𝑭𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝑲𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝑪𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔 ✨😝💃:
💜you need this stunning cover on your shelves
💜perfect read for the summer
💜you can binge this book in one sitting, it’s a page turner and perfectly paced 💃and it’s under 300 pages!
💜it’s creepy and twisty YA thriller
💜two timelines past and present help to unfold mystery in more intriguing way.

The line in the description about Nan being the person who murdered her three best friends immediately grabbed my attention. I devoured this novel in two sittings.

When murder victim Luce reappears at the memorial service for the three girls a year after their deaths, Nan is shocked. Is Luce an imposter? If not, where has she been for the past year? Does she remember what Nan did to her? The chapters alternate between the present and past events leading up to the murders. As I got farther into the story, I questioned if Nan was an unreliable narrator. She genuinely believes she killed Luce, but things weren't adding up for me. The story is written in first person, and being in Nan's head is unsettling and disturbing at times - not surprising since she feels her actions were justified. For me, that added to the intrigue. She loved "her girls", so I was anxious to learn what led to their murders. I had most of the ending figured out, but the author tossed in an extra twist I hadn't predicted.

This is a quick, captivating read, and pacing is brisk for the most part. Recommended for fans of unreliable narrators, dark, psychological thrillers, and small town murders.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

4 stars

Not me still being haunted by Wilder Girls yet still requesting Rory Power books because I just feel like maybe one of her books will click for me…and this one might have been it?

It was quick, and kept you engaged. I do feel like the ending (it’s always the endings for me, Rory) wasn’t fully fleshed out and could have been stronger, but the meat of this story and its premise and twist really were good. Plus I’m a SUCKER for anything set in the great outdoors/National Parks.

Also, that dedication? *chef’s kiss* 🤫

first off the cover is what FIRST grabbed my attention, then the synopsis... killing your three best friends. I mean what has to happen for you to do that??

I mean she kills her three best friends, only for one to be located... even though she should be dead... & this is where it starts to become interesting. These three girls aren't the only ones who have gone missing.. which adds more to the story. so many secrets and lies. but honestly I found you could tell where the story was going very early on which made it not quite as enjoyable. It says "twisty" in the synopsis but fell short of that, which is why I rated at 3 stars.

Kill Creatures is a page turner.
I always know I'll have a good time with a new Rory Power's book and this was no exception.

3.75 ⭐
Kill Creatures kept me on the edge of my seat, flipping pages, all the way to the end. Rory Power was able to make me sympathize with the villain, to the point where I almost wish the ending would have been different. Great fun, fast read!

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Children's, Delacorte Press, and Rory Power for the opportunity to read Kill Creatures in exchange for an honest review.

Not a spoiler, as it's on the back of the book and in Chapter 2, but this quote is the real draw into the plot of Kill Creatures: "Luce is dead. The girls are all dead. And I should know, because I'm the one who killed them." The story follows Nan, who killed three of her friends, but of course, she planned it so no bodies would be found. On the one-year anniversary of their disappearance, with many still having hope in their hearts for the search, at a ceremony for the three missing girls, a body appears in the water. Not just a body, but Luce, one of the missing girls that Nan murdered. But she is alive, and mostly well! How can that be?

Nan must protect herself from the law, and the townspeople of Saltcedar, as no one can find out the truth. Luckily, Luce has amnesia, but she seems to be playing at her own little game when it comes to Nan. When asked to join Luce and the head officer on the path they took in the canyon, at the Devil's Eye where a vortex in the water pulls people under, never to return, alarming truths make themselves known.

In a tale told from Nan's perspective, the reader gets the happenings in the "now," as well as snippets from "then," showing the friendships and motives between Nan, Luce, Jane, and Edie. In an analysis of the title, Nan shared when she "looked at Luce's body and I called us what we were--kill creatures, born for exactly this," exploring the kind of animalistic anger that can take over our minds and change who and what we are based on how people treat us. Is the novel highlighting that all people have a "kill creature" within them, or can become something as such? I'll let you decide.

Rory Power's writing style is always fun and immersive, offering an enthralling and engaging read. I have thoroughly enjoyed her other young adult novels, including Wilder Girls and Burn Our Bodies Down. She has an excellent craft and a unique way of making her stories mysterious and thrilling at the same time, all while maintaining a more solitary setting and limited characters.

If you like a good murder mystery (yes, we start of knowing who did it, but not why), engaging writing, and the thrill of reading from the fearful guilty murderer's perspective, then this novel is for you!

Rory Power has been one of my all time favorite authors since i picked up Wilder Girls the week it was released and this one definitely did not disappoint. This was an interesting and unique premise that was excellently executed. The whole time I was reading Kill Creatures I was on the edge of my seat unable to put it down and can’t wait for my friends to read it so we can’t talk about everything.

Lush, suspenseful, creepy—I think Rory Power does exactly what she sets out to do in this one. Some Rory Power books hit harder than others, but she really seems to be a master of tightly-written teen suspense. This one I devoured.

Really well done audiobook performance. I enjoyed this story but found myself let down by the ending. This will be a one-sitting read for lots of readers; but while it's definitely propulsive, I think it's actually quite predictable. I was surprised given Power's previous work.

Still, this keeps Power with their finger on the pulse. They know what readers want, and I have no doubt I'll keep coming back for more.

