part of the journey is the end

Camille Rutherford as Agathe Robinson JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE (2024) dir. Laura Piani

When cinephile Jamie Prescott attends a speed-dating event, she expects to meet some mediocre men and have a laugh – she doesn’t expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at her table during a blackout. When the lights come back on, there are more bodies on the floor and the doors are locked. Armed with makeshift weapons and her extensive knowledge of what not to do in a slasher, Jamie must figure out how to make it out of the building alive. But as the night progresses, she begins to suspect the killer is committing the slayings to woo one of the daters. Whatever happened to roses and perfume? And why can’t Jamie stay focused on the important thing here, which is obviously not getting murdered, instead of being distracted by a few hot guys? Especially if one of those hot guys happens to be the bad guy…

Rating: ★★★★★

It's been a long time since I've read a book so gripping I could barely put it down – How To Kill A Guy In Ten Dates definitely meets the criteria. This book is engaging from start to finish, and a fantastic mix of the slasher and rom-com genres. What was especially appealing to me, particularly as a slasher fan, was attempting to piece together all of the clues to figure out the identity of the culprit. The thriller aspect of this novel was well conceived, and whilst I was pretty sure who was responsible for the majority of it, this book definitely keeps you guessing with clues and red herrings.

How To Kill A Guy In Ten Dates is a fun, albeit unusual mix of horror and romance, yet Shailee Thompson masterfully weaves them together. In doing so, she has created a unique piece of storytelling. Personally, I loved all of the references, it felt very meta like Scream. This also explains why I enjoyed the storytelling, and had Scream on my mind as I was attempting to decipher the identity of the culprit.

Interestingly for me, How To Kill A Guy In Ten Dates is appealing almost exclusively through the plot progression. I didn't need lots of character development, or to love the characters, in order to enjoy how this story unfolded. This novel works because the author has created an engaging puzzle wrapped in riddles of horror and rom-com references that you must decipher. In this way, the characters are simply a means to an end.

I found the main character, Jamie, to be a bit annoying at times, especially how stupid she could be in the middle of a real-life slasher, considering she literally studies slashers. The number of times her focus drifted to romance in the middle of it all, especially considering they knew one of them had to be the killer, was absolutely ridiculous. However, I will say that this didn't stop me from enjoying the whole book. The puzzle alongside the genre mix of slasher and rom-com genuinely worked in its favour. Yes, most of the characters probably weren't well developed at all, but they did their jobs as the stand-ins for certain character archetypes. This enables the plot to follow certain patterns from both genres, which lead to the ultimate reveal towards the end. As such, the kind of stock-standard character type they portray works as a model of combined genres, and the kind of story that is being told.

As a massive Scream fan, I'm proud to say I half predicted the final result. It was genuinely a lot of fun trying to figure it all out based on various clues and references sprinkled throughout the novel. So even though on reflection I found the characters themselves to be lacking, the experience of How To Kill A Guy In Ten Dates was well worth it, and I will definitely re-read it at some stage.