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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
♡ thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and Jennifer Holdich for an ARC of this book via NetGalley ♡
3.5/5 ⭐️
julie tudor is DEFINITELY a psychopath.. julie babes, do you want the number to my therapist??
📖 plot & pace: this story follows Julie Tudor's unhinged life using multiple timelines (current and events from her past). Julie has had a few different love interests, but none of them have turned out... good (or healthy). this book was pretty fast paced, making it easy to get consumed by it.
👥 characters: Julie's poor love interests... boy did they deserve better! there's a few different ones in this story, but the current (Sean) is the one i feel most sorry for. Julie is definitely super unhinged HAHA and a terrible person.. the people around her felt immense pain because of her actions.
🤩 tropes: dark romance (?), stalkerish vibes, mentally unstable FMC, "am i the drama?" (yes julie you are)
the one thing i didn't like was the pets.. 😣 i just can't stomach animal cruelty, even in the small mentions this book had. i also feel julie's behavior was never explained, which is understandable being from her POV, but it would've been nice to have some insight into her character development (was she always like this? was there a traumatic event?)
otherwise, this was an enjoyable read and if you like unhinged characters with a little ✨insanity✨ & dark humor, this is definitely for you!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Julie girl, please call a therapist.
Y’all know how much I love books about unhinged women, and Julie Tudor might just be the most delulu FMC yet! Think Dexter meets Eleanor Oliphant. This book was truly a wild ride from start to finish. The story is told in alternating timelines from Julie’s POV, as she tries to convince us that she is totally not a psychopath. There were so many laugh-out-loud moments and also some seriously cringeworthy ones. I never knew what was going to happen next in this unpredictable, chaotic, and fun whirlwind of story. I don’t remember ever gasping out loud so many times while reading a book. My jaw is still on the floor. What a wonderful debut from Jennifer Holdich!
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Y’all know how much I love books about unhinged women, and Julie Tudor might just be the most delulu FMC yet! Think Dexter meets Eleanor Oliphant. This book was truly a wild ride from start to finish. The story is told in alternating timelines from Julie’s POV, as she tries to convince us that she is totally not a psychopath. There were so many laugh-out-loud moments and also some seriously cringeworthy ones. I never knew what was going to happen next in this unpredictable, chaotic, and fun whirlwind of story. I don’t remember ever gasping out loud so many times while reading a book. My jaw is still on the floor. What a wonderful debut from Jennifer Holdich!
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this ARC.
This debut novel contains a story with many back and forth moving timelines but we're meeting Julie for the first time in 2009 when she is 49, diligently working in an office in Cardiff, obsessivey in love with coworker Sean, 25. Julie had a sister called Angela who her parents always loved more and who died in a car accident at 17 when Julie was 15. Angela's boyfriend Billy then convinced her to sleep with him and ghosted her afterwards. He is the first man she had an unhealthy obsession with, but by far not the last.
What you need to know about Julie is that she is a delusional fantasist, in denial about the feelings of men she is in love with, which makes her an unreliable narrator. In 1981 Dr Jeremy Pearson's wife Felicity is nearly killed by Julie. In 1983, a homeless man she mistakes for a famous actor is not that lucky. Then Sean comes into her life in 2007, and it is suddenly very dangerous to be his girlfriend.
The main storyline happens in 2009 and 2010, when Julie is fully in the grip of insanity, killing her pets and turning them into taxidermied versions she keeps around the house, painting dark pictures and and behaving weirdly on "the Facebook". You can't help but feel for lonely, damaged Julie who makes up other people's feelings for her, which stems from her childhood in her sister's shadow. On the other hand, she is a full-blown dangerous serial killer without any self awareness who you really don't want to share an office with, especially if you have allergies.
However, I do like her biting, acerbic wit when she delivers burns like "Although I didn’t see how any environment containing Susannah could truly be considered ‘nut-free’" or "Then the doctors pronounced her brain dead and for some reason my parents didn’t bother telling them that was normal for Angela."
There is a lot of dark humour but it often seems to be uncomfortably at the expense of middle-aged Julie who dresses drably and is not well-liked by her colleagues. I'm trying to decide if I like the ending and I'm not sure I do although it was probably inevitable. I just wish that Frank had had more oomph to likewise develop an unhealthy obsession and go around killing the men in her life. Compared to that the ending is kind of mundane.
If you enjoy reading about deranged, mentally unstable characters and disturbing casual violence by a woman who thinks she is doing the right thing for her love life, then you will be captivated by this overblown and unhinged tale of Julie Tudor who is clearly a psychopath.
This debut novel contains a story with many back and forth moving timelines but we're meeting Julie for the first time in 2009 when she is 49, diligently working in an office in Cardiff, obsessivey in love with coworker Sean, 25. Julie had a sister called Angela who her parents always loved more and who died in a car accident at 17 when Julie was 15. Angela's boyfriend Billy then convinced her to sleep with him and ghosted her afterwards. He is the first man she had an unhealthy obsession with, but by far not the last.
