3/5 stars
You'd Look Better as a Ghost, by Joanna Wallace (2023)
TW: Child abuse, elder abuse, and. a lot of murder
I'm very on the fence between 2 and 3 stars here. It reminded me of the TV series called You, which follows a charming but sociopathic (obviously) serial killer, that you're sort of supposed to be rooting for even though he's awful. I watched the first two seasons, then got tired of the premise and haven't watched seasons 3 & 4. Similarly, I liked this book and thought it was a fun ride, but also disturbing, and I wouldn't want to spend any more time with the main character (so if there's to be a sequel - which is left open - I'm not interested).
Anti-hero Claire, the main character, is a serial killer. Plain and simple. When first we meet her she is at her father's funeral - someone she was actually very close to and loved. But it becomes clear pretty quickly that she completely lacks any social skills, and has a very warped sense of justice. Having submitted her artwork for an award/artist's residency, she receives an email saying she's been accepted, only to see a few hours later that the email was sent in error. She tracks down the sender at a bar, seduces, and then murders him - because how dare he make such a mistake and say he's sorry when he's clearly not sorry. But someone is watching Claire, and soon she gets caught up in a blackmail campaign as she continues to kill (but, ya know, only people that piss her off), while also trying to figure out who knows about her secret.
The most compelling parts of the book to me were actually the flashback chapters where we learn more about her upbringing - her mother, father, and what she was like as a child. I thought the backstory was more interesting than present-day, though I also think we were supposed to feel sorry for her because she had a crappy childhood, and that tactic didn't really work for me as a reader - partly because it's pretty clear that she has always been incapable of emotion and empathy, whether or not her mother was verbally abusive.
I don't think Claire is as charming as she's meant to be to make her root-for-able to the reader, and the book doesn't have enough humor to be a dark comedy. Dark? Absolutely. Comedic? No.
Also? One of the blurbs I read made it seem like this was a little more fantastical - that Claire could literally see a person's ghost before she killed them. That's not the case, which was disappointing, because that would have added an element of interest that was lacking.
UP NEXT: What the River Knows, by Isabel Ibañez
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