Kill Creatures / Rory Power / Book Review

KILL CREATURES

The last person Nan expects to show up to the anniversary vigil is Luce. It's Luce's vigil, after all. She went missing, along with Edie and Jane, a year ago. She's been missing this whole time. Everybody thought they died out in the canyon. Everybody knew that to be true, even without the bodies.

Especially their best friend Nan. Because Nan's the one who killed them.

But with Luce suddenly back, Nan's whole reality gets tilted. She was ready to say her final goodbyes. She was ready to wipe her tears away, to hug their families a final farewell. She was ready to put this past year, and all the lies she told with it, behind her. In the face of everyone's joy at Luce's return, Nan feels something... worse. Because she knows those girls were dead, and Luce was first.

THOUGHTS

The atmosphere of this book is immersive, but aside from that, this book didn't really come together for me. It had great building blocks but no coherent picture in the end. And that was a real disappointment, because I usually adore Rory Power books. Just not this one.

PROS

Unapologetic	I really do appreciate a character who makes her choices and sticks with them. And Nan has definitely made some choices. She's pretty up front, right off the bat, about the fact that she's done away with her friends. She's sat with that fact--and that secret--for a good year now, and she doesn't regret it. And I can appreciate a character that steadfast in what she resolved to do.
Sneaking Realization	The backbone of this book is a series of revelations that are not so much shocking as unsettling. They're not shocking because, as a reader, the signs and the symptoms are there, slowly building up throughout the book. It's a sneaking sense of where this book is going, but you don't want it to go to these places. You don't want these twists to happen, and so even though they're not so much a "twist" by the time you get to them, that sneaking realization of what's happening behind the scenes only adds to the atmosphere that Rory Power does so well.
Evocative Setting	As always, Rory Power is a master of evocative settings. This book is no different. Reading a Rory Power book is like being in this landscape right alongside the characters, and her landscapes are always so unique, so different from everything else on the market. This book builds a flooded canyon out of red sandstone, and it fills it with skeletons, literal and figurative. And this flooded desert landscape feels so alive for something so rotten and barren.

CONS

I really do like a well-executed novella. Packing a punch in so few pages is a real talent. Unfortunately, this book was only hindered by its lack of pages. I don't know. I just didn't get enough on the page to get invested, to get stuck in with these characters and their twists. I hardly knew them by the time the book was over, and without that investment, I just didn't care too much about what happened and why.	Too Short
The jealous lesbian is a trope that I don't particularly like, and unfortunately, this book toes right around the edges of that sad archetype. Though this book does contain more nuance than others that rely on this trope, I still didn't like it. Not with the current political climate toward the LGBTQ+ community. It's bad representation, representation that doesn't really represent anything based in reality, and I didn't like it. Sure, Nan's not jealous of her straight best friend here, but it gets too close for comfort, making a sapphic lead that's primarily defined by jealousy.	Jealous Lesbian
While I did really enjoy the creeping sense of foreboding this book toys with, of the three "twists" at the end, well, only two really worked for me. Don't get me wrong. They were all... fine. But one on top of the other, and without otherwise being invested in the characters, I just didn't really care. I don't want to spoil what twists take place (or which one didn't stick the landing for me), because here is not the place for plots to be spoiled. Just know I was uninvested and disappointed.	Twisted Twists

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5/10

Fans of Courtney Gould's Where Echoes Die will like trekking out into the desert in search of secrets better left buried. Those who enjoyed Rory Power's Burn Our Bodies Down will like a new, evocative setting from the same author.

Details Publisher: Delacorte Press Date: June 3, 2025 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.