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.

I’m not really sure what to say about Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch. In theory, this story should be one that I like. Evie is an SAT tutor for rich kids in LA. One day she arrives to tutor one of her regulars and finds the parents brutally murdered. For what seems to be unclear and piss poor reasons, Evie goes on the run. I tried, for over a week, to care about this book. The main characters are obnoxious. The prose is pretentious. The story goes off on meandering side tales that are tedious and unnecessary. I didn’t read the whole book, so there could be redeeming qualities that I missed. I made it over 100 pages through it and was having a bad time, so I skipped through the rest. I fully read the last chapter. I don’t feel like I have lost anything by skipping this. I am done trying to force myself to read something I can’t find any interest in. I don’t have a star rating for it since it is a DNF. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me access to an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Publication date March 18th, 2025. This review will be found on Instagram, StoryGraph, and Goodreads indefinitely.

At first I found this book slow paced and the narrator just way too much in her head. But I persevered though all the endless personal anecdotes and very bad decisions and in the end found this an interesting and touching story that had a lot to say about the millennial generation and their discontent with the world.

Just another ordinary Sunday for Evie as she goes to her student’s rich house to tutor her for the SATs. Until she stumbles on one body, then another, and then a woman tied up in a closet looking half starved and bleeding. When her student walks in all hell breaks loose as Evie tries to explain that she’s not the killer. She tries to defend herself and the kidnapped woman from a distraught and scared young girl when…oops. Guess, she can’t say she’s not a killer anymore.

The cover by Elina Cohen is everything. It’s eye-catching and makes you think, “killer on the run”. It’s what made me want to read the book.

Hannah Deitch takes us on a wild ride! Literally across the country we go as the cops and the press decide Evie’s fate. One predicament after another as Evie flees and tries to figure out who really killed the Victors. I want to say so much, but I don’t want to give anything away either (chuckle).

I thoroughly enjoyed this suspense mystery. I read it in one sitting and it was awesome. I will confess that I guessed the killer, but that’s just because I’m a suspicious person and not anything the author did. EVERYONE is a suspect in my mind. I watch Lifetime movies (chuckle).

The book is written mainly from Evie’s point of view. At one point, we do get the voice of the killer but that is because they are talking to Evie. There were many times I wished I could hear her companion’s voice because seriously, Evie was tripping and she just seemed so calm, but look how Evie found her. I didn’t really form an opinion of the characters themselves, other than Mr. Victor (ick). Maybe it’s because of how the book starts, where you feel like you are in the beginning of the movie and it’s as if Evie just doesn’t give a shit that everyone is dead. It makes you not care about her either.

As for the kidnapped woman, I actually related to her nonverbal communication. I spend a lot of time alone and after a while you just stop talking. She has been through one experience after another and speaking just seems like too much…until she does. (I’m trying so hard not to give any part of the story away, but when she says how she ended up in the Victor house (damn).)

I don’t even know how to end the review because I don’t want to give anything away. I even tried to write the review by throwing in some red herrings (chuckle). Read the book. It’s road-trip crazy and you wonder: what would you do if you were in Evie’s shoes. Me? I’d try not to kill anymore people, but then I’m not Evie.

This was such an impressive debut novel! I was hooked pretty much right away and became totally invested in these characters. Evie and Jae gave off Thelma and Louise vibes, but with some romance thrown in. I was rooting so hard for Evie to have her name cleared, but she kept running into one mess after another. There were so many twists, and I didn't see the big one coming at all!

How did she go from SAT tutor to brutal killer?

It started off as just another Sunday for Evie Gordon, the day of the week when she went to the Victor family's Tudor style home in the Los Feliz hills to tutor 17 year old Serena (whose SAT scores needed lifting to get into the college of her dreams). On this particular day, however, the front door is wide open and no one responds to her greetings. She finds the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Victor dead outdoor near the pool, apparently murdered, and even as her instincts tell her to leave the property ASAP she stops when she hears a voice, the sound of a human being in pain begging for help. Evie traces the voice to a cupboard underneath the stairs and opens its door to find a woman, bound and bruised. She unties her but before the two women can escape they are spotted by newly arrived Serena, who assumes that at least one if not both of them is a threat and an altercation ensues. Serena is left (possibly dead) on the floor and Evie and her new companion Jae speed away in Evie's car (but not before being spotted by Serena's boyfriend). Evie is convinced that no one will ever believe in their innocence and the two begin a cross-country trek, hoping to find the real killers and clear their names while their notoriety ramps up. During their trek a complex relationship develops, and they do what they have to do to survive. Will they have a future and if so, what kind awaits them?
Killer Potential features the wry and biting voice of Evie, someone who excelled in school and was told so often that she was destined for greatness that she came to believe it, that if she just worked hard enough and took out the loans needed to attend an elite university, that success was sure to follow....only to find that life doesn't always work that way. She finds herself deep in debt and tutoring the children of wealthy LA families whom she resents more than a little; they live in beautiful homes, go to the right schools, and play at being counterculture kids knowing they will end up just like their parents....not the life for which she thought she was destined. There is more to Jae than Evie expects, skills that help them succeed in evading the authorities and secrets may end up becoming a wedge between them. The story is threaded with issues of class differences, the chasm between potential and outcome, and a voracious media that creates villains and invents backstories to ensnare their viewers regardless of how much (or how little) truth there is to the tales they tell. Evie and Jae are neither heroes nor villains but rather something that falls in between the two. The writing is sharp and the characters engaging, and while the pacing of the plot is at times inconsistent and the plausibility of the duo's antics in evading law enforcement is difficult to completely swallow Killer Potential is an interesting take on societal myths that will keep most readers easily engaged, Fans of authors like Emma Cline, Katy Hays and Gillian Flynn should give this novel with its hint of the Varsity Blue scandal a try; I am rating it at 3.5 ⭐️ rounded up to a 4. My thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me access to this debut from author Hannah Deitch in exchange for my honest review.

