Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch is full of twists and surprises. Two SAT tutors are on the run together, but what one doesn't know is that she travels with a killer. Deitch writes well and does a good job of creating an interesting story.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

Killer potential was a fun and surprisingly deeper thriller than I was expecting. Evie is an SAT tutor for a wealthy family in LA. She shows up for her shift as usual to find the parents brutally murdered and a strange woman locked up in the closet unable to speak. Afraid that she will be accused of being a murderer, evie flees the scene with the unknown woman. A fugitive with no where to go, evie can only trust this mystery woman as she tries to beat the clock to clear her name.

A fast paced thriller, deitch keeps readers turning the pages as the relationship between evie and her companion grows as they evade detection from law enforcement. What seems to be a thriller on the surface does have deeper themes of trauma, sex trafficking, and abuse that may trigger some readers.

I found this overall to be an enjoyable fast read and I couldn’t stop turning the pages to find out what was going on and who was behind the murders. Deitch is one to watch in the thriller genre.

Thanks to the publisher for providing this arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A fun and twisty thriller! The novel certainly kept me on my toes and continually guessing what may come next. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC - it's much appreciated!

Did you watch "Drive Away Dolls"? Then you really don't need to read this.

When a book promises to be 'twisty', 85% of the time, the twist is very obvious. This plot line falls in that 85%.

Evie, the deeply annoying main character, is still bitter about not being the success she thought she deserved to be. She's an SAT tutor to the ultra rich. She acts like she's 22, 23 at most. She is, in fact, staring down the barrel of 30. Throughout this entire book, she makes the DUMBEST decisions. How someone can think they will be charged with a crime with zero evidence pointing to you, in a highly secure neighborhood full of cameras, and proof that you were not on the scene at the time of the crime...is beyond insane. It's really a REACH to try and push the two women together for an 'unlikely' pair.

I feel like this book doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it a fun gay romance/thriller/adventure story, or is it a commentary on student loans and the economy? There are ways to tie both into a ploy, but this wasn't it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

First I would like to thank Netgalley and Willian Morrow for the ARC of this novel.

I really enjoyed this book. Honestly a lot more than I was expecting. I loved the author’s writing style and I also really enjoyed how fast-paced this book was. I was just along for the ride and trying to figure out how the two girls were going to get out of them mess they put themselves in. So I was pleasantly surprised when we hit the twist in the book. I didn’t see it coming.

I will say I’m not sure how I felt about the last 15-20% of the book. It definitely took a turn and didn’t go where I was expecting. But I do love an ambitious ending and this one was well done.

Overall, I really enjoyed this debut authors work and I can’t wait to read more from her.

4.25/5 stars rounded down to 4 for this review.

This book definitely hooked me and kept my interest. I’m not sure why, because it was a glorified train wreck of a serial killer crime spree that pointed out how much the media influences our daily thoughts and opinions. There was nothing different or outstanding about it, but I still couldn’t put it down. The characters were well developed and the writing was great, but I think I couldn’t give it five stars because the main character was just so stupid and did not act as smart as her education should allow her.

This book follows Evie a Sat tutor who winds up discovering a murder scene when other discoveries come to light Evie makes a run for it and her life is about to change forever. This one was not for me I figured out the twist pretty early on and the rest of the book felt a little slow to me once you get to around the halfway point. I kept having to force myself to pick this one back up instead of other books I was reading. The writing was unique and good I just was not a fan of this story but would give this author another chance. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

I thought that this book was good! It definitely had some plot twists. Although a little slow at some points, I still enjoyed the plot.

Evie Gordon was always a smart kid and she grew up being told she would achieve great things. After success in both high school and college, however, Evie found herself struggling to find a job and mostly drifting along. She now works as an SAT tutor for the children of the wealthy elite; if there was one thing her private school education taught her, it was how to interact with the rich, even if she is from a humble background herself. So Evie is mostly floating along in L.A., barely making ends meet and not sure just where her potential fizzled out.

