NEVER SAW ME COMING VERA KURIAN
***
I've never met someone like me, but when I do, eventually, I think it will be like two wolves meeting in the night, sniffing and recognizing a fellow hunter.
Meet Chloe. First-year student, ordinary, legging-wearing, girl next door...and diagnosed psychopath with an IQ of 135. Her hobbies include yogalates, parties, and plotting to kill Will Bachman.
Chloe is part of a secret clinical study of young psychopaths run by the university's Psychology Department. Most psychopaths aren't criminals, but when a string of murders on campus causes upheaval, Chloe's private vendetta is sidelined. Partnered with fellow study participants she can't trust - and distracted by typical university life - Chloe has to walk the line between hunter and prey.
Never Saw Me coming is a sharp, electrifying and hugely entertaining thriller with an antiheroine who will work her manipulative magic on you.
THE REVIEW ***
‘”I’m not like that” Chloe said, wide-eyed. “I’m like a good psychopath”.’
Never Saw Me Coming is a great premise, told from the perspective of Chloe, a psychopath enrolled in a psychological experiment programme at her University. However, when people start dying it’s up to her and the others in her programme to work out who is responsible – but who can she trust?
I enjoyed the unique perspective of this book, with the psychopath element it felt like you were unsure of the motives of any of the characters, no matter how much you thought you knew them. This kept me off-balance throughout the book although it also heavily sign-posted a big twist to come near the end. I also liked how the book switched perspectives between Chloe, Charles and Andre who are all in the programme, however I did find that it was quite hard to tell whose perspective the chapter was written in at the beginning of chapters as each of the narrative voices sounded very similar. I think there could have been a benefit to adding their name at the start of each chapter.
Although the book did keep me guessing I felt like it dragged a lot in the middle and could have done with a sharper edit to keep the pace high. As we got towards the end, I guessed the final twist a lot earlier than it revealed as well, although I do commend the author on a good idea for the twist. There’s also a side-plot element which the whole book is leading up to (there’s a count down timer at the top of each paragraph), but then when it finally happened I just felt that it was put on the backburner and forgotten about which was a little odd. As the story is set in a University there are some cringy expressions, a lot of uses of cliché phrases and some really badly written romance elements as well which I thought let down the book.
Overall, Never Saw Me Coming is a great premise, but let down by slow pacing issues and some odd narrative choices. Thank you to NetGalley & Random House UK, Vintage and Harvill Secker for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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