I Am Not A Serial Killer (John Cleaver, 1)

by Dan Wells

Book Overview

John Wayne Cleaver is dangerous, and he knows it. He's spent his life doing his best not to live up to his potential. He's obsessed with serial killers, but really doesn't want to become one. So for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765327821
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.2" x 0.7" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

This book had such a twist! I was not expecting it at all!

This book is really good! It follows John, a sociopathic teenager who’s obsessed with serial killers. One day, someone in his town is murdered, and that’s where it all starts for John. If you’re a fan of true crime but also enjoy supernatural horror as well this is definitely a book you should check out.

A must read! My gosh I wasnt expecting this!!!!

Such a great book. I am a lover of serial killers, murder and suspense! I love my crime podcasts and the episodes but man does this book do it by far for me! You will not want to put it down. Very easy to read and enticing to never put down! I have already purchased the next three books in this series so I don’t have to wait like I am right now since I just finished up the first one! Buy them all!

young adult & supernatural

This story is told from a 15 year old's point of view. He's a psychopath/sociopath obsessed with serial killers. He lives at home above the mortuary his mom owns. There's great detail in the embalming & body processing as he helps her & his aunt. There's murders happening in the town & he's trying to figure what kind of killer it is. The story turns supernatural which took me longer to read it. It's an OK book. I won't continue with the rest of the series

Poetry, humor, horror, oh my

Short version: I almost didn't read this book, but I'm so happy I did. Long version. You can scare the crap out of me (Aracnaphobia), and I will love you forever. You can make me bite my nails in terrible suspense (Wait Until Dark, The Village) or throw supernatural at me (Poltergeist) and I will sing with praise. But the moment you do gruesome, the moment you start showing me entrails and organs, my discomfort level shoots through the roof. And this is why I would not have finished I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Well's if I had just picked it up off a shelf-because the main character is the son of a woman who owns a mortuary. We get to see him help process a mutilated body very early in the book, pumping fluids in etc., and Wells knows his craft so I was THERE. I'm sure it's not too gruesome for some, but I just have issues with organs. I don't know why. I also have an issue with clowns. Clowns are, by far, the scariest things around. And this is not because I read the book IT by Stephen King as a wee lad because I didn't. It's because they're painted vessels of evil. End of story. They're perfect examples of the freakazoids that lurk in the uncanny valley. Anyway, I'd heard Wells read a portion of this book that had all of us in the room crying because we were laughing so hard. So I read on, telling myself I had to at least get to that part. And I am so very happy I did. I Am Not A Serial Killer is young adult story about a good-hearted teen named John Cleaver who is a sociopath with all the traits shared by serial killers. John's in counseling, but more importantly, he is convinced he can prevent himself from becoming a serial killer by keeping rules he's made for himself like not watching people for too long and complimenting someone when they make him angry. Such rules, he hopes, will keep him from feeding compulsions he won't be able to resist. The problem is a real serial killer has come to town (but unlike any you've seen before). And John may be the only one who can stop him. Will he let go of his rules to save the town? Or will he keep his monster asleep while others die around him? It's a fascinating situation (without a clown in sight, may the writing gods be praised). And Wells takes the reader on a journey through it that includes mystery, dread, and humor. In the hands of some other author, that would be enough. But Wells does more than entertain us. He gives us things to think about. He gives us great characters to boot-come on, when was the last time you read a book where the hero was a likeable sociopath? And there's poetry in it. You'll love how he used William Blake's Tiger Tiger and Little Lamb. Besides, most of the gruesome is up front anyway. Read this book. Skim the body processing if you must. But you simply don't want to miss the rest. It was a fabulous read and I recommend it highly.

Wonderful and engrossing! Terrific Fun!

I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER by Dan Wells is a promising start to what seems to be a wonderful trilogy. I picked it up first because of the title. Okay, I was intrigued. Then I flipped through it and read the copy. Okay, more intrigued. I noticed the blurb from F. Paul Wilson on the cover and thought, hey, if he liked it, I might, too. I like F. Paul Wilson's books very much. So I gave it a shot. I could not put it down. The character of John Wayne Cleaver leaps off the page from the moment you start. Even if the first two chapters are heavy in the process of embalming a corpse, Wells never lets go of the voice and the character of John. We are right there with him as he becomes intrigued in the mystery of a local murder. Halfway through the book in a single sitting, I hated that I had things to do. Wells intricately drops small bits of mystery and then wallops you with a supernatural twist that takes things to a very new level in storytelling. The character of John, without ruining anything, is so real and so true and yet so unique, that you understand his world and his awkward place in it. The dialogue is spot on, the secondary characters are perfectly formed for this small midwestern American town and the action moves along. John is a hero who isn't a hero, a boy who isn't a boy, really, and a typical teen that is atypical. All of these things helped me to have the most fun I've had with a book in a long time. I would disagree with the previous reviewer that this a "good airplane" read. This is pure escapism, pure fun, pure psychological, supernatural and honest storytelling. Dan Wells, if you are reading this, I would like you to know that for a first novel, this is terrific and I will be waiting for TOR to release the second and third installments of the story of John Wayne Cleaver. Everyone else, do yourself a favor and pick up I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER. Trust me. You'll love it.