Then, one day, Evie’s life changes when she walks into the home of Dinah and Peter Victor to tutor their daughter, Serena. There, she finds Dinah and Peter brutally murdered in their back garden. When Evie hears a cry for help, she finds a woman tied up in the closet under the stairs. Evie fully intends to help the woman and call the police, but when Serena shows up, things go off the rails. Suddenly, Evie and the woman become suspects, rather than innocent bystanders and potential victims. And before Evie can blink, she and the woman are on the run, nationally wanted fugitives.

Evie is stunned by this sudden turn of events, scarcely able to believe she went from an SAT tutor with a dull life to the number one most wanted person in the country. The fact that everyone believes that she and Jae are a pair of female murderers, out to get the rich, only adds to the sensationalism. Jae barely talks at first, but she proves to be clever and resourceful. As the pair criss cross the country, trying to stay a step ahead of the nationwide manhunt, they come to rely on one another and ultimately grow to care about each other. But their faces are on the news every night and the entire country is on the lookout. There is only so long they can evade capture and it is getting increasingly difficult to know where to turn. The country is riveted by what they believe is a duo of female killers and everyone knows Evie’s name. As the manhunt closes in, Evie and Jae must figure out their next steps before they run out of options.

I found Killer Potential to be a really fascinating thriller, with some interesting themes, and a writing style that occasionally veers into too much internal musing and narration. Where this story worked the best for me is in the thriller part of the plot. We meet Evie as she walks into the Victor house and stumbles upon the murder. How she and Jae end up on the run rather than merely innocent bystanders is a bit wild and you have to just go with it, but I think Deitch makes it plausible how panic, fear, and a perfect storm of things going wrong could get them to that point. The women then end up on a road trip of sorts, endlessly driving and not always knowing to where, trying to stay ahead of the police. There is nice balance here between the mundane, the long hours behind the wheel as the miles pass, eating gas station food and trying to avoid notice, and then the thrilling, exciting parts as they run into trouble and must fight with all they have.

Evie is our primary POV character and this is really her journey. In fact, we don’t even find out Jae’s name until quite a ways into the book, as she doesn’t speak for a long time. Dietch does such a nice job of showing how almost surreal it all feels to Evie, the shock of going about her normal life and suddenly finding herself a presumed killer, face on every newspaper and television. Everyone is speculating about who she is and how she could have committed such a crime. Everyone is particularly fascinated by the fact that these are two women; the idea of women being murderers somehow adds to the mystique. And the fact that Evie was a super high achieving scholarship kid who apparently has fallen into a life of crime makes it all the more interesting. The story gives a nice perspective on all of this, how Evie becomes almost a symbol more than a person, and I think this part is well done.

There is also the theme of potential that carries throughout the story, and what it means to have potential, particularly if that potential is seemingly unrealized. In Evie’s case, she was labeled early on as “talented and gifted” and spent her life excelling at school. She was in all the right classes to get her into an elite private school and then an even more elite college — after which she was saddled with debt and with no job to be found. Evie learned to mingle with the rich and powerful at her schools, but she never quite fit in herself, coming from a lower income family in a small North Carolina town. And now she teaches the kids of the rich and powerful, but is stagnant herself. In Jae’s case, her parents were immigrants and her father fully embraced the idea that hard work would bring success. He pushed Jae hard, but she struggled as well, for different reasons. So these are two women with high expectations put upon them that were never quite realized, but that shaped them both.

Where I struggled somewhat here is that Evie has a very strong character voice and there is a lot of internal narrative. Sometimes, it leads to some interesting musings or themes that I think work well for the story. But other times, it just derails the action and can feel like too much. This is particularly the case as the story starts and we spend a lot of time setting things up and with Evie sharing random thoughts. From an editorial standpoint, I think the story would have worked better if we started with the action rather than so much narration, as it just weighs things down and I think some readers are going to struggle getting their footing with the story. This lessens as the book goes on and the action takes more center stage, but the narrative does continue throughout the book off and on. Just as an example for style, here is Evie thinking about some kids she used to help with essay writing:

