Book Review: Kill Your Darlings by L.E. Harper
Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Purchase Link: Amazon
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review.
Kill Your Darlings was intense. I had a feeling I knew where it was going from the beginning, but I still wasn't prepared once we got there. And while it left me reeling a bit, it was beautiful and I would recommend it to anyone.
Heed the trigger warnings. This tackles mental health head on and the narrator's struggles are present throughout. But it does it in a way that is real and will touch something deep inside your soul if you have ever dealt with depression.
The story follows a fantasy author with major depression who wakes up in a dream to find herself in the world she created, inhabiting the body of the hero Kyla. But this dream is very real, right down to her being a squishy mortal with no powers. Being the author of this world, she knows what's going to happen next -- and none of it is good. If she's trapped here, she figures...maybe she can save the world and her darlings along with it.
It was a fantastic fantasy adventure with a beautifully written world. There are dragons and monsters and magic. What more could you want from a fantasy?
While the story is told from our author's first-person POV, the supporting characters are excellent, well-rounded, and three-dimensional, and take on a life of their own when interacting with our hero. The LGBTQIA+ representation is also quite beautifully and casually woven throughout.
At first, I was not a fan of how it started. It jumped right into the fantasy world, with our narrator realizing that she is in the body of her hero. I wanted context and build-up and why she was there. But stick it out. Because there is a reason we start where we do, and you will learn it in the third half of the book.
The blurb calls this an "allegorical masterpiece" and it isn't wrong. There are so many allegories, but the way the author weaves the allegory of intrusive thoughts and suicidal ideation into the narrative was as genius as it was painful.
I look forward to reading more by this author in the future, and will most definitely be purchasing a copy of this paperback to place on my shelf once it's released.
