I just wanna say that the idea of this book really caught my attention and thats what made me pick up the book. I even ignored the large number of bad reviews and ratings. But, this book seems like something for middle graders who can't handle the rawness of reading about murder. All the murders described in this book were glossed over. And I've read books with murder in them and I have the standard that their suppose to give you that raw anxious feeling. This one doesn't. However, the author did write it when she was 17 so its not likely to expect so much. It was an okay read. I wanna give it 2.5 stars but I liked the idea of the Perfect Killer but not how the Perfect Killer was written and characterized in the book Kit, age 17, is a modern, superior Jack the Ripper. Not only does she leave her crime scenes free from evidence, her methods are precise and orderly, ritualistic, and perfect. London press nicknamed her the Perfect Killer. Trained by her uncompromising mother, Kit has absorbed her teacher’s creed that there is neither right nor wrong in the world and her role as an assassin is just part of the natural order. Her murders are not indiscriminate; Kit receives letters – pleas from those hungry for vengeance – and funds to commit the acts. The letters are retrieved from a café restroom, the mailbox hidden in plain sight, and then left with the bodies of her victims. Kit hoards the wealth, knowing she can’t spend it frivolously to avoid suspicion, even though she and her mother and her estranged father live in chic comfort in a pristine if sterile townhouse. But Kit’s poise is shattered when she dares to judge her victims and becomes emotionally entangled with schoolmates – as well as a young, handsome police investigator. Implausibility, holes in the plot, and weak pacing plague this otherwise fresh and engaging thriller that evokes pathos and curiosity. The bathroom mailbox device is unrealistic; the author seems to know this as she frequently defends it and describes how the mailbox is known to all yet shrouded in superstition and left to remain intact by the owners of the restaurant. At times the dialogue is stilted and characters are under-developed. The suggested romance between Kit and the investigator is tepid and dubious. Kit’s mother is the only one to express emotion and that is restricted to erratic outbursts of rage and regret. Kit as a narrator is not only unreliable, she’s downright unlikeable, but her evocative thoughts about moral nihilism and her descent to madness compel the reader to continue reading to the bleak end. Her perspective as killer, not victim, is intriguing and unique. Recommended with some reservation for high school teens due to graphic and disturbing psychological and physical violence.
What do You think about De Perfecte Moordenaar (2014)?
Page-turner, but ultimately disappointing.
—shorty
