Complex and even depraved female ‘protagonist’ and a secret psychological experiment? I’m here for it, henny. Never Saw Me Coming is a fun and twisty novel sure to appeal to fans of the genre. It’s not highbrow literature, though it is smartly written and the main characters, most of whom are clinically diagnosed psychopaths, are well developed. I always love when an author can make me relate to, and even sympathize with, a ‘bad guy/gal’. Though I’d say I’m more drawn to morally ambiguous (or devoid) characters than the average person, it’s still a skill. I also appreciated that in the end, Kurian made a bold move, not punishing a character who orchestrates reprehensible acts. And no, that’s not a spoiler, since that could apply to nearly any of the characters in the novel. My biggest gripe with the book, other than that I think the pacing got a bit gobbed up, trying to fit too much in, would be the use of a trope too often used as a crutch in the genre. (spoiler: Twins. Come on! Quit with the f*#@ing twin thing! )
Be sure to add this to your TBR list.

Great book with an entertaining storyline. You don’t want to like the main character but you do! You can’t help yourself!

Chloe Sevre is a freshman at John Adams University, and she is there for one reason and one reason only: to kill Will Bachman, who did something terrible to her. Incidentally, Chloe is attending Adams as part of a seven-student clinical study regarding psychopaths. One evening, one of the students participating in the study is murdered, and Chloe realizes someone is hunting the students in the program. She is determined to figure out who is hunting her Psychopath Squad, and, if she's being honest, is mostly annoyed it's cutting into her "Kill Will Bachman" plan.

In today's society, with murder podcasts and serial killer documentaries everywhere you turn, a book about a group of psychopaths is everything. After reading the synopsis I knew this was a book that would appeal to me. Chloe is a pretty insufferable narrator, but... I imagine that's kind of the point. While the twist fell just a little flat for me, I absolutely recommend this to anyone like myself who just can't get enough of this type of subject matter.

In fact, as I began writing my review, I decided to change my rating from 4 to 5 stars. Despite not loving the ending, the book was just so good.

Thank you so much to Vera Kurian, Park Row Books, and NetGalley (shout out to the Read Now feature!) for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication.

Never Saw Me Coming will hit bookshelves near you September 7!

Wow! That was really different! Finished it way too late last night. Had to finish. Just gets to the point where you can’t put it down. Crazy strange characters. Great premise. Is it weird to say I enjoyed a book about psychopaths? Glad it’s fiction!

I read an excerpt of this book from the Buss Books edition and was hooked. A group of college-aged psychopaths participating in a psychology study, how interesting! As far as the whodunit part, I found it predictable, but all the action getting there enlightening. I often wondered about the thought processes and day-to-day functioning of psychopaths, answered in this book. In fact in almost an amusing manner, we see how cavalierly one of them has planned to murder a fellow schoolmate. I now understand how these people (psychopaths) blend into society and everyday life. And I have to say, I found myself rooting for the psychopath more than once! A truly unique book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review.

Honestly, the only thing I didn’t like about this book was that it ended. I wanted more!

This was just an exciting thriller! Our tale of psychopaths in trouble was incredibly suspenseful and so riveting. I loved our main psycho – she was just so wrong and so right all at once – and I just found myself wishing she’d find her happy place, even if that meant murdering a certain guy.

The book is an incredibly fast read. You won’t want to come up for air. I would happily read the author again, and wouldn’t mind a sequel to this one!

*ARC via Net Galley

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian is a book that had me hooked right from the moment I read the synopsis. It had a unique setting for a thriller book where 7 'psychopaths' are give full scholarship so that they can be the lab rats of a study on them. Everything is going well until one of them gets brutally murdered and this study now becomes a playground of tom and jerry chase.

I found the book extremely thrilling and fun to read. The writing is easy and the well developed characters add a lot of the the story. I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good thriller book.

