This “thriller” wasn’t really thrilling, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. This story was so compelling that it didn’t actually need the elements of a thriller that the author attempted to employ; and it managed to still keep my attention. It is clear that Katherine Kovacic wanted to make a point and I think the reader receives the message loud and clear. I enjoyed the nod to Hitchcock, and watching how Kovacic approached her take on a classic was interesting.

Kill Yours, Kill Mine by Katherine Kovacic is a perfectly fine mystery/thriller novel. The overall plot was a little predictable and I didn't love any of the characters. All in all, it's fine but not great.

The plotline for Kill Yours, Kill Mine had so much potential but the delivery fell short. Katherine Kovacic did an excellent job of shedding light on the challenges that women face when trying to leave abusive partners and the lack of support provided by the justice system - especially when violence escalates to tragic extremes. The idea of six women coming together through trauma and loss to seek revenge on the men who got away with it should have been utterly gripping. However, the lack of character development made it difficult for me, as a reader, to form an emotional connection with the story's characters.

As for the murder plans? While initially well-thought-out, their execution felt almost too effortless. There wasn't enough "thrill" and murdering six men shouldn't be so simple.

Overall, the story highlights a tough subject and was an interesting and modern twist on Hitchcock's 'Strangers on a Train' - I just wish the author had delivered more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The concept of this book is good, the execution, however, just wasn't there. I feel like there were way too many characters to get emotionally attached to anyone's story (odd for a book about domestic violence) & I found it difficult to keep the characters straight.

I would rate this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

This is such an important topic and especially in Australia, where at the moment, we are having an epidemic of domestic violence related deaths.

While I enjoyed the story for the most part, in particular, the different murder plans these women come up with - most of them were actually really smart, I did find that, by jumping back and forth between the different characters POVs, we didn't really get time to connect to the different characters or to really see their character growth through this murder/revenge process.

I really enjoyed the intricacy of this story. There were so many twists and turns. I was invested in all the characters and their stories. The premise of the book was fun but not over played. A modern twist on Strangers on a Train.

Several women meet under sad and disturbing circumstances. Each of them has had a family member murdered by someone that got away with it. Someone has to bring them to justice.

If you want a witty, suspenseful thriller this one is for you.

This book is absolutely wild—in the best way! Therapist Mia not only sees individual clients but also leads a support group for women who’ve lost their partners to domestic violence. These five women are grieving, yes, but they’re also brimming with rage because most of these men got off scot-free, chalked up as "accidents."

Enter Mia’s plan—a way to help them channel their anger. And let me tell you, what a plan it is! Simple, brilliant, and dripping with Hitchcock vibes. I was hooked from start to finish.

Huge thanks to NetGalley for the ARC—I loved every second!

Grief counsellor Mia is working toward a new kind of group therapy. She is building a group women have lost their sisters to partners that walked free. They are full of grief and fury and they are ready to do something about it. Under Mia's guidance, the women help each other to get revenge for their sisters. Simply stated: I'll kill yours if you kill mine.

This book was exciting and gripping. The characters all had similar stories but were different enough to be actual different characters. This is the only book with more than 2 or 3 POVs that I was actually able to follow and understand whose perspective each chapter was coming from. I would suggest if you liked The Collective, Revenge, or The Silent Patient!

3.5

This is another book based on the Alfred Hitchcock's movie, Strangers on a train, except this one is a little different. All the participants are sisters of women who were murdered by their domestic male partners, who got away with the crime. A therapist brings the women together to inflect their own kind of justice. I found the book to be entertaining but I would sometimes get confused on who's victim was who's sisters killer. All in all I did enjoy the book.

A clever, twisty take on the Strangers on a train plot that sees a six women whose sisters were all killed from intimate partner violence angry about the way all the men got away with their crimes. Brought together by a woman therapist, they agree to take revenge on each of their sister's killers for one another. Told from alternating POVs, including one woman detective who slowly catches on to what's happening. This was really resonates to how much intimate partner violence is a problem in our society today and the end was one I did not expect!! Great on audio and HIGHLY recommended!! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!!

Kill Yours, Kill Mine
by Katherine Kovacic
#onehundredandsixthbookof2024 #arc #killyourskillmine

CW: death, murder, domestic violence and abuse, gaslighting and isolation, grief

From NetGalley: Mia’s grief counselling practice, The Pleiades, is named for the seven sisters from Greek mythology who were the companions of the Goddess of the Hunt—and who, in some stories, die of grief or are killed to be saved from attackers.
Mia has been gathering broken women together for a radical form of group therapy. Amy. Gabrielle. Katy. Brooke. Olivia. Five women crippled with grief by the murders of their sisters—and seething with rage that the partners who killed them all walk free. She just needs one more. When Mia meets Naomi, she knows she has found the perfect candidate, but Naomi is resistant. She only needs to meet the others before she realizes that they, too, are consumed with desire for hands-on revenge. Under Mia’s guidance, the women devise a plan to heal themselves. They’ll take back their lives from the men who took their sisters. The premise is satisfyingly simple: I’ll kill yours if you kill mine...

My thoughts: Oooh, women getting revenge on men is one of my favorite tropes, and especially when you make it Hitchcockian. This riff on Strangers on a Train is really fantastic. I wish the women had been a tad more fleshed out in the beginning—it was a little hard to remember who was getting revenge for who. But by the end, I was really all in and needed to know that the women would be okay. And it’s a little ambiguous. I’m dying to know what happens next for these women and the detective who is trailing them but not knowing why her spidey sense is tingling. I really loved this book and would happily read more by the author. I enjoy the cover as well.

