I first read a Peter Swanson book about a decade ago and have been a fan ever since. Fair warning, KILL YOUR DARLINGS is more of a character driven novel than his typical thrillers. Thankfully, I can’t get enough of deliciously evil characters so this book was right up my alley.

Rather than give away too much of the plot, I’ll just say it revolves around a husband and wife. Now here’s the neat part, the author uses a reverse storytelling method. So you start off with a couple who have been married for years and then go back in time to key moments in their lives. Eventually you get to the beginning when they first met. Would I want to interact with these people in real life? Absolutely not, but reading about them was entertaining and their level of crazy made it a fun read.

I’d rank this book right in the middle of his novels. If you are new to the author, I suggest picking up THE KIND WORTH KILLING first, as the general consensus is that’s his best work and it’s one of my all time favorite thrillers.

I should probably accept that Peter Swanson and I aren’t a great fit. When I didn’t connect with last year’s book, I said I’m done. But then I was so intrigued by the premise. A “murder-mystery in reverse”?? That sounds like fun. Unfortunately the execution didn’t work for me. And was bored and decided to dnf.

I really enjoyed this. It’s a story told backwards, which is unusual, but was interesting to see the character development in reverse. It’s a sort of murder mystery, but what I found most intriguing about it was the relationship of the two main characters and how it changed with time and increasing familiarity. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This took me about 25 pages to get in to (I think that was a me problem) but once I was in, I was in. This was a short, quick read that can easily be devoured in one sitting. This was told in a unique way, backwards in time, starting in the present with Wendy wanting to kill her husband to the days of Wendy and Thom’s young romance at 14 years old. Throughout the story we experience their life defining moments and learn about the secret that binds them together forever.
Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC

I devoured this way too fast and that is my ONLY complaint about all of Peter Swanson’s novels!

This is a love story told in reverse. Wendy and Thom fell in love and entertained some wicked musings together. They visualized their future. They were special. They acted on their dark plans. Now, Wendy lives with no regrets. Thom is a tortured soul, drowning his remorse in alcohol, cigarettes, and infidelity. Thom likes to tell stories to anyone who will lend an ear. He needs to cleanse his soul because he is eternally haunted. Wendy has to keep a close eye on him, make sure he doesn’t say too much, reveal sordid details in his constantly inebriated state. Until she just can’t do it anymore. She can’t live in this psychedelic opposite universe from Thom; guilt warring with innocence. They used to be united, they were “twins”. And, equally important, Thom’s penitence is going to ruin them, even all these years later, she thinks. Wendy has a perfect plan except she hasn’t accounted for Thom holding secrets.

Like all of his books, this one is clever and captivating from beginning to end. As someone who reads an inordinate amount of thrillers, it is very hard to surprise me. But this author is so skillful, he always catches me off guard and I love it!

Thank you Netgalley, William Morrow, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. Publication date is June 10, 2025

3.5 rounded up. Solid! I really liked the format more than I expected to. At one point, I was wondering how it would possibly end in a satisfying way, but then there's one last little knife twist that really worked (I gasped!) Peter Swanson really likes to write a toxic couple like this and I also enjoy it (plus more poetry discussions!) especially as a take on how that kind of couple ages together and whether or not they can keep up that level of psychotic devotion. A perfect length!

This wasn't my favorite of Swansons. Now dont get me wrong, it isn't bad by any means but I just didn't feel as vested as I usually do. Parts felt a bit like it dragged on. I will most definitely pick up is next. Thank you @netgalley for my copy!

“Kill Your Darlings,” by Peter Swanson, William Morrow, 288 pages, June 10, 2025.

This is told in reverse from the end of Thom and Wendy Graves’ marriage in 2023 to 1982, when they met.

A seemingly perfect couple, Thom and Wendy live on the north shore of Massachusetts. Wendy is a published poet and Thom teaches English literature at New Essex State University. Their son, Jason, is an adult.

Wendy wants to kill Thom, but at first we don’t know why. Eventually we learn the details of what Thom and Wendy did in their early twenties, a secret that has kept them bound together through their marriage.

Since the reader learns the effect before the cause, it lessens the impact. There is an overabundance of seemingly monotonous detail. The characters aren’t developed well. I usually like Peter Swanson’s books, but this is a miss for me.

I rate it three out of five stars.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Kill Your Darlings is a murder story told in reverse chronological order. The reader meets Thom and Wendy Graves in 2023 and each chapter moves backwards in time until the book ends with their fateful meeting as teens in 1982. Along the way there are murders, affairs, and the secrets that eventually lead Wendy to kill her husband.

While the character study was competent enough, I don't think that this narrative gimmick really worked for me. Most of the exciting action happens early in the book, and by the time the reader reaches the origins of the story, everything feels like a foregone conclusion. I considered not finishing this one, but stuck it out to see what twist could have justified the narrative structure. Sadly, it was not worth sticking around for.

