Love in the Time of Serial Killers Review

By Nic Daniels

TW: Grief, Death, brief descriptions of child abuse/abandonment

Hello, audacious readers!

I saw someone call August the Sunday of summer and could not agree more as we close out Hot Love Summer for the year. Last month, we explored the power of love and music in 1960’s New York with The Songbook of Benny Lament by Amy Harmon. This month, we’re in the present day, cautiously falling in love in Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson.

Phoebe Walsh is moving to Florida for the summer with two goals: 1) to clean out and sell her childhood home and 2) Finish her PhD dissertation on true crime. Unlike her sunshine little brother, Connor, she doesn’t care for the fact that the house belonging to her recently deceased father nor does she want any of the memories attached to it. She’d rather watch her true crime documentaries and keep to herself until fall comes around.

Unfortunately, that plan goes out the window the very first night when her neighbor, Sam, casually offers to help her move. She’s quick to ward him away, sure, he’s trying to find an excuse to get into her house and kill her instead of helping her to lift a piece of furniture. Still, life keeps making their paths cross and she can’t help but wonder if he’s a rarity she’s always hear of but never quite experienced outside her brother: a man with no ulterior motive. As they get to know each other over the summer, she starts to expand her black-and-white view of life, and starts warming up to the possibility that maybe—just maybe—he’s a good guy.

I’ll spoil it for you now: there are no serial killers in this book. I know, I know but here me out!...the story is still pretty good.

This book was a great palette cleanser after The Songbook of Benny Lament. While both tackled heavy topics, Love in the Time of Serial Killers was more self-reflective and less intense, making it a perfect light summer read. Through Phoebe, we got to followed her journey through sorting through her complicated feelings surrounding her father and watching her become open-minded over the summer.

I actually quite liked Phobe as a character. Firstly, I love a curvy main character but also it was nice to see her character develop by being shown kindness without having to always give it back. And not just by her lvoe interest, Sam. Phoebe experiences it through her brother, his girlfriend, and even some of the friends she makes around town.

Even more so, it was nice to see her accept that kindness for what it was and even desire it. Sam didn’t have to ever become dark and brooding for her to be attracted to him. Nor did he have to be them against the world to make her to appreciate him. It was nice to read a romance that let the main female character fall for the good guy without being perfect or super kind herself. They both could be themselves, flaws and all, and it was enough.

Although, having a twist of the one old lady neighbor being a serial killer that got caught in the end would have made the book awesome! But we’ll save that for another day.

I hope you enjoyed Love in the Time of Serial Killers! I'll be sharing all my thoughts and feelings on an upcoming IG live with founder, Jessica Wise.

You can also meet up with us in person or virtually on September 7th for the Audacity Writer’s Retreat! I’ll be teaching a class on creative writing and might sneak in a little book club talk during the day. Make sure to check that out and feel free to comment your thoughts below. Until next time, don’t forget to read audaciously!