3.75 stars

Rory Power is back doing what this author does best: revealing young women's fears and vulnerabilities.

This time, Power features Nan, who is 17 and has had quite a year. When readers meet her, she's at the one-year marking of the loss of her three best friends. This event challenges Nan for obvious reasons, but things get even more bizarre when one of those friends resurfaces...alive. This all happens early in the book and is included in the synopsis, so these plot points are more set up than build up.

One absolute bonus of this book is that it is such a quick read. The vibe is creepy, the plot is twisty, and the characters are sus, and Power managess to build a compelling case in a package that can - and perhaps should - be read in a single sitting. I really appreciated this variety in a sea of often too-long YA novels.

For me, the conclusion is especially satisfying.

I continue to enjoy this author and will keep recommending to students (and reading myself)!

This was such a good book, all the twists and turns it took. It kept me on my toes the whole time and by the end I was just in shock.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for letting me read this early!

Kill Creatures was a fast paced YA mystery/thriller with one of the coolest covers that caught my eye right away. I was hooked pretty quickly by the story and I enjoyed Powers’ writing style. I definitely think the age demographic for this book (teens) would love it. Some readers who are a little more seasoned with thriller/mysteries may find the ending and twists a little predictable. But, even with the predictability it was a great story, very dark and angsty.
I think the synopsis actually gives a little too much away. I didn’t read it first and found myself being surprised by a few things in the first few chapters which I liked. I read the synopsis after the fact couldn’t believe how much was included.
All that being said, this was still a great, atmospheric thriller!

(Also, just as a bit of a language warning, this book used the F word more than 60 times, which is more than a lot of the adult novels I read. Just an FYI for those who may care.)

((Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the advanced copy))

A year ago, Nan’s best friends went missing. When the anniversary of their disappearance arrives, the night is brought to an abrupt halt by one of her best friends reappearing, alive and shaken. But Nan can’t find relief in her best friend’s reappearance, because her return isn’t the most shocking part—it’s that she came back at all, because Nan had been the one to kill her.

Ever since Wilder Girls, I’ve always been one to jump onto the Rory Powers train, so I didn’t even have to question whether I wanted to read this novel or not, and the gorgeous cover certainly didn’t hold me back. This novel felt a bit like returning to Powers’s roots that I feel I haven’t see in awhile. Queer, rageful girls. Obsession played a large part in this novel, and I think it tied in well with the constant presence of the unreliable narrator. Although the novel felt a bit short, I appreciated the twists, and it definitely makes for a good read if anyone is looking for something quick to fill an afternoon with angry, messy teen girls.

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for my arc in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Rory Power's "Kill Creatures" follows teen Nan, a year after her three friends disappeared from the canyons near their small town. But then one of them returns alive and well. Except they can't have because Nan killed them herself.

This was a wild ride. I try to avoid YAs since I find them kind of exhausting to read but I took a chance with this new one from Rory Power ("Wilder Girls"). I was intrigued by the plot and wanted to see if I could guess the twist. I really felt for Nan and even towards the end as she unravelled, I still felt really sympathetic towards her. The "truth" of how Luce, Edie, and June thought of her really broke my heart. While I was not murderous, I identified with Nan's insecurities around them and the desire to be included.

I was not a huge fan of the ending if I'm being honest. I don't know cause I understand the way it ended but I think it would been far more compelling if it ended differently.

Still a mostly fun read.

Gripping and addictive mystery - small town, girls of a certain age, betrayals and wanting to belong - the perfect recipe for disaster. But that's not all that happened in the small town, and the story isn't so simple. Taut and fast moving, and everything isn't as it seems. A must read for mystery fans.

Four girls go into the wilderness and only one comes back out. The final girl admits to herself that she killed her best friends. With the setup for this book it seems like all of the suspense has already been accounted for. This book picks up a year after Nan and her friends went into the canyon called Devil's Eye. But now it looks like one of her friends isn't as dead as she thought they were.

I really enjoyed the buildup in this book. Going in it seems like everything was already laid out, we already know the victims and the killer....or do we? The story becomes so much more than the original premise and I was buckled in and along for the ride. Once the suspense started to build I was locked in and read about 50% of the book in one sitting. I appreciated how the twist towards the end of the book continued to keep twisting. As Nan dives deeper into what happened to her, what really happened that night, I had to reshape my expectations a few different times.

Thank you NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

This is my first read by Rory Power and it won't be my last! I was absolutely captivated beginning to end.

Rory Power's books are always atmospheric and engaging. Though I saw the "why" almost from the beginning, it still informed a wild sequence of events. And the final twist shocked The teenage girls act just like teenage girls. I completely understood each of their motivations.

This is a must read author for me, and always will be!

Rory Power really knows how to write an angry, queer, teenage girl and thank god for it. Spencer Hastings would have loved this book. she's just a girl who killed her friends okay

First of all, I love that cover. It did a great job of hinting at the mysterious, dark nature of this water-based story.

This was a quick, tough to put down read. It really captured the turmoil and layers of teenage female friendships — turned up to the murderous extreme. Nan made for an interesting and unreliable narrator for a story full of misdirections and twists. As we slowly unravel the mystery of the missing girls — and the one returned — there was a growing sense of eeriness and confusion with an ending that definitely worked for me.