I really wanted to love this book. The premise is fantastic—Evie, a struggling SAT tutor, walks into a crime scene and suddenly finds herself on the run with a mysterious woman, Jae. The media turns her into some kind of class-war villain, and she’s forced to unravel the truth while dodging the authorities. Sounds amazing, right?

And in some ways, it is. The opening hooked me, and I was totally on board for the wild, high-stakes chase. But the further I got, the more I struggled. Evie makes one absolutely insane decision after another, to the point where it stopped feeling thrilling and just got frustrating. I also had a hard time buying into some of the plot twists—they require a lot of suspension of disbelief.

Then there’s Evie and Jae’s relationship. I liked the idea of it, but it also shifted the focus in a way that made the tone feel a little off. I wanted more of the murder mystery and less of the emotional entanglements that sometimes slowed everything down.

That said, the book is well-written, and I had to know how it all ended. I just wish the big reveal had hit harder—I saw it coming and was hoping for something more layered.

This was a fun, fast-paced read, but not one that totally stuck the landing for me. I liked it, but I wanted to love it.

My copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and William Morrow for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book has a great ending! I truly enjoyed it and highly recommend it! I loved the twists and suspense!

3.5 stars, rounded up. Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch presents an intriguing premise, following two unlikely fugitives—a tutor and a freed captive—on a cross-country escape. The narrative offers a blend of dark humor and suspense, drawing comparisons to "Thelma and Louise." However, I felt the plot lacked depth, and the character development was insufficient. While the story provides an engaging escape, it did no engage me as thoroughly as I thought it would.

While I really liked the premise of this book, and was excited to read it, it ended up being not what I had hoped it would be.

The book follows Evie Gordon, an SAT tutor that stumbles into a double murder scene, and looks guilty as hell when caught being there. She goes on the run with another person from the crime scene, and has to figure out who the real killer is before the police catch up with them.

Pros:
-interesting premise and a solid start to the book
-the characters were interesting and not what I expected them to be

Cons:
-there seemed to be a bit of an tone identity crisis to the book, where it just shifted too many times
-why did Evie just flee? It still seems like I had to suspend a lot of belief for this one
-the pacing was tricky, I found myself skimming a lot of pages just to get to some action
-the twist of the book didn’t feel like a real shocker, I thought we already knew that?
-it felt like the author didn’t know how to land the plane, and the end of the book felt disconnected and detached and unclear

Overall it just wasn’t for me, but I can definitely see lots of potential in this debut novel.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This was so fun! I knew I would like this because of the comps: The Guest by Emma Cline and My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, and as a former "gifted" child who felt really connected to the main character. It's one of those novels that starts off elevated and just continues skyrocketing from there.

Evie Gordon is paying off her student loan debt by tutoring the wealthy in LA. One day, she arrives at one of her lessons to find the parents of her tutee murdered and someone asking for help behind the walls.

From there, her life spirals out of control as she and the woman she rescued go on the lam because she is now suspected of the murders.
What unfolds is a Thelma and Louise-like road trip of crime, except if Thelma and Louise also ate each other out at night haha. I enjoyed this novel and didn't expect it to be a well-written blend of social commentary on wealth inequality, the justice system, and humor.

Killer Potential was such a gripping and suspenseful read! From the very first chapter, I was hooked by the eerie atmosphere and the sense of unease that built with every page. The main character’s struggle with their past added some emotional depth, which I appreciated.
The plot was well-paced, with plenty of twists and red herrings that kept me guessing. I especially loved how the author slowly revealed the backstory, making me question who I could trust. The writing was vivid, creating a tense and immersive setting that added to the book's chilling tone.
The only reason I’m giving it four stars instead of five is I figured out the twist.
Overall, Killer Potential was a thrilling, atmospheric read with plenty of suspense and surprises. I’d definitely recommend it to fans of psychological thrillers and twisty mysteries!

What a lot of fun! The writing is solid, with Deitch taking potshots at educational privilege, academic success, and trust. A great character study as well as mystery. The ending surprised me and is bound to be controversial.

a fast-paced thriller with crazy turns that i read in one sitting

killer potential follows evie gordon, a sat tutor who flees with a strange woman after she's spotted at the scene of a grisly murder. as evie and the woman's run grows crazier and crazier, the two of them start to get closer as they navigate the chaos of the world they're in.

this book is super fast-paced. from the start, we're dropped into this dizzying action, and i found myself holding on for the ride. the writing is short, crisp, and staccato, and there were times where i found the plot almost implausible. there were a lot of crazy turns in this icl like there was one big one where i was gagged as hell. i was sitting in my bathroom mouth dropped. nevertheless, i was deeply immersed in the world deitch had built. there's a lot of dark humor and commentary on social expectations. the relationship between the two women was romantic and captivating, and while it's a little rushed, i think being in their circumstance makes sense for the relationship to be so rushed.

the ending...pause i was so shocked. a funny, crisp, and smart thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. a killer debut and a great thriller to read.

thanks to netgalley and william morrow for the arc!

This is the best thriller I’ve read in a while. It begins with the main character walking in on the scene of a double murder. Flash forward an hour or so, and she’s on the run with a woman she doesn’t know and who isn’t speaking. The relationship between these two women is at the center of this book, with all the action of being cross country fugitives.

I did get a little bored with them being on the run by the midpoint of the book, and the events that got us into part three were welcome.

One caution to readers is that this book gets pretty dark, with some explicit violence on the page. The comparisons to Thelma and Louise are apt, but the overall mood is darker. Otherwise, this book is a thrilling ride.