This was a really good book! I loved how the story went backwards in time to help convey where all of these feelings really stemmed from. I think it was well written, very thrilling, with lots of twists and turns!!!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Really good but definitely had to pay attention. Kept reminding myself we were going in reverse. I love Peter Swanson, I’ll read anything of his and once again this didn’t disappoint. So unique! Thank you NetGalley for this Arc

Peter Swanson has done it again. He’s quickly become a must read for me, and this continues his streak. I love how he writes strong, cunning female characters and weak men. I also like how we get to witness the demise of this relationship. And that subtle twist ending!!!!!! I gasped!

3 stars.

The story of Thom and Wendy Groves is told in reverse. They’ve been married for twenty five years and live an erudite life in Massachusetts. They share Jason, their adult son and Wendy is a published poet while Thom teaches English literature at the local university. Oh, and Wendy wants to murder her husband.

Why? We go backward in time to find out and visit the couple’s important moments. A joint 50th birthday party, buying their home, Jason’s birth and then a singular event that results in thoughts of killing Thom.

“The happiest people are the ones who are able to forget their past. Don’t be sentimental about people.”

So, I get where Wendy is coming from. She’s a psychopath, sure, but I understand. Interesting book.

Kill Your Darlings is a twisted love story packed with supreme suspense and drama all unfolding in reverse, crafted superbly by Peter Swanson as one of a kind thriller.

What a diabolical story! Loved the change of pace with telling the story in reverse. I really enjoyed Wendy’s character arc and will read anything Swanson writes. 3.75 stars

I received a free eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I’m a sucker for a Peter Swanson mystery. I’d been saving this for a plane read, but it ended up being a snow day read instead. This time I did make damn sure it wasn’t secretly part of the continued dull adventures of Kimball and Kitner. And unless one of them made a cameo that I missed, I’m happy to say this is its own stand alone story.

I’m wavering between 3 and 4 stars for this one, because although I found it really entertaining and hard to put down, I can’t decide how much heavy lifting is being done just by the timeline shenanigans. Like…if this were a linear story, would it still be just as interesting? Or is the gimmick (the fact that it’s told in reverse) all there is? I’m not totally sure it’s worth it just for that reveal in the final line.

Our protagonists are a married couple - Thom and Wendy Graves. When we meet them, they’ve been together 25 years, and although they no longer seem particularly in love (or even to like each other that much), it’s hinted that there’s a Terrible Secret that binds them together, and it means that they're stuck with one another for good. The story progresses backwards through time, as we see Thom and Wendy’s relationship develop in reverse, and eventually the aforementioned Terrible Secret Which Binds Them. It’s nearly impossible to go into too much more detail without giving stuff away, but the story all felt very surface - like a treatment for a TV series rather than a fully fleshed out novel. Also both of these characters are kind of obnoxious. Wendy’s a bit of a sociopath (or at the very least seems to lack an empathy chip), and Thom is one of those annoying self-pitying sad sacks. I didn’t really feel much sympathy or empathy for either of them, and Swanson doesn’t do much to *build* any sympathy either. I can’t decide if that’s deliberate or if it’s just how he rolls. Like, there’s an opportunity to make us understand what Wendy went through with her first husband - what did she see in him in the first place, how did they get together? But we never get any of that. It’s almost like we’re just progressing from one death to another and any chapters that might have given us more character development got left in the cutting room…or were never written at all. But it’s an entertaining popcorn read, and that’s really all I’m looking for from this particular author!

Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC - Peter Swanson has become an auto-buy and definitely doesn't disappoint with this latest offering. I enjoyed his lyrical prose and flew through this in just two sittings. Fascinating and non-formulaic as usual.

Well holy cow! What did I just read? And I loved it! Another fabulous book by this talented author. I look forward to each new book and love them and I loved this one too. I’m still smiling over that ending which was so unexpected and so brilliant.

The characters were so well written, pretty sure I didn’t like any of them which made the story even more fun. This was just a pure enjoyment, “watch the craziness of people and truly hope it’s all fiction” kind of book.

I recommend this book to lovers of good psychological suspense, and those in need of a take me out of my life moment and let me see the craziness of someone else’s life. This is exactly that book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

The format of this book was unique in that it starts in the present and works its way to the past. It ends with how Thom and Wendy met and started a relationship as kids on a field trip to D.C.

Thom and Wendy have both been hiding a secret that has cemented their relationship for years. Wendy, is diabolical character and I wondered what lead her to be the way she is. As you go back in time you see the things that happened and how she became the person she is at the beginning of the book.

This is a slow burn but I was hoping for more at the ending.

3 stars - I am a huge fan of author Peter Swanson's & have read every one of his books, however, "Kill Your Darlings" was a miss for me. While I liked the plot device of reverse chronological order, I just expected MORE and I did not. connect with either of the main characters, Thom & Wendy, who are awful, and was just not invested in the big secret, either, which was a let-down. It's also rather a slow burn, and I struggled at times to keep reading, though it did have it's moments here & there. It's cool though, not every book is for every reader and I'll still be following the author and eagerly waiting for his next thriller. My thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the advance readers copy - I sincerely do appreciate the opportunity to review this title and author.

How did Wendy and Thom end up here? On the brink of falling apart. After everything they’ve been through? The two of them have kept a deep dark secret, for years, that has haunted Thom ever since. They say love conquers all, but I’m not so sure that’s the case here.

