3 of 5 stars: It was OK.

I really wanted to give this book a higher rating, but it fell flat :-(
The first three books in the series were quite amusing. The first book had some entertainment value, even though the writing was technically horrible. And even though I really don't believe Dan had, when researching serial killers, never read the Dexter books. But anyways, the Dexter angle disappeared in the second book, and the writing improved. It gave us something fresh and nice, a complicated and conflicted YA character, without going into love triangles (however, he slightly strayed there in the third book).
The third book was actually quite nice. It seemed he started following his own Writing Excuses advice, and the quality went up several notches.

But now....the fourth book... The writing is OK. But John is no longer John. I understand that a character should grow and you can't keep hanging in the angsty teenager spiel. But once a sociopath, always a sociopath. You don't suddenly grow empathy or something. Which he kinda does.
The tension from the first books (will he go over the edge or will he hang on to his humanity This question even quite literally near the end of this book ) disappears from the story, and with it most of the fun, the edge the previous books had. He's just a mouthy kid, who thinks he's brilliant. Dan tells us John's brilliant, but he never really shows it.
John doesn't do well in an ensemble setting, both in-story as as a book.
I hope the quality improves in the next two books, but based on the reviews I've read, I rather doubt it. Too bad.