Kill Creatures is a chilling and atmospheric story that grips from the very first page. When Nan’s best friends vanish into Saltcedar Canyon and only one returns a year later, the mystery intensifies – especially since Nan is convinced they were dead. Because she killed them.

Rory Power delivers a fast-paced tale threaded with secrets, buried guilt and simmering rage. Nan is a compelling narrator, raw and guarded, her voice laced with dread and grief. The return of one of the girls sets off a spiralling chain of questions and revelations, with the truth lurking somewhere in the shadows of their shared past.

The story is laced with tension, gothic touches and creeping dread. Power crafts a vivid, unsettling setting that mirrors the murky emotional territory her characters are forced to navigate. It’s a book about friendship twisted by jealousy, loyalty tested by fear and the haunting cost of keeping the truth buried.

With echoes of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and Gone Girl, this is a dark and immersive read that keeps its secrets until the final, shocking moment. Unsettling, sharp and unforgettable.

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A strange, but rather entertaining read!

I didn’t know exactly what to expect going into this book except that it was a YA thriller. I have read another Rory Power book, and they definitely have the same obscure, fast-paced style, which I actually really enjoy.

The twists just kept coming with this one, and I managed to devour it in pretty much one sitting, which is always nice.

While the writing style itself wasn’t completely for me, it was easy to read and kept me hooked.

Overall, a fast, interesting read.

A fun reading experience from start to finish. Intriguing story, characters that will appeal to all reads and action packed twists and turns.

This was a gripping read, with so many twists and turns. I wasn’t sure where this would head. It’s dark, engaging with thriller elements. I will advise there are some trigger warnings

The stories focus is on Nan, a 17 year old that was the only survivor when her three best friends are all murdered the previous year. However on the anniversary tribute to the three girls something happens unexpectedly, Luce suddenly returns with suspected amnesia. This throws everything into a spin, the case reopens and not everything is quite a simple as Nan has made out. Is she a victimless sole survivor or is Nan hiding something deeper.

I am not going to spoil this as this is a dark story with trigging themes, Nan is a great character. The story is set all in first person and you can really see her mind unfolding between the now and then perspective. But can you fully trust her perspective is the real question.

You learn snippets of the other two girls as well as Luce. Which leads to the climatic confrontation, there are so many secrets and other stories playing in the background. You don’t know it’s happening until after it’s happened. The twists are honestly so good.

Really enjoyable read, you won’t want to put this down. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this prior to release on the 5th June.

Kill Creatures is a dark, twisty YA thriller that dives into messed-up friendships, secrets, and peak summer vibes.

Nan, the main character, is super unreliable and unlikable but watching her spiral was oddly fun. She's annoying and not someone I would want to be friends with (lol), but that's what makes her so interesting to follow.

The big plot twist? Yeah, it's not too hard to see coming. But Rory Power keeps the tension high and the pages turning, and even if you guess what's coming, you'll still want to know how it all goes down.

If you're into books with messy characters, this one's definitely worth a read.

Thank you to Scholastic UK and Netgalley for approving me to read this book, I’m rating it 4.25 stars.

Rory Power remains an auto-read author! This book kept me hooked and it was a whirlwind of twists. The story our FMC has woven regarding what happened to her friends becomes unraveled as the truth comes to light in the form of Luce, the girl she thought was dead. The ending was wild and the epilogue even more so, it makes you realise you never really know someone, it’s enlightening and scary.

I really enjoy a good YA mystery thriller and this delivered that so well, in fact I finished this in one day. This kept me engaged and intrigued throughout the whole book.
The major hook of this story is one year after her three best friends disappeared, presumed dead; Nan is preparing to say a final goodbye. Except one of the girls, Luce returns. However, Nan knows she should be dead, because she’s the one who killed them.
This hook is what kept me reading. What happened on that night? Why did Nan kill them? How is Luce alive? Why is she back now? So many questions!
Rory Powers drip feeds us information by switching back and forth from now to the past to see what the girls are up to. The reveals at the end are both satisfying and shocking. A truly fun summer read.

