The blurb for this book promised shenanigans and hilarity, of which is delivered threefold. What an amazing book. Gagdnon tells a story that is fresh and new in a saturated genre. The Pikachu killer? Come on, how can you not LOVE that? Escaping only to be targeted again, and across the country at that? Hilarious, twisty, and fresh. Two thumbs way way up.

The story begins with a young woman who almost falls victim to a serial killer. The rest of the book is a truly wild ride full of intrigue, thrills, and humor. This was a fairly easy but very intestine read.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book’

Killing me is a hilarious thrill ride that starts out with our main character being abducted by a serial killer who shaves his victims and paints them like Pokemon characters, and it just gets wilder and weirder from there. Literally never a dull moment with this story. The characters we spend the most time with are lively and endearing, the setting for most of the book is a neo-noir flavored Las Vegas, and main character Amber is salty and guarded with a gritty, painful past and a vulnerable soft center that will make readers fall in love with her. Already dream-casting the TV series version in my head...

Thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the opportunity to read this book!

Wacky, irreverent and infinitely entertaining. A recommended purchase for collections where crime and comedy are popular.

Utterly original and wildly entertaining, with a protagonist whose life is a total mess, Killing Me is the laugh-out-loud funny thriller that we never knew we needed.

I laughed and could not believe what i was reading. It was a thrilling story with twist and turns I couldn’t put it down.

#KillingMe #NetGalley

This book was amazing, never thought I would be laughing out loud reading a book about serial killers (lol) I read this book in one sitting

Killing Me starts off with a bang and never stops running. Amber Jamison is a former con artist who’s gone straight and is now trying to finish college to become a psychologist. Her life seems settled and normal until she’s abducted by a serial killer. Just when she thinks she’s about to say goodbye to the world, her would-be killer is himself killed by a mysterious woman in a ski mask. Amber is saved, but her encounter with Ski Mask thrusts her into another deadly game with an even more dangerous serial killer. With a fun, jaunty tone and the sparkling setting of Las Vegas, this is not your typical thriller. Michelle Gagnon injects humor right alongside the thrills, plus a hefty dose of powerful, smart women. The writing is relatable and contemporary, the plot is tight and twisty, the characters are undoubtedly flawed but endlessly likable, and the story itself is an original twist on the cat-and-mouse game. This is a don’t-miss book!

This book was such a fun ride!! Thank you NetGalley and Putnam for allowing me to read this early. You'll fall in love with all these strong women characters banding together to catch a serial killer. Set in Las Vegas, it oozes with film noir charm and seedy casino vibes. It starts out with a bang with Amber trapped in the van of a serial killer, Her internal narrative is endearing and funny and you get good insight into her sad childhood and grifter past. However, her grifter skills come quite in handy as the plot moves along quickly and she teams up with the killer's sister to track him down. There are some great scenes where the women wear disguises to get through casinos unrecognized as old women, and funny female camaraderie abounds. There's also a great twist at the end that almost takes the book in an entirely different direction, just to keep you on your toes. All in all a great read and I would love to see this expanded up on the big screen someday.

“She escaped a serial killer. Then things got weird,” is by far the greatest and most accurate description of this book. Amber is walking back to her apartment one night when she is ass bumped into a van & abducted by a serial killer who like to dress up as Pikachu. After she’s rescued her entire world basically falls apart more & more by the minute. Now she’s trying to survive while another serial killer is trying to get rid of her.

I seriously loved this book. I feel confident that if I’m ever abducted by a serial killer, my last moments and thoughts will be similar to all of the things that were going through Amber’s head. One of my favorite lines is when she’s bracing herself for the end and finally opens her eyes and sees someone in a ski mask and says “who the fuck are you?” because clearly that is everyone’s first reaction when they see someone other than their inevitable killer. I also loved how she was quite content referring to Grace as Ski Mask without actually caring what her real name was.

While Amber & Grace were without a doubt the two main protagonists in this story, that didn’t stop Michelle from making sure that everyone else wasn’t just a simple one-dimensional character. Each character had their own arc and developed along with the story. It was also nice to see Amber’s arc and how each relationship she formed started to shape who she was becoming, while also not losing who she was. I definitely hope that Michelle has plans to write more of Amber’s story in the future! #killingme

*Thank you #netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for providing me with an ARC of this book for my honest review

Amber grew up the child of two grifters, and considers herself pretty street smart. That makes it even more embarrassing that she almost becomes the next victim of a serial killer, and only survives because a mysterious woman saves her.

This book mixes genres seamlessly. It's part thriller, part comedy, part friendship story. After she gets back to her life, a series of events convince Amber to ditch her current living situation and relocate to Vegas. There she meets a cast of interesting characters who end up helping her survive when she' s targeting by yet ANOTHER serial killer.

Really fun read, interesting character, thank you Netgalley and PenguinGroup for the ARC!

Where do I begin? When Amber Jamison is kidnapped by a serial killer, she is mad but then she is resigned to dying at his hands. But WAIT, a mystery woman shows up and kills the serial killer, rescuing Amber. However, the woman is not at all friendly and doesn't want to be mentioned to the cops.
Of course Amber has secrets also and she also prefers to avoid the cops. The woman eventually leaves Amber behind at a greasy spoon diner.
Amber ends up on the run and fate seems to be sending her to Vegas - which is fine as she has always wanted to live in California. so Vegas is on the way. Being on the run Amber is low on funds and ends up staying at a cheap hotel on the edge of town. Little does she know that "fate" was yet another serial killer trapping her in his game of "Catch." But Amber has met other people who want to trap this serial killer. Will she survive this game or is she just a disposable pawn as so many other poor young women have been in this game?

