She's A Killer Kirsten McDougall 9781913547769

'Satire at its best' ELEANOR CATTON, author of Birnam Wood

'Outrageous, comic, disturbingly timely' THE GUARDIAN

A stubborn slacker is spurred to radical climate action by a snarky teenager with big ideas in this bold, darkly funny and brilliantly bizarre debut.

Thirty-something Alice has an IQ of 159 (almost a genius) and lives at home with her mother, with whom she communicates only by Morse code. Meanwhile, the climate is in crisis. Wealthy immigrants are flocking to New Zealand for shelter, stealing land, driving up food prices and taking over. When Alice meets attractive wealthugee Pablo, she thinks she has found a way out of her dull existence. But then in walks his teenage daughter, Erika, an actual genius with impeccable eye makeup, and Alice finds herself drawn into action of the most radical - and dangerous - kind. Just what is a slacker to do? By turns sinister and hilarious, She's a Killer is the story of a reluctant genius who is drawn into radical action as the world falls apart around her.

Kirsten McDougall is a novelist, short story writer and works for a union. Her 2017 work Tess was longlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards and shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award. She's a Killer was longlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award and Ockham NZ Book Awards 2022. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

'A gem . . . there is a surprise on every page, as Alice's behavior is never routine, and Simp is a wild card. Not quite a misanthrope, not quite a sociopath, Alice is compelling, hilarious, and dangerous all at once' Booklist (Starred Review)

'Savagely funny . . . An outrageous, comic, disturbingly timely novel' The Guardian

'A wild ride . . . made me think about similarities between NZ and Ireland as we face climate change, housing crises and the righteous anger of the young' Sarah Moss, Best Books of 2023, Irish Times

'Funny, thought-provoking, bold and unusual . . . McDougall's humour, pointed social observations and shocking plot twists combine with moving insights on self-knowledge, family and friendship' The Independent

'Satirical thrills' New Scientist, Best New Science Fiction Books of October

'Darkly funny, scarily prescient' Red Magazine, 10 Best Books of October

'Alarmingly prescient . . . tightly-written . . . [She's a Killer] comes into its own as the pace of the action increases, and makes for a propelling finale' The Telegraph

'Smart, assured, and extremely funny, She's A Killer is a marvellously eccentric book that both skews and skewers the anxieties of our age . . . This is satire at its best' Eleanor Catton, Booker Prize Winner, author of Birnam Wood

'A fabulously dark pleasure, delivered in prose of singing tautness' Luke Jennings, author of Killing Eve

'McDougall's dystopian future is no distant vision: it's disturbingly familiar, urgently relevant. Narrator Alice is a brilliant creation - complex, prickly, often hilarious - and I was utterly in her thrall as she swept me along to the book's astonishing finale. Unputdownable' Catherine Chidgey, author of Remote Sympathy

'Deeply weird, compulsively readable, and a relevant allegory of a very possible future. I loved it' Julie Mae Cohen, author of Bad Men

'Original, unputdownable, darkly funny . . . I don't think I'll ever forget it' Becky Hunter, author of One Moment

'Pitch black, wildly compelling, enormous fun' Heather Parry, author of Orpheus Builds a Girl

'Savagely witty and oddly moving, this is a dark and timely satire to savour' Editor's Choice, The Bookseller