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sam_505's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
tcgarback's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Critical Score: B+
Personal Score: A-
I still need to sit and think about my scores, but this is where I'm at right after finishing.
Not sure where to start. I have a lot to say and many scatter-brained notes.
I think I'll start with the title. Obviously, Hopkins is not siding with the NRA-adjacent slogan the title is based on. But she also did grow up engulfed in pro-gun culture, as noted in her Author's Note. And never in this book does she outright critique the slogan or really get at what she's getting at...one of the criticisms people seem to have with People Kill People is that it's not committed enough to a clear set of messages on the contentious issues it explores. On one hand, we need nuance, but on the other hand, no one wants to feel duped by an author who's being timid or wishy-washy or self-contradictory or deceitful or what-have-you in their messaging. I think in this book's case, its Hopkins trying not to come across as overly simple in her approach. But I really wish she had a better critique of the slogan her title is working off of. Ultimately, this is a nitpick.
Let's talk more about other people's criticisms before I get into my own.
I can see why people don't love this book like her other stuff. It's very different. It's really on another level of narrative and thematic ambition, and it's much more serious. Although she always deals with heavy, "serious" topics, she often gives them a pulpy treatment, so that you're somehow cozying up with a story about drug addiction. People Kill People doesn't let you cozy up. It is depressing and challenging. Hell, multiple main characters are neo-Nazis. I love that level of gutsiness, but many readers are turned off by it. In fact, none of these characters are wholly likeable. (I like unlikeable characters, so it was a plus for me.) And their relationships to one another is hard to keep track of. I literally drew up a character map for this book to help me organize everything, and by the time I was done, it looked like I'd just scribbled on a piece of paper. It’s complicated. Fortunately, I didn't end up needing my character map while reading, but if I didn't have the chance to read this book so quickly, I might have struggled to keep up and remember who everyone is, and more importantly what their connection to every other character is, because it is *complicated*.
Oh, another thing I want to say early on. I went into this expecting the story to follow a mass school shooting. That is not at all the vibe of this book. It's more about US gun culture in general, domestic violence, political rallies and protests. It's kind of got a Fear Thy Neighbor (tv show) vibe to it. Honestly, i did not feel like the characters really came across as young adults; most of these teens have a 30s energy to them, and maybe that's because there's basically no school in this book.
See, a novel about a school shooting would be eerie, disturbing, a bit sinister, right? But this is more about white supremacy and stupid angry white men. My point is it's just a very different vibe from what I expected. Not really a good or bad thing. Just noting it.
Overall, Hopkins handles the politics in a better way than I may have expected, given the flawed politics in most of her books. But a book discussing white supremacy and immigration and gun violence can basically never be radical enough for me, idk. So I just kept my expectations in check, otherwise this would have inevitably felt like tepid BS.
Let's talk about the narration. So...a book narrated by the personification of violence. On paper, that's a potentially goofy idea. But Hopkins makes it for work for me. I can see others being cringed out by it, but I found it to be a bit incendiary.
Beyond that, this book is ambitious in many other ways. The POVs interweave, sometimes with us retroactively revisiting a scene from a second POV. I love that. It gave me what I wanted more of in other titles of hers, like Tricks, where the POVs are not intertwined enough. Not only that, but People Kill People operated within a ticking time-bomb structure, where we're told this is all building up to a big-reveal incident that ties everything together. So, the book is as technically ambitious as it is thematically.
Not everything works, though.
The "fade in/out" thing? It's so random. Why are we using screenplay lingo in a book that otherwise makes no ties to a screenplay format?
The second person? Probably would have worked better without it. But I didn't hate it, okay? And it’s super easy to hate the use of second person in a novel. So kudos to Hopkins on that.
The lack of her signature verse? It was refreshing, actually. And the verse we do get is technically more impressive than her typical free verse that might as well just be prose. The poems in this book feel like real poetry, which is actually why I didn't love them personally, LOL, but they're well done poems is my point.
Let's talk character.
So no one in this book is likeable. I love that. The most redeemable character is super pitiful and kind of has a white savior complex and fails to grasp racism enough. So everybody here is a mess.
I applaud Hopkins for diving right into the murk. A book that partly centers white supremacists? Riveting. Because she's not sympathizing with them (some reviewers say otherwise, but I disagree). She's showing their ugliness and stupidity with complexity.
Another way this is a departure from her oeuvre is the graphic abuse and violence on display. As I've said, all her books are dark, but this one feels harder to stomach. She even gets into some graphic sexual abuse content that outright shocked me.
Ok, the queer representation. She's done better. She's done worse. It's nothing special, but nothing super offensive.
Ok, the POC representation. Daniel's character must have beat Hopkins up in a dream or something, because she does not F with Daniel. He's a terrible person who has a terrible fate...and he's the only POC POV. That feels so icky to me. And confuses me, because Hopkins is better than that.
That's the weakest element of the book.
People Kill People throws its net wide, and I'm surprised by how much of it worked for me. We get into low income lifestyle, generational abuse, dysfunctional relationships (which she is particularly good at writing here), US border tensions, racism, xenophobia, law enforcement, and, most striking of all, organized white Christian nationalism amongst youth. Like, why don’t we get more of this in YA? It’s fascinating and needs to be explored more.
