REVIEW: You'd Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace

The night after her father's funeral, Claire meets Lucas in a bar. Lucas doesn't know it, but it's not a chance meeting. One thoughtless mistyped email has put him in the crosshairs of an extremely put-out serial killer. But before they make eye contact, before Claire lets him buy her a drink, even before she takes him home and carves him up into little pieces, something about that night is very wrong. Because someone is watching Claire. Someone who is about to discover her murderous little hobby.

The thing is, it's not sensible to tangle with a part-time serial killer, even one who is distracted by attending a weekly bereavement support group and trying to get her art career off the ground. Let the games begin...

"I smile, enjoying my favourite part of the process. The part when I know they're going to die soon. The part when I can anticipate every moment of their deaths. The part where I already see them as ghosts."

This refreshingly original thriller is another fantastic edition to the recent trend of stories about marvellously murderous women and I am loving it. I never want this to end.

Wallace absolutely nails the loveable villain vibes with Claire being a brutal, psychopathic killer but also being uncomfortably relatable and absolutely hilarious too. You find yourself rooting for her career to take off, even feeling the sympathy when something goes wrong for her and wondering if you’d be friends …

It’s bloody, dark and dangerous with an intense, biting edge whenever the action starts to build up — and then it’s shattered into pieces by a strangely real moment or a hilarious one-liner and the weirdly compelling cycle repeats again — as we move quickly through mundane life, work anxiety and grief support groups thrown against unsettling plots and blood soaked murder scenes one after the other in a high octane, dramatic sprint narrated in Claire’s droll, dry voice that has such flair and personality all the way through as we follow her journey and see horrific memories from her formative years.

Every other character we meet gives us a visceral reaction too — intense anxiety, disgust, cringing or empathy but always so distinct and full of life … for a while, anyway. Everyone had a purpose that is revealed over the pages, everyone representing some part of human nature and modern society that connects us to them in uncomfortable ways.

If you like your thrillers with a huge dose of irreverently dark comedy and sharp witty observations about how weird life is - this book will knock you dead.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review. Please check content warnings before reading as this title contains potentially upsetting subjects including violence, funerals, dementia and death.

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