3.5 (for that ending)

In her debut Novel Eve Kellman, flips the table on Men who try to take advantage of Women:

Millie Masters has set up a hotline for women, Message M, when they feel that unsafe to get home. Millie sees the worst of men in these situations, looking to take advantage of women Night after Night. Sometimes she even sees the same guy over again and that the men will just continue to do the same thing night after night. Millie is sick of them getting away with it with no consequences especially when an assault happens close to home. Millie decides it's time to switch things up and take the law into her own hands.

This is Kellman's debut novel and I appreciate the premise that she has presented here. I mean you do not often get the read about female serial killer (in Fiction or real life) and you know you are getting something along those lines based upon the title of this book. I think that when you realize the men that Millie is choosing, the question becomes, can you really blame her for the men she decides to kill? And when does it change along the way.

I struggled reading this one and I don’t know why, I found I wasn’t in the mood to read it when I first started it. I will admit that the book picks up and gets interesting the further you go into the book it just take a bit to get there. There was a point at around the 3/4 marks where I fully said holy fuck out loud with where Kellman took a plot point. it was totally unexpected, and I was there for it. I think people will either love or hate the ending, but I was there for the ending as it was not your typical one at all.

This book was really hindered by having long chapters. I’m just not a fan of them and it just seemed like each chapter went on and on and on and didn’t really give readers a break to process what was going on. I felt like there were places that Kellman could have broken the chapters up a bit instead of forcing them on. I feel like most people prefer shorter chapters than longer ones.

Millie as a character is fascinating and the moral ground and questions that she asks herself, especially at the beginning are really interesting. It is when you find Millie later in the book where she sees that she may not be just killing for saving women anymore. I like that Millie really started out just wanting to help women get out of situations that are just uncomfortable to downright dangerous with her Message M number and side job that she has. It is this side of her life where she feels purpose and excels, and I feel like there is a job that she could make of this somehow.

I would have liked a POV from someone else in the book, I'm not really sure who maybe James, not at the beginning as we have not met him yet but later in the book would have been great. Just break it up a bit, and then once again this could have broken up the longer chapters. I just felt that the book felt a bit stagnant with only having one POV.

I will not deny that this was an interesting read and Millie as a character was truly fascinating. I think that you can tell that this was Kellman's debut novel with the chapter length and the overall flow of the book. But that last 25% of the book and ending made me happy that I pushed through on this one. I do look forward to seeing what Kellman comes out with next.

Enjoy!!!

First off, the title and concept of this book is what drew me in. It’s very dramatic and highly unlikely but I thought it’s a good take on female violence and rage.
I really liked Millie as a character and appreciated the way her character develops throughout the story.
But at some points in the book I thought that it felt longer than it needed to be.
However! I enjoyed it overall and would recommend it!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!

I enjoyed reading this book and may even be waiting for the hard copy so I can share it to friends!

I'll be posting my review on instagram and threads shortly!

3.75 stars

In How to Kill a Guy in Ten Ways, our main character, Millie, sets up a hotline for women to call or text when they feel unsafe alone at night or on dates. After Millie’s sister was assaulted one night, she feels like she needs to protect other women that could need her help.

However, Millie definitely starts to enjoy the thrill of the kill a little too much and takes it a bit further lol! She definitely is a morally gray main character that you can’t help but root for.

I really liked Millie as a character and appreciated the way her character develops throughout the story. I didn’t find I was wanting to pick this one up all the time and it could be a bit slow at times. However! I enjoyed it overall and would recommend it!

If you liked How to Kill Men and Get Away With It by Katy Brent then I think you’d like this!!

Thank you Avon Books for my copy of this!

This one was quite a letdown for me. The premise was all there: a superhero woman, deliciously dark, serial killer thriller. However, what I felt I got was an unnecessarily dark, YA, woman hating book with a woman as the protagonist. The MC started okay, but quickly I found I couldn’t stand her. She was immature, rude, and derogatory even towards her friends.

DNF at 40%.

Loved the premise of the book but had a very hard time liking the main character. Loved how fast faced it was but I felt that the ending was a little unrealistic.

Thank you to the Publishers Avon Books UK and to NetGalley for the Arc in exchange for an honest review!