Thank you Netgalley for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review

OK, so readers of Jonathan Kellerman (and for that matter, James Patterson) will absolutely love this. It follows the same format of a crime procedural but with the interiority of a sociopathic killer, informed by the highly nuanced and skillful takes on criminal thinking by a psychologist (Kellerman has a PhD in psychology, so does Kurian). I appreciated as well the diversity aspects including of narrators who were not white and the sly, subtle send up of bro culture and privilege. BUT I could not love this like I had hoped to because the female protagonist is just too distasteful to be around. It is a complete matter of taste. I am not a reader of Kellerman, for instance, because I just feel too much distress and distaste at being that up close to a sociopath. I just do not like this. But lots of people do, and I do not doubt that this book will do well. But I could not make myself finish it. The sociopaths within were UGH to me.

I've been really into psychological thrillers lately, and I was intrigued by the premise of Never Saw Me Coming. A well-executed unreliable narrator is my jam, and I was thrilled to be approved for this title.

Seven psychopaths on a college campus. What could possibly go wrong?

Chloe enters college participating in a program that studies diagnosed psychopaths. She's willing to complete the assignments and meet with the professor, but she has another motive: killing the person who hurt her. As she gets closer to Will, students in the program start dying. There's a killer in their midst, and Chloe must work with the other psychopaths to figure out who is targeting them and why.

I really enjoyed this book.

While I wouldn't call this a straight slasher, it had definite slasher vibes and reminded me a lot of the best of late 90s horror: college campus, rules of survival laid out, high-stakes odds and a legendary serial killer. I loved the subtle nods to the genre and was invested in the plot.

Although this is told in alternating POVs, I loved Chloe's voice. Witty, sardonic, and wrapped in a layer of foam that keeps her from feeling fear, it was interesting to see how she reacted to the people around her. The way she shifted from one socially accepted behavior to another in order to manipulate the people around her was both fascinating and terrifying. You never could fully trust her--but then again, you couldn't trust any of the narrators. Everyone had a motive, and even with the underlying psychological study of psychopathy, we already have these external associations with the word. It was impossible to come into this unbiased, and the distrust added to the suspense in a great way.

There is a lot happening here, several strands weaving together to keep readers on their toes, but the majority of the plot happens in internal monologues. There are conversations, interactions with other characters, but we stay firmly in our narrator's heads for most of the book. So, if you're someone who needs the constant movement of dialogue to action sequence, this might take a minute to adjust to, but I thought the internal structure worked well in heightening the factors that made Chloe and her peers different than the other college students.

Overall, Never Saw Me Coming is a twisty, suspenseful psychological thriller with endearing unreliable narrators and a classic slasher vibe many readers will love. Out in September, add this to your TBR now.

Thank you to Park Row and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

Welcome to the program!

A college clinical study led by a renowned psychologist. Seven students are diagnosed Psychopaths. Nothing to worry about! Just a bunch of psychos putting their heads together. Two heads are better than one, right? or three, or four or more.

Free college scholarships handed out to seven students as a reward to study their habits. Their diagnosis and participation are confidential. In return, they are required to wear coded smart watches and keep mood logs to track their emotions and whereabouts.

Tick, tock... someone has murder on the menu, a dose of revenge and a four phase plan.

I enjoyed this puzzle of a plot. Darkly funny at times, planning a murder over homework, lab reports and French papers. Lots of trails and paths to follow. I was confused time to time with the many POVs converging and some side stories not completely fleshed out, but overall, a good debut! I'm still on the fence about the ending - Never Saw It Coming.....

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for my advanced copy.

A psychology department at a college gives free rides to a group of kids diagnosed as being psychopaths if they agree to be studied. I thought this would be a great book. Unfortunately it just didn’t deliver. I thought this read more like a YA book. The characters at first were intriguing but the more I read…ugggh.

This was a pass for me.

A group of psychopathic college students match wits with the serial killer who is picking them off one by one.

I loved this book. The main protagonist, Chloe, narrates in first person. She is sharp, charming and has a wicked sense of humor. She reminds me of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock— especially as she easily outmaneuvers the academics around her. Her primary objective is to exact revenge on a student who did something horrible to her several years ago. She considers the serial killer a distraction to her plans but is quite capable of multitasking.

My second favorite character, Andre, is posing as a psychopath in order to get free tuition. In order to distract himself from terrible events in his past, he has extensively studied true crime stories and has learned how psychopaths think. This gives him the ability to point out things the narcissists around him miss.

