Kill for Love

June 26, 2023
Love’s got little to do with this razor-sharp debut, a darkly comic, gender-swapped take on American Psycho led by L.A. sorority
sister Tiff Ames. With unlimited cash and clout courtesy of her deceased business mogul dad, the blonde influencer/fifth-year college senior has everything but feels nothing. That is, until what starts as another desultory hookup at a frat party climaxes in her first kill. “Tearing into Tristan had been how YouTube unboxings were supposed to feel,” Tiff muses. “That rush where you surprise yourself and feel completed, whole. Alive.” Instantly addicted, the fledgling killer (who preemptively retains counsel to deflect any potential questioning) sets her sights on potential prey beyond fraternity row, varying her preferred quarry (buff blond dudes) with random “clean kills” as needed. As the body count mounts and the handiwork of copycats across the region helps to obscure Tiff’s tracks, she meets Weston, a hunky, Ivy League–educated finance manager she quickly convinces herself could be The One. Though the author never takes her foot off the gas, the plot—and numbing video game–level death toll—is less satisfying than the novel’s consideration of class and gender in a social media–driven era even more desolately consumerist than the 1980s. This disruptive debut heralds Picklesimer as a newcomer to watch.