I think the psychological thriller at an academic setting trope is a little over used at this point. You’ve read so many books set at high schools or college campuses where dead body counts begin to rack up....but, this one was relatively unique. On this particular campus there’s a set of 7 students clinically diagnosed as psychopaths enrolled and participating in a study...and our main character is Chloe, one of the 7, who has enrolled particularly with the motive to kill a man who wronged her in the past in exactly 60 days.

Hella interesting plot line right?

The first half was much stronger. I loved Chloes story and her personality. There’s a second sub plot in the last half about a murderer on campus that drags out the story. But. Still a solid 4 for me with Chloes character alone.

Seven college students received free tuition in exchange for their participation in a study conducted by a renowned psychologist. They must complete random check ins with their assigned smart watches and complete some tests throughout their school week. No big deal ,right? Did I mention that all seven are diagnosed psychopaths? Psychopaths are known to be reliable narrators too, right? There is also a serial killer that is picking off students one by one at the college. What could possibly go wrong?

This premise seems crazy but it really works. I found the story compelling and I actually liked some of the characters, even though they are terrible people. There was some underlying dark humor that I really enjoyed as well. All together it was a uniquely told thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat up until the end. Definitely worth reading if you are a fan of thrillers!! The narrator for the audiobook did a great job bringing the story to life.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with the audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is an interesting read (listen)( I had the eBook and the audio). It deals with a psychology program set up to try to understand and help people who don't have empathy for others. It's fascinating. The question is can a psychopath be helped, saved, and why would you even try.

You should never trust a psychopath.

But what if you had no choice?

It would be easy to underestimate Chloe Sevre. She’s a freshman honor student, a legging-wearing hot girl next door, who also happens to be a psychopath. She spends her time on yogalates, frat parties and plotting to kill Will Bachman, a childhood friend who grievously wronged her.

Chloe is one of seven students at her DC-based college who are part of an unusual clinical study of psychopaths - students like herself who lack empathy and can’t comprehend emotions like fear or guilt. The study, led by a renowned psychologist, requires them to wear smart watches that track their moods and movements.

When one of the students in the study is found murdered in the psychology building, a dangerous game of cat and mouse begins, and Chloe goes from hunter to prey.

This one blew me away! I never thought I'd be cheering for a psychopath but this book totally had me hooked from the first page and I was all in for this cat and mouse thrill ride. Set on a college campus and told from the perspective of freshman Chloe Sevre - one of seven clinically diagnosed psychopaths who are there as part of a research study. Chloe has her own agenda but gets diverted when one of her fellow study subjects turns up murdered. Reluctantly she teams up with a couple of the other psychopaths trying to figure out who the murderer is before they come for her. I couldn't put this one down! Excellently narrated by Brittany Pressley. If you're looking for a great thriller with a unique premise and a surprisingly likeable anti-hero (think Dexter or Caroline Kepnes's Joe Goldberg) I highly recommend you grab this one as soon as possible. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my ALC!

Never Saw Me Coming
A Novel
by Vera Kurian
Suspense/Thriller , yeah, understatement of the year ! I just wanted the whole world to stop until I could finish this book. It doesn’t take long once you start because it is a page turning, stay up all night, can’t put down kind of book .
I don’t like to give away to many details because that’s part of the fun of reading it, not knowing exactly what you’re getting yourself into .
Basically, it’s about 7 college students who happen to be psychopaths that have applied to this particular college to get a break on tuition in exchange for letting a college professor “study them” as they participate in a group. Then, there’s a murder, and another one..are any of these kids involved ? If yes, then which one ?
I loved getting a peek into how young psychopaths may think, and why they react they way they do. It was fascinating. And not all psychopaths are the same.
I just need EVERYONE to read this one so we can talk about it !!!!
Thanks NG and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review .
*** I listened to the audiobook and loved the narration.

Engaging enough whodunnit with an intriguing (if nearly impossible by the rules of realism) premise, and one that next slows down or threatens to bore, but it also never becomes more than an exercise in withholding information. Skews more toward YA literature in language and character development than even NYT-branded bestselling psychological thrillers.

Narrator was great, definitely had the perfect tone of a selfish, narcissist. Story itself was just alright. Interesting premise having psychopaths as the main characters but they were more annoying than gripping.