In a crowded market of domestic thrillers, Kill Your Darlings attempts to stand out from the rest with its unique structure. However, the story being told wasn't innovative enough for me to feel that this is worth recommending to other readers.

If you’ve ever looked at your partner mid-argument and thought, “You know what would fix this? A little light homicide,” this book gets it. "Kill Your Darlings" is what happens when marital resentment ages like milk and instead of therapy, someone grabs a pen and says, “Time to fictionalize the trauma, babe.”

We open on Wendy Graves calmly, rationally deciding she’s going to kill her husband. Not metaphorically. Not “he’s dead to me.” Actual, literal, “one more rewrite and I’m stabbing you with this pen” energy. She’s a poet. He’s a professor. They’ve been married for twenty-five years and have exactly zero emotional furniture left that isn’t scorched. Then Peter Swanson throws the whole thing in reverse and the wreckage unspools like a literary slow burn with blood on the margins.

Each chapter steps back in time, revealing the warped foundation this marriage was built on. You don’t just see how Wendy got here. You see how Thom got here too. The dual POVs turn what could’ve been a simple domestic thriller into a quiet war of memory and meaning. Wendy’s voice crackles — cold, calculated, furious in that “I gave you everything and now I’m going to take it all back” kind of way. But Thom isn’t just a walking caution sign. His narration reveals a man who’s self-involved and smug, sure, but also lonely, eroded, and terrified that his life amounts to a long trail of unfinished drafts and emotional debt.

And that is what makes this book twist the knife. You’re not watching a couple fall apart. You’re watching two people try to write over each other’s version of the same story — a marriage built from literary ambition, deeply buried grief, and exactly one ounce of shared hope that died somewhere around chapter five of their lives.

Wendy is the literary embodiment of a side-eye and a slow pour of wine. Thom is the kind of guy who once got praised for teaching “Lolita” sensitively and never recovered. Their dynamic is so loaded with contempt it could power a small city grid. But they’re also achingly human. Their anger isn’t just loud. It’s layered. It comes from years of shared betrayal, missed chances, and things neither of them will say out loud, at least not to each other.

The reverse structure is a flex, and mostly a successful one. Not every chapter lands perfectly, and some emotional beats echo a little too often. But there’s a low, buzzing dread running through the whole thing. The kind of ache you only get from watching people slowly convince themselves they’re still in love while secretly plotting each other’s narrative demise.

As for the twists? One walks in wearing a name tag. The other sneaks up behind you and pulls the rug out just as the lights flicker. Are they jaw-dropping? Not always. But they’re well-earned. They deepen the hurt instead of cheapening it, especially that final reveal, which doesn’t explode so much as sink. It doesn’t answer every question, and it’s not meant to. Some endings aren’t resolutions. They’re reckoning.

Three stars. Not because it didn’t work, but because it worked just enough to leave you raw, unsettled, and weirdly nostalgic for a love story that probably should’ve ended fifteen years earlier. I don’t regret reading it. But I do need to Google “how to emotionally unwind from fictional marital collapse.”

Whodunity Award: For Making Me Rethink Every Quiet Married Couple I Know

Big thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC and for giving me front-row seats to a literary murder-suicide disguised as a marriage in crisis.

Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson
#fiftyfifthbookof2025 #arc #killyourdarlings #storyinreverse

CW: alcohol abuse, murder, death, the Exorcist stairs, adultery

From Netgalley: 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.

My thoughts: I really loved this book! I enjoyed the writing story, the writing style, and especially the reverse timeline. I appreciated as the book went on and the couple’s story filled in as the timeline got earlier and earlier. I gasped at the last few paragraphs as it gives a different meaning to something very early in the book. I am now dying to read more from this author.

Thank you to @williammorrowbooks and @netgalley for the advance copy. (pub date 6/10/25)

A unique and not very often used concept of telling this story in reverse was a fun way to start, but overall, it didn't work for me. At the beginning we pretty much know how it's going to "end" because we read the ending first, and then we read in a reverse timeline. We watch as the relationship between Thom and Wendy slowly frayed from a life together but that hinged on an event in their early years together. Not a lot of intrigue IMHO. At first it gave me vibes of Wrong Time, Wrong Place, but ended up (or started up) differently.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the gifted e-ARC of this book.

Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson is a domestic drama/thriller mixed with a murder mystery that explores the demise of a marriage.

Wendy and Thom Graves met in middle school and have been married for over 25 years. To the casual observer, they seem to have an enviable life. Both have stable careers, they live in a gorgeous Victorian house on the north shore of Massachusetts and they have an adult son who is out on his own. All in all a perfect couple... except Wendy wants Thom dead.

This novel has an original concept in that to understand how things have come to be, you have to go back to the beginning. Told in reverse, we get a look into the Graves' marriage, their shared birthday parties, buying that beautiful Victorian house, Jason's birth and the death of a work colleague. As the story continues, we learn the secret that has tied Wendy and Thom together. This was my first experience with this author so I had no idea what to expect and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised!! Full of rich character development and sharp dialogue, I really enjoyed this unique take on the thriller/mystery. Even though the big event is in the beginning, Swanson still manages to throw some curve balls in that twist the story on its head. Overall a solid read that I would recommend to anyone wanting to read something a bit different!!

