How to Kill Men and Get Away With It by Katy Brent (Review by Julie Ramhold)

Rating: 5*

Let me start by saying that I think every woman should read this book. I knew when I read the dedication it would be something special:
This is for every woman who has ever walked home with her keys between her fingers. And for my mum, who has always shown me what it means to be a strong woman.

And it turned out not to just be something special, but to blow away my expectations. From the synopsis I figured it would be a somewhat humorous read, with some serious subjects mixed in (trigger warning: misogyny, rape, sexual assault, pedophilia (brief description of incident with a 15 year old), and violence towards people and a couple of instances of animals because of Kitty’s money coming from meat processing), but I did not expect the rollercoaster of emotions. Maybe it’s because most women have been in one of these situations, whether it was feeling uncomfortable because of some attention we didn’t ask for, or worst of all, rape or sexual assault, or both. Whatever it was, Katy Brent does an amazing job of portraying the raw emotions women feel from fear to shame to fury so well that you’ll feel it right along with Kitty. There are no apologies for the monsters in this book – they all get exactly what they deserve, right down the very last one. Kitty describes herself as a bit like Dexter – after all, she’s finding these horrible men and making them pay and making the world a safer place in the meantime. She does get a bit reckless, which of course comes back to bite her, but it’s nice to see that Kitty isn’t an infallible judge, jury, and executioner – she can make mistakes, too. But she also tries to atone for them.

I will say that since the core group of main characters is a bunch of rich people who are influencers, some of them can seem intolerable at times – just vapid and shallow – but there actually ends up being much more to them. Tor for example is such a lovely friend and so strong. And Maisie, who’s a bit shallow, ends up finding her person and having a really lovely relationship and growing up by at least a little by the end of the book. Even Hen has more to her story, and she’s basically a nepo baby with a dad who’s a music mogul. I also really love the fact that Kitty doesn’t necessarily like all the fame and attention – she kind of prefers to be a bit of a loner and she’s nice to her fans, but she also basically only continues to be an influencer in order to make money. She refuses to touch her family’s money because it’s all from meat processing, and after seeing the abattoirs at a young age, she’s vegan. She literally doesn’t want blood money, but in the end she puts it to good use.

And as for the aspect of who’s stalking Kitty throughout, well, it adds an excellent element of mystery to the whole thing. The book can be very intense and with some scenes I definitely forgot about the stalker for a second, but whenever they came up, I was constantly wondering just who it could be and trying to figure it out. The conclusion to the whole thing is amazingly satisfying, and makes so much sense. There was zero disappointment in the reveal – it was just so well done! This whole book was just an incredible read, and Katy definitely left it open for more of Kitty’s story in the future and I sincerely hope she writes more – I would love to see more of Kitty and her friends.