The Nothing Man

This was a slow burn punctuated by thrillingly dark moments. Content warning for sexual assault. This book was interesting in that its rotating point of views alternating from the book Eve wrote and Jim’s point of view kept me interested in what would happen next. Seeing how close Eve is getting to the truth as Jim reads about her findings was intriguing to say the least. The writing style was easy to get into and easy to visualize the story. The pacing felt fast paced and earned as we learn more and more about the Nothing Man and his modus operandi. I loved the small discussion about serial killers and their victims; how their legacy lives on while the victims remain unknown and forgotten. The story was simple and straightforward but enjoyable to the end.

This was a blind-date book, and at first, I thought, "Ugh. Not another serial killer novel." But this one is a bit different, both in its style and its content. There is a frame narrative, where the killer is reading the book written by one of his victims who escaped. I also liked that the killer is not an evil genius with elaborate rituals and kill sites, and who is not always three steps ahead of the police.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story about The Nothing Man. The book is set in Ireland (mainly Cork and Dublin) and seeing familiar places and locations in this book, really made me appreciate it even more, but the ending was a bit lacklustre to me.

This was one of the most unique thrillers I’ve ever read. Told from the POV of a Serial Killer reading about themselves was fascinating and captivating, I was thinking about this book constantly in the moments I wasn’t reading it. But my favorite part of this book was how serial killers and the obsession around them was handled. This book points out all of the flaws and issues that True Crime seems to have and refuses to glamorize the concept of a serial killer. The Nothing Man was a brilliant name and anyone who likes true crime needs to read this book. The only flaw it had was it wasn’t as creepy or suspenseful as I wanted it to be.

This was my first Catherine Ryan Howard book and now I want to read her other three as soon as I can. I loved this book. In 2018, I read I'll Be Gone in the Dark, and it as my mother would say "scared the mess out of me." About a month after I finished that book, Joseph DeAngelo was arrested. I don't know what I was thinking when I picked up The Nothing Man and thought that sounds kind of like a book that I read at night in bed and scared myself with for weeks. The Nothing Man features a true crime story-within-a-story setup that is so popular right now but this book does what so many like it did not for me, and makes me anxious about making sure all of my doors/windows are locked. It so effectively creepy while also pointing out that while we consume these stories we need to always, always remember the victims and have respect for the people who can't put down the creepy story when they're afraid because they lived it. One of my favorite thrillers in 2020 by a long stretch!

one of the best books i’ve ever read!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was so original!

This was awesome! This honestly reads like a true crime book and I enjoyed hearing the perspective of both Eve the survivor and Jim reading the book as the nothing man himself. This one definitely lived up to the hype for me!

Thoroughly enjoyable and unique read. I loved the concept of a book written to ensnare the killer and I loved the format of third person and first person, and two different fonts and 'types' of paper to give a visual distinction. Brilliant. I will definitely read more from this author.

It was good, different then any other thriller I’ve read.