Killing Me is a great read. I found this book easy to read "just one more chapter." I recommend it to anyone who likes a great road trip/chase/suspense/dark humor book.

Loved this main character - when a cynical, self-described survivor is turned into the victim how does she react? A thriller with black comedy it's a zippy read.


Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for a review!

📖+🍪+☕️=😍! This was an amazingly fun book. I don’t know when I’ve ever enjoyed a book in quite the same way that I enjoyed my reading of this one.

Ah, Killing Me - when I saw the cover my interest was piqued, when I read the description I was sold and immediately requested an early copy of this. I was fortunate enough to receive that request and I began reading this one immediately (7/18/22), and got hooked right away.

I adored Amber as a character. I loved her voice and Dot, and Marcella were fantastic too. I don’t want to write too much more about it - just trust me, and read this one. It’s perfect hot summer days, don’t want to move much reading and I strongly recommend this one.

This was a four star read with five star potential to be one of my favorites for the year. Amber is my kind of girl, a streetwise lesbian grifter, trying to shake those bad habits until she is kidnapped by a serial killer and heroically saved by a gorgeous woman in the first few pages. Off we go, literally , across country in the search for a killer, all the while enjoying Ambers sardonic and often sexy view of the world. Okay, changing it five as I loved her to death.

I had so much fun with this book! Think Eleanor Shellstrop gets kidnapped by a serial killer, and after an unlikely rescue, teaming up with an unlikely group of Las Vegas outcasts to track a super-serial-killer. It's a lot, right? But it was zippy, fun, and I couldn't put it down.

what the fuck did i just read?????

this book was like insane. like whoah. i keep thinking: did this actually just happen? what am i reading? is this real?

this book is like the shit from my dreams. just epic.

i’m not sure if i’m supposed to curse so much in “professional” reviews, but i never claimed to be a professional so.

this book started off with our main character & heroine getting kidnapped, and i was laughing my ass off. and i know that sounds really weird but her thought process was the best, it’s exactly what i would be thinking in that same exact scenario. like did i really just get kidnapped???

our main character, amber, is the type of heroine i adore. she’s strong, sassy, BRAVE, funny, also a little bit of a softie, a lot of bit maybe, and she’s just straight up 100% herself no matter what. she has you worrying for her safety while also laughing out loud at the same time. i definitely think this book should have ended with her at a therapist office. like someone check on this girl sanity please and thank you.

picture this: you’re a reading a book about a very funny character who escapes a serial killer, ends up getting saved by a rando who’s kind of insane, you got this bizarre secret of you’re own that involves you running away, just to get chased by another serial killer in vegas of all places, and end up working with the rando (who’s a tad bit insane) that saved you. + add a motel owner & hooker. it sounds insane when you state it like that. even messy. but it’s GOLD.

like i don’t think i ever laughed so much during a murder mystery thriller. and maybe i shouldn’t because this does have heavy topics, but i couldn’t help myself.

5 absolute stars.
☆☆☆☆☆/☆☆☆☆☆

thank you netgalley & the publishing team for granting me access to this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

p.s. if i ever get kidnapped, remind me to act exactly like amber did. if i’m dying, i’m dying in style.

p.p.s. if it insane i wanted a certain duo to end up together? author this is your doing.

At first I wasn't too sure about this book?! I almost switched to another book and said I'll go back later! I'm so glad I stayed with it! I truly enjoyed reading this one! This book had it all! It had suspense, intrigue, action, murder, serial killer, great chases and it was funny! The storyline was very interesting and kept me glued to my kindle! I highly recommend reading this book! It was well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

4.5-5 Stars! Great book! I loved the plot and the author kept me guessing the whole time. This book was lighthearted and witty which was at odds with the thriller aspect of the book but it worked well together. I smiled, I got scared and I loved every minute of it - yes, I’m that weirdo that actually enjoys scary movies too! There were a few references to the main character, Amber, being gay and having ‘sexy time’ with one of the other female characters that felt unnecessary to keep pointing out in a thriller/women’s fiction and not a romance. I do wish there was an epilogue to the story but I still enjoyed the book without it. I usually read romance genres but this was a nice change and I’d definitely recommend this one. I’ll definitely be reading this author again!
*I received this at no charge & I voluntarily left this review.*

This was honestly a fun and fast read. A very unique take on the game of cat and mouse that begins with a woman being abducted by a serial killer and then rescued by a mysterious woman who shows up in the right place at the right time.

Contains a very odd and lovable cast of misfit characters. I enjoyed the main character, Amber’s, inner monologue and found it to be funny and very real, even in the moment leading up to her possible death by serial killer.

This is a good summer thriller to read by the beach!

I read the description and thought that this book sounded right up my alley, so I figured I would give it a shot, not really expecting much. And honestly, I LOVED it! It’s exactly my type of story, and I couldn’t put it down. Almost like a black comedy, this book is dark but also super fun! I’ve been trying to think of a way to explain it, but I’ve come up with- Dexter meets Schitts Creek? Lots of great characters. The plot is a little fantastical, and does require you to suspend belief a little, but I think much less than your normal thriller or romance even. I always find these more light hearted books so cheesy, but can stomach it in small doses. But this book, I swear I don’t remember ever feeling like it was getting cheesy or pandering. And YES I just referred to this book, that starts with a girl being abducted by a serial killer, as lighthearted.
Excellent, excellent book.