She's a Killer - Kirsten McDougall

The world’s climate is in crisis and New Zealand is being divided and reshaped by privileged immigrant wealthugees.

Thirty-something Alice has a near-genius IQ and lives at home with her mother with whom she communicates by Morse code. Alice’s imaginary friend, Simp, has shown up, with a running commentary on her failings. ‘I mean, can you even calculate the square root of 762 anymore?’ The last time Simp was here was when Alice was seven, on the night a fire burned down the family home. Now Simp seems to be plotting something.

When Alice meets a wealthugee named Pablo, she thinks she’s found a way out of her dull existence. But then she meets Pablo’s teenage daughter, Erika – an actual genius full of terrifying ambition.

She’s a Killer is the story of a brilliant and stubborn slacker who is drawn into radical action. It’s about what happens when we refuse to face our most demanding problems, told by a woman who is a strange and calculating force of chaos.

Longlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction 2022

'Brilliant.' —Greg Fleming, NZ Listener

'Gripping dystopia, incredible sense of humour, super accomplished' —Claire Mabey, Afternoons with Jesse Mulligan

‘A claustrophobic eco-thriller with a gloriously unreliable narrator,  She’s a Killer is tense and sharp, and feels unnervingly prescient.’ –Brannavan Gnanalingam

‘Equipped with an exhilaratingly badly-behaved protagonist, She’s a Killer builds from a slice of very strange life into a thriller by way of a succession of stunning comic set pieces.  You’ll laugh—a lot.  And then you’ll cry and be really surprised about it since you were laughing so much.’ –Elizabeth Knox

Paperback