Book Review I DID IT FOR YOU Amy Engle

Thank you to the author Amy Engle, publishers Dutton and Penguin Group, and as always NetGalley, for an advance audio copy of I DID IT FOR YOU.



I've been getting more into crime novels, but I need a really creative human connection in the narrative in order to enjoy them. Selections in this genre tend to come in close to a killer's mentality from the human side, rather than the horror side, which can be uncomfortable for me for two reasons.

First, when a killer is written from a horror framework, it puts a great deal of idealogial distance between the reader and the killer. The book's own opinion is that the reader and the killer are very different kinds of people. Crime novels, on the other hand, when their killers are written from this human place, close the distance between the reader and the killer. I most enjoy crime novels that exploit this proximity in clever and creative ways, expecially if they cause me to exercise empathy in new way.

I DID IT FOR YOU does that--causes me to exercise empathy in news ways.

Also, Engle closes the gap between the reader and killer in another way, in showing how few degrees of seperation lay beween a killer and the main character, whose perspective the reader shares during the duration of the book. Any decent writer exploits this truth to point out the mortal vulnerability in being so close to a killer. But a creative author knows how to exploit the underlying vulnerability in such closeness-- makes us remeber that we might once or forever love a killer.

I DID IT FOR YOU does this too, it's suspenseful, making us wonder the whole time about the violent capacities of the main character herself and every person she touches.

I also love that Engel includes a satisfying romance subplot without making it either cheesy or wholly toxic. I found the development authentic to both characters' trajectories and it took the story to such interesting places.

I think this book officially made me love the crime genre!

Rating: 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣 / 5 dark secrets
Recommend? Absolutely!
Finished: June 23 2023
Format: Advance Digital, NetGalley 
Read this if you like:
🩸 Crime thrillers
🩸 Stories about violence
🩸 Small town murder myths
🩸 Main characters with traumatic pasts
🩸 Suspense and mystery

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