Maybe they’d earned their cynicism. From a young age, kids today learn that their suffering — no matter how deeply felt, how inexpressible — must be externalized, made coherent and accessible to others. They are taught early that every gatekeeper to their success would demand them to unearth their private miseries and narrate them, over and over, until their value became realized. One they figured out how to make their suffering legible — even cosmetic, alluring, and profitable — it could become currency. Students rehearse this process before the have the tools or experience to develop any real working theory of self-value. We are all seventeen once. Hopefully. If we get there. Our identities patchworked together by meager tools in front of us and defend with our lives. Information pouring in from textbooks and teachers and Instagram, refracted through so many lenses it loses all structural integrity.

I just found it a strange juxtaposition to the thriller plot to then have these long passages of musings and analysis, often complex and drawn out. I do see how it fits Evie as a character in many ways, but it did often derail the main story a little for me. We also get a lot of exposition at the end to explain what is happening to both characters, rather than seeing the action itself. I think it helps explain to readers just what exactly transpired (though I did figure it out fairly early on, I didn’t have all the details), but it is, again, a lot of narrative.

I do want to be clear that this is not a traditional romance. Evie and Jae do fall for one another, but there is not a happy ending for them romantically. There isn’t really even a happy ending individually. I think the ending works (though some of the details take some suspension of disbelief), but be aware that this isn’t going to be a story about two women riding off into the sunset in love. I also think that these women are going to be polarizing, and they aren’t always that likable. Deitch does a really nice job grounding their actions in their characters, and even when I didn’t agree with their decisions, I could understand why these particular women would make them. But I didn’t always like them.

That said, I found this book works best as both a thriller, and as a fascinating character study of Evie in particular. I was really caught up in the story and eager to see how these women found their way out of their harrowing situation, if they even could. This is a story that may not work for everyone, but I found it engaging and I enjoyed it quite a lot.

I hate to say it but I think this book was simply not for me.

When the course of someone's entire life is thrown down the drain over one.. i don't know what that was.. "look"?

The decisions the main character made made ZERO sense to me. I don't want to get into spoiler territory, but from chapter three onward I was forcing myself to finish this book. Sometimes that happens to me and then the ending redeems it, but not in this case. I felt it was wholly unsatisfying. I often finish a book in 24-48 hours, and this one took me nearly a month because I would finish a different book, open killer potential, and ten pages later exit the app to go find something that kept my attention.

Due to the critical nature of this review I will not be sharing it online to "promote" the book. It would do the opposite i fear.

This book was such a wild ride! I was immediately hooked by the premise—two strangers on a cross-country trek, both with dark secrets and a trail of chaos behind them. The tension starts high and never lets up. I loved the way Dietch built the suspense. The writing style was sharp and fast-paced, which fit the story perfectly. It felt like watching a thriller unfold in real time.

What really stood out to me was how the characters evolved throughout the journey. You’re constantly questioning their motives, and just when you think you have one of them figured out, something new is revealed. That kept me fully invested. There’s a constant push and pull between trust and survival, and it made their dynamic feel real and dangerous.

If you like gritty thrillers with a high-stakes cat-and-mouse vibe, this one delivers. It had just enough twists to keep me surprised without feeling over the top. I’m still thinking about that ending. Definitely recommend!

I loved the idea of Killer Potential. A brilliant young woman that hasn’t reached her full potential is on the run with a stranger across the United States. Yes, please! But don’t give me more than 150 pages of it. Introspection moves the story along at a glacial pace for the first half of the book. Then the book goes deep into melodrama. The writing and especially the dialog, both internal and external, was believable. The actions of the main character? Not so much.

If you like introspective literary fiction, Killer Potential might be the perfect book for you. However, the initially slow pacing, and some of the sudden and inexplicable actions of the main character, makes this a 3 star read for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with an advanced review copy.

