4.5 stars. I'm starting to realize that I'm really into near future dystopian-lite settings (Hestia Lights A Match; I Keep My Exoskeletons To Myself). Especially when people are just living their lives with that in the background. I loved the first 3/4 of this book. It was very funny, kinda dark and Alice's quirks were delightful. The intermittent Dawson's Creek quotes scene, the wealthugees, the Russian literature references were fun and brilliant. The last 1/4 kind of shifted tonally and wasn't as fun. It was very well done, but was a bit of a bummer.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher!

I wish I could say I loved or even liked this book, but it just never really made that leap for me. Mainly because (and don't think I'm a prude, sex scenes are great, I write them all the time, I wrote one last night!) the constant casual sex got to the point where it was distracting from the plot. It wasn't supposed to be sexy or erotic, so I can't say it failed at that, but it was just... way too much. It's like trying to establish your character is an alcoholic by tagging all her dialogue with "she said, taking a drink." It was done sloppily enough that it affected my whole overall opinion of the book. I can't recommend it without thinking of all the dispassionate, unaffected sex I'd be subjecting my friends to slog through.

This novel is very difficult to define; I went into it with an open mind and came out of it not knowing quite how I feel. The central narrator is Alice, a thirty something genius with little aim in life. The setting is a near dystopian future New Zealand. The country is full of rich people who’ve fled to escape the horrors elsewhere.

The narration throughout is superb. Just the right balance of pace and emphasis which picks up on Alice’s quirky and sardonic views. There are plenty of humourous observations, often throw a way one liners which I enjoyed. The humour is dark. Overall I found the entire experience a little less satisfying. McDougall explores a number if themes in an original way…climate change, feminism, capitalism and more. But it doesn’t quite gel for me. Moments of sheer brilliance and some superb writing but it hadn’t quite hit the sweet spot. Maybe if I read it at a different time, I’d have another view. Three for me the book, 5 stars for narration.

A thoroughly enjoyable performance

🧡 I love all things different and this was definitely it. As someone who’s read about a bazillion version of the apocalypse, this was a new one. The world hasn’t so much ended as run out of steam. Very interesting.
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SOUNDBITE

🎧 Eva Seymour’s narration managed glib without being flat. Which is quite the achievement. Her performance elevates the whole experience, making me smile throughout.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Bolinda Audio for providing me with an ALC in return for an honest review.

DNF'd at 55%
Listened on audio.
The narration was fine and was not what made me DNF.
It was just SO MUCH WORDS and NOTHING HAPPENING.
The writing style was fine, but 55% into the book and I'm just so bored, the characters actions just seem to be so far-fetched too

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. She's A Killer by Kirsten McDougall released on February 1st, 2024.

I wasn't a huge fan of this one. The story was fine, the characters were interesting enough, and I enjoyed the humor that the main character brought into the book. However, the concentration on politics was not up my alley so it kind of took away from the enjoyment of the book. I read to escape the news, to escape the comments, and this just didn't allow me to do that.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bolinda Audio for providing this ALC!

In a near-future dystopian New Zealand in the midst of a climate crisis, Alice is a near-genius living with her mother and working a dead end job when her childhood imaginary friend Simp shows back up. Then Alice meets a wealthugee named Pablo and his genius IQ teenage daughter Erika, and Alice’s stubborn humdrum routine gets blown apart as she is forced into action. Darkly satirical, this book touched on many interesting topics including feminism, wealth, politics, and immigration with the climate crisis lens.

I really enjoyed Alice’s character, and the first half of the book really drew me in with her narration. The second half was a wild ride and I agree with other reviewers that it could’ve been shortened a bit. I wasn’t a big fan of the ending and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to feel with this conclusion, so I’ve bumped it down a star.

Narrator of the audiobook was excellent.

Overall a funny and unusual read about a kooky mc in a very realistic (and scary) climate future!

I am glad I gave this a go, but it is not something I particularly enjoyed. I liked the dystopian premise of it, but I didn’t really like any of the characters and found the pacing to be varied throughout. The narrator was good. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of thenaudiobook. This is a "coming of age" novel for a 37 year old woman in New Zealand. The novel takes place in the near future where New Zealand has become infested with "wealthugees" who have bought their way into the country after their own countries have met with climate disaster. Alice is a near genius underachiever who has decided to surf the end of the world with little focus or purpose when she is caught up in something much larger than herself. The novel is told entirely from Alice's point of view and the audiobook narrator does a pitch perfect job of moving the tone from glib and sarcastic to more introspective as Alice is required to confront herself. There is a lot going on here. I definitely could not predict where the book was going and I believe there was as much under the surface as on it. There are many ways that the female characters of the book can be analyzed (are they manifestations of different aspects of Alice like Simp; are they paths not taken, etc). This is not a simple cli-fi story. It is psychologically more rich, and somewhat surreal. I look forward to thus author's future work.