This is for all the lesbian losers out there 🤘🏽

It took me some time to get used to the first-person narration, but after that, I couldn’t put this book down. Nan is an amazing character to follow; you never guess where she’ll take you. She gives off so many unhinged vibes that you can’t help but be excited to see how far she will go.

Thank you Scholastic UK for the arc.

Ahhhh! This was an instant 5 star for me! I'm not gonna go into it too much, cause it's such a wild ride and I don't want to apologise anything.

BUT what I can say is that it's incredible! The characters are so well done, and feel so real! It's the kind of book I wanted to Google as I went along cause it felt like it could have been a real event!

I loved all the twists and turns that we went on and I absolutely devoured this!

Kill Creatures comes out in June, so go and get it ordered now cause this book is gonna be BIG!

Thank you to @netgalley and @scholastic_uk for the digital arc!

This is a well constructed, highly readable and atmospheric queer YA thriller. I liked the clear and memorable characterisation and the strong narrator voice as well as the sense of place.
There were some gasp moments but overall the twists felt a little predictable and heavily signposted but this didn't detract.
I thoroughly enjoyed this and tore through it in a day.

Rory Power has written some great YA horror fiction, including Wilder Girls (2019), which was featured in my YA Horror 400 almanac and Burn Our Bodies Down (2020) before a stylish sidestep into fantasy. In Kill Creatures Rory is in fine form, blending horror with strong elements of thriller and mystery. If you are after a book to keep you guessing, whilst doubling up as a cool page turner, then Kill Creatures hits every note. It is populated with great hooks and has terrific sense of ambiguity regarding the supernatural and is blessed with a highly engaging unreliable narrator, who comes across as very believable, but without going into spoilers, be careful what you believe. There are also some great twists, double twists even, and even if the police chief was pretty dumb I had great fun with this book.

This is mentioned in the blurb, so don’t see it as a spoiler, Kill Creatures opens a year after Nan killed her three best friends and the anniversary church service is about to begin. The story slowly circles back to when the four teenagers were out swimming in a remote area, meanwhile, one of the supposedly dead girls returns claiming to suffer from amnesia. What really happened? Who is telling the truth? All I’ll say is that there are secrets everywhere and do not trust anybody! The novel features LGBTQIA+ representation and a lot of f-bombs, otherwise most teens could read it. AGE RANGE 13-14+

Welp. This was certainly a strange book. Leaning more towards entertaining sort of strange, but there were just some things that hold it back.

I have been meaning to read Power's previous works for a while, but with this being my first, I didn't know what to expect. One thing I will say for certain is that Power is pretty great at creating a tense, mysterious atmosphere. The tension between Nan and Luce, the friend who came back from the dead, was dense, and you're questioning not only he friend and her motives but Nan's, as well, because of what she did to her and their friends. Nan is very unreliable, and her conflicting thoughts, on her love and hatred for her friends, make for interesting insight into her true role in this story. It got predictable, sure, but the pacing was determined to keep the story moving, its reader intrigued and desperate to devour the book in its entirety.

Unfortunately, there's a plot device that was very much contrived and annoying: Nan's memory loss / distortion. While unearthing these memories explained some things, such as why the relationships between the friends and Nan were so divided, it also left me questioning more than not. I was wondering why Nan became obsessed with Luce & co., but I think it was inferred that, as Luce's neighbor, Nan watched the other girl get/be everything she wanted from her isolated life across the street. She envied her as much as she wanted to be her. She only got that opportunity because the trio decided to "be nice" for the summer by letting her hang out with them. Again, this is all based off the crumbs the narrative hinted at. I do wish Nan's predicament/character before last summer was expanded on, and that memory loss wasn't the device Power used to conveniently hide crucial info until the big reveal at the end.

I don't know what to take from the story other than the brief entertainment it provided me. I did manage to fly through it in, like, two hours; Power's prose is short but snappy enough to make the reading go by very smoothly. I think anyone who likes small town mysteries, unreliable narrators, and who don't overanalyze like I tend to would be right at home with this read.

Really enjoyed this book, the twists and the turns and the ending was nothing I ever expected. The characters were great and the whole story was really unique (it’s really hard to explain without giving the story away). The author did an amazing job and I was so caught up in the book I read it in one sitting!

this was a fast-paced YA thriller that hooked me from the start. i was curious to see where it would go. once the twist hit, though, it didn’t quite have that ‘wow’ moment - more of an ‘oh, that’s it?’ kind of vibe. i expected something a bit wilder (what we were given felt predictable), or at least an explanation that felt more connected to the rest of the story. still, it was fun and unhinged. a quick, easy read.

⭐️ 4 Stars ⭐️

Having followed Rory Power’s career since reviewing an ARC of her debut Wilder Girls in 2020, I’d been waiting for Kill Creatures since it was first announced. When I was sent this ARC, I finished it in a day.

Last summer, Nan’s three best friends vanished. On the anniversary of their disappearance, one of them returns. Everybody thought they were dead. Nan knew they were dead—because she’s the one who killed them.

Nan’s increasingly sinister perspective guides the reader through the novel. As the line between reality and delusion blurs, you’re left questioning not just what happened, but whether Nan herself is capable of recognising the truth. The fog of obsession that lingers over every interaction between Nan and her girls makes even the quietest moments feel sharp-edged.

The narrative oscillates between past and present, gradually unveiling the events leading up to that fateful night and the aftermath of Luce’s unexpected return. While the mystery itself is enjoyable to unravel, it does rely on some familiar tropes. The story felt predictable at times, which took away some of the suspense. And while the overall pacing kept things moving, the ending left me wanting more.

You should read this book if you like:
+ Unreliable narrators 📖
+ Obsessive teenage friendships 👭
+ Slow-burning psychological horror 🎭

I received an advance review copy for free via NetGalley. I am leaving this review voluntarily. 📚

I dont read a huge amount of YA anymore, but make an exception for Rory Power's twisty horror adjacent stories, and delighted that I did. A return to her usual style after In A Garden Burning Gold, much more akin to her debut Wilder Girls, this really did it for me.

The story follows Nan, whose three closest friends went missing last summer and havent been seen since, until the day of the one year anniversary memorial, when Luce suddenly returns. Nan is shocked by her reappearance, and she had left her dead in the desert the previous summer. At first she suspects an imposter, but it really is Luce, alive, and claiming to have no memory of what happened that day a year ago, or in any of the time since, and no knowledge of where the other two missing girls are.

Confused as to how she is alive, and why she has returned, Nan does her best to protect her secrets, and stay close to Luce, but eventually the truth must come to light.

It was twisty and gripping writing, a little predictable overall, but certainly suitably so for its audience, and the epilogue caught me out. It was a speedy read, feeling much shorter than it was at 288 pages.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Rory Power never disappoints.

Kill Creatures is a gripping, dark, masterpiece. Nan as a character is intriguing, complex and perfectly fleshed out. Her depiction may is fantastic, and this may be my favourite Rory Power book now.

Last summer, Nan killed her 3 best friends. Her girls. Except, on the anniversary of their “disappearance”, Luce is found. Alive.

I could not put this book down, and when I did, I couldn’t get it out of my head. This is a fast paced, addictive psychological thriller - and it is my new obsession.

The characterisation is artful, sucking you in deeper, just like the siphon in the Devil’s Eye. The characters, combines with the setting, are described so vividly that it feels as though I could step into the story. I would kill, or die, to revisit this story for the first time.

Nan thinks she's got away with murdering her three best friends, until a year later when one of them reappears alive!!

It is giving PLL x YOU

A fast-paced, fun YA thriller. Loved the writing. The two timelines of then and now worked really well. The twists/reveal at the end was great, but I do wish it had been a crazier haha. But other than that, this was a great, intriguing read.

Also, the cover is absolutely gorgeous wow!

i absolutely loved this!!! felt a lil predictable BUTTT i loved it nonetheless. being inside nan’s head was scary at times and luce being alive was wild!!!! such a good book for so little pages!!!!!