How To Kill Men And Get Away With It By Katy Brent- Summary

How To Kill Men And Get Away With It By Katy Brent Goodreads Summary:  He was following me—that guy from the nightclub who wouldn’t leave me alone. I hadn’t intended to kill him of course. But I wasn’t displeased when I did, and, despite the mess I made, I appeared to get away with it. That’s where my addiction started… I’ve got a taste for revenge, and quite frankly, I’m killing it. A deliciously dark, hilariously twisted story about friendship, love, and murder. Review below (spoiler free).

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P.S. Becky from Crooks Books (linked) also reviewed How To Kill Men And Get Away With It. It put this book on my radar- Thank you! It is already out in the UK. How To Kill Men And Get Away With It releases in the US on June 13. Lastly, I bought and paid for this audiobook. It is not an ARC.

 

How To Kill Men And Get Away With It By Katy Brent- Review (No Spoilers Yet)

How much did I love this book? With every molecule in my body. That seems to be the way of it- a very divisive book. You either love it or hate it, from what I’ve seen. You get it, or you don’t. And with books like How To Kill Men And Get Away With It, I usually discuss my theories around vigilantes, using the clip from Avengers: Civil War. I don’t even feel the need because I didn’t get this book, How To Kill Men And Get Away With It GOT ME.

Throughout the frenetically paced plot, there is a spectrum of themes embedded in this thriller. From “ghosting” in dating to sexual harassment, and sexual assault, Brent carries each of them with brutal honesty and dark humor. After two “accidental” murders of men who were sexual predators, the main character, Kitty Collins (I will discuss the characters later on), decides this is her purpose. In order to keep it purposeful and within certain boundaries, Collins has a list of rules.

1. No women. None
2. Leave the innocent- anyone who doesn’t have a voice
3. Also off limits- the homeless or people that have fallen on hard times
4. No doorman
5. No police officers
6. Don’t get caught
7. Killing must serve a purpose, or it is just plain murder

It’s my calling. I hear you and I’m coming

How To Kill Men And Get Away With It releases in the US on June 13th but the audible is currently available due to its prior release in the UK.

Through these rules and guided by her sense of justice, Kitty Collins starts finding male sexual predators that have been recently released from jail or were let off by the justice system. And she kills them. Katy Brent anchors the book in reality by having Kitty Collins utilize the news and Tinder as a connection vehicle. Additionally, Collins is independently wealthy from her family and her influencer side gig. Utilizing these tools, Kitty Collins creatively drugs them, tortures them, and kills them. Within these dark themes and murderous intentions, Brent lays out the comedy, especially about dating.

One thing I will say about dating apps, they’ve normalized casual sex so much men don’t need their map app to find my clit. ‘I don’t care… I have a clitoris, I am a woman and I enjoy getting my brains fucked out.”

The laugh-out-loud humor provides both a break in the tension and sarcastic looks at dating and, well, murder. As How To Kill Men and Get Away With It ticks along, Brent threads a very tight needle between the seriousness of the above-mentioned themes and insanely dark humor, poignantly.

All of this goes forward as Kitty is being stalked herself. Equally important, Kitty is being stalked herself, her father disappeared when she was a child, and her only true love (who she says outright- she didn’t murder) has a mysterious background. All of this comes together to create a taught thriller that brings the reality of what women deal with while making you laugh along the way. Without spoiling anything, I have to say that the way the ending circulates back to the beginning of How To Kill Men And Get Away With It, brilliant.

There were a few smaller twists that I predicted. But the major ones? You can’t not see those twists coming. And the final one in the end? I did not even have a clue. I couldn’t afford to buy the necessary clues.

How To Kill Men And Get Away With It By Katy Brent- Characters

If you had told me I would love a book where the main cast of characters are influencers, I’d laughed at you. I can’t think of anything more annoying. Yet, Brent doesn’t just pull it off but excels with each character.

Kitty Collins learns the positive and negative of being an influencer. For all the benefits she receives from it, it also allows her to be stalked throughout the book.

The entire group of influencer friends is endearing. Often talking about real-life situations while bantering. Just check out the pooping sex conversation. They almost resemble a more modern, younger, and close-knit version of the Golden Girls.

I’ve never watched Dexter, so I can’t make a comparison with Kitty. She goes through much of her journey explaining and accepting that men can be both good fathers and husbands while also having a sexual predator side with women they have no care for. And that will come back towards the end to teach her a lesson about her own judgment of men.

How To Kill Men And Get Away With It- Audiobook

Victoria Morrison is a fabulous narrator. She carries this well-produced audiobook. Whether she is communicating the darkest of points in How To Kill Men And Get Away With It, to the dark humor, and to the sudden transition between the two, Morrison nails the assignment. Equally important, she produces a first-person narrative that can often become tedious and makes it enticing.

Image Taken from Katy Brent’s Twitter Profile- Because- It is EVERYTHING

How To Kill Men And Get Away With It- Final Thoughts

How To Kill Men And Get Away with It should be applauded for the themes and enjoyed for the dark humor. Most importantly, between these two pieces, it never loses the fact that it is, at heart, a thriller.