The pacing works: a suspenseful prologue, 4 POV rotations with quick verse interludes, and an accelerated closing rotation. It’s not as fast as her verse-only works, but fine, whatever. It’s more rewarding.
There is also this slowly building dread that comes across particularly well starting halfway through.
The twist worked for me, as I was not expecting it at all (apparently other readers thought it was obvious).
I think this may be the strongest Hopkins book I've read in a technical sense, and this is #13 for me. She's honestly mediocre a lot of the time, and this is hardly some masterpiece, but People Kill People gets a thumbs up from me. It's ambitious, bold, complex, and suspenseful. The characters feel real and truly icky. The climax is surprising. The narrative choices are inventive. There’s a lot of good drama and excitement throughout, and a lot of strong writing.
I'm unsure where I'll rank this in my top 3 (with Crank and Burned), but it's definitely *in* the top 3. I don’t want to commit to it now, but it probably takes the #1 spot.
Critical Score: B+
Personal Score: A-
I still need to sit and think about my scores, but this is where I'm at right after finishing.
Not sure where to start. I have a lot to say and many scatter-brained notes.
I think I'll start with the title. Obviously, Hopkins is not siding with the NRA-adjacent slogan the title is based on. But she also did grow up engulfed in pro-gun culture, as noted in her Author's Note. And never in this book does she outright critique the slogan or really get at what she's getting at...one of the criticisms people seem to have with People Kill People is that it's not committed enough to a clear set of messages on the contentious issues it explores. On one hand, we need nuance, but on the other hand, no one wants to feel duped by an author who's being timid or wishy-washy or self-contradictory or deceitful or what-have-you in their messaging. I think in this book's case, its Hopkins trying not to come across as overly simple in her approach. But I really wish she had a better critique of the slogan her title is working off of. Ultimately, this is a nitpick.
Let's talk more about other people's criticisms before I get into my own.
I can see why people don't love this book like her other stuff. It's very different. It's really on another level of narrative and thematic ambition, and it's much more serious. Although she always deals with heavy, "serious" topics, she often gives them a pulpy treatment, so that you're somehow cozying up with a story about drug addiction. People Kill People doesn't let you cozy up. It is depressing and challenging. Hell, multiple main characters are neo-Nazis. I love that level of gutsiness, but many readers are turned off by it. In fact, none of these characters are wholly likeable. (I like unlikeable characters, so it was a plus for me.) And their relationships to one another is hard to keep track of. I literally drew up a character map for this book to help me organize everything, and by the time I was done, it looked like I'd just scribbled on a piece of paper. It’s complicated. Fortunately, I didn't end up needing my character map while reading, but if I didn't have the chance to read this book so quickly, I might have struggled to keep up and remember who everyone is, and more importantly what their connection to every other character is, because it is *complicated*.
Oh, another thing I want to say early on. I went into this expecting the story to follow a mass school shooting. That is not at all the vibe of this book. It's more about US gun culture in general, domestic violence, political rallies and protests. It's kind of got a Fear Thy Neighbor (tv show) vibe to it. Honestly, i did not feel like the characters really came across as young adults; most of these teens have a 30s energy to them, and maybe that's because there's basically no school in this book.
See, a novel about a school shooting would be eerie, disturbing, a bit sinister, right? But this is more about white supremacy and stupid angry white men. My point is it's just a very different vibe from what I expected. Not really a good or bad thing. Just noting it.
Overall, Hopkins handles the politics in a better way than I may have expected, given the flawed politics in most of her books. But a book discussing white supremacy and immigration and gun violence can basically never be radical enough for me, idk. So I just kept my expectations in check, otherwise this would have inevitably felt like tepid BS.
Let's talk about the narration. So...a book narrated by the personification of violence. On paper, that's a potentially goofy idea. But Hopkins makes it for work for me. I can see others being cringed out by it, but I found it to be a bit incendiary.
Beyond that, this book is ambitious in many other ways. The POVs interweave, sometimes with us retroactively revisiting a scene from a second POV. I love that. It gave me what I wanted more of in other titles of hers, like Tricks, where the POVs are not intertwined enough. Not only that, but People Kill People operated within a ticking time-bomb structure, where we're told this is all building up to a big-reveal incident that ties everything together. So, the book is as technically ambitious as it is thematically.
Not everything works, though.
The "fade in/out" thing? It's so random. Why are we using screenplay lingo in a book that otherwise makes no ties to a screenplay format?
The second person? Probably would have worked better without it. But I didn't hate it, okay? And it’s super easy to hate the use of second person in a novel. So kudos to Hopkins on that.
The lack of her signature verse? It was refreshing, actually. And the verse we do get is technically more impressive than her typical free verse that might as well just be prose. The poems in this book feel like real poetry, which is actually why I didn't love them personally, LOL, but they're well done poems is my point.
Let's talk character.
So no one in this book is likeable. I love that. The most redeemable character is super pitiful and kind of has a white savior complex and fails to grasp racism enough. So everybody here is a mess.
