I am not a serial killer
by Dan Wells · first published 2010
50% recommend50% neutral
John Wayne Cheever keeps his obsession with serial killers in check by a set of rigid rules that he lives by, hoping to the prevent himself from committing murder, but when a body turns up behind a laundromat, John must confront a danger outside himself.
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…Dennis E. Taylor is a great fun read or audiobook (I've done both!). The Xandri Corelel[3] series by Kaia Sønderby. I read both books and immediately started looking around to see if there were more. I Am Not a Serial Killer[4] by Dan Wells was an enjoyable surprise. The Martian and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Of older vintage that I find I've revisited over the years are: The Chrysalids[5] by John Wyndham. The White…
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite fiction book?” ↗…Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard would probably have to be rated my favourite for the year. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25667916-barsk Horror: Not really a horror fan, but stumbled into the I Am Not a Serial Killer series by accident a few years ago and love it. Read the forth and fifth in the series this year. If you’re more a psychological thriller than horror fan, give it a go anyway. (Shame about the awful movie…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗…Barsk by Lawrence M. Schoen for making me care about anthropomorphic elephants. Children of Time and Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky for almost making me care about non-anthropomorphic spiders. I Am Not a Serial Killer and sequels by Dan Wells for tricking me into reading a horror novel when I at first thought it was a thriller, but really enjoying it anyway. The Lost Man by Jane Harper for being similar but so far…
on “Ask HN: What Are You Reading?” ↗…Called Empire by Arkady Martine than others are, and don't feel the need to tackle the second in the series. I also revisited the John Cleaver horror series by Dan Wells that starts with the excellent I Am Not a Serial Killer. I've just started Slow Gods by Claire North. I find her books a bit hit and miss for me but so far, so good. I absolutely love The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, and Touch was also quite good,…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗…Trilogy) by Robin Hobb -- One of my favorite series of all time.. I cried! - Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly -- A spy thriller set in a Vaudeville-era secondary world. Burlesque! Spies! Politics! - I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells -- Title says it all, really... - The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin -- Fascinating series... - All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anderson -- A mix of sci-fi/fantasy set…
on “Top Fantasy Series to battle quarantine boredom” ↗…with the first book being THE LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA. The series is unfinished, sadly, but the way the stories are structured, you don't really miss it. LIES is one of my favorite books ever - Dan Wells' I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER follows a sociopathic kid named John Cleaver who... well, he's not a serial killer but he kinda wants to be. And it turns out he can hunt demons. Horror stories, but very well done. The series is complete.…
on “Sanderson shares intimate details about contracting with publishing industry” ↗…Saga and The Orion War series. Haven't ventured into the other offshoots as yet. The Dome Trilogy[2] was also pretty good, as are the Rho Agenda series[3][4][5]. And if you prefer horror to sci-fi, the I Am Not a Serial Killer series[6] was very good overall, although I thought it lost some steam in the last two books. And finally, The Rosie Project[7] was so completely charming I ended up reading it straight through in one…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2017?” ↗…Saga and The Orion War series. Haven't ventured into the other offshoots as yet. The Dome Trilogy[2] was also pretty good, as are the Rho Agenda series[3][4][5]. And if you prefer horror to sci-fi, the I Am Not a Serial Killer series[6] was very good overall, although I thought it lost some steam in the last two books. And finally, The Rosie Project[7] was so completely charming I ended up reading it straight through in one…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2017?” ↗…representative of the whole, hence the addition of a prologue to give the audience a sense of what's to come in later chapters. As an example of what can happen when an author doesn't do this, Dan Wells' I Am Not A Serial Killer is about a teenager who works in a mortuary and investigates a series of brutal deaths around his town, and discovers that the killer is actually a millennia-old monster. The supernatural reveal doesn't…
on “Read first pages of novels, and reveal the author and title if you're hooked” ↗…podcast [0]. The podcast was started by Brandon Sanderson (he wrote the Mistborn series as well as The Stormlight Archive), Howard Tayler (he made the webcomic Schlock Mercenary), and Dan Wells (he wrote I Am Not a Serial Killer). The episodes are on the short side (15 minutes), but I find that it strikes a nice balance between feeding you information and giving you something to ruminate over. There are 5 hosts in the current…
on “Ask HN: YouTube/Podcast Recommendations” ↗…a teenager and thirty years later still re-read. Others I’ve re-read recently are: * Camouflage [5] * The Green And the Gray [6] * The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August [7] * The Martian [8] * I Am Not A Serial Killer series [9] I plan to re-read in the near future: * Touch [10] * The Hollow City [11] * Pulling Up Stakes [12] Yes, I read a lot. [13] --- [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50851.Farmer_in_the_Sky…
on “Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?” ↗