What you need to know about Julie is that she is a delusional fantasist, in denial about the feelings of men she is in love with, which makes her an unreliable narrator. In 1981 Dr Jeremy Pearson's wife Felicity is nearly killed by Julie. In 1983, a homeless man she mistakes for a famous actor is not that lucky. Then Sean comes into her life in 2007, and it is suddenly very dangerous to be his girlfriend.
The main storyline happens in 2009 and 2010, when Julie is fully in the grip of insanity, killing her pets and turning them into taxidermied versions she keeps around the house, painting dark pictures and and behaving weirdly on "the Facebook". You can't help but feel for lonely, damaged Julie who makes up other people's feelings for her, which stems from her childhood in her sister's shadow. On the other hand, she is a full-blown dangerous serial killer without any self awareness who you really don't want to share an office with, especially if you have allergies.
However, I do like her biting, acerbic wit when she delivers burns like "Although I didn’t see how any environment containing Susannah could truly be considered ‘nut-free’" or "Then the doctors pronounced her brain dead and for some reason my parents didn’t bother telling them that was normal for Angela."
There is a lot of dark humour but it often seems to be uncomfortably at the expense of middle-aged Julie who dresses drably and is not well-liked by her colleagues. I'm trying to decide if I like the ending and I'm not sure I do although it was probably inevitable. I just wish that Frank had had more oomph to likewise develop an unhealthy obsession and go around killing the men in her life. Compared to that the ending is kind of mundane.
If you enjoy reading about deranged, mentally unstable characters and disturbing casual violence by a woman who thinks she is doing the right thing for her love life, then you will be captivated by this overblown and unhinged tale of Julie Tudor who is clearly a psychopath.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
this is one hell of a debut novel.
what a dark, disturbing and hilarious look into precious Julie who is just determined to be with her true love, while leaving a trail of bodies behind.
this book felt like Bridget Jones’s Diary mixed with anything by Mona Awad.
my new favorite trope is unhinged, delusional yet reliable female narrator.
read this if you like:
- unhinged erratic behavior
- dark humor
- “if i can’t have him, no one can”
- Love Letters To A Serial Killer, anything by Jesse Q Sutanto and Mona Awad
trigger warnings def include the alluding of harm to animals, with no detail.
what a dark, disturbing and hilarious look into precious Julie who is just determined to be with her true love, while leaving a trail of bodies behind.
this book felt like Bridget Jones’s Diary mixed with anything by Mona Awad.
my new favorite trope is unhinged, delusional yet reliable female narrator.
read this if you like:
- unhinged erratic behavior
- dark humor
- “if i can’t have him, no one can”
- Love Letters To A Serial Killer, anything by Jesse Q Sutanto and Mona Awad
trigger warnings def include the alluding of harm to animals, with no detail.
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fascinating, loved how Julie was an unreliable narrator, she’s delusional and violent. Such a fun read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Murder
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Animal death
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a very entertaining, fast-paced read from Jennifer Holdich, expertly narrated by the wonderful Clare Corbett.
Julie is in her 50s and has a checkered past, slowly revealed as she takes us through key events from her teens, right up to the current day. As well as being a psychopath, Julie also has a complete inability to see herself from others’ perspectives. She has a tendency to fixate on specific men who find themselves in her orbit, forming a deep romantic connection, which is not reciprocated (although this escapes Julie’s notice).
This isn’t a sensitive, empathic portrayal of someone with a spectrum condition, but there are definitely moments that spark feelings of sympathy, if not understanding. Although, it has to be said, Julie is not a character that one warms to.
The story starts with Julie at home with her current obsession, Sean (in his mid-twenties). Let’s just say he doesn’t appear to be there of his own volition.
We hop back in time as Julie brings us up to speed with everything that’s happened that’s led to this point.
Five stars from me, with special credit to Clare Corbett - I can’t imagine anyone doing a better job of narrating this story.
With thanks to NatGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the chance to listen to an ARC.
Julie Tudor is not a Psychopath releases on 5 June.
Julie is in her 50s and has a checkered past, slowly revealed as she takes us through key events from her teens, right up to the current day. As well as being a psychopath, Julie also has a complete inability to see herself from others’ perspectives. She has a tendency to fixate on specific men who find themselves in her orbit, forming a deep romantic connection, which is not reciprocated (although this escapes Julie’s notice).
This isn’t a sensitive, empathic portrayal of someone with a spectrum condition, but there are definitely moments that spark feelings of sympathy, if not understanding. Although, it has to be said, Julie is not a character that one warms to.
The story starts with Julie at home with her current obsession, Sean (in his mid-twenties). Let’s just say he doesn’t appear to be there of his own volition.
We hop back in time as Julie brings us up to speed with everything that’s happened that’s led to this point.
Five stars from me, with special credit to Clare Corbett - I can’t imagine anyone doing a better job of narrating this story.
With thanks to NatGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the chance to listen to an ARC.
Julie Tudor is not a Psychopath releases on 5 June.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes