⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (3.5 stars)
**Intriguing but Inconsistent**

*Killer Potential* by Hanna Deitch is a suspenseful read with a strong premise and plenty of psychological tension. The exploration of morality and what drives someone to the edge is fascinating, and Deitch does a great job building suspense. However, the pacing can be uneven, and some character decisions feel a bit forced. While the twists are engaging, a few are predictable, making the story slightly less impactful. That said, it’s an enjoyable read for fans of psychological thrillers who don’t mind a few rough edges along the way.

Killer Potential
by Hannah Deitch
Pub Date: Mar 18 2025

"Killer Potential" starts out with a murder, Evie a SAT tutor stumbles upon accidentally, and fears she'll be charged for. As she moves to flee the scene, she discovers another tragedy-a woman in a dark room, kept prisoner. The two flee together, and the novel turns into a roadtrip across the country, both desperate to evade the police until the real killer is discovered. If you were a fan of Thelma and Louise you will love this book!

An unusual story with lots of action scenes, surprises and ending I did not see coming. A funny Thelma and Louise love story!

Many thanks to #KillerPotential #NetGalley and #WilliamMorrow for providing me with an E-ARC of this book.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the way the author used two unreliable narratives to tell the story. The beginning had me thinking she was a serial killer just like the American public in the book. The snap judgements from quick news and press. The journey both characters take is crazy filled with lots of self discovery while trying to remain hidden. Hannah Deitch does a great job with descriptions and the characters thought processes. I really enjoyed this quick and enthralling read. Thanks to netgalley for the arc.

I loved this book! As a lover of true crime, I was hooked and wanted it to end to have all the loose ends tied up while simultaneously wanting it to slow down so I could savor the read. I didn't see the ending coming and pulled for Evie every step of the way. The character development, the storyline and the chase left me wanting more. Highly recommend and look forward to future books from this author!

Thank you to #NetGalley #WilliamMorrow and #HannahDeitch for an ARC!
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A lesbian Thelma and Louise story. SAT tutor Evie Gordon goes on the run after finding the bodies of her employers strewn across their immaculate yard. In self-defense, she throws a lamp at her student, thinking she's killed her. She escapes with a woman she found bound under a hidden closet under the stairs of the house. The woman won't speak to Evie so it's up to her to find the real culprit and clear her name.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Willam Morrow for this digital e-arc.*

This was such a fun thriller! I'm sure avid readers of thrillers won't be surprised by the twist but since I'm newer to the genre I enjoyed it. I was at the edge of my seat waiting to figure out what would happen next. I really enjoyed the conversations about how society responds to women who commit crimes. I was also interested in the way narratives are created for us and affect how we are viewed regardless of how accurate they are. I will say this book felt like it bit off more than it could chew with the philosophical elements. I enjoyed the thought experiments but I wanted some conclusion about the questions that kept getting brought up but we never really got that. Overall the story was a bit unresolved for me. The characters are very morally gray which I loved. We didn't get a lot of closure in the ending though. The story ends in an open way and I wanted more of a definitive resolution. The plot still kept me engaged and I really enjoyed the twists and turns the story took. If you love stories about characters on the run trying to clear their name then this is a great thriller for you.

Hannah Deitch's "Killer Potential" is an electrifying novel that deftly combines suspense, dark humor, and sharp social commentary.

The protagonist, Evie Gordon, is a scholarship student with immense promise, who ventures into morally ambiguous territory. The plot is gripping from the start, with each chapter drawing readers deeper into Evie's high-stakes journey—a journey that explores ambition, identity, and the unseen costs of societal pressure. Deitch keeps the intrigue alive with a seamless interplay between crime elements and biting satire, creating a narrative that is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining.

One of the novel's strongest features is its exceptional characterization. Evie emerges as a richly layered protagonist, grappling with choices that are as complex as they are compelling. Her internal struggles are vividly portrayed, making her both relatable and deeply engaging. The supporting cast further enriches the story, each character contributing to its multifaceted exploration of morality and ambition. These relationships provide additional depth, creating a dynamic interplay that mirrors the broader societal issues the novel examines.

