Killer Instinct

Killer Instinct is such a good read! It’s fast paced and keeps you on your toes the entire time. After the first few paragraphs I said to myself, “S.E. Green must love shows like Criminal Minds because this could seriously be an episode on the show.” Lane, the main character, is struggling with herself throughout the novel because she finds herself so intrigued by serial killers and thinks she might want to become one someday. To curb her desire of homicide, she becomes a kind of vigilante of sorts. Lane finds people who have done wrong and gotten away with it and takes matters into her own hands. All the while trying to be a normal teenager and blend in because she knows very well that she is anything but normal. Lane is also quite emotionless throughout the novel, another typical sign that someone could potentially become a killer, however even though she lacks emotion I was never bored with the book, which I found interesting. She becomes this vigilante to control her urges to kill but a notorious serial killer, the Decapitator, keeps taunting her killer instinct with photos and videos of his kills, making her more fascinated by the act of killing. Throughout the entire novel you are trying to figure out who the Decapitator is, I know I was. I had my guess two chapters into the book and thought I was going to be right, I was so sure of it. Then, the big reveal happened and I was utterly shocked. Not just because I was wrong but because of the true identity of the murderer. If you enjoy mystery novels I would definitely pick this one up for your next read!

Lane is nearly seventeen and a high school student in northern Virginia where her mom is the director of the FBI’s Behavior Analysis unit, meaning she hunt serial killers. Which is SO coincidental because Lane just happens to have that psychopathy. But she wants to channel it for good, using it against evil people whom the law doesn’t punish. Just so happens, though, there’s a more standard serial killer in town, the Decapitator, and while Lane’s mom is hunting him he appears to have taken quite an interest in Lane. Who is this killer and what is the connection with Lane? Can he be stopped in time? Given that the book is about serial murder, one knows that going in so a reader expects a little blood and guts (but, sidebar, I am no anatomical genius but I don’t think that slicing off body parts is quite as easy as books and movies sometime make it seem. You’ve got some pretty big bones and muscles in there! A regular knife probably just isn’t going to do it. But, fine, suspension of disbelief and drama, whatever.) Overall, though, this was kind of a light, fun read with a nice twist....perfect quarantine reading. I believe there is a sequel which I’ll definitely be looking for.

This was a good book and I enjoyed reading. That being said, I am almost 29 and I am a huge Dexter fan. I felt there was a lot of borrowing from Dexter that many younger teens today might not see because they are not familiar with the show. I am not bothered by the borrowing since I had numerous English teachers (and professors) tell me that "good authors borrow, great authors steal." It was a little hard to enjoy the book as much as I wanted to because I was looking for the next Dexter-ish thing the character would do. All that being said, however, it is nice to see teen female characters being written as (kind of) psychopaths. This book, "Dear Killer", and "You Know What You Have to Do" are three recent books I have read that focus on female psychopathy and it is really interesting to see. It is refreshing to read books that are not dystopian and have strong teen girls as lead characters...albeit they are killers. In general, however, these girls are killing for reasons (usually moral) as opposed to just killing anyone they wish because they want to. I will caution future readers, there is a bit of gore, and (again) it does feel a lot like a female teen Dexter (again not a bad thing), but the ending was awesome!

I loved this book! The dark humor is awesome and Dexter is one of my all time favorite shows. I usually stick to my Kindle Unlimited subscription offerings but this series is perfect! I’m buying the next in the series right now.

Another great story by S E Green. I read it in one day. This story def keeps you on your toes. You wont believe who the Decapitator is!!! I can't wait to read the next book...

It was okay, easy reading (read in one sitting over a couple of hours) but just felt it was a thinly veiled teenaged "Dexter Morgan" story. There were parts of Lane's adventure of self that were truly entertaining and I wish this could have been more developed. Her vigilante explorations were definitely the highlights but the whole plot crashed in the reveal - it was just sad, really. I thought that there was some great potential in a rather fun heroine if you were able to tease out Jeff Lindsay's character. I will not be shocked when this launches into a series. I would like to see what else S.E. Green has done.

I read Killer Instinct, by S.E. Green, in one day. Despite a couple bad editorial reviews, I found it a riveting but problematic story. Lane is not a very likeable character. She is anti-social, unemotional, and often rude. She is obsessed with serial killers and decides to begin hunting them to make them pay for their crimes. Her mother and stepfather are FBI agents and she has a younger half-sister and brother. There’s a serial killer out there who kidnaps and decapitates a different woman each September. Lane sneaks into her mom’s files on the killer in the hope of finding him first. But then, “The Decapitator” contacts her, letting her know that the killer is closer than she ever thought, and that family secrets are prolonging the killer’s reign of terror. I would recommend this only to older teens due to a couple completely gratuitous and explicit sex scenes that did nothing to advance the story in any way..

Lane, is a 17 year old girl with an obsession with serial killers. She studies them and makes notes in her journal, because she wants to be just like them. This was a pretty good book. I wasn't sure about it going in, I mean it's basically Dexter but if Dexter was a teenage girl. I ended up being pleasantly surprised, and while this isn't the best story, it was good enough that I look forward to starting the next in the series. I'm curious to see where this goes next. All the way through the book, I thought I knew who the killer was but I was completely wrong and what a great twist that was.

if I could give 0 stars I would, I wanted to like it because it's been compared to Dexter but it lacked any real substance. no emotion, no great storyline, predictable, not at all what I expected.