Thank you to @poisonedpenpress and @netgalley for the advance copy. (Available now, pub date was 11/5/24)

This isn’t the first book I’ve read with a “Strangers on a Train” reference, but I think it might be my favorite one yet.

Mia the psychologist has a unique group therapy session in her Australian practice composed exclusively of women whose sisters were killed by their partners; & as if that isn’t bad enough, for various reasons every single one of those men received paltry sentences or no repercussions at all.

When Naomi joins the group, Mia lays out her plan for “the cure” to their grief, & the life of every woman there begins to change…

The complexity of the setup paired with the variety of characters & settings kept me furiously turning pages & taking copious notes on the different assignments each woman was given. These women came from all walks of life but were united in a common purpose, & the emotion put into the work by the author was masterful & satisfying.

Thank you very much to NetGalley & Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Kill yours, kill mine by Katherine kovacic

Thank you Netgalley and poisoned pen press from this wonderful ARC in exchange of an honest review.

I thought a lot about this book after finishing it. There are things that in general would have made me rate a bit lower than 4 stars but this book has won my heart. First of all the main theme is a bit cliched. Even when I had not read the blurb and I didn't think much about title (or else I would have figured it out already) the first 5 pages gave me the idea what was going to happen in the book. Then the typical cop thing who is very smart to connect the dots with smallest clue possible. And then it was too easy for everyone to conveniently commit a crime without leaving a single clue behind.


But but but even hear me out here, then I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book. The characters ain't fleshed out and yet I liked them all. I even cheered for them. Yeah even the cop. Coz all were women, some strong, some naive, all emotional but they supported each other and that's what made the book a must read for me.

In my opinion, we tend to forget mystery thriller books faster than others as we solve the mystery, we lose the interest. But this book I will remember for a very long time.

Thank you very much Katherine kovacic for writing this book.

Very interesting premise, very well executed. Mia is a therapist who does individual sessions but she uses this platform to vet patients who would be perfect for her group therapy session. This consists of a group of women who lost a sister to domestic violence. All of the killers, for one reason or another, faced little to no consequences for their abhorrent behavior and so, a system of "I'll do yours if you do mine" is born. It's brilliant and "unputdownable".

Thank you to the author and publisher for gifting me a copy. It is my pleasure to share my honest opinion.

I really wanted to love this book. The plot and characters were well done, however towards the end of the book I found myself getting bored.

An interesting thriller, this is well paced and the plot is interesting and keeps you turning the pages. I would recommend it as a light read - I did find the ending to be somewhat underwhelming

This “thriller” wasn’t really thrilling, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. This story was so compelling that it didn’t actually need the elements of a thriller that the author attempted to employ; and it managed to still keep my attention. It is clear that Katherine Kovacic wanted to make a point and I think the reader receives the message loud and clear. I enjoyed the nod to Hitchcock, and watching how Kovacic approached her take on a classic was interesting.

If the story itself hadn’t gripped me, the characters would have been enough to keep me fully invested. Although they were not all fully fleshed out; the ones that we really got to know made me want to root for them the whole way. There wasn’t a ton of character growth, but I also don’t think that was the point.

I do not know enough about Australia to have much context, but Kovacic did a great job of laying out the setting in a way that I was still able to visualize clearly. I’m sure readers who live in, or have visited Australia will get even more.

The book starts out a little slow while we are getting the set up, but once it gets going it will have you hooked. As someone who enjoys a good anti-hero and is ALWAYS here for justified female rage… I had a good time with this read.

A fun quick read perfect for this time when we need female rage. Well written and perfect pace. Thanks for the opportunity.

I loved the intention and ambition of this book, I always appreciate a revenge story, and being inspired by real-life statistics of intimate partner violence is incredibly relatable. Unfortunately, the execution fell flat for me.

Kill Yours, Kill Mine is Strangers on a Train on steroids, as six women and their therapist come together to take revenge on the terrible men who have killed each of their sisters and basically gotten away with it. A complicated entanglement of pairs of the women - one as primary, one as backup - is crafted with different disposal methods and intentionally crafted alibis for the connected woman. As a project manager, I am often thinking about logistics and details, so on the one hand I really appreciated the thought and maneuvering that went into the schemes. However, it was done without much artfulness. There is zero character development here, and really how could there be when there are six woman and their respective murders to cover in 300 pages? In fact it felt that all of the women were essentially the same person. Once they completed their mission, we basically didn't hear from them at all. Even before that, I didn't really feel an emotional connection to them or their sisters, and my rage at the perpetrators was implicit because of what they'd been part of, but in a disconnected way. As someone who cries at the drop of a hat, this book elicited few emotions from me because it felt very surface and perfunctory. I think there is a line to strike between being overly emotionally manipulative - which some of these intimate partner violence-focused books are - and not being emotional enough. The exploration of how this kind of violence can sneak up on people in relationships is apt (and what I think something like It Ends With Us purports to do while instead romanticizing it) so I appreciated that. But overall, the reverse engineering of the story from an idea just didn't work for me.

Three stars for this psychological thriller.
Kill Yours, Kill mine is Strangers on a Train on steroids. Why have two people killing each other’s enemies when you can have a group of five bereaved sisters doing the same?
I’m giving this book three stars because it interested me enough that I never considered a DNF, it also didn’t blow me away. The parts of the book with the revenge killings were tense and well written but the plot around these times was a little slow paced and disconnected . I didn’t feel much connection or get much of a sense of the group members. The theme was fleshed out but the characters felt a bit indistinguishable and two dimensional. It felt like a collection of revenge themed short stories rather than one central plot.

I would read another book by this author, but if it’s a Strangers on a Train themed book you are looking for, others have done it better.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a chance to review an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review