I have a love/hate with this book (mostly love). The story is told in reverse timeline order and it is actually incredible. I just wish I realized that’s what was happening sooner! It tells the story of how the couple first met, and how they would do anything to be together forever … but backwards. It’s wild to see how Swanson fits the pieces together for the reader. I could not get enough! DEFINITELY recommend this to anyone who enjoys his other work.

I’m enjoyed this cleverly written book by Peter Swanson! It starts with a major event and then works its way backwards in time to tell the full story of what led up to the event. I thought the ending might disappoint as I could tell from the table of contents that the current year is not revisited, but it did not disappoint!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I am a big fan of Peter Swanson book and was so excited to get such an early copy of Kill Your Darlings to read. To be honest, I had no idea what it was about and read it purely because it was written by Swanson.

This was a very different book from this author. The biggest thing was that it was written in reverse. We track the relationship of Wendy and Thom from 2023 back to 1982 when they first met at school. It did take a little to get used to but it was a very clever way to do it. We learn that their relationship has run its course and slowly find out why. This couple have a bond that is keeping them together, something that they did in their past.

I think this is going to have mixed reactions from readers. It wasn’t my favourite book by Swanson, but it was entertaining watching these 2 people that were very hard to like at all, live their lives in reverse. It does mean that the ending was somewhat less exciting than a usual thriller, but Swanson still had a shock for us there too. I did find a few things that I have questions about that were not resolved and I am trying to remember if I missed the signs.

Overall a fun and quite easy read. Publishes on June 10th. Thanks to William Morrow for my advanced copy on NetGalley to read

This was an interesting format to read, it literally back tracks the whole relationship from end to beginning, and I haven’t read something like that before. That being said, both main characters were annoying as fuck hahah. A lot of the book felt repetitive, which upon finishing it I can see was maybe on purpose. To demonstrate patterns repeating and all that jazz. But… still… meh. The last two pages did give me a chuckle though, I wasn’t expecting that. So I bumped it from 2 stars to 3 haha.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read an ARC of this! I believe it comes out in June, and I’d say it’s worth a read just for the unique format alone. But maybe don’t have high expectations for character development.

Kill Your Darlings is an usual read, kind of Inception meets James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice. Swanson takes the reader backwards in time, from 2023 (the end of Wendy and Thom Graves' marriage) to 1982 (when Wendy and Thom first met). In between are many secrets and betrayals, and lots and lots of bad behavior by both main characters.

Honestly, while I was super excited to read this book due to the novel format, I'm not entirely sure that it worked for me. There are a few small surprises throughout the story, but the big “secret” of Wendy and Thom's marriage isn't really a secret at all. You know what's going to happen from very early on, and I kept waiting for a big shocking twist that never came. Also, because of the format, this story doesn't have a climax in the traditional sense - most of the excitement is over and done with well before the end of the novel. There were a couple of clever details that made me go “ooh” (the one at the very end was particularly nice), but I'm not sure that they were enough to make the reverse timeline and it's lack of a substantial ending worth it.

This book is also the very definition of a slow burn. There's lots of repetition and nothing happens quickly. With a rare exception or two, you read about events for many, many chapters before (after?) they actually occur.

But, with that said, I didn't dislike this novel. It's entertaining enough and it managed to keep me reading. Wendy and Thom are awful people, but you can't help but wonder what they're going to do next (before? previously?). It's also kind of interesting how they go from “two young kids in super duper love” to whatever special kind of hell their relationship was at the end (beginning? This format is so hard to write about!). Wendy and Thom were convinced as young twenty-somethings that they were destined to be “special,” so how did things fall apart so spectacularly?

My rating: 3.45 stars, rounded down. This isn't my favorite of Swanson's novels and I don't think the unusual format does much to enhance the story (and in some parts actually hinders it), but overall it's an entertaining-ish read that'll make you wonder if your spouse is secretly planning to off you during your next weekend getaway.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review. Its expected publication date is June 10, 2025.

This was a very different style for Swanson and while it wasn’t my favorite by him, I’m always happy to try something new and different and it was an entertaining quick read.

You start the story in the present before going back through time to understand the relationship and history between Thom and Wendy until you arrive at their beginning and the event that first tied them together. It’s a creative idea and I liked the process of seeing them at the start (which is their ending) at their worst and going back to slowly see their relationship unravel piece by piece. Unfortunately even with seeing it from both of their perspectives, I still felt like we didn’t get much depth and character development, especially on Wendy and other side characters too such as her first husband and mom. There were actions from characters that didn’t really make sense, and some plot points that left me with questions or relied on major coincidences.

There was a lot of focus on Thom’s drinking and smoking or talking about how he should stop drinking and smoking. It became monotonous and repetitive very quickly with those aspects. This is also very description and internal thoughts heavy, which added to the slow pace.

I finished it in a few sittings and never lost interest, but the middle did drag a lot for me. I thought the majority of it was easy to predict, except for a twist or two which did surprise me. I’d recommend it if you like family dramas and want something a little different. Don’t go in expecting a fast paced thriller with lots of twists - instead sit back, relax and watch unlikable characters do bad things. 3.5⭐️ rounded up

Thanks William Morrow and NetGalley for the DRC!

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.