public/Maori land to the wealthugees - those who can buy their way in. Alice can only afford a sink full of water a day and many foods are just impossible to source, let alone afford.

Alice responds to her situation by being manipulative, deceitful and downright abusive. And then suddenly she is caught up with a group of activists who will stop at nothing to change the world and Alice's life changes completely. She can no longer coast: she must make choices. And those choices affect her future and that of her country.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the quality of the writing was excellent but be warned - if you don't like strong language this book is not for you. On the other hand the sound of New Zealand rings through every page. Plus, in spite of the subject, it is full of Kiwi humour. I laughed out loud on several occasions. The characters, likeable or not, are absolutely recognisable and the writer does a great job of poking sharpened sticks into them for our enjoyment.

I look forward to reading more from this author. Highly recommended.

I'm not sure how to even start pulling my thoughts together about She's a Killer. To call it an "enjoyable" read feels false, as it made me feel intensely uncomfortable at points (definitely its purpose), but I was utterly riveted throughout. The blurb calls this a "satirical dystopian cli-fi thriller", and the book melds all of these separate aspects together well - there's a brilliant dark humour throughout, so the reader is chuckling whilst being apalled. More world-building would be thoroughly out of character for our protagonist and POV-character Alice, but as someone who is primarily a scifi reader I still found the little snippets of information about this world so close to our own really intriguing. I'm keen to read more from Kirsten McDougall, and I think She's a Killer wills stay with me for quite a while.

I’m in the minority but I didn’t love this. I didn’t love the dark, dry humor of the main character and found her very unlikeable. This was a miss for me, but I enjoyed the sci-fi dystopian elements!
Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC!

A wild ride of a read.I started to read was completely drawn in a unique storyline so well written couldn’t put it down.Thanks @netgalley @gallicbooks.

This was such a fun read!

It’s a satirical dystopian “thriller” set in a time where the impacts of climate change have sent wealthy refugees (or “wealthugees”) to relative safety in New Zealand.

It follows Alice, an almost-genius and almost-sociopath with an imaginary friend, as she gets entangled with some wealthugees carrying out an assassination.

I loved the setting and the main character - both so interesting to read about. Despite being given some traits that are easy to “flanderize”, Alice, the main character, was fascinatingly complex. The dystopia of a climate-ravaged world was also compelling. I’d love to read another novel set in that world.

The only thing I can give notes on is the “thriller” description of the novel I’ve seen in different places - I wasn’t reading on the edge of my seat or taken by any big plot twists as you might expect with a traditional thriller, so it’s not exactly how I would describe the book. It was great for what it was though! 4.5 stars

Ahh! This was so good! I wasn't sure it would be for me at first, but I just could not put it down once I started. The ending is not what I expected and I absolutely loved it. Yet another netgalley read that I will be purchasing for my physical shelf. Doesn't hurt that it has a great cover!

This was very well written and a unique premise. I found it depressing and difficult to get into, so was maybe not reading it at a good time.

Set in New Zealand during an ongoing climate crisis, She’s a Killer follows Alice as she fails to live up to her potential.

I enjoyed the character of Alice, although I didn't like her as a person, I found her interesting to read about. I think part of my disappointment with the book was that I spent the first half waiting for Alice to be the ‘killer’ that’s mentioned in the title or at least do something of note. It feels like she’s mostly swept through the book, which is in line with her character but makes for a frustrating main character.

The author captures the messiness of life perfectly. I enjoyed the first half of the book as we explored the near dystopian future and Alice’s problems. I found her worryingly relatable. Once the plot started to reveal itself, I lost a lot of interest. For me, it changed the book from a dark humoured dystopian to a YA book where the protagonist is magically amazing at everything. Overall I found the writing to be fun and interesting, but the shift in story happened too suddenly for me to be invested in the outcome.

Not the book for me, I'm sorry. I did persevere as much as I could but the dystopian mood was tricky to navigate. I struggled to find a link to/engage with the characters. Thank you for the opportunity to read something different.

How would a high IQ Bridget Jones deal with the end of our world ? This is what the author tries to figure out, in this weird, unclassifiable novel, which challenges both Lizzie McGuire and Jordan Peele. Everything in this book is so very peculiar that it makes for a great read, filled with whimsical humour and satirical notes on a future that is not unlikely to unfold the way it does in the book. In a way, it mirrors Rumaan Alam's 'Leave the World Behind', since the two texts deal with family struggles in an catastrophic world, Kirsten McDougall only being much crazier. And the very topic of the family unit and relationships in general is precisely what makes the book stand out, because they remain the main concern in literally any situation (even when there are far more important political matters out there). For example, the two (well three if you count Simp the inner saboteur friend) women in the story, Alice and Eliza, seem feminists in their weird kind of way, and this is precisely what makes the novel such a good and unhinged read : everybody is juste being their flawed true self, in a mess of a story that is truly precious.
I will definitely look out for its translation in my bookshop!

Unique, definitely a wild and hilarious ride. I thought Alice's uncaring attitude refreshing. This is one of those books that's about the journey, not the destination. It was fun with a lot of outlandish twists, and for me, the ending was sad and made me go "what was the point of all that?" Which, honestly, I think WAS the point! I have one lingering thought: whatever happened to Pablo?

Unfortunately, this book was just not for me. I think it was the writing style, and I became interested in the plot about 60% in, which does not allow me to become attached to the characters.

I will be interested in reading more from this author if it were a different genre.