The pacing is masterful, maintaining a brisk yet deliberate rhythm that keeps readers hooked without sacrificing depth or nuance. Deitch’s writing shines with sharp wit and evocative detail, blending moments of dark humor with incisive commentary on the structures that shape modern life. "Killer Potential" is an exhilarating read and a profound reflection on the complexities of human ambition. Deitch’s original and compelling storytelling mark this novel as a standout in contemporary fiction.

This is shift from my normal fare, but it sounded interesting enough I picked it up. Unfortunately, it was a bit of slog through read. It took me about 100 pages to get used to some of the odd phrasing the author used, but it never really bothered me, just felt choppy and too try-hard for my liking.

My other issue was the characters. Evie was a really dumb smart person. Regardless of how Jae reacted, if anyone was in the same situation they’d get away from the house and call the police or stop immediately and call the police. Not run off on a country-wide road trip with a woman you found tied up in a house. It just made no sense to me.

The twist was solid, but I’d figured it out within the first 100 pages. I was glad to be right, but the post-twist was just kind of middling. Not much happened, but a lot of time passed.

This had potential but ultimately fell very flat. What was the point? At the very beginning, had the character just left and called the cops. story over. This was not the least bit plausible. Also, how does the character fall in love with her partner in crime after two weeks when they don't speak for 13 of the 14 days?

Talk about wrong place wrong time! This was an exciting twisty story! I was captivated and stayed interested through the entire story. I’ve never heard of Hannah Deitch before now but I will be on the lookout for more!

Evie walks into the open front door of her SAT tutoring client’s home to find two dead bodies and one woman tied up in a closet. In the moments that follow, suspicion turns onto her, and a series of bad decisions sends her on the run with the woman she rescued from the closet.

What I liked most about this was the perspective - we have a protagonist who is also a villain, a hero who is also a victim. Evie starts out trying to do the right thing and ends up making a lot of bad decisions. We’re on the run with her, not back in California watching the fallout from the murders. We get that part of the story only when Evie sees it in the news.

At times the prose was meandering, often just sounding like it was trying to be quotable rather than actually saying anything. There was some suspension of disbelief required on the part of the reader, but that is always the case with these books and if you’re complaining about that you’re reading the wrong genre. I enjoyed seeing the story play out from a different perspective, so I would recommend this one to switch it up.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy, in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a wild ride following a woman in a serious case of alleged wrong place wrong time. I was immediately gripped by the story and even though it’s literary in writing it still felt very fast paced. It was a nice blend of mystery/crime plot and literary writing. Evie was an interesting MC that felt fully realized, flaws and all. The twist caught me by surprise as well, which is always appreciated in a mystery.

Okay this one had me hooked from the get-go!! Our FMC is an SAT tutor who finds herself on the run after she discovers the bodies of her student’s parents. 👀

While the big twist was a bit predictable, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book!! Highly recommend! 👏

Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Hannah Deitch for the opportunity to read the eARC in exchange for my honest review! ❤️

Thanks to netgalley and William Morrow for an eARC of this book. A thriller that follows two women as they try to get away from an unexpected situation. Evie Gordon is an SAT tutor for the elite of Los Angeles, she comes to her tutee's home one day to find the parents dead and a woman bound and crying for help in the closet. Her tutee shows up and forced to defend herself, Evie accidentally harms her and is forced to flee with this mysterious woman. To make matters more complicated, the bound woman who Evie rescued refuses to speak. As they trek across the US as fugitives, they slowly learn more about each other...

There were many things about this one, including several plot-relevant things, that you just have to completely suspend your disbelief for. I can't count the number of times when something absurd happened and I couldn't help but wonder why Evie made the initial choice she did (the first of many of her dumb and unexplainable decisions). While the work did start off decently, it quickly shifted from a mystery with an intriguing premise to a forced romance with a weak ending.