Thank you to Netgalley and harperaudio for this brilliant academic thriller. Chloe is beginning her college career at John Adams University in Washington, DC to begin her dream of......trying to kill a past classmate who caused her trauma? This book is as someone put it "people with psychopath tendencies but make it exciting" The beginning is slow as the story is introducing readers to Chloe, her past and her reason for being at this specific college. The reason Chloe gained acceptance from this college is her participation in a special study focused on psychopaths like her and 6 fellow students who suffer from lack of emotions, empathy. The school requires them to wear smart watches to track their movements and mood swings. While the main plot at first is Chloe's reason and plan to murder her classmate Will, the book picks up and more characters are introduced along with the sudden murder of two people in Chloe's psychopath program forcing the original plot line becomes a side plot. This book is fun yet a little long at 400 pages which felt a bit dragged on at times. Overall, I found it fresh and exciting complete with dark humor! I can't wait to read more from Vera Kurian! 3.75* rounded up.

Seven psychopathic college students collected as subjects in a study had me immediately hooked in this psychological thriller. When two of those students are murdered, it seems the test subjects themselves are being targeted. The riveting part of the story: who do you believe when psychopaths are not particularly trustworthy and the story is literally full of psychopaths?! As a reader, you are always second guessing what people say, what they really mean, who’s lying, who’s telling the truth... this was the fun part of the book. It’s an excellent premise and takes you on a great ride. I thoroughly enjoyed being sucked into the suspense, from beginning to end, trying to figure out a big twisted reveal. I wasn’t especially satisfied with the ending, though. I was hoping for a final twist with an unexpected interconnection, especially given the title, but that fell short for me. I literally was hoping, as the title suggested, to never see it coming.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

What do you get when a group of psychopaths come together to hunt a serial killer on a college campus? One very inventive thriller. Kurian has written a creative mystery that is perfect for readers who enjoy shows like "Veronica Mars" and "Riverdale". However, they were times when I felt the story really dragged on and the ending was anti-climatic and disappointing but it is a fast paced mystery that will be enjoyable for readers entering the mystery genre.

Audiobook

Thank you, NetGalley, for an audio-ARC of Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian.
Never Saw Me Coming is a psychological thriller that begins with a murder. Vera Kurian creates suspenseful scenes that leave the reader trying to figure out who the killer could be. The main characters are diagnosed as psychopaths attending college as part of a study, and all are capable of murder and deception. Narrated by Brittany Pressley, Chloe, the main character's voice grated on my nerves. However, this voice also adds to her character's psychosis.

Oh the potential! This book had so so much potential if the author had actually done some research on this subject. This cool have been such a cool dark story but instead it all fell so flat. This book is very much written as if its for a young adult audience which is perfectly fine but marketing it as an adult thriller really made this book fall flat. With an adult rating I was expecting so much more when really all I got was a sad excuse for a "dark" Gossip Girl. There is definitely an abundance out there for this book but I am not it.

*Warning* No spoilers below, but I hate being this savage about a debut novel. I wish Vera Kurian no ill-will and hope she has a huge success with this and all subsequent books! I'm sure she has a hit on her hands.

But by god, this book truly tested me. Off the top, I have to say that the narrator Brittany Pressley can do no wrong, she's an excellent voice actress. I've listened to several books narrated by her and she deserves a raise. She tries so hard to elevate this book to something passable, and even she can't do it.

Never Saw Me Coming is a book about a bunch of diagnosed psychopaths attending a college with a full scholarship to take part in a study about how psychopaths feel, or don't feel, emotions. I couldn't call bullshit any harder on this, but we suspend our disbelief for the sake of a fun story-- I was super excited to be in the mind of characters who struggle with feelings and use mimicry as a form of deception to get by in society. However, this author (who has a PhD in Social Psychology!!) treats psychosis like a superpower. These spunky bunch of CW-inspired psychopaths use psychosis like a sixth sense, a strength enhancer, a stealth mode! They're going to solve the mystery of who's murdering their fellow test subjects, Riverdale style!

I wanted this book to treat psychopathy with genuine interest rather than pandering to tropes, but the main character Chloe is just a brat. Being a brat does not a psychopath make. Not only is she just a simple brat, but she also has an aggrandized sense of "purpose" which is OF COURSE not anything actually disagreeable, she's just trying to murder her rapist (I hate it, I hate it when authors are too chicken to give their characters problematic drives, so even the PSYCHOPATH TRYING TO MURDER SOMEONE is doing it to a well-deserved victim we can all agree is a grey area, allowing us to still find the character likable or relatable).

