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badseedgirl's review against another edition
5.0
Seven years before Robert Bloch introduced Norman Bates and his “mother fixation,” twenty-eight years before Dr. Hannibal Lecter was drinking his Chianti with the help of Thomas Harris, thirty-nine years before Bret Easton Ellis introduced Patrick Bateman’s psychopathy to America, and fifty-four years before Jeff Lindley was dreaming darkly of Dexter Morgan, Jim Thompson brought the readers Lou Ford, Texas’ nicest sociopath, in the book The Killer Inside Me.
This novel would today be considered a “psychological thriller,” although at the time this novel was lumped into “crime genre”, with the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. I strongly feel this is why these other two authors are household names and Mr. Thompson has languished in obscurity all these years.
The Killer Inside Me is a psychological horror novel. Lou Ford is a killer, he kills without remorse. But this novel is an odd combination of horror and innocence that is seldom found in today’s literature. Lou’s murders are horrific but are not bloody. Written in first person narration, the reader gets an up close and personal look into the mind of a serial killer. And the disturbing thing is Lou’s justifications for the murders make a sick sort of sense. The fact that I was able to say, “Oh, that makes sense” even for a moment during the novel is what I found most disturbing. That Mr. Thompson was able to achieve this without all the graphic blood and guts scenes we as readers have become used to reading was a revelation.
I could not put this novel down once I started it. It is a psychology student’s wet dream. Psychopathy (or sociopathy, depending on the age of your psych text book), sexual sadism, childhood trauma and repressed memories, they are all there. The interesting thing was there was no psychological terms in the novel at all. If the deviations were mentioned at all, it was coded in socially acceptable terms. Lou did kill two people in a psychopathic break, but was suffering from “the sickness.” I loved it.
Jim Thompson never achieved real success with his books during his lifetime. I hope this review goes a little way to rectifying that error.
5 of 5 stars
This novel would today be considered a “psychological thriller,” although at the time this novel was lumped into “crime genre”, with the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. I strongly feel this is why these other two authors are household names and Mr. Thompson has languished in obscurity all these years.
The Killer Inside Me is a psychological horror novel. Lou Ford is a killer, he kills without remorse. But this novel is an odd combination of horror and innocence that is seldom found in today’s literature. Lou’s murders are horrific but are not bloody. Written in first person narration, the reader gets an up close and personal look into the mind of a serial killer. And the disturbing thing is Lou’s justifications for the murders make a sick sort of sense. The fact that I was able to say, “Oh, that makes sense” even for a moment during the novel is what I found most disturbing. That Mr. Thompson was able to achieve this without all the graphic blood and guts scenes we as readers have become used to reading was a revelation.
I could not put this novel down once I started it. It is a psychology student’s wet dream. Psychopathy (or sociopathy, depending on the age of your psych text book), sexual sadism, childhood trauma and repressed memories, they are all there. The interesting thing was there was no psychological terms in the novel at all. If the deviations were mentioned at all, it was coded in socially acceptable terms. Lou did kill two people in a psychopathic break, but was suffering from “the sickness.” I loved it.
Jim Thompson never achieved real success with his books during his lifetime. I hope this review goes a little way to rectifying that error.
5 of 5 stars
mrxqii's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
twotoes's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Thompson is relentless with his writing. There are some odd happenings plot wise but I really enjoyed this.
chemwitch's review against another edition
3.0
This book was so... mediocre. It's the original You by Caroline Kepnes. It was fine? There just wasn't anything about it that I saw that made it so amazing you have to shout it from the rooftops.
1) The Southern boy charm thing got so old after a while. 20 pages in I just wanted them to stop fucking talking like that.
2) after a while it's... not scary. We get it. You want to kill people. It's not shocking anymore. And there's really nothing else to this book. It's just this guy. Saying he wants to kill people.
3) The ending is super lackluster in my opinion. I can't even remember the entire thing because it was very forgettable.
