I'm very lukewarm on this one.
I generally adore serial killers. Fictional ones atleast. This one? Not so much.

Where do I even start?
What about the mystical imaginary fog that Cordelia sees in peoples eyes that confirms they're predators? A peculiar trait that seemed a little supernatural but is probably only an extreme case of delusion from Cordelia's part. The first half of this book was so hyperfocused on this, just for it to completely vanish and not even get mentioned in the second half.

How about how Cordelia keeps repeating the same key points about her past? The book could easily be 100 pages less if we just cut that fat. I don't need to be told three or four times that it was "Mama's boyfriend Tim.." that taught her how to use a knife.

Or how about how incredible inconsistent this story was? Cordelia was set up as being super focused on being in control, and in planning everything down to the last detail. And being smarter than the monsters. And, obviously, the story is about how everything unravels when things start not going according to plans. But the things that were going wrong seemed so obvious. Like, of course the single person that deals with your dead bodies might get compromised. What do you do then? It's bizarre to me that Cordelia never considered it. You might add this to Cordelia being delusional but it felt more like a plothole.

I'm also pretty sure that Joanie's identity was meant to be a twist but it was rather obvious who Joanie was from the start.

There is also a whole relationship with a cop that was investigating her murders that just vanished toward the end. They kiss, and then done. No calls. No text. Not even an mention of ghosting or anything. He just vanishes from the story without any additional details. The last scene with him even had Cordelia being sad that the kiss wasn't-that-great because she still needed intel from him.

The only thing I really liked about this book is Diane and her kid. Okay, Diane should put more faith in her best friend and her kid. Neither liked her new boyfriend and she refused to listen or see that. But, she wanted her happy ending and that probably made her ignore some red flags. Who haven't been there?

I loved the friendship there. And I loved Diane's reaction at the end. But Cordelia was a story of someone who was extremely delusional yet the author completely ignored any opportunity to lean into an unreliable narrator plotline which made the entire thing feel bland, obvious and predictable.

I thank Netgalley for giving me this oppertunity to review the book. I'm sad I didn't enjoy it more.