Goodreads synopsis: What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad?
Jasper "Jazz" Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.
But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could—from the criminal's point of view.
And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod.
In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret—could he be more like his father than anyone knows?
My rating: 3 stars.
Content warnings: R. Graphic violence, discussion of rape, and a scattered obsession with sex.
Thoughts: It took me longer than I expected it to before I was really invested in this book, and that was slightly disappointing. For the first several chapters, it seemed like a standard, teen crime fare, and the truth of Jazz's upbringing didn't seem to affect him much, like it really should have. But eventually that did come around, and the rest of it was good enough I can forgive this book the slow start because it did get to somewhere worthwhile.
I did also keep opening this book up and expecting it to be in first person narration. The fact that it was in third was somewhat jarring most of the way through. And that comes from someone who usually doesn't notice if a book is in first or third, so I'm not sure why that is. But maybe because I originally accused the book of being an "I Am Not A Serial Killer" knockoff (I take that back (somewhat)) but for whatever reason, it felt odd to have this book be in third person and not first. But it doesn't really change much once you get past it.
The surrounding characters though were what made the book great. Connie, and especially Howie and his fantastic personality. I do have a lot of appreciation for how an aspect of Connie's character was handled in the book too. I noticed something about her from the beginning that stuck in the back of my mind, and made me wonder about it in relation to Jazz's upbringing. I didn't expect the book to be aware enough to realize or comment on it, but near the end there was a moment when Jazz admits to himself the thing that I had been wondering about for the entire book. And the book being that aware of its characters and what it was doing there really impressed me with how the writer knew and chose to handle it.
It wasn't entirely a surprising ending, but for what it was doing, I don't think it needed to be. The focus was more on Jazz and his coming to terms with himself and what his past was, as well as what his future could be, not necessarily the mystery itself. So the killer served their purpose and didn't detract from that, but at some times even played into those self discoveries too.
(spoilers below)
But in the end, I think the story worked against itself in a way I can't really get behind. The line between glorifying killers and having a killer in your story as a force of evil to be fought against should be pretty clear. Admittedly it gets murkier when a killer is the main character's father. But there still should be a line.
And there was. Jazz even went so far as to meet his father, and managed to out think the man in the meeting while searching for answers about the killer. But then. Oh dear, but then.
I think having Jazz's father escape went a little too far. The book tried to make it look dire, like eventually Jazz would have to face his own father outside of the safety of a prison, and bring the man down. I can truly understand why it might have been done, and how it could have been seen as raising the stakes for the sequel that would obviously happen. But it didn't feel right to me. In the end, that's not how it came across, and it was giving the book world's worst killer an out, and more or less a free pass to continue committing gristly crimes for the sake of "story." There are plenty of ways the stakes could have been raised, Jazz could have continued with his newfound purpose and he could continue to fight against what his father wanted and wanted him to be. Unfortunately, that's not how it came out, and it makes me uncomfortable to think about the sequels with that element now added.
All in all it was enjoyable to read. But it had enough flaws, especially in the way the ending theme was presented, that I'm not sure I feel like looking into the sequels just yet.
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