Have you ever started a book - and it was so good - that you had to finish it immediately? That's the feeling I felt when I read "Kill Creatures" by Rory Power.

The book centers around four girls: Nan, Edie, Luce and Jane. The girls go for a night swim at Saltcedar Canyon -- particularly Devil's Eye. Only Nan came back, and she can't remember what happened. Fast forward a year later - and Saltcedar is planning a vigil for the missing girls. During the vigil, Luce is plucked out of the lake to Nan and the town's surprise. Nan is especially stunned - because Nan killed Luce, Jane and Edie.

I loved how the plot slowly unraveled the events that led to the incident through Then and Now chapters segments. Nan is an unreliable, ruthless, and unhinged narrator. She refers to the trio as "my girls" and she's just conniving -- but the twists and turns keep coming.

With themes of secrets, crushes, fitting in, lies, and revenge, "Kill Creatures" grabs hold of the reader and doesn't let up until the epilogue. Get your copy and read it, you won't be disappointed!

I loved the premise, the character development, the story . . . but I'm still stuck on the ending. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It leaves me unsettled and unhappy, which probably was the point, but I'm not sure if I liked it . . . I'm still ruminating. It's really 3.5 stars, but rounding up for the beginning 3/4.

3.5 stars
I was very intrigued by the story synopsis and really love the cover art. Our main character, Nan, went out one summer night with her three friends and was the only one to come back alive. Nan tells us, herself, that she killed her three friends. But, surprise!, on the one year anniversary of their disappearance, one of the girls shows up, very much alive. An investigation follows as we all try to figure out what happened. I enjoyed the story but was very surprised by the ending. Some reviewers said they saw it coming, but I certainly did not.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. All of these opinions are my own.

The premise of this book is very different from anything I’ve ever read. From the very first page, we know exactly the type of person Nan is. I enjoyed getting inside her head and seeing how her motive transpired, but I thought the ending was far-fetched. The clues were all there, and I predicted the ending before it happened. Perhaps the foreshadowing was too concise, but it definitely was a lackluster ending. It was rushed. And honestly, Nan’s father committing murder to keep his secret quiet just didn’t fit with the mood of the book. I was expecting Nan to somehow finish what she started (not that I was rooting for her, but it was more sensible to me).

Overall, it was an enjoyable read with descriptive details, but the ending was a bit of a letdown. I would have liked there to be more closure for Nan and also for the reader.

Last summer Nans life changed forever when three of her best friends disappeared. A year later on the anniversary of theirs disappearance, Nan and the grieving families gather for a memorial at the scene where the girls were last seen. Commotion erupts when one of the missing girls returns, everyone is in shock, especially Nan. That’s impossible,how can one of her friends be back? Nan was sure they were dead, I mean she is the one who killed them after all.

First off can we talk about the cover?!?!
It’s stunning, as soon as I saw it on NetGalley I wanted to read it.

This was a fun and quick read, with some unpredictable twists. Some of the reveals were a little expected but one in particular, oh man I yelled out loud “I KNEW IT”. I think this book could’ve been great it just needed a little something, I was just left wanting more.

Thank you NetGalley and to the publishers for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I couldn't put this book down! Although a little predictable I loved how Nan was an unreliable narrator but I did not see the twist coming (with her dad). Loved the setting and how it was described, felt like I was there and I could picture it really well. I think the length of the book was perfect, wasn't too long wasn't too short. i would totally recommend this for a quick read!

I was so excited about this premise, but the reveals didn't rise to the level of the premise. The relationships felt entirely supported by telling rather than showing, which made sense after a few reveals, but still affected the experience of reading the book.

"Last year, Nan's three best friends ventured into the canyons near their small town and never returned. Now one of them is back, and Nan can't believe it...because she's the one who killed them. From the New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls comes another dark thriller about friendship, jealousy, desire, and revenge, with a twist ending that needs to be talked about.

Last summer, Luce, Edie, Jane, and Nan took a boat out for one final swim in the river. It was a perfect summer night.

But the only one who returned that night was Nan. Edie, Jane, and Luce disappeared, and Nan's story has always been the same: She has no idea what happened. The girls went ahead, and it was as though they vanished into thin air.

Now, one year later, all of Saltcedar has gathered at the river for a memorial. Nan even recreated the outfit she wore that fateful day last summer. And when Luce climbs out of the water, no one is more surprised than Nan.

Because Nan killed her. Right before she killed Edie and Jane."

You know you need to know if it's ghost, revenant, zombie, or manifested guilt!

Rory Power really knows how to write some complicated and mysterious female leads. Because the book starts by indicating that nothing supernatural will take place, I was at first worried that I wouldn't be as engaged or might find the story too obvious. While pieces of the plot were predictable, there was also enough intrigue to keep me engaged. I feel like it was a pretty short read too, so it was easy to be swept along and finish it quickly. Despite there being no supernatural elements, I find that Power's writing still maintains the dark undercurrent of eeriness I enjoyed in her other books without relying on otherworldly aspects.