Oh. My. God. I DEVOURED this thrilling and unusual story so quickly! Listened to the audiobook on 1.75x, just to finish it as fast as possible! The narrator!!! Wow. Just wow. She perfectly embodied Alice in her quirky, kind of sociopathic, take-no-prisoners vibe. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book! It’s such a unique plot with unusual characters that make you say “WTF” over and over again.

The story takes place in a not so distant future in New Zealand, where climate control has lost the battle and restrictions are in place to basically save the planet. Refugees from other countries are buying their way into their haven and have been dubbed ‘wealthugees’. They are wealthy, privileged and can afford unlimited water and $200 steaks.

Alice is almost a genius, just 1 point under genius threshold. She is quirky, self-centered and has a no-nonsense attitude. She meets a wealthugee, Pablo at work who immediately takes interest in her. All Alice wants is dinner and a good lay. Pablo and his daughter invade her life and Alice exchanges payment to take care of his true genius level daughter when Pablo has to leave the country in a supposed emergency. Erika is strange. Stranger than even Alice.

Erika is not like any 15 year girl in existence for sure….she may or may not be an assassin. Pablo may or may not be her father. Alice may or may not be a narcissistic sociopath.

So who are these invaders and what do they want with Alice?

There is so much going on! Full of drama, jealousy, back-stabbing, secrets and death. Let this book take you for wonderful, TWISTY and surprising ride!

Thank you to @NetGalley and @Bookouture for this one of a kind audiobook in exchange for my review.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C3RxgbHucGE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Definitely a quirky listen, but this one missed the mark for me. I found it hard to connect with our main character, even when I desperately wanted to.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bolinda Audio for an advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

Alice is a 37 year old one IQ point away from genius who is an underachiever with poor interpersonal skills. Her childhood imaginary friend has returned after 30 years. The world is struggling due to climate change and wealthy people have flocked to New Zealand.

I was very entertained by Alice, especially her ruminating about make-up during inappropriate times.

Excellent narration by Eva Seymour.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book.

The audio for this book was very well done. I loved the narrator and felt she read the story well. This was very funny and a bit reminiscent of Killing Eve. The relationship between Alice and everyone around her was interesting and seeing her outlook on everything was funny. I liked the story and where it went with Erika and Alice. Full of fun, adventure, dysfunction, and dystopia, this was a great listen.

Kirsten McDougall writes a sharply edgy and blackly humorous climate dystopian thriller, set in New Zealand in the near future. I listened to this on audio, approximately 10 hours and 40 minutes long, and wonderfully narrated by the wonderful Eva Seymour, who does a stellar job in bringing the deranged and bizarre storylines and characters come vibrantly alive, so much so that I can still hear her voice in my head. The satire hits the nails on the head with its social and political commentary, with its stepping up of our contemporary climate crisis, to the point that many 'wealthugees' have made their way to the safety and security of NZ. However, their arrival and presence places a detrimental evergrowing stress on the land and economy, placing big challenges and cost of of living pressures on the ordinary local population.

37 year old Alice is just a tad short of genius status, but she is not so great with people, she lives with her mother, an awkward relationship that has her communicating with her through morse code. Her life and attitude is one marked by tedium, a distinct not caring and unsympathetic nature, underachievement, working at the university, her only friend has been Amy but she is not keen on her husband, and after a decades long absence, her imaginary friend Simp has returned, constantly conversing, making her opinions and thoughts on Alice clear. Not a particularly likeable character, Alice meets Pablo, a wealthugee, who brings his 15 year old daughter, Erika, to their tryst, and she is far from happy when she understands why. The ambitious Erika is truly something else, a real genius you might say, a girl with plans. Alice's life is suddenly spiralling out of control.

This is a dark, twisted, often fun and hilarious, macabre, mad and utterly compelling listening experience, providing a worrying and frightening glimpse into the future of our world. I fear this novel may not be to everyone's taste but I adored it. I think part of the reason is the brilliant audio which I recommend highly. Many thanks to Bolinda Audio for a ALC

If Naomi Alderman’s ‘The Future’ was your kind of spiky Cli-Fi Dystopia, you should dash out and grab a copy of ‘She’s a Killer’.

