Overall Rating - 4/5 stars

Summary:

The book "I Hunt Killers" by Barry Lyga is about a teenage boy (17) named, Jasper "Jazz" Dent, who was made to be a killer. Literally, trained and brainwashed by his father from a very young age on how to be the best killer in the world. After Jazz's father, Billy Dent, gets arrested (124 victims later), Jazz grows up fighting the urge to kill people. He basically becomes the town pariah, but luckily gains one good friend named Howie and a girlfriend named Connie who he loves but feels the need to protect her from himself. Jazz tries to act like a normal teenager would, but he can't help using the morbid skills his father taught him to investigate the recent deaths. There's a new serial killer in town copying Billy's first kills. It's with those skills that Jazz ends up tracking down the killer. Or rather, the killer tracks him down.

There's so much mystery in this book that you just have to keep reading until your curiosity is satiated and even then it's still not. The cliff hanger just adds to the number of questions running through your mind. I think, for me, the most interesting part in the book was when Jazz finally went to go speak to his father after four years of avoiding doing just that. It was an intense scene where you got to see just how manipulative "Dear Old Dad" can really be, whereas prior to that part it's only alluded to with the voice of Billy in Jazz's head from a memory whispering to him to 'cut someone'.

Barry Lyga is a good story teller. He really does a good job of emphasizing throughout the book the internal war that Jazz goes through as he struggles with understanding who he is as well as his greatest fear of becoming just like his father. At times, Jazz's thoughts on becoming like Billy would get annoying, especially when his girlfriend had to continually tell him that none of what happened was his fault, but I guess it was necessary. I mean, if I were in Jazz's shoes and had a father who was a notorious serial killer I would non-stop question every action I did too. And I guess that's what made Jazz's character so fascinating. Even though he had evil thoughts about killing others he fought against his 'inner demon' and strived to use the things his father taught him to make a difference, chanting to himself all along that "people matter".

"I Hunt Killers" is a good book for anyone who likes a complicated mystery as well as when the main character himself is a part of the mystery. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who doesn't mind gory, morbid scenes and wants a book that makes you think about good and evil long after you've finished reading it.