Friday’s Five Reasons Why to Read Killer Instinct & Killer Within by S. E. Green

Posted 26 June, 2015 by Danny in Blog, Book Review, Danny, Danny's Book Review / 1 Comment

Published by Simon & Schuster, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Simon Pulse Genres: Mystery and Suspense, Thriller, Thrillers, Young Adult
Source: Publisher

Killer Instinct & Killer Within

by S. E. Green

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Released: May 6th 2014 and May 19th 2015 by Simon Pulse

Killer Instinct

She’s not evil, but she has certain… urges.

Lane is a typical teenager. Loving family. Good grades. Afterschool job at the local animal hospital. Martial arts enthusiast. But her secret obsession is studying serial killers. She understands them, knows what makes them tick.

Why?

Because she might be one herself.

Lane channels her dark impulses by hunting criminals—delivering justice when the law fails. The vigilantism stops shy of murder. But with each visceral rush the line of self-control blurs.
And then a young preschool teacher goes missing. Only to return… in parts.

When Lane excitedly gets involved in the hunt for “the Decapitator,” the vicious serial murderer that has come to her hometown, she gets dangerously caught up in a web of lies about her birth dad and her own dark past. And once the Decapitator contacts Lane directly, Lane knows she is no longer invisible or safe. Now she needs to use her unique talents to find the true killer’s identity before she—or someone she loves—becomes the next victim…

Killer Within

In the heart-pounding sequel, teen vigilante Lane must face the secrets and unexpected consequences that arise in the wake of her first kill.

It’s been three months since the sadistic Decapitator’s demise, and Lane feels both closer to and more alienated than ever from her united, grieving family. Haunted by conflicting memories, she resumes the role of Masked Savior vigilante—but her heart just isn’t in it. For Lane now knows the rush of deeper thrills. Darker thrills. And a growing part of her wants to revisit its seductive power.

To Lane’s chagrin, the Masked Savior inspires its own fan site, where groupies gather online to praise, document, and debate each delivered act of justice. But then one of Lane’s secret admirers becomes a cunning copycat, assaulting the defenseless with escalating violence. And Lane suspects someone is spying on her, edging closer to making contact-someone who knows her secrets.

Will Lane be able to stop the copycat and keep her identity protected? Or will she give in to the thrills that tempt her? Because as her life continues to unravel, the revelations shake Lane to her core

Murder, Serial Killers and a young girl in the middle! I truly like to read YA thrillers and also have a weird fascination with serial killers (in the literary world of course..) so these two books truly were right up my alley, and I#d like to give you my Top 5 Reasons why you should pick up Lane’s Story!

Such an unusual YA main characters! Seriously, Lane is unlike any other character I’ve meet before! You must understand that the story surrounds Lane having some dark urges and that she is highly fascinated with Serial Killers up to the point where she thinks about how it would be killing herself. Oh yes, you read this right! Lane truly has a unusual personality and often it’s not easy to connect with her as she is so emotionally detached from everything and quite frankly, it’s hard for us to connect with someone that has killing urges, but in her core Lane is a good girl, so we ethically are allowed to like her after all.. 🙂 There are a few scenes which disturbed me on a emotional level, especially when Lane didn’t show any (what we would consider) normal feelings, like for instance seeing a murder (and quite a brutal one) on video.

Despite her emotional shortcoming, Lane also has a softer side and it’s been wonderful to see! Of course, Lane also has a softer side, especially with her family and with some animals and I loved seeing a softer Lane. It made her more real and I especially loved her adoration for her little brother! I wish though that her softer side would have also transported a little more into the romantic department, yet this didn’t work so well for Lane and I found that really sad. Maybe finding a Boy she could connect on a romantic level would have helped her with her emotions. so I was sad to see that this didn’t work out so well…

Oh some twists! Oh some Unexpected Events! I guess one of the most important elements in a thriller are surprising twists you wouldn’t see coming and we will get quite a few here! Yes, it’s a murder mystery and it’s to be expected, yet not very often the final revelation shocked me so much! I think the twists in the first book – Killer Instinct was even better than in the second book, but both managed to play with our minds and made our heads turn!

An Author going a highly brave route here... This point goes back to Lane’s character, but I truly think she’s the driving force of this story. I felt that S.E. Green really did a brave way in describing and developing Lane here. I also recently had an Interview with her, where we chatted a little bit about this, because I think it was not easy to develop a character (and such a young one ) that has so many dark thoughts and is so detached from all normal emotions. But still, she managed to make us still like Lane, and I guess this is the biggest accomplishment for such a set up!

Highly Disturbing Scenes made this thriller truly… thrilling! I admit that I can never watch psycholical thrillers, or murder scenes in TV or movies. I am usually the one with the pillow and the hands on her ears. I’m better with reading such scenes and this is also why I often like YA thrillers as they are less graphic than adult ones. Well, I thought wrong! S.E. Green does not hold back here and we have to go through quite a few brutal and disturbing scenes that definitely made me unconformable. But then again, this is what you want in such a book and she did an fantastic job finding the right balance here! Still, these are definitely books for older teens!