Something happened to Millie's younger sister on New Year's Eve which puts her on a path for vengeance. Starting with a service called Message M, a hotline for women who don't feel safe, whether they are being hassled in a bar or feel like they are being followed

I totally understood Millie's reach for vengeance, although, whether the vengeance she seeks is for her sister, or herself, is another matter.

I enjoyed this 5-star read but found myself reading too fast and missing details, which meant re-reading whole sections of the book. Always a good sign IMHO..

Unfortunately I had to DNF this title. I wanted to love it so much. The concept was great. I tried to get into this book on several separate occasions and at first it was just the formatting that was excruciating to overlook. In the end it fell short for me and I just couldn't spend more time on it. Great idea, great concept, needs a little more on the execution.

First off, the title and concept of this book is what drew me in. Yes, it’s dramatic and over the top and highly unlikely BUT it’s a good take on female violence/rage and vigilante shit. I did find that it felt longer than it needed to be and that I’d maybe have liked to see some remorse? But at the same time, maybe that’s what the author is getting at, that these crimes are committed by men regularly and there is often no remorse? Either way, if you’re after unhinged vigilante vibes then this is for you (but check warnings!). Also there is a (I think?) typo ~66% in referencing saving men from creeps, and feel like this should say saving WOmen from creeps.

Eve Kellman’s debut novel, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Ways, is a dark and twisted tale of vigilante justice with a feminist edge. Protagonist Millie Masters embarks on a mission to seek vengeance for her sister’s assault, leading readers on a rollercoaster of emotions as they confront uncomfortable truths about society, justice, and the human condition. Despite Millie’s flawed and reckless nature, Kellman manages to make her a compelling and relatable character, weaving dark humor and poignant insights throughout the narrative. The breakneck pace, sharp writing, and gut-wrenching finale make for a gripping read, challenging readers to question their own moral compasses while offering a glimmer of hope amidst the darkness. How to Kill a Guy in Ten Ways is a powerful commentary on revenge, resilience, and the complexities of human relationships, leaving readers breathless and questioning everything they thought they knew.

I’ll preface this review by saying that although I liked it and gave it three stars, It’s a lot darker than I expected and I do think the book name and cover art and just the way it’s sold all-round is a bit misleading if i’m honest.

How To Kill A Guy in 10 Ways follows Millie who runs Message M a hotline where she rescues women from difficult situations. This is all ramped up after her sister is sexually assaulted and Millie becomes set on getting revenge, she begins killing men who she thinks deserve it and things very soon begin to spiral out of control.

It was fun and thrilling despite the bleak subject matter and I did find myself mostly rooting for Millie to succeed in her crimes until the end where I think things went a bit too off-piste.

A good , fast paced read about a woman set on revenge but please do look up the trigger warnings!

I was drawn in quickly by this premise, and overall enjoyed my reading experience. The first and final third were the best, with the middle dragging slightly, but I would still recommend this novel!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC! I downloaded this book right after I was approved, and I started reading it immediately. It didn't catch my attention liked I hoped it would, so I took a break for a couple of days and tried to read it again. I had the same experience the second time, and I decided not to read it until the week I went on spring break. Unfortunately, I read it and was never really impressed by it. I love the idea of a female serial killer, but this was just way too much. The details were so realistic that I had to pause at times just to catch my breath. Aside from that, I have no problem admitting that it is very rare that I like a book that I cannot get into the first time I read it.

Thank you to the Publishers Avon Books UK and to NetGalley for the ARC!

First off TRIGGER WARNINGS GALORE: murder, depression, domestic abuse, child abuse , suicide attempts and self harm ,stalking, rape, sexual assault, incest. So please read with caution. It has humour thrown in but it can be be very upsetting if you’ve been exposed to something similar.

On to the feedback. I feel like I’m on a deserted island but here it it goes 😬

Millie was my least favourite character of all time. What a jerk. I’m sorry. I just couldn’t get I to this book because she was so unlikeable and mean. And not in a good way.
I feel harsh but it feels like a missed opportunity or something. It was a miss for me.

1/5 ⭐️

This started strong for me. Jumping right into a confession, Millie telling us her story of how it all began I knew I would be hooked. It did get away from me a little in the middle, slow and repetitive, I found Millie’s character to be confused, was she always a killer and psychopath or had she just stumbled upon this? It wasn’t consistent. But the ending ramped up the intensity and made it overall more enjoyable for me.