Despite the suspension of disbelief that is required to really enjoy this work, I find myself with many thoughts over why I *didn't* enjoy it. I will do my best to avoid spoilers, although there are some points of discussion in which they're unavoidable.

solid ground:
- It's fun. Yes, there's a murder, yes utter chaos ensues, the very serious, life-or-death kind. Still, it's hard to deny the appeal of a ride that is, in-text, referred to as "Bonnie and Clyde"-esque, except "Bonnie and Bonnie."
- It's relatable? There are a lot of concepts touched upon throughout, such as that of the American Dream, the clash between classes, the post-secondary education struggle, the modern-day millennial identity crisis— the list goes on and on.
- It's funny. This is different from "fun." I mean to say it made me laugh because of that aforementioned, required suspension of disbelief. The premise is kind of wild. You might get angry at the protagonist, for making decisions that definitely complicated their life far, FAR more than necessary... But I mean, that's what fiction is for, right? We read about adventures that are kind of inconceivable, but it's as much a form of escapism as it is entertainment.

shaky ground:
- The details. There's... A lot. Some might say "too much." There's a fine line between building a world and drowning the reader in it, and I think that the work could have benefited from cutting out certain instances of info dumping.
- Fetishism? The deuteragonist is a biracial woman who, at the start, is presented as being mute. Throughout the story, pieces of both her background and her wide-reaching skillset are revealed. I cannot help but draw a connection to the "model minority myth," how this character is the very manifestation of it. One of her core struggles is with the concept of "invisibility," how she questions her existence because she is unheard, unseen, so on and so forth. There is also a little bit of an "exoticism"-type undertone to her presentation— the mysterious way in which she appears, exists, and disappears. The apparent irresistibility from all those who do see her. I cannot say if this is intentional, but I will say that this framing can be very dangerous and regressive.
- The intrinsic link between crime and poverty. Related to above, part of the mysteries unraveling is tied to learning that the circumstances are a result of "desperation." I won't delve into it further; I think I've said enough to give an firm idea of what I'm getting at here.

I want to clarify that I did find Killer Potential to be enjoyable, or at the very least, very intriguing. The framework is there. I do, however, think that it could have been vastly improved upon by "another look," so to speak. More editing, perhaps some re-framing, the kinds of changes that would help to really manifest the "page-turning intensity" that it's advertised to have.

My thanks to the author (Hannah Deitch), the publisher (William Morrow), and NetGalley for providing the eARC through which I was able to read the work and write this review.

I went into this book pretty much blind, and I really enjoyed it. The story was gritty and real, but there was also a good amount of levity. I love Hannah’s writing style: eloquent, descriptive, and matter of fact. It’s perfect for this kind of story.

Our story starts with Evie telling us, “I was once a famous murderess.” She is an SAT tutor who was accused of brutally murdering her employers, but she didn’t do it. She made some less than ideal choices, but murder was not one of them. She and her unlikely companion – a woman she found tied up in the family’s home – journey across the US to attempt to find the real killer and clear their names.

This story has some great twists and turns that I never saw coming. It made me think: what would I do if I stumbled upon some murders and had to go on the run? Evie and the woman unavoidably trauma bond; they get to know each other and grow closer. The romance that develops between them happens rather quickly, but I think that’s to be expected given the situation.

I love the last two lines (which I won’t quote, because spoilers). The end was so right, so fitting, and yet I wish there was more. I want to know what happens after the end.


Thanks very much for this ARC!

I received this book as an ARC. All opinions are my own. This book was a ride! It was Thelma and Louise with a sadder ending. The story is about a woman named Evie who comes upon a murder scene of her employers. The crazy part is that she finds a woman tied up in one of the closets and decides to free her. She is accused of the murder and goes on a running spree with the stranger. The women go through a lot as well as learning about each others secrets. This book was very engaging although a bit wordy at times when trying to fill in the story. I ended up skimming the parts when it went into too much detail about their past because I was more invested on the present story. Still very enjoyable.

Highly detailed, and in a downward spiral, our main Evie character thinks she’s walking into her normal SAT tutor gig into a not normal situation. And perhaps a number one suspect. Suspend your logic and common sense in this one folks, cause you may pull something in this reach.