Oh Booklist, you told me this was for fans of Gone Girl. Why would you do this? I trusted you.

If you're interested in reading a summer flash in the pan, here it is. I had such high hopes, but this book fits very firmly in the Young Adult category. Not to diminish young adult literature, but I genuinely think younger people will find the college-age Gossip-Girl-equivalent characters more interesting. Why it's not being marketed as such is beyond me.

A university program targets young people with psychopathic tendencies. What could go wrong? The doctor who heads up the program is an enigma. What is his motivation for gathering these students together into a program. There are safeguards in place to keep the students from knowing who else is a participant, but they also all wear the same black smartwatch. When one and then two of the students in the program are murdered, it becomes clear they are being hunted. Who is the hunter? Someone connected with the administration of the program? Or is it one of their own? Cloe Sevre is our unreliable narrator. She has her own reasons for becoming a student at this particular university and the study is just a good excuse. Other points of view are sprinkled in including the doctor running the program and two of the other students. The variety of viewpoints gives us multiple perspectives on some of the same events. Red herrings abound and I really liked the book on audio. The perfect novel for folks who enjoy true crime books and podcasts.

Thank you to Harper Audio and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

There is nothing I love more than a morally grey main character, or psychopath as it is in this case, and here we have more than one! I loved the characters, the mystery, the manipulations - everything. The narrators were great too, they really acted out the characters and brought life to the story for me.

Loved this one. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me listen early!

A study group of college students with a diagnosis of psychopathic. What could go wrong? This book will keep you wanting more- as one of my friends says, it’s like a “fun beach read for creeps!” While I’m no expert of psychopathology, the author seemed to do a good job on some of the more technical aspects, and the plot was really good. I would like to add a trigger warning for sexual assault.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the audio ARC of this title.

This one was fun! Chloe is a psychopath. She receives a full-ride to John Adams University in order to participate in an ongoing clinical study, and that fits in perfectly with her plans. Because that's where Will goes, and she has plans for him. As Chloe works on her 60-day plan, she meets other study participants and adjusts to college life. When students in the program start dying, she must decide how far she can trust her fellow psychopaths.
Somehow, Kurian is able to present believable characters with psychopath in a way that makes you root for them. Chloe is funny and charming and chilling, and weird combination that shouldn't work but does. The college atmosphere feels a little YA, but not enough to distract from the premise.
I listened to the audio of this, and the narrator was good. She was excellent first-person as Chloe, and believable as other POV characters.
Overall, a great summer read with enough suspense to keep me interested but not enough to stress me out.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this audiobook ARC for review.

I love books that have an unreliable narrator, you know like a psychopath. There's a whole group of psychopaths at Chloé's college, they are in a study but no one knows who the others are, makes for a fun read. Some of the students may just be pretending to be psychopaths for free tuition to the college, but who knows for sure...then there's the murders. Someone is hunting the psychopaths, who can be trusted and who is killing them off one by one? It's a fun little murder mystery, don't let the psychopath part scare you away.

I found this to be a nice little gem of a psychological thriller with an intriguing and original plot line and abundance of tension and suspense. The protagonist is a known psychopath who is participating in a college study with 6 other fellow student psychopaths. I loved her perception of life and others from a psychopath’s POV. It was so interesting and fascinating to read. When 2 of the students in the study are murdered, the others seek answers as to who is the accomplice. The story explores the possible motives of several different subjects. I was surprised by the ending and found that the author wrapped the book up successfully. This was an excellent read and worked particularly well on audio. The narrator did a great job and the story was well-paced.

I found it hard to believe that Never Saw Me Coming was Vera Kurian's first novel. It was an engrossing read from start to finish. The premise of the book itself was ingenious - whether psychopaths given full college scholarships to a fictitious Washington DC university in return for participation in the school's research program could learn to lead near normal lives.
The author plainly knows something about psychopathy and educates the reader about how psychopaths think. How they think is entertainingly reflected in their conversations and their first person thoughts. Indeed, one of the book's plot lines involves a program participant who has succeeded in faking psychopathy to earn his scholarship, but lives in fear of being discovered. Throw in a couple of unsolved murders of several of the program's participants and the author has created a truly entertaining potboiler.
The narrator did a terrific job and I was engaged throughout the entire reading of the book!