4) Quick read! Pretty short. Maybe a bit longer if you (like me) take longer to work through the stupid Southern boy charm lingo.
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5/14/18: like every top review of this book is glowing but i just didn't think it was that amazing?
rtc
1) The Southern boy charm thing got so old after a while. 20 pages in I just wanted them to stop fucking talking like that.
2) after a while it's... not scary. We get it. You want to kill people. It's not shocking anymore. And there's really nothing else to this book. It's just this guy. Saying he wants to kill people.
3) The ending is super lackluster in my opinion. I can't even remember the entire thing because it was very forgettable.
4) Quick read! Pretty short. Maybe a bit longer if you (like me) take longer to work through the stupid Southern boy charm lingo.
----------------------------------------
5/14/18: like every top review of this book is glowing but i just didn't think it was that amazing?
rtc
lockem18's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ncarter5069's review against another edition
5.0
Starts slow but builds to a relentless southern gothic portrait of insanity and what it is to be spiritually broken.
jon288's review against another edition
3.0
Two stars is probably too harsh. For what it was it was decently executed, I just didn't think it was that great. The relaxed tone lulls you into not seeing the vileness of the character; I didn't really get it until the casual way the brutal murder of his girlfriend was written, which made me feel quite sick in a way many other violent things dont. I think that scene elevates it to a 3-star, so I'll change it.
tyler_dickson's review against another edition
3.5
Probably more like a 3.5. Thompson does an excellent job diving into Lou’s psyche but falls into cliche detective novel prose far too often.
richardleis's review against another edition
4.0
Too disturbing to give 5 stars but highly recommended, if you can handle it. An incredible inside-the-head-of-a-psycho novel from 1952 that really seems to be more about the wasteland of America after World War II, beneath the fake veneer of the 1950s we think we know. And should be about this, or why would anyone write, or read, a novel with such gratuitous sex and violence against women? Don't answer that. Please. I feel dirty enough for having read it.
Not really spoilers, but below are some words on craft and construction that you may want to avoid if you want to go into the book completely oblivious:
What is most stunning to me about the book is the level of craft Thompson commands. He has the audacity to create a character who speaks in cliches, and it works! Chapter 18 is a jaw-dropping construction that begins with an exacting confession that repeats dreadfully, and Thompson seems to be enjoying slowly reeling the reader in after he has placed the fishhook in the reader's mouth. I knew what he was doing. Thompson was talking to me. HE was laughing at me! Daring me to keep reading. Admitting that he was drawing out this chapter on purpose. Stop it, Thompson! Stop it!
The book is also at times opaque; I'm not sure I understood everything. The final chapters are the least clear to me, but there are visions throughout that I seemed to be reading through dirty glasses, and Thompson put the dirt there himself, on purpose, because he knew exactly how he was going to treat the reader, and the reader was going to keep asking for it. So sick and awful. His captive audience. And then the chapter that implicates the reader directly. So chilling.
Not really spoilers, but below are some words on craft and construction that you may want to avoid if you want to go into the book completely oblivious:
What is most stunning to me about the book is the level of craft Thompson commands. He has the audacity to create a character who speaks in cliches, and it works! Chapter 18 is a jaw-dropping construction that begins with an exacting confession that repeats dreadfully, and Thompson seems to be enjoying slowly reeling the reader in after he has placed the fishhook in the reader's mouth. I knew what he was doing. Thompson was talking to me. HE was laughing at me! Daring me to keep reading. Admitting that he was drawing out this chapter on purpose. Stop it, Thompson! Stop it!
The book is also at times opaque; I'm not sure I understood everything. The final chapters are the least clear to me, but there are visions throughout that I seemed to be reading through dirty glasses, and Thompson put the dirt there himself, on purpose, because he knew exactly how he was going to treat the reader, and the reader was going to keep asking for it. So sick and awful. His captive audience. And then the chapter that implicates the reader directly. So chilling.