Skip to main content

I HUNT KILLERS by Barry Lyga



copyright date: April 2012
primarily marketed for: young adults (high school)

I’m just going to put this out there:  I like books about death.  I didn’t know this about myself as a reader until my students this year pointed out how many of the books I booktalk (basically all of them) involve someone who died or someone who is dying.

I am not sure if that is just a me thing, or if that is a common thread in books since it is such a major part of life and conflict.  I’d like to think it is the latter.

At any rate, I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga, is obviously my kind of book—it is quality literature with sophisticated vocabulary, and it is about death.  Jasper Dent, known as Jazz, is a teenager who is struggling to overcome the odds, to say the least.  His father, Billy Cornelius Dent, is the most infamous serial killer, with victims totaling triple digits. 

Since his father’s arrest, Jazz has had to care for his grandmother while convincing the social worker that his grandmother is competent enough to care for him.  He’s also had to fight the demons of his past—the memories, his father’s voice in his head, and the legacy of murder his father left him with. 

When dead bodies start showing up again in his small town, Jazz becomes obsessed with finding the person who is responsible.  He enlists the help of his best friend and girlfriend.  Even if it means run-ins with law enforcement, increasing his own suspicion, facing his fears and confronting danger, Jazz is determined to stop the killing. 

This is a gripping story, but it pulls no punches.  It is graphic and gory and chilling.  It will make your skin crawl.  It is the most delicious of murder mysteries and it is the stuff nightmares are made of.  Do not read I Hunt Killers when you are home alone. 

Reading Threads:
What Daddy Did by Neal Shusterman
Counterfeit Son by Elaine Marie Alphin
Wish You Were Dead by Todd Strasser (thrillogy)
Labels:

Comments

  1. Linda BJuly 10, 2012 at 8:11 AM

    Sounds very creepy, but good! There are those who will eat this up, I'm sure Christy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 19, 2012 at 1:35 PM

    Just finished completion of reading this book. I must say, Barry Lyga has one creative, artistic, yet eerie mind. He drew me in with the simple phrase on the cover; 'What if the world's most notorious serial killer...was your dad?' I had immediately jumped into reading the novel, and enjoyed it to the very end. I must admit that it did get a bit flat and boring the first few chapters, but as soon as I hit chapter five the story went into rapid fire. Quite a book, quite a book.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green

You knew it was coming.  How could I not share?  EVERYONE MUST READ JOHN GREEN’S LATEST WORK OF ART: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS .  Throughout my life (well, at least from 4 th grade, when I was introduced to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl until now, the 7 th month of my 34 th year of noticing the universe) the name ‘Augustus’ immediately evoked an image of a chubby, stubborn, chocolate-loving boy, doted upon by his mother, with the last name of Gloop.  The name ‘Augustus’ made me giggle about this character’s gluttonous follies inside the chocolate factory. Until reading John Green’s beloved new book The Fault in Our Stars . From now on, the name ‘Augustus’ will forever evoke an entirely different image and an entirely different set of emotions.  A casually hot, lean, limping ‘Augustus Waters’ has forever replaced the ‘Augustus’ of the book I treasured as a child—an unlit cigarette held loosely between his lips.  A longing sigh ...
9 comments
Read more

A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness (inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd and illustrated by Jim Kay)

“Every time the monster moved, Conor could hear the creak of wood groaning and yawning in the monster’s huge body.” In her review for the New York Times , Jessica Bruder refers to A Monster Calls as, “A story that lodges in your bones and stays there.”  This, I believe, is an understatement.  I am afraid my words, mere pixels on the screen, cannot begin to honor how truly special this book is. From his words in the Author’s Note, Patrick Ness held me spellbound.  Siobhan Dowd had developed an idea for a book about a monster and a boy whose mom had cancer.  Breast cancer cut her life short and she was unable to finish her story.  Patrick Ness, when asked to craft something from the seed of a story Dowd left behind said, “…the thing about ideas is that they grow other ideas.”  And so, A Monster Calls was born out of Dowd’s seed and Ness’s nurturing. I suppose a book with that kind of conception was bound to be incredible, but I am sure not even ...
7 comments
Read more

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE by Jonathan Safran Foer

copyright date: 2005 primarily marketed for: adults Extremely Loud andIncredibly Close is the grown-up book that made me fall in love with grown-up books again.   Or, at least made me open to reading them after years of sticking solely to young adult literature (aka Good Literature).    This book arrived on my doorstep as a surprise gift from a friend I’ve known since second grade, which made it that much sweeter.    I can’t decide whether to be excited or disappointed that this book is being turned into a movie now.   Everyone needs to know this story- it is incredible!   I just can’t imagine the movie possibly doing the depth and layers and format of the story justice.   One of my favorite qualities of the book is the way pages of images are smattered throughout the story. The images are jarring the way that they interrupt the story, and yet they are perfect in the way that they enhance the story—deepen my thinking as a reader. ...
6 comments
Read more