Release date: June 3rd 2025
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 288
Find it: Goodreads Waterstones
Source: The publisher kindly sent me a copy of this book to review
Rating: 4/5 stars

Synopsis

Last summer, Nan’s three best friends disappeared into Saltcedar Canyon.

She’s spent the year since grieving their loss and avoiding questions about what happened that night. Now, on the anniversary, she’s ready to say goodbye, and so are the girls’ families, who have reconvened to hold a memorial. But their vigil is interrupted by the shocking return of one of the missing girls alive. Everybody is overjoyed. Everybody, that is, except Nan, who was pretty sure they were dead.

After all, she’s the one who killed them.

Atmospheric, fast-paced and vividly realised, Kill Creatures is a book about secrets, jealousy, violence and revenge. Perfect for fans of A Good Girls Guide to Murder and Gone Girl.

Review

Kill Creatures is a dark and addictive YA thriller that follows Nan, a young girl grieving the loss of her three best friends who disappeared a year ago in Saltcedar Canyon. She’s done everything she can to process her grief and is finally ready to move on when one of them returns alive. The whole town is shocked and overjoyed – except Nan, because she’s the one who killed them.

I absolutely inhaled this book. Kill Creatures is a compelling and utterly addictive thriller. That premise hooked me right from the get go and I could not put this one down. It’s quite a short read and pretty fast paced, this is my third book from Rory Power and I think this one is my favourite. The story is full of twists and turns and definitely leaves you guessing.

Nan is a fascinating protagonist, she’s so unpredictable and I was never sure what she was going to do next. Power has done a brilliant job creating this unreliable main character and Power’s beautiful writing style really brought Nan to life. I won’t say too much about the plot because this is definitely one of those books where you want to go in knowing as little as possible. Overall I thought Kill Creatures was a terrific page turner of a book and if you’re looking for a YA thriller that will have you staying up to the wee hours of the morning, you need to get your hands on Kill Creatures.