Alice is a calamitous anti-hero, despising herself almost as much as she does everyone else in the world (except, maybe, for her prickly imaginary friend), in a novel that, if Mona Awad and Jenny Offill had offspring? This is that novel.

The nigh-apocalyptic backdrop forms the blast-zone for Alice's macabre sardonicism. And she is so ineffably quotable: 'He was looking at me like I was Russian Literature.' As quotable, as crafty, as tragic, and just as grisly as Lady Macbeth: 'He was made to be eaten by lions.'

Into the bargain, Eva Seymour's exceedingly good narration turns ‘She’s a Killer’ into a paced, documentary-style deadpan reportage, in what is essentially the ultimate disaster character study: choppy; sharply observed; searing in places.

Thanks to Bolinda Audio for another spectacularly good advance e-audiobook for review.

Offbeat and utterly entertaining. A recommended purchase for collections where quirky crime and thrillers are popular.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free audiobook!"

I loved the audiobook read by Eva Seymour, she does a fantastic job of making all the characters feel alive. The Kiwi accent was also top notch.

Having said that, "She's a Killer" is a climate fiction dystopia black comedy satire with an unreliable and very unlikeable main protagonist. It is absurd and sometimes very much over the top. So this is going to be a hit or miss for readers I'd say. It's like "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" but smarter and more political.

In "She's a Killer" climate change has led to huge waves of refugees coming to New Zealand. New Zealand has opened its borders but refugees have to pay a lot of money to be allowed in, which is why they're called Wealthugees who slowly take the places away from the New Zealanders (Maori and the first colonisers so to speak). Politically the country is struggling, one can barely afford food any more, unemployment is at an all time high.

Our protagonist works for the university after failing to become the psychiatrist she always wanted to become. She is deeply unlikeable, socially isolated apart from her best friend Amy who is more preoccupied with her kids and survivalist stuff like canning food, she lives with her toxic mom but only talks to her via morse code, she has an eating disorder, she is traumatised and (I do not say this lightly) she is a bit of a sociopath. And her imaginary childhood friend, Simp, has returned - of course she has.

When she meets the wealthy and sexy Wealthugee Pablo, she thinks that things might get better. In a fit, she quits her job and also manages to fight so hard with Amy that she is also without friends. As I said, the protagonist is very easy to hate but her point of view is so fascinating at the same time. You also cannot trust her at all, she's an unreliable narrator. Anyhow, Pablo leaves his daughter with the protagonist after their first date and leaves the country - he pays her well to look after the teen though and she needs the money. But with Erika things start to get out of hand and the reader slowly realises that nothing is like it seems, which is when the novel goes totally political but also bonkers.

Yes, tons of stuff didn't make a lot of sense, but then again: can we really believe the protagonist? And yes, the novel is also satire, it's supposed to be over the top and yet it hits home at many points. The speculative fiction bit of it in terms of dystopia and clific is quite realistic. And our protagonist is truly unhinged on top.

I listened to the audiobook and I was mesmerised. Shocked and disgusted too a lot, but I just couldn't stop listening. I wanted to see where it was all going, how it could escalate even further, what other stupid decisions this horrible protagonist could make. Parts were also really funny.

Tons of people are going to hate this book but I loved it.

5 stars

This was a weird story – in a good way. The main character is, in my opinion, quite unlikable and that is something I feel is hard to write in a way that the reader still wants to continue following the character in question. Fun and maybe brave move to make when creating a story.

It took a while for the story to take off, but when it did there was a nerve there I really enjoyed.

Fun to listen to. Narration was good.

This was an unexpectedly wild ride. Much darker than I was anticipating - I think I was assuming it would be lighthearted and funny? Yes, Alice is quirky (and I think that could’ve been explored even more fully) in her genius and her laziness, but it’s so much deeper than just that. Worth a read for EVERYONE.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

She’s A Killer is a satire about New Zealand being overrun with 1%ers in the midst of climate disaster. We follow a 37 year old woman who has never done much with her life and spends a lot of time talking to her “imaginary friend”.

I understand that this is satire but I found all of the characters completely insufferable. I didn’t find any of it to be funny- very little of it even qualified as interesting. I found it very hard to finish.