REVIEW: The Serial Killers Support Group by D B Stephens

"I didn't know it then, but these women I would one day share all my secrets with."

When Jess Pendle agrees to attend a support group to meet other women who have lived similar experiences, she doesn’t expect much. She's trying to survive the aftermath of an abusive partner and figure out to heal along with the other survivors in her support group.

And then, something happens. Something awful, and wonderful. Whether it's justice, retribution or revenge, someone out there is getting payback on the men who have been abusing and hurting these women. Jess is desperate to find out who their murderous guardian angel is, preferable before the police do.

Review:

I came for the title, I stayed for the revenge fantasy, retribution and morally questionable characters.

Our main narrator, Jess, has watched cycles of domestic abuse happen and is determined to break it. Then she finds herself like a frog boiling in a pot, repeating the story— finding herself being abused, hurt, controlled by a man.

I loved her, her storytelling was easy, simple, conversational, and so personal — and her voice slipped smoothly in and out of other perspectives looking from the outside, watching. The enigmatic and mysterious caretaker, someone out there greeting vigilant justice and an inspiration for our women as they start to create their own plans, and an investigator trying to solve the puzzle. It moves slowly, day by day, but always something dramatic going on, dark things happening in the shadows all around.

"If the Caretaker was a woman they would want to burn her at the stake. They always want to burn women at the stake, even now. The Caretaker being a man means people will talk about the right things to do with this."

The characters she meets at the group, our supporting players are sublime. At times I desperately wanted to know them more, have their characters developed but there were simply too many people to fully explore and in a way, it was beautifully realistic. They all suffered, they all want to find a way to survive and I felt for every single one of them.

From delving into when revenge is needed, addressing the neglect and negligence the law imposes on DB victims, to offering a darkly cathartic release to those victims, the sexist double standards in reporting and crime, this book packs a punch and isn’t scared to be loud, angry, violent — blurring the lines between a vindicator and villain.

The finale was so abrupt I did get a little whiplash and it felt almost like there was one more chapter that just didn’t get included - but my god if that wasn’t one of the most delightful endings.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

TSKSG will be available from May 8th with Harper Collins/One More Chapter. I was gifted a reviewers copy of this title.
This title contains content including domestic abusive, violence and racism.

Cw; racists, DV,

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