Love in the Time of Serial Killers or How to Negatively Portray Your Plus-Sized Characters Without Trying to
For about a year, I’ve wanted to read Love in the Time of Serial Killers. The cover was adorable, and the premise seemed to be Disturbia meets How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I wanted to love the book, but I stopped reading by the time I reached page 76. There were various reasons I added the book to my DNF pile, but the main one was Phoebe, the plus-sized main character.
Phoebe is an edgy, self-proclaimed true crime junkie who doesn’t seem to have a positive thing to say about anyone. When she meets the love interest at the start of the book, she assumes he’s a serial killer and even gives him a serial killer nickname. He isn’t doing suspicious things in his garage, or digging graves in his backyard when she gives him this nickname. He asks her if she needs help while moving her desk, and she decides he must want to kill her because he wanted to help her.
There’s no chemistry between the two, nor does Phoebe have chemistry with any other character in the novel. She seems to hate everyone around her. She often reminds the reader of how those people are the ones who make her feel uncomfortable. The biggest example of this is…