Thank you to NetGalley, Peter Swanson, and William Morrow for this ARC!! Publication date: June 10th 2025.

The approach of telling the story in reverse was interesting, but it ultimately didn’t work in this case, resulting in a somewhat drawn-out read. Wendy was portrayed as manipulative and generally unlikable and Thom seemed weak, which made me feel sympathy for him throughout. The ending was not what I anticipated and fell short.
Overall, this marks the first time a Swanson novel has let me down.
Thank you to the publisher/author for the opportunity to read this complimentary advanced copy. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

3.5 stars rounded up. I really enjoyed the concept of the story in reverse. It makes those last couple of lines just perfect. I definitely feel like the reader gets to know Wendy a little bit better than Thom as the book progresses. She's definitely had an interesting life. This is a mystery wrapped in the story of a demise of a marriage.

"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."

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Is thinking about ending your husband’s life normal? Wendy isn’t quite sure—and honestly, she might not even care.

Her husband, Thom, has been drinking too much and sharing far too many secrets. Guilt has been eating at him for years, and now that they have a grown son and a beautiful mansion by the ocean, Thom seems unable to enjoy any of it. He’s stuck in the past, waiting to be punished. Wendy, on the other hand, is ready to enjoy the life they’ve built—if only he would let her.

This story had a great setup and I was intrigued by the confessional style and morally gray characters. But the slower pace and repetitive format made it hard to stay engaged. The ending didn’t quite land for me either. I didn’t hate it—but it’s not one I’d recommend.

Thank you to Peter Swanson, William Morrow Books, and NetGalley for the ARC!

I loved how this book gradually peeled back the layers of deception and betrayal, making each reveal even more gripping. Overall, a twisty and unsettling read that keeps you hooked.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Kill Your Darlings
Author: Peter Swanson
Source: NetGalley
Publication Date: June 10, 2025

One thing is sure about Peter Swanson: he is never dull. Kill You Darlings is an unusual story about a married couple, Thom and Wendy Graves, who have been married for over 25 years after first meeting in middle school. In addition to the above, they celebrate the same birthday. Both are highly educated individuals who suffered life-altering trauma when they were younger. They grow up to be selfish, entitled sociopaths and murderers.
But most importantly, this book is told in reverse chronological order. In other words, you will know the end at the beginning. However, don’t read the last chapter. There is a surprise. Two reprehensible people who bring misery wherever they go. What’s not to like?

#KillYourDarlings @petermswanson @Netgalley @williammorrowbooks #murder #money #lust #thriller #mystery #adultery #literaryFiction #fiction #OldMovies #misery #alcoholism

I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Thank you to the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the opportunity to read this novel.

More domestic drama than murder mystery, this novel explores the history of a marriage.

Thom and Wendy have been married for over 25 years. He's a professor of English Literature and they have a grown son. Money is not an issue, they've plenty of that, and to casual observes, they seem like a close, loving couple. Except Wendy is done. She wants Thom gone. And the only way to make this happen is for her to murder him.

The narrative is told in reverse, taking the reader backward though their lives and the different stages of their relationship. Everything hinged on something they did together back when they were in their early twenties and that secret has bound them together.

So why does Wendy want to kill him now?

I've long been a huge fan of this author and his twisty mystery thrillers so I expected a lot. For some reason this just didn't seem like the same writer as this story wasn't really very exciting or thrilling. I didn't care for either Thom or Wendy and honestly their lives seemed so boring as it seemed all Thom did was get drunk and act stupid. Neither had any direction or drive. Definitely both extremely self centered. I tried to get more invested, but ultimately I really didn't like it. Was there a bit of a surprise at the ending? Why, yes, there was, but it wasn't enough.

I was able to listen to the audio book while also following along in the e-book, both provided by the publishers. The narrator, Steven Weber, is one of my favorites and he did an awesome job of finding just the right tone and voice for the characters. His dramatic flair made the characters some alive and definitely the production enhanced my enjoyment of the book.

First I would like to thank NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC of this novel.

I loved The Kind Worth Killing series so I had high hopes for this novel. It was such an interesting premise. Starting at the end of the story (a women who wants to kill her husband) and working backwards to tell there story and how they got to that moment.

I thought the story and the concept was done well and the ending of the book was great. I didn’t find it much of a thriller because we knew what was going to happen but the twist at the end really tied the beginning and end of the book up nicely.

I will say there were times in the book I wish something more would happen. We knew so much from the backwards telling of the story and so I felt the story got a little repetitive at times. I also found the two main characters a little boring at times and one dimensional.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and felt it was a fun change. And the ending…fantastic.

3.75/5 stars rounded up to 4 for this review.