Described as a Thelma and Louise, Evie seemingly rescues a non verbal, mysterious woman who seems to understand a little bit more of what it means to be on the run. But Evie, determined to clear her own name, decided to find the killer herself; but not really plot wise. This is an escape plan story, the journey of the two, that needed a little more depth. The story itself dives more into the secrets of the rich, in particular of the Victors, and those on the outside looking in. I thought the classism take was interesting. Some things did feel drawn out- like the lack of giving information from the former captive, the woman, and Evie never seeming to ask or understand the right questions.

As a fast paced popcorn thriller, this could satisfy, especially for anyone who likes an eat the rich mentality. Things go wild, in sort of a kill or be killed plot. As I read this, I was really hoping the twist wouldn’t play out exactly as it was looking but, disappointingly, it did. The author did stretch it out in the ending though, almost felt like exploring obsession and giving more character to the darkness. I think this needed a slight second point of view to give more depth to the earlier parts of the plot.

Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch is full of adventure and mishaps as a SAT tutor for the children of wealthy families and a woman she rescued from one family’s house after arriving to find the parents brutally murdered are on the ultimate road trip fearing that they might be blamed for the deaths. Evie doesn’t even know the name of the woman she found bound in a secret cubby at the home but she’s determined to protect her while keeping herself safe. The pair travel all over the country trying to evade capture as they slowly reveal themselves to each other. This is a dark one. Read and enjoy!

What did I think?? Not as much as I wanted to. My thoughts in a nutshell - why did a scholarship student, Evie, with excellent grades and a shining future think that it was a good idea to run when she walked into a murder scene? If she had stepped outside and called 911 this would have been a very different story (and obviously not the thriller that was intended), even if she still saved the girl in the room under the stairs. This action made absolutely no sense to me, and solidified her being identified as a kiler on the run. And the longer she was running, the more of a killer she became. The story could have been about her as a victim, being coerced to run with Jae, the 'under the stairs girl'. The romance also did not make a lot of sense to me but, well, attraction is attraction and needs must, as 'they' say. We see unconditional love from Evie's mom, but I'd like to know more about Evie's parents. This is basically a good story and the characters are interesting but I feel like it could have been tighter all around.

This ARC was provided by NetGalley and the publisher, the opinions expressed herein are my own.

This was a wild ride, that I surely did not see coming in the end. It was kind of Thelma & Louise, but seriously for modern times. I still can't believe some of the things happened, but I do believe that sometimes people react in high stress situations that are unexplainable/unbelievable.

I love that the story, or the main thought for this - I should have been someone when I grow up, is inspired by the author herself. There are certain elements she used for this story, and it's great. I saw some negative reviews of the fact that who care - you should grow up already, and let me tell you, here at almost 40, im still not sure if I have my life figured out, and there are things I think I could have accomplished, but maybe I will still. Especially this new generation - we're not rushing our kids to grow up as fast as we were forced, so I can see this character as totally relatable, Sometimes the possibility of potential is crippling in its own way.

Anyways, I loved the twists, and how two characters intertwined in their journey not just while running from the cops, but similarities in their life, and how they ended up where they did. There's just so much to unpack and think about, how our journeys take a different path, by just one choice/accident/hapence.

I had to dock a star just because the ending left me questioning some things. And seriously, how can one stay on the run for so long? In this time and age? Not sure..

This would be a fun summer thriller. Or an audio to listen to on a road trip. Or discuss with a book club. Seriously, this is a good conversation starter.

When Evie arrives for her typical Sunday SAT tutoring gig with a wealthy family, she finds herself at a murder scene. Even worse, she hears a cry for help from the closet. When the family’s daughter and her boyfriend arrive home and assume they’re the murderers, the two go on the run until they can clear their names.

I loved the concept of this story but unfortunately didn’t find myself absorbed by it. This is a great read for anyone newer to thrillers or someone who isn’t going into the book with the skepticism of characters that a seasoned thriller reader has been conditioned to have.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC in exchange for a fair review.