"But it wouldn't be the last. That was, after all, the defining trait of serial killers: they didn't stop killing "
-I am not a Serial Killer, Dan Wells
⭐4/5
Author: Dan Wells
Pages: 272
Series: John Cleaver #1
Publishing House: Tor Books
ASIN: B003DX0HYU
Synopsis
John Wayne Cleaver is dangerous, and he knows it.
He's spent his life doing his best not to live up to his potential.
He's obsessed with serial killers, but really doesn't want to become one. So for his own sake, and the safety of those around him, he lives by rigid rules he's written for himself, practicing normal life as if it were a private religion that could save him from damnation.
Dead bodies are normal to John. He likes them, actually. They don't demand or expect the empathy he's unable to offer. Perhaps that's what gives him the objectivity to recognize that there's something different about the body the police have just found behind the Wash-n-Dry Laundromat---and to appreciate what that difference means.
Now, for the first time, John has to confront a danger outside himself, a threat he can't control, a menace to everything and everyone he would love, if only he could.
Opinion
From the beginning this book maintains a dark atmosphere that attracts you to continue reading, especially because it is not a fantastic world that makes you think that it is a totally different world, on the contrary, it is our world, only that we see it from the perspective of a Fifteen-year-old teenager who has a strange obsession with serial killers.
"Fear is ... a rare thing, when you think about it. "
-I am not a serial killer, Dan Wells
John cleaver
John Cleaver is the protagonist of this story, and the truth is I think that is one of the reasons why you should read this story. Since in my short reading experience, we rarely see a character like him. And, meeting this character was really refreshing.
John is obsessed with serial killers and likes to help his mother and aunt embalm the bodies that arrive at his funeral home. Normal, right? Apparently he's a social outcast, he doesn't understand people and doesn't even try to. His psychologist says he's a sociopath.
Have you ever read a sociopath in the lead? Well, not me, and the truth is that reading from his point of view has been very interesting. The one who does not understand other people, their thoughts, feelings or why they do things. He even thinks he has no feelings. But, he struggles to have at least one friend for his mother.
How he sees life is really different from how other characters do, in my imagination the scenes had a shade of gray, except for those things that obsessed John, only then, that was vibrant colors, things that attracted attention. For this reason, the author uses a lot of symbolism while telling the story.
"Fire is something brief and temporary, the very definition of the ephemeral ."
-I am a serial killer, Dan Wells
History.
As I mentioned earlier, this book has a dark atmosphere, in addition to being in the latter months of the year. Dan Wells maintains the mystery and suspense throughout the book, which makes you want to keep reading the book.
The symbolism is central to this story, because it relates to John's perspective.
Although I was disappointed in the ending, it was all too abrupt and practically spontaneous, and for what Dan Wells implies in the book, I was imagining something more elaborate than it really was. In addition, that he left us some loose ends that may be resolved in the following books.
Final Opinion
This book caught me by its gray-toned atmosphere, as well as the fact that we have an unusual protagonist who I liked to read. The story maintains a tone of suspense and mystery that it kept between its pages. But, personally, in the end he needed to fill that spectacular ending that I expected for everything he mentioned in the chapters, as well as close some loose ends so that the story made a little more sense.
-Fer 🌻🌻
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