The ending doesn’t quite come together. Minor characters suddenly pop up more than halfway through the book and do things which aren’t entirely explained.

If Chloe and Andre return for further adventures, I’m ready to read more about them. They aren’t anywhere near graduation yet. The possibilities!


Thank you! to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Kurian delivers a great suspense piece told from the voices of the most untrustful minds, a group of college students involved in a study on psychopaths. When two of their own are murdered, they must decide who they can trust and who’s eyes (and plans) could turn to them next.

The premise for this really intrigued me and I wanted to enjoy it more, but I just couldn’t. I almost gave up in the middle and should just have called it quits instead of slogging through. The initial promise of Chloe seeking revenge captivated me, but that fades into the background as the mystery killer takes precedence.
There were also too many over-the-top scenarios that I found impossible to suspend disbelief for, a disappointing lack in character development, and some plot elements that just sort of happened and were never explained. Take the killer for example: I’ll spare any spoilers, but I will just say that it came out of nowhere and never felt believable, because the readers are barely given any details about this person compared to other characters. The author is attempting a shock filled final reveal but I found it lackluster. Oh, and let’s not forget my favorite trope: the killer revealing their plan to their victims in the third act! I personally think a real serial killer wouldn’t waste time on exposition but that’s just me.
The writing style also felt disjointed. At times it was captivating and fast paced, and others it felt geared towards a younger audience. The overdone use of the term “psychopath” also became extremely annoying. It may be the clinical term that psychologists use, but I strongly feel that other synonyms would have greatly sufficed.

overall i enjoyed this book and it was great escapism during exam season! i liked the elements of combining social media with stalking and the pop culture references felt accurate and not forced or outdated like in some other books i've read. there were some instants were i actually laughed out loud. the writing is accessible and easy to grasp and the characters swing between likable and unlikable but they're all interesting.

this is a touchy subject since thrillers and psychopathology have been linked for, well far too long but i liked the direction teh author took. people with antisocial personality disorder are often villanized and stigmatized so i liked the subversion in this book. it also tackles some other important subjects such as racism, class disparities, the university system in the US as well as mental health, sexism or sexual assaults.

This books is an epic thriller! I read it in one and a half day, and had dreamed about the characters at night! I won't give the synopsis as you can check that out but I will tell you that this is an amazing story about a group of students who are diagnosed as psychopaths. It ALMOST makes me want to have witty and strange psychopathic friends myself.

The main character Chloe has Killing Eve vibes, which is impossible not t enjoy. I loved her. I loved the other psychopaths as well but I don't want to give names as it can be a spoiler. All I can tell you is this book is written in a really smart way, keeps you guessing and wondering until the last page.

I can so easily see this one being a TV show with awfully attractive actors/actresses.

Many thanks for my approved copy!

This was a pretty interesting read. Chloe is your normal college girl. She spends her time studying for her pre-med classes, doing yogalates, and stalking the boy she plans to kill in 60 days. She tells her roommate she has a part time job, but that is really just her cover for all the time she spends in her program being studied to understand how a psychopath functions. When a few of her fellow psychopaths are murdered, it is up to her and a few of her other like-minded schoolmates to figure out how to keep themselves alive, without interfering with her… extracurricular activities…

I received an ARC, but my opinions are all mine.

Vera, Girlfriend, I am in for whatever you write.

Who is killing the diagnosed psychopaths in a study at Adam's University? And why?

This book is all of the crazy I never knew I needed and I loooooved it.

While Charles and Andre were brilliantly written I frequently found Chloe's observations to be hilarious and terrifyingly spot-on.

I enjoyed this so much it made me a little uncomfortable...

Thank you to the author and publisher for gifting me a copy. It is my pleasure to write an honest review.

Vera Kurian's storytelling is so compelling and immersive that I could not put this book down at all. The premise is so unusual yet so intriguing. The characters, the plot, the suspense, all of it was larger than life, and so fun to read! I have read many thrillers in the past year , but this one really stood out to me because of the excellent writing and the unique plot. All the best! This will definitely become a best-seller this year.

This incredible thriller kept me on the edge of my seat until the last page. The characters draw you in and the plot is fast paced. I love when the author has you rooting for an unlikely character.