An Amazing Debut!

Dan Wells has crafted something extraordinary with his first novel, I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER. John Wayne Cleaver is our protagonist, and as you find out very early on, he isn't your average teenager. His troubles go much deeper than most, and are much more serious. See, he worries that he might become a serial killer. He has all the tendencies of a sociopath, and he is very aware of how dangerous they are. John is obsessed with serial killers--how could he not be considering his tendencies, and the fact that he is named John Wayne (though his mother swears she didn't name him after the serial killer John Wayne Gacy). John, a boy in High School who also works at his family mortuary, begins to notice a strange pattern in the murders that are taking place in his small town. His personal investigation of the murders put him in a unique position to expose the killer, and also put him in danger of losing himself to his inner sociopath. One of the things I especially liked about I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER, was that it doesn't seem to follow the typical public's view of "horror." It seems like people are hell-bent on assuming that horror is synonymous with hack-and-slash and blood-and-gore. Guess what? That's garbage, and Dan proves in this amazing novel--the first in a trilogy--that the old-school flavor of horror built on suspense and character is the way it should be written and enjoyed. Dan's writing is clever, and extremely well done. There are moments where the novel seems YA, and others where is is straight-up Horror/Supernatural Horror. I think it was this accessible blend that really made this book excellent, in my opinion. When I was reading this novel, I somehow managed to feel pleasantly disturbed, amused, horrified, terrified, and awed. How often can one book evoke that range of emotions, and make you pleased about all of them? I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER does just that. Now, some people may mistakenly draw parallels to the Jeff Lindsay's character, Dexter. First of all, I know Dan, and he had this idea long before Dexter was even popular. Second, Dan handles the young sociopath infinitely better than Lindsay handles his young Dexter segments. Lastly, Dan's book shifts dramatically from normal Horror to a near-Supernatural Horror part way through the novel (and it succeeds where Lindsay's 3rd Dexter novel turned into complete crap). This book isn't like Dexter. It surpasses Dexter. On that note, I'll mention that I've read the entire trilogy of Dan's John Cleaver novels. You all won't see them released in the US for a bit, but let me just say that where I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER is an amazing book, the two follow-ups manage to blow it our of the water. Don't be afraid to pick up this novel. It is incredible, and the sequels that will come out over the next year are even better. This was easily one of my favorite UK releases from last year, and will be one of my favorite US releases this year. Recommended Age: 13 and up (the

Clever Story With a Very Unique Narrator Character!

I am Not a Serial Killer is a great read, the type of genre the book is changes half way through, I don't want to give away which genre it switches to as that would be giving away a substantial part of the plot. Admittedly, at first I thought oh no, the author has obviously just run out of ideas on how to keep the story going but as I read on those thoughts were proved wrong, the change of genre works really, really well. Basic plot of I Am Not a Serial Killer has John Cleaver having recently finished primary school entering high school for the first time in the small town of Clayton. John whose father bailed years ago and whose mother's parental skills are so bad they drove his sister out of the family home, is not popular at all in school. A target for bullies he hangs around with Max, an equally unpopular kid, not because he enjoys his friendship, but because appearing to have conversations with someone else (Max is a talker) will make the other kids and teachers not notice just how different he is. You see John is always trying to keep the monster behind the wall. The monster is the fact that John is a sociopath who has a list of rules he makes himself follow so as not to start on his natural calling as a serial killer. His mother and aunt run the local mortuary and he is fascinated by dead bodies, since it is the only place he seems to be able to communicate with this mother at all, he is always assisting with the preparation of the town's bodies. He has read every detail of famous serial killers' sprees, so when a murder victim is slashed open in the town laundromat and their organs piled up beside them, John knows straight away this is no one off. John can't help but to become obsessed with profiling this killer and trying to catch him in the act of the kill to study his methods up close. A very good and unique storyline and a very definitely unique character with John Cleaver. If you liked the learning about behind the scenes mortuary parts of the novel also check out Weepin' Willie by Richard Grayson.