55.
Author(s): Dan Wells
Title: I Don't Want To Kill You
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 320
Genre: Horror
Acquisition:
Date Completed: July 17, 2011
Rating: *****

*May contain SPOILERS for EARLIER BOOKS*

I Don't Want to Kill You is the third in Wells' planned trilogy featuring teenage sociopath John Cleaver. After defeating two demons who have littered his small town with bodies, John decides to move from the defensive to the offensive, and uses one demon's contacts to invite a third - Nobody - to face him. This is where Mr. Monster ends, and I Don't Want to Kill You picks up with a cautious John watching for the first signs that Nobody has arrived. Ultimately, John faces enemies he never expects, gains support from an unlikely source, and faces a kind of loss that shakes his understanding of himself.

As a whole, I Don't Want to Kill You is a gripping and compelling episode in the John Cleaver trilogy, and proves to be a satisfying conclusion (if indeed it is the end...). Wells finds a much more comfortable balance with supernatural elements, leaving the narrative much less jarring and allowing for a more comfortable suspension of disbelief.

However (and these books always seem to come with a "however" for me), the character shift in the end once again rings of cheap pandering. To have such a dramatic shift in character at the conclusion of a series feels incredibly disingenuous, and leaves me with a feeling of great disappointment at the end of what would otherwise be a near-perfect conclusion.