Trigger warnings- suicide, abuse, self harm

The book is centred on Millie Masters - photo frame seller by day and saviour of women from predatory men by night. She runs a hotline called Message M where she comes to the rescue of women who are being harassed/stalked/abused by men. From her experience helping these women and what happened to her sister, Millie decides that more extreme action is needed.

I liked Millie and the way she was written as even when she begins to murder people, you do understand that her intentions are noble and routed in helping out other women. This isn't me saying I condone murder for good reasons - it's still a crime - but with her backstory and the ongoing and real-life epidemic of violence against women, you can understand it. It puts you in a tricky moral dilemma, given the men she's killing are odious human beings.

The book isn't horribly gruesome, but it does go into a lot of detail with certain deaths, especially the one in the bath. It's darkly humorous in a lot of places, which helps to provide some levity to certain situations.

My only criticism is that I thought the ending jumped the shark a little bit and didn't feel realistic. As much as I understand her intentions, there should have been consequences for what she did.

How to Kill a Guy in Ten Ways is both an incredibly dark and somewhat deranged serial killer book that is also somehow relaxed, a little funny and hugely easy to read. I devoured this book in one evening, as once it hooks you, you don't want to set it down until you see how it's all going to play out.

Rarely do you find yourself reading a serial killer plot where you really, really want the killer to get away with it, but Millie has you rooting for her even as her taste for killing becomes more and more dramatic. I LOVED the dynamic of perfectly normal woman finding herself in a situation where exacting revenge sort of falls upon her, and then the entertainment that unfolds as she finds quite the taste for said form of revenge. The grey area of morality of Millie's actions is delicious and you as a reader are left to consider what you might be driven to do if you found yourself in the same situation.

I don't want to give away even a hint of a spoiler, but I will say that for as dark as some of the topics get in this one (and they do get dark, don't be fooled by the adorable cover), Eve Kellman does a terrific job of crafting an overall story that keeps you utterly glued to the page and highly entertained from start to rollercoaster, explosive finish.

This is a must have for spring reading lists!

I was drawn in instantly by the prologue and thoroughly loved the brilliant, somewhat unhinged story that followed!
It made me laugh out loud at times, but there's also some quite raw, somber moments, not to mention some rather brutal murders. Those that need to should definitely check for trigger warnings.
A great addition to the female vengeance/serial killer genre and a fantastic debut from the author, I'd certainly look forward to reading more from them.
Huge thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc ebook.

I think my final rating is a 3.5. I finished a few days ago and have sat with my thoughts a bit to fairly review it. This was such a great concept, and I was very excited to read it. It didn’t fully live up to my hopes though and to me the story itself didn’t represent the blurb that well. Fans of the shows Dexter or You will likely enjoy the tale of this modern day vigilante taking down guys who do harm to the female population, while unraveling a bit themselves, and there were some twists at the end that definitely surprised me. All in all, a moderately enjoyable read, but desperately needs some CW/TW for readers as there was some very unexpected sensitive content.

This book is mis-branded and billed incorrectly. It is an extremely well written - and thereby extremely disturbing - account of a woman devolving into psychosis around the sexual assault of her sister, and frankly, becoming a serial killer.

This book is NOT light. It is NOT a fun read. It is NOT a comedy, and it is NOT a hidden romance. It *IS* about a woman who hates men and is a rock solid case for a psychopath. It has truly very intense and disturbing references to horrifying traumas, and not only does the main character devolve into uncontrollable rage and anger, and resort to violence, but also her slow warping of reality to justify her actions becomes hard to watch as the reader.

Just about every trigger warning there is would qualify for this book. Contains references (and not just a few, but a lot!) to brutal sexual assault, anorexia, child abuse, child sexual assault, graphic and deadly violence, victim blaming, suicide / self-harm. I truly almost did not finish this book because the narrators head was such an awful place to be. I’m glad I did - some things became lighter in the last few pages, but if you have any innate sense of fairness or justice, this book will both address that AND totally infuriate you.

Recommended to people who want to live in the head of a very disturbed person - but a serial killer story about a WOMAN, targeting MEN. It’s interesting but hard to read. Be in the right mood for it.