Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker

 

A pretty weird, pretty grim novel--grim because it's about a pretty horrific (and pathetic) crime; weird because of how it's told: The narrative conceit of the novel is that all the characters are being interviewed, but apparently are being told what everyone else is saying. There are stretches where the characters feel as though they are talking to each other via the interviewer, which is ... a bit odd. The conceit also makes for a really fragmented POV, and ends up playing the unreliable-narrator game several times over. It says some unpleasant things about true crime as a genre, and about the Internet (especially social media) but there are some things that feel a bit anachronistic and there are some other stretches that lead me to believe Mr. Sweren-Becker maybe drove through Frederick, Maryland, once--and maybe that's not enough to set a novel with such a specific idea of its setting in a place. Very much worth the read, if you either feel you're not the target or don't mnd being targeted.