Kill Your Darlings was a well written mystery. I have never read a book written in reverse and found it very difficult to get into.

3.5 stars

The concept of the reverse storytelling is great. However this book was a little slow for my taste (currently). I guess with mystery/thrillers I really want to be on the edge of my seat, so slow burn doesn’t work for me.
That being said, I do love how the story was weaved together and all came together in the end,

My first Peter Swanson book and sadly was not a fan. The conceit of the book is interesting; starting at the end of a relationship, the relationship gone sour after many years of shared secrets and ending murderously. The book unfolds like Memento, time traveling backwards to reveal what secrets our married couple Wendy and Thom share. However, the issue with starting with the dissolution of the marriage is that you care very little for the setup of the relationship. I know it's meant to peak your interest as to how the couple arrived at this moment but I genuinely never formed any connection to Thom or Wendy. I didn't particularly like either character nor did I care much about what happened to them. If I'm being generous I'd say Swanson's ability to form Thom and Wendy into complex characters is hindered by the plot. If I'm being ungenerous, I'd say a stronger author could have made these characters more three dimensional. I'd recommend skipping this book.

This book was kind of a slow burn. I like how the story was told in reverse. It jumped around quite a bit but it all came together in the end. Peter Swanson is a must read for me. This book did lot have all the shocking twists one comes to expect from him, but I always enjoy his storytelling.

This was an interesting slow-burn, reverse timeline about Wendy and Thom. Wendy wants to murder Thom and as you read the book you start to understand why. The main characters are unlikable on purpose which sometimes makes it hard for me to connect with them.

I hope it's marketed more as a domestic suspense instead of a thriller. I went into it expecting it to be a bit faster so I think my experience suffered. The writing is still solid and after I adjusted my expectations I really enjoyed it. The twist is decent and well worth the time spent getting there.

Thank you, NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC. The opinion in this review is my own.

I love Swanson’s earlier novels but I found this one, told in reverse, difficult to plod through. Early on I disliked the characters, Thom and Wendy, and their un-simple solution for ending a marriage….murder. So, found this hard to plod through.

There are many ways to tell a story in reverse, but Swanson failed to draw me in.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

Thanks Netgalley for the free ARC! I enjoyed this novel and found the reverse storytelling very intriguing. I loved the complex characters and their emotional insights. I thought the novel was very engaging and kept my interest throughout. I would recommend this novel and Peter Swanson’s other works as well… he’s a great writer!

This is a slow boi, but the reverse storytelling (and the last minute surprise) are more than worth the wait. Swanson is endlessly inventive and a treat to read.

I really enjoyed this as a murder-mystery, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed the concept. I was hooked from the first page and thought everything that I wanted from the description. I thought everything worked overall and hope to read more from Peter Swanson.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this uncorrected ebook ARC of 'Kill Your Darlings' by Peter Swanson - expected release date 06/10/2025

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

I've read a lot of Swanson's books and liked them, so I was really excited to receive this ARC. This was written differently than his past books, with a timeline going backwards from the present all the way back to when the two main characters, Wendy and Thom, met at the age of 14. I had a hard time staying invested in the story because it dragged on and on thru the middle. The last chapter was decent but the slow middle just didn't do the book any justice. Wendy and Thom were unlikeable and insufferable, I couldn't find anything to relate to or like about them. I was also confused how Swanson could just drop a quick chapter on a pregnancy and adoption right in the middle of the story and not give any more info about it. And the shocking name of the baby Wendy gave birth to...Was the Annabel given up for adoption the same Annabel that Thom currently works with and is crushing on? Did he know about the pregnancy/adoption? Also I didn't really understand why Wendy killed Thom's boss. I know he saw her coming out of a motel but she and Thom had an "understanding" so it didn't seem like that was the reason. Too many plot holes, too many questions.

Peter Swanson is a very prolific suspense author, and he knocks it out of the park with his newest release! I loved everything about this book!

Peter Swanson is one of my favorite writers, and I always get excited when he has a new one out. This one is quite different from his usual style. It tells the story backwards as it goes through years and decades of Wendy's and Thom's relationship. Very well written, and I had no problems following their story even though it was told in reverse, revealing some very dark secrets. I really enjoyed this one. Thank you, netgalley, for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really liked the the idea and premise of this one, but it just fell a little short for me. Thom and Wendy have been married for many years and they seem to have everything they want, but the secrets of their past are threatening to come to light. This was a psychological thriller that was literally written in reverse. We have to take the context of the previous chapters and apply it to the past that is unraveling, which was really interesting.

I think this was clever structure, it was definitely attention grabbing and I have to say that it helped with the character development going backwards. Each chapter helped us to figure out more and more about what makes the characters who they are. The ending, really put it all together. Overall, I think it was a good read, there were really slow parts, but it was a solid read.

Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow and Peter Swanson for the eARC of Kill Your Darlings in exchange for an honest review. Publication date for Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson is set for 10 Jun 2025.

As a big fan of Peter Swanson, Kill Your Darlings was an automatic yes for me, and it did not disappoint! This was a fast, engaging read that kept me hooked from start to finish. What I loved most about the book was its unique structure—starting at the end and working backward, with each chapter taking us further into the past. It was like unraveling a reverse timeline, and it added a fascinating layer to the storytelling.

At first, I wondered how the final chapter would tie everything together given this approach, but I should have known better than to doubt Swanson’s ability to deliver. The ending was satisfying and made the entire journey through the pages even more rewarding. If you enjoy clever, unconventional thrillers with a strong narrative voice, this one is a must-read!

3.5 stars - Kill Your Darlings follows Wendy and Thom throughout their lives and what leads Wendy to want to murder him. This book was very unique since the story is told backwards, starting with Wendy wanting to murder Thom and each chapter goes back in time to show the events that lead up to it. My brain had a hard time remembering that the story was being told in reverse.

This didn’t really feel much like a thriller to me, but more of a romance with thriller elements. The story was mainly focused on Wendy and Thom’s relationship. Not a bad read and I love Peter’s writing, but wasn’t the best I have read. Points for creativity though!

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson is an ambitious and bold attempt at cleverly structuring a psychological thriller in reverse. As we journey backward in this reverse storytelling format, we are challenged to piece together a marriage fraught with turmoil and bound by a chilling secret.

Thom and Wendy Graves have been married for over twenty-five years. They live in a beautiful Victorian on the north shore of Massachusetts. Wendy is a published poet and Thom teaches English literature at a nearby university. Their son, Jason, is all grown up. All is well…except that Wendy wants to murder her husband.

What happens next has everything to do with what happened before. The story of Wendy and Thom’s marriage is told in reverse, moving backward through time to witness key moments from the couple’s lives—their fiftieth birthday party, buying their home, Jason’s birth, the mysterious death of a work colleague—all painting a portrait of a marriage defined by a single terrible act they plotted together many years ago.

Eventually we learn the details of what Thom and Wendy did in their early twenties, a secret that has kept them bound together through the length of their marriage. But its power over them is fraying, and each of them begins to wonder if they would be better off making sure their spouse carries their secrets to the grave.

Peter Swanson is a true master of storytelling and many times has a bold way of telling said stories. The unique structure of Kill Your Darlings—a narrative told in reverse chronological order–is what will draw many readers in, but seems like a fun way of reading a story turns out to be a slow burn that I found difficult to sink into. The reverse storytelling technique is both intriguing and challenging; it demanded too much patience to fully appreciate how past events culminate into present tensions.

The storytelling structure is a clever way to hook the reader, that is for sure. And while telling the story in reverse is compelling, the ending doesn't quite fit with the journey we are on. Once we get to the conclusion, it felt less of a shocking moment and more of a substantiation of what we expect to happen. Additionally, at the heart of Kill Your Darlings is a character study of a marriage, which is as depressing as it sounds.

Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson has a compelling premise with a fun and unique story structure. Despite these things, the dark and atmospheric tale was a little hard to follow and didn't live up to my expectation (which could be my own fault). Swanson is one of my all-time favorite authors and this won't change–even if Kill Your Darlings just wasn't for me.

I'm just not being drug into the story.

I jumped at the chance to ARC read this book, I've not read Peter Swanson but I've heard great things about so many of his books. So I decided what better way to try him out than his new novel.

The story is confusing at first, but overall it just isn't pulling me in. I'm not finding myself wanting to flip the pages and continue reading. The chapters are very long which is a problem for my attention span.

I do plan to read some of his other work, this one just isn't it for me.

I don't know, this was a DNF pretty early on. I always rate books 3 stars when I don't finish them on NetGalley because who knows if I would have loved the ending. But holy crap the opening chapters were just so confusing for me. Jumbled, lots of inner dialogue, not engaging whatsoever. I oddly didn't like either character right off the bat, which is rare for me. I usually end up loving to hate or hating to love someone in thrillers, but both characters were annoying.

This didn't even feel like Peter's writing. I'll probably try again when it's out and maybe on audiobook. Huge bummer. This is his first book I DNF. I've loved all previous ones!

I found myself somewhat disappointed with this book, particularly with its conclusion. The narrative follows Thom and Wendy, tracing their lives in reverse from the age of 50 back to their initial meeting at the age of 14. While the story contains some intriguing twists and compelling moments, it also features sections that felt slow-paced. In comparison to Peter Swanson's other works, this one falls short, suggesting that although he is a skilled writer, this particular novel does not represent his best effort.

This book hooked my attention in the beginning but then started to lose me at the ending. I didn’t like how it started to go back in time. I feel like questions were left unanswered