Ever imagined what the world would be like if a person you ceased to exist? The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts, trains its students to make these dreams reality. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League” college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.

Props to this book for its originality and wit! The story was so unique and I was really hooked by the premise. The book started out really strong and I enjoyed the portions of the book that took place at McMasters. The writing was light, sarcastic, and funny. I think where I got a bit lost was once the students depart the school to execute their these (pun intended); the narratives became disjointed and many of the methods employed were a bit roundabout and hard to follow.  Some of the details that went in to explaining each student’s thesis and its execution felt a bit superfluous and the chapters jumped from character to character, making it hard to follow who was who and what was happening to each character. I would love a book that explored the school and its teachers a bit more, maybe an origin story, as McMasters to me was the best part of this book.