Book source ~ Chirp

John Wayne Cleaver is a 15-year-old boy who grew up in a mortuary. Ok, not literally, he and his family live in the apartment above the mortuary. His mom, dad, and aunt are morticians and he started helping as a kid. John is obsessed with serial killers so when mysterious deaths start happening in his small home town he’s nearly beside himself with curiosity. But it’s not what he thinks. It’s not what anyone thinks.

This is a scary yet fascinating story told from a teenager’s POV. A teenager who is diagnosed as a sociopath. His therapist is pretty good, but if John had actually told him about the “monster” in his head who talks to him then I believe, along with being a sociopath, he would also be diagnosed as schizophrenic. Because my son had a monster in his head telling him to hurt us, but he would self harm instead. Once we had a proper diagnosis and he was put on meds the voice was silenced. I couldn’t help but compare John and my son even though my son is definitely not a sociopath. Anyway, back to the story…

John is an interesting character. He is highly intelligent, but is fixated on serial killers. He has one friend and gets bullied, so he’s basically an outcast even though he tries to act “normal” and not draw attention to himself. Then a murder happens. And another. John’s attention is well and truly caught by the unusual circumstances. Good thing, too, because his observations are what ends up saving his town.

I’m not a fan of his mom. I mean, instead of being supportive and actually listening to John, she worries about all the wrong things. When my son was going through what we thought were anger issues and then the schizoaffective diagnosis, I listened to him. I got him therapy. I tried to understand. I helped regulate his meds. I did what I’m supposed to do, be a mom. She is more like, why can’t you be a normal kid? Go do this and do that and just be normal. Damn, bitch. How about actually listening to him? How about accepting him as he is? Anyway, I like her more in the end, but it shouldn’t have taken what happened for her to finally get her head out of her ass. All-in-all this is a creepy story. It’s sticking with me so I’ll probably check out the rest of the series at some point. ( )

WOW. This is one of the very few books I have read with a truly unique main character. It was fascinating to see how John would wrestle with himself to do what is right even when everything in him was telling him to give in to his instincts. I also liked how John was still in high school, trying to get through the school years while having the issues that he had.
It was more than just John as a character though. All of the characters were so well-developed.
I was not expecting the paranormal elements, but it was so well done. It was adequately creepy and had me up late into the night.
On to the next book now.

5 Stars

Note: This is not for sensitive readers if bodies bother you. It was the most descriptive book I have ever read. ( )

This story is told from a 15 year old's point of view. He's a psychopath/sociopath obsessed with serial killers. He lives at home above the mortuary his mom owns. There's great detail in the embalming & body processing as he helps her & his aunt. There's murders happening in the town & he's trying to figure what kind of killer it is. The story turns supernatural which took me longer to read it. It's an OK book. I won't continue with the rest of the series ( )

I really enjoyed this book. I was not expecting the supernatural twist since the blurb on the back doesn’t mention anything of the sort. I probably would have read it sooner if I knew that a demon was involved. ( )

I'm struggling between a 3.5 or 4 Stars. 4 Stars for the story but 3.5 for the actual writing etc. I'll go with a 3.75 rounded up to 4 Stars.

CW: Gruesome murder scenes, thoughts of killing, thoughts of animal cruelty, previous acts of animal cruelty, pyromania ( well he lights fires as a release instead of fulfilling his desire to kill), deaths of loved ones, described brutality, described preparation of bodies by mortician.

John is an expert on serial killers. He understands their motives, needs and methods. Why? Because he has all the markers to become one himself. He has been diagnosed with conduct disorder.

Sociopathy 101
A conduct disorder is a mental disorder diagnosed in childhood or adolescence that basically means they display some quite anti-social behaviour. If the behaviour continues until after the age of 18 they may be diagnosed with 'anti-social personality disorder' which is sometimes called sociopathy. A sociopath is a manipulative person who basically doesn't care about other people's feelings or what is 'right' or 'wrong'. They show almost no guilt or remorse for any of their actions. I believe a psychopath is the one that has zero empathy.
Disclaimer: I just googled the above and have no expertise or qualifications on this topic. This is just a basic summary of a group of very complex mental disorders.

I thought it was important to look at a rough definition of conduct disorder because we are included in all of John's innermost thoughts about death and how much delight he takes in thinking about the process of killing someone. He gives some quite vivid descriptions of his fantasies. That being said this was definitely YA fiction. Whilst there are some gruesome scenes the voice is distinctly adolescent. I know some people have drawn comparisons to the 'I Hunt Killers' series by Barry Lyga, but I think the John Cleaver series is a lot less sinister and dark. Seriously, I was traumatised by book 3 of 'I Hunt Killers.'

I love stories where inherently 'bad' people struggle against their inner demons and this is a fine example of that. The very fact that John is in fact struggling with his urges and trying to suppress them shows us that he may not develop into a fully blown sociopath or psychopath. I liked the tension created by the author as John draws closer to the inevitable showdown between two twisted minds. I do think the lack of empathy thing was a bit laboured at points. I know this was being highlighted so we could really understand the inner turmoil he faced as he tried to stick to the rules he had set for himself to control his murderous urges, but there was a lot of repetition of this idea. I loved his coping strategy of saying nice things to people he wanted to hurt. It made for some lighter moments.

Can John control his figurative inner demons in order kill the literal demon terrorizing his town with gruesome murders?

A gritty thriller with a demonic twist. ( )