The romance...why? The characters weren't strong, and the time that should have been given to making them strong with depth was instead focused on forcing them to fall for each other. Having two bland characters that almost felt like placeholders be the focus of a romance is not engaging. And then the ending. We're given the reveal to the mystery, which wasn't a surprise because it was really the only direction it could have gone in, but then there are still about 50 pages of exposition-heavy writing left to get to the end of the book. And I'm not going to get too much into it, but the author's writing style ranged from metaphors that are supposed to sound poetic but make zero sense to feeling like word vomit that just never paused.

I'm an outlier on this one but there was just nothing that worked for me. My thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me to read this work, which will be published March 18, 2025. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this, but I liked what it was. I will say, some points were a little lacking. For example, I liked that Jae and Evie were on the run together, but it never made sense to me why Evie would run to begin with. Why run when you're innocent? Why not get the police involved? Why not attempt to contact your parents at all? Overall, I really liked the story, and I recommend this as a good read. I think it's a strong debut.

Thank you SO much to William Morrow for this eARC! This was a genre switch up for me, I've never really dived into a thriller/murder story at this level before and I was GRIPPED the whole entire time. From the second Evie stepped into that house I was pulled right along for the ride. The enigma that is Jae was fascinating. They are both killers, they are dangerous, they are made what they are afraid of being labeled and I was so so into it. And of course they fell into one another along the way. I am going to pass this book around to everyone that will listen to me it was A RIDE that I need some more people to take so we can scream about it together.

A girl on the run for fear of being blamed for being the first to find her employers brutally murdered. Not just that. She finds a woman in bad shape tied up under the stairs. If only her flight impulse kicked in instead of untying the woman she would have been able to call the police and put it all behind her. Instead the chain of events led to them fleeing the scene and driving cross country to hide. I almost gave up about halfway through after my feelings of disbelief over how they could continue to hide. Maybe there’s truth here that most people aren’t actually paying close attention to people’s faces on the news. Overall the ending wrapped up the loose ends and I’m giving it a 2.5 rounded up to 3.

Killer Potential is an ambitious debut that blends literary fiction with a queer thriller, tackling themes of privilege, societal expectations, and survival. While it has its strengths—sharp humor, an engaging premise, and some insightful commentary—it doesn’t fully deliver on its potential.

Evie, the protagonist, is a disillusioned former honors student grappling with a future that doesn’t match the promise of her past. When she finds herself entangled in a murder she didn’t commit, she goes on the run with Jae, a mysterious and undeniably charismatic woman. Their dynamic has all the makings of a compelling Bonnie-and-Clyde-style romance, but the execution feels rushed. The novel tells us the dynamic, but it rarely shows us why, making their relationship feel underdeveloped.

The thriller elements start strong, but the plot relies on some questionable decisions that make it hard to stay fully invested. Evie’s choices, in particular, sometimes feel frustratingly irrational—especially given her supposedly sharp intellect. Additionally, while the novel tries to weave in social commentary about academia, privilege, and economic struggles, these themes often feel surface-level rather than deeply explored.

Deitch’s prose is witty but occasionally leans too hard into overworked metaphors that sound poetic without actually meaning much. It just left me wishing there had been more time to develop the relationships and themes it set out to explore. Find this on shelves March 18!

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the complimentary eARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thank you William Morrow and LibroFM for review copies
Hannah Deitch’s debut novel is an engaging, fast-paced read with a compelling "sapphic Thelma & Louise" energy, sharp writing, and a gripping twist. Evie’s flawed, self-aware character makes for an intriguing protagonist, and the road-trip atmosphere is well executed. However, the novel falters in its emotional depth, particularly in the relationship between Evie and Jae, which feels underdeveloped. The twist, while intriguing, leans on a trope that raises concerns about where the plot/goals of the story were going, and the ending feels rushed and unresolved. Despite these flaws, Deitch’s strong writing and thematic ambition suggest great potential, even if this wasn’t a full-fledged love-it read.