I applaud Hopkins for diving right into the murk. A book that partly centers white supremacists? Riveting. Because she's not sympathizing with them (some reviewers say otherwise, but I disagree). She's showing their ugliness and stupidity with complexity.
Another way this is a departure from her oeuvre is the graphic abuse and violence on display. As I've said, all her books are dark, but this one feels harder to stomach. She even gets into some graphic sexual abuse content that outright shocked me.
Ok, the queer representation. She's done better. She's done worse. It's nothing special, but nothing super offensive.
Ok, the POC representation. Daniel's character must have beat Hopkins up in a dream or something, because she does not F with Daniel. He's a terrible person who has a terrible fate...and he's the only POC POV. That feels so icky to me. And confuses me, because Hopkins is better than that.
That's the weakest element of the book.
People Kill People throws its net wide, and I'm surprised by how much of it worked for me. We get into low income lifestyle, generational abuse, dysfunctional relationships (which she is particularly good at writing here), US border tensions, racism, xenophobia, law enforcement, and, most striking of all, organized white Christian nationalism amongst youth. Like, why don’t we get more of this in YA? It’s fascinating and needs to be explored more.
The pacing works: a suspenseful prologue, 4 POV rotations with quick verse interludes, and an accelerated closing rotation. It’s not as fast as her verse-only works, but fine, whatever. It’s more rewarding.
There is also this slowly building dread that comes across particularly well starting halfway through.
The twist worked for me, as I was not expecting it at all (apparently other readers thought it was obvious).
I think this may be the strongest Hopkins book I've read in a technical sense, and this is #13 for me. She's honestly mediocre a lot of the time, and this is hardly some masterpiece, but People Kill People gets a thumbs up from me. It's ambitious, bold, complex, and suspenseful. The characters feel real and truly icky. The climax is surprising. The narrative choices are inventive. There’s a lot of good drama and excitement throughout, and a lot of strong writing.
I'm unsure where I'll rank this in my top 3 (with Crank and Burned), but it's definitely *in* the top 3. I don’t want to commit to it now, but it probably takes the #1 spot.
kaker153's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
krohns2011's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
kdickerson38's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Multiple POVs; an important, powerful, chilling, and very controversial topic that was approached with grace; unlikeable characters; emotional and thought-provoking; not as much of the poetry/verse style writing that Hopkins is known for but I was obsessed with the multiple perspectives, told in second-person POV, that makes the reader truly immersed in the brain of each character
littlespookysmut's review against another edition
4.0
I’ve loved Ellen Hopkins since reading Crank in middle school and I didn’t realize she was still writing so I had to read this one. This is such an important topic for the current times and I will admit I skimmed over the poetry part and was more into the story aspect, but the writing was still beautiful. I hated basically every character but I think you’re supposed to? The characters were a bit one sided for me but overall I really enjoyed it and I think my high school students will love it.
rballenger's review against another edition
3.0
Type of read: Weekend Read
What made me pick it up: Ellen Hopkins is one of my favorite authors and I've enjoyed previous books of hers written in a similar style.
Overall rating: People Kill People is a six degrees of separation story highlighting how a gun isn’t always necessary to kill, all it takes is intention. I think the fact that it took me so long to finish this book, even with the library loan lapses, says something about how it was (or wasn’t) able to capture my attention. Which is rare for a Hopkins book. I don’t mind books that have a purpose or provide glimpses of, or even unapologetic, educational nuances; however, People Kill People seemed to be a bit forced and superficial. I did like the variety of characters and the way they are each built out without being too focused on one over another. Additionally, I appreciated the ending and final pages. Overall, not my favorite, but still a good read.
It took me an extended time to finish this book because I let my library loan lapse multiple times and had to wait for it to become available again. This was not due to the content/interest in the book, more because it's in high demand, going on vacation, and checking out more books than I could finish in my allotted time.
What made me pick it up: Ellen Hopkins is one of my favorite authors and I've enjoyed previous books of hers written in a similar style.
Overall rating: People Kill People is a six degrees of separation story highlighting how a gun isn’t always necessary to kill, all it takes is intention. I think the fact that it took me so long to finish this book, even with the library loan lapses, says something about how it was (or wasn’t) able to capture my attention. Which is rare for a Hopkins book. I don’t mind books that have a purpose or provide glimpses of, or even unapologetic, educational nuances; however, People Kill People seemed to be a bit forced and superficial. I did like the variety of characters and the way they are each built out without being too focused on one over another. Additionally, I appreciated the ending and final pages. Overall, not my favorite, but still a good read.
It took me an extended time to finish this book because I let my library loan lapse multiple times and had to wait for it to become available again. This was not due to the content/interest in the book, more because it's in high demand, going on vacation, and checking out more books than I could finish in my allotted time.
mandolin_dreams's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
anxiouslyreading33's review against another edition
5.0
Okay I gave it a 5 star because it's Ellen Hopkins and she crafts an amazing story, but I did not agree with anything in this book. I don't like guns at all, all the hate in this book made me cringe and hurt to read some of it. There should also be a trigger warning for this book but that goes for all her books.