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A review by pagesplotsandpints
Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson
3.25
<b>Read Completed 8/3/24 |</b> 3.25 stars
If I hadn't read THE ART OF CATCHING FEELINGS before this, I probably would have liked it less (just because I enjoyed that one a lot). LOVE IN THE TIME OF SERIAL KILLERS wasn't a bad book but it felt like it was caught in some in between space and was floundering as to what it wanted to be.
The funny premise of the book is that the meet cute happens on an off-night and the main character thinks the guy next door could be a serial killer, but that's kind of where that ends. It's really not warranted at all and she has to take things WAY out of context to even assume that. It's just her true crime brain jumping to conclusions, but I really would have liked if this leaned a bit harder into a comedic "is he or isn't he" vibe for a while. I felt like this concept got stuck in between being funny and being serious/sad. Sam didn't even do anything outlandish to really make Phoebe think that he was a serial killer and without it edging towards romcom, it just made things feel really awkward.
The hardest part of the book was how self-sabotaging Phoebe was. I think it's just really hard to write a main character like that and have readers empathize with her! It's absolutely realistic, but I think it's really hard to root for a main character who wants to close herself off and who is looking for ways to sabotage all of her relationships. I did like that she had a lot of growth -- she let her brother in more, made up with an old friend, and obviously we're ending with a romance here -- so I really did appreciate seeing her go through this change and really start to let people in that she loves.
Because Phoebe was more closed off, also, I didn't feel the romance as much as I had hoped. I felt like the sexual tension was broken too soon and I would have liked some more dangerous tension from a guy who she was accusing of being a serial killer, but also Sam is incredibly NICE and shy and quiet that it was kind of a deflating feeling after going from dangerous and a killer to... that. It wasn't a bad thing for him to be that way, but it was like a set up of one thing to resolve into something totally different.
I went into this a little open-minded because I did see that its rating was kind of low and people didn't love it. I feel like a lot of people were expecting way more romcom with a title and concept as it was and while this wasn't a dramatic romance or overly sad, it just wasn't as light as it seems to be marketed. About halfway through, I started to get too annoyed by Phoebe instead of her growing on me, so I can definitely see where people had their struggles, and I didn't end up loving this one either. If I hadn't read THE ART OF CATCHING FEELINGS first and knowing I could like this author's writing, I probably would have DNFed or felt a lot worse about it.
If I hadn't read THE ART OF CATCHING FEELINGS before this, I probably would have liked it less (just because I enjoyed that one a lot). LOVE IN THE TIME OF SERIAL KILLERS wasn't a bad book but it felt like it was caught in some in between space and was floundering as to what it wanted to be.
The funny premise of the book is that the meet cute happens on an off-night and the main character thinks the guy next door could be a serial killer, but that's kind of where that ends. It's really not warranted at all and she has to take things WAY out of context to even assume that. It's just her true crime brain jumping to conclusions, but I really would have liked if this leaned a bit harder into a comedic "is he or isn't he" vibe for a while. I felt like this concept got stuck in between being funny and being serious/sad. Sam didn't even do anything outlandish to really make Phoebe think that he was a serial killer and without it edging towards romcom, it just made things feel really awkward.
The hardest part of the book was how self-sabotaging Phoebe was. I think it's just really hard to write a main character like that and have readers empathize with her! It's absolutely realistic, but I think it's really hard to root for a main character who wants to close herself off and who is looking for ways to sabotage all of her relationships. I did like that she had a lot of growth -- she let her brother in more, made up with an old friend, and obviously we're ending with a romance here -- so I really did appreciate seeing her go through this change and really start to let people in that she loves.
Because Phoebe was more closed off, also, I didn't feel the romance as much as I had hoped. I felt like the sexual tension was broken too soon and I would have liked some more dangerous tension from a guy who she was accusing of being a serial killer, but also Sam is incredibly NICE and shy and quiet that it was kind of a deflating feeling after going from dangerous and a killer to... that. It wasn't a bad thing for him to be that way, but it was like a set up of one thing to resolve into something totally different.
I went into this a little open-minded because I did see that its rating was kind of low and people didn't love it. I feel like a lot of people were expecting way more romcom with a title and concept as it was and while this wasn't a dramatic romance or overly sad, it just wasn't as light as it seems to be marketed. About halfway through, I started to get too annoyed by Phoebe instead of her growing on me, so I can definitely see where people had their struggles, and I didn't end up loving this one either. If I hadn't read THE ART OF CATCHING FEELINGS first and knowing I could like this author's writing, I probably would have DNFed or felt a lot worse about it.