This is one of those books where the first thing I thought upon finishing was “WTF did I just read? I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t have any idea of where this was going lol And the more that was solved, the more I knew I had to read Power’s backlist lol

OK so without me giving anything away, let me just say, DON’T TRUST ANYONE. Literally everyone is lying lol The mystery in this one was crazy. Suddenly her friend showed up again back in town after a year. And after she’s been killed. But the kicker is, Nan knew something was off because she’s the one who originally killed them .

The mystery or thriller was not exactly scary tho, And I think it was because of how it was written. They tell you immediately what she did and the way things continue to happen makes you only think of the one person who showed back up again. It didn’t start getting good again until it was like about to be over when all the secrets start coming out. But that ish always annoys me. Why do that when you’re about to end the book? Because that’s literally what happened. It was a bit annoying.

I just wish this had MORE. More creep factor because people were talking about scary this was and I thought it was something wrong with me. I thought I missed something lol I also thought there should have been more about the other characters? She was so well developed, but no one else was. And like more red herrings. This one hardly had any, but it was because we knew everything before the end, I caught every thing before the book told me and that was annoying.

This one was fun, but not what I was expecting. i thought this one was going to have me calling my momma and telling her it was incredible, Unfortunately it was not that and I am so disappointed. Apparently this author is so good that they’re people’s favorites, so I feel a little bad. Hopefully this is the only misstep for me and I’ll like the others more.

Last summer, Luce, Edie, Jane, and Nan took a boat out for one final swim in the river. Nan was the only one to return from the trip, and for a year, she continually told the others that they had gone ahead, and she lost track of them. This summer at their memorial, Luce climbs out of the water. The entire town of Saltcedar is shocked, but Nan most of all. Because she had killed Luce as well as Edie and Jane.

The entire book is a trip. There are chapters in the current timeline as well as leading up to the summer before the girls went out together. Nan had kept a control over the narrative, her parents emotionally supporting her even when she kept secrets from them. Her memories waver when Luce arrives, when the new sheriff begins to search for Edie and Jane. We learn about the relationships between the girls, with the adults in their lives, and see the cracks where Nan deliberately chose to keep to the narrative in her mind. It rapidly comes together at the end, and it's a twisty one. It is a tight, claustrophobic story with messy emotions and needs, all the way to the very end.

This book hooked me from the beginning! Edge of my seat the whole way! Humans are creatures that I just don't understand sometimes! I would highly recommend this book!

5 star

This one had me on the edge of my seat. I needed to find out what happened. It's dark, weird, and unsettling in the best sort of way. That final twist I did not see coming. A pretty perfect YA thriller.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy to form opinions from.

A missing Utah teen resurfaces to the surprise of her murderer. It’s been a year since Nan Carver’s best friends—Edie, Jane, and Luce—vanished during a moonlit trip into Saltcedar Canyon. Nan, who claims to have murdered her three best friends. As I gradually learn what happened a year ago in a series of flashbacks, I watch Nan deal with everything that is thrown at her and can only wonder at her detachment from reality. Nan knows the truth; though she told everyone she stayed with the boat while the girls went hiking, she actually accompanied them to a secret, fathomless swimming hole, where she bashed in Luce’s head before drowning Jane and Edie. Nan is attending a lakeside vigil on the anniversary of the alleged disappearance when boaters find Luce floating in the water, alive but with no recollection of what happened or where she’s been. A panicked Nan struggles to appear supportive of Luce and the newly reopened police investigation while scrambling to obscure the facts. Will Nan be successful in keeping her secrets secret? Will Luce remember what happened?

The author unfolds via Nan’s increasingly troubled—and troubling—first-person-present narration, and flashbacks provide context and offer clues surrounding the event. The examination of how trauma and desire can reshape a young mind. The author refuses to simplify her protagonist’s journey, instead creating a character study that’s as disturbing as it is compelling. By the time I reached the book’s devastating conclusion, I realize that the author has been laying traps throughout the narrative – subtle clues and misdirections that culminates in a twisted ending.

I was hooked from the beginning!
It was amazing and engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

Dark and disturbing, just like how I like my Rory Power books. She doesn't disappoint with this one either again with the creepy psychological messes that she foists upon readers.

Girls are dead. There is an insinuation that the surviving girl might have secrets. There are adults that do bad things. Adults that want to know the answers. There's mysterious findings and of course, one girl survives who shouldn't/couldn't be alive... yet is.

Some of the conclusions and understanding are cliche toward the end, but it doesn't diminish the perfectly plotted, well-timed reveal of information to screw with a reader's understanding of Nan. Even though this one just hit shelves I'm ready for the next thriller.

[arc review]
Thank you to Penguin Teen Canada for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Kill Creatures releases June 3, 2025

2.75

Nan killed three of her best friends — or so she thought. A year later at their vigil, one of them surfaces from the lake, alive.
What really happened in the canyon last summer? And where has Luce been hiding for the past year?

This is a very straightforward and bingeable read that focuses on infidelity, revenge, and the disillusionment of teen friendship.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children's for the eARC.

Ooh, this book was FUN. I really enjoyed the story and how Rory Power kept the reader hooked the entire time.

I really loved this premise of knowing that the main character killed her friends but not knowing why. Really added to the suspense of what was going on and wanting to know the motives for her actions. However, it felt like the ending wasn’t really planned out and some of the story concepts and plot wasn’t fully developed. Some of the reading felt clunky and juvenile (I know she’s a teenager…but still). What I liked most about the story was that it was written in a way that made me want to keep going. I wanted to know what was going on.