Reviews with content warning for Self harm - How to Kill Men and Get Away With It

Almost a beach read, a very quick and easy read that isn't challenging or complex. I did read it very quickly, not from a huge amount of enjoyment, but from seeing if I guessed the twist correctly (I did, go me). Not an essential read, but again, an easy pallette cleanser if your ok with moderate gore.

Content Warnings

shelbylanglois's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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coffeekitaab's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

When reading a fiction that is so close to the truth always hits me hard, especially when that truth is the violence faced by women and girls. There is not a single scenario that Kitty overhears either from friends or on the news that is untrue, be it ghosting by men after sex leading to heartbreak, sexual harassment faced by aspiring artists by those dominating in the industry, and even violence and abuse from their own partners. This is a book that needed to be written and I understand and appreciate the emotion behind it, especially when stats tell you that convictions for rape are the lowest, because firstly they're not reported by women in the first instance and secondly because of a "lack of evidence". This is not about the innocent (although Katy Brent really ties up all eventualities in this book especially on this element to her credit) and there will be because no justice system, especially not the British system, is perfect but what happens when it fails the survivors? Enter Kitty Collins.

I loved the dark humour and satire in this book. With it being a theme close to my heart, I would have struggled with the gruesome descriptions of violence and murder generally (did anyone turn vegan after reading this book I'm intrigued to know?). I loved the writing and the concept. It leaves me sad because of the truth behind it but overall I would recommend this - but noting all the trigger warnings first. Looking forward to Brent's next. Thank you @netgalley and @HQStories for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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k4rl05's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

0.25

How to kill men but without the n.
This is how I felt reading this book.

I need to take a breath and mentally prepare myself for what's about to come.

I made a silly little joke at the start of this book, how to kill men but without the n. Little did I know I'd be so goddam right. I need healing after this book and not because of graphic murders (no I actually love those ones and they were barely even in the book) but because of all the cringe. I don't think I have ever dragged myself so much to finish a book. If this hadn't have started as a buddy read with my best friend I think it would have been my first DNF ever.

Where do I even start with this one? Oh I know let's start with the first page which instead of being flooded with praise should have had a fucking paragraph of trigger warnings. I've read some reviews and I see people giving a list of them (funny isn't it how we have to do the author's work) so I might do it as well as people deserve to know what they're getting themselves into.

We've got pedophilia, domestic abuse, sexual assault, gore, rape, gang rape, mentions of rape, incest, cruelty towards animals, eating disorders, substance abuse (drugs, alcohol), overdose, mentions of self-harm, mentions of suicide and I might as well add misogyny and sexism here.

And if we're still at the list of things this book needed, how about we add a fucking editor. There were grammatical mistakes, words not finished, sentences not finished and sentences that made zero sense all over the book.

I have to mention I have found some pretty questionable things in this book such as cultural appropriation and racism. Plus most of the characters were so problematic they made me want to throw this book out the window as our fmc shames her friends for having ED's or the love interest lets a rapist work in his company after he has had complaints from his female employees that they have been SA'd by said man only because he brings in a lot of money.

Every new character is introduced by the number of their Instagram followers and there are brand names dropped for literally everything, I think there were more brand names than killings in this book and that says it all. Also it is mentioned every couple of pages that the fmc is vegan like miss Katy I think we got it after the first time, there's no need to repeat that till the end of the book.

I'd say the lack of representation in this book is terrifying as we only have one token black side character and that's it but it goes much further than that as the characters' personalities, character development or the plot are nowhere to be found during the entirety of this book.

I have never been more disappointed and bored by a book before. Our fmc has a stalker and we find this out by the first chapters and by the end I got so bored by this book I didn't even have the energy or initiative of trying to guess who that might be. And keep in mind this stalker was the only interesting thing going on for basically the whole book and both me and the fmc forgot about its existence at least once. When we found out who it was I was like "okay cool how much till I finish this book?". It literally had none of the things that make a good psychological thriller but you know what it had instead? Smut. It has so much smut the chances of you opening the book and not finding a sex scene or sex related scene are almost below 0. I came here for the murder and I've left feeling like I had been reading a poorly written Wattpad fanfic. You know what screw that I have read BETTER fanfics than this so-called book. I have no idea how this shit even got published in the first place.

Let's leave aside the fact the killings were infinitesimal in a book whose title has the word kill in it, even the killings we did get were just so easy. The lack of research put into this book is so obvious it kills me. She gets away with it but most of the time it's only her stalker's hand that keeps her out of trouble. Everything is just too easy. We encounter police two times and it's the shittiest interaction ever.
How she's not caught when she lives in fucking London and leaves behind like a mount Everest amount of evidence is beyond me.

Oh and the characters? they were just plain and annoying af, our mc is the biggest pick me, she literally says and I quote "I'm not like these girls" and the love interest is just sexist but our fmc stays with him because they love each other (they said "I love you" after three dates THREE FUCKING DATES and after they have previously broken up).

And to end this nicely, the only thing I liked about this book was its title and its cover. It will look awesome on my shelves but that's it. I will never recommend this to anybody, it was painful to read and to actually finish this atrocity of a book.

Never again.

Content Warnings

a24564167's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

(Un)fortunately, this is not a step by step guide on how to actually kill men and get away with it, but it will fuel your misandry to incredible heights.
The actual murders are not realistically covered up

Spoiler

your phone can still trace your whereabouts even if you turn your data off, and posting an instagram post still links to a certain location….. but details, details

But it was a classic man-hating read that I enjoyed.

Content Warnings

clarrize's review

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Pretty graphic, would not recommend for the faint-hearted.

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priesty23's review

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challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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