Synopsis:
When Jamie Prescott and her best friend Laurie attend a speed-dating event, Jamie expects to meet a roster of mediocre men and indulge in some street food afterwards. She doesn’t expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at their table during a blackout. After the lights come back on and there are more bodies on the floor, it becomes clear that dating can be a very dangerous pastime.
Armed with makeshift weapons and Jamie’s extensive knowledge of what NOT to do in a slasher, the remaining speed daters try to find an exit while the killer adds to their body count. As the night progresses and Jamie comes face-to-mask with the murderer, she begins to suspect they are committing the slayings to woo one of the daters and turn them into a real-life Final Girl. But Jamie has other plans, and as she fights for her life, she can’t help but find herself ensconced in a love triangle with two of the other survivors. Will she make it through the bloodshed to find her Happily Ever After? Or does this machete-wielding psychopath have another ending in mind?
Review:
Hello again dear reader or listener, in case you were looking for an entertaining slasher that also scratches the itch for a realistic romance, I have excellent news for I have just the thing for you! It seems that romantic comedy slashers are becoming more of a thing in fact, and I am so not mad about it. You may wonder why, and the answer is really simple: darkly comedic whimsy is where it’s at.
Romcom slashers done well are by necessity, at least to some extent, satiric or parodic, and when they lean into the campiness or whimsy of it all, they make for some really fun and genuine stories that also happen to be very gory yet entertaining. I encountered this recently with the 2025 movie Heart Eyes and funnily enough this book that I’m about to dig into has a bit of a tongue in cheek reference to it as well.
With thanks to the team at Gallery Books for offering an eArc of this for an honest review, let’s get to my happy musings.
How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates, is a very entertaining meta narrative, chock full of movie references and real-world commentary that click into one endlessly endearing, sassy, and bloody whole. It questions and teases well known tropes while also showing us how, in the heat of the moment, they may be more reasonable than we thought while watching from the comfort of our own homes. Everyone knows you don’t go toward the weird noise in the dark and yet what happens when/if you really need to? For indeed there is a very interesting thesis in the fact that characters in specific genres don’t actually know they find themselves in that genre. It’s not like they can hear the ominous strings that slowly build tension in the background, or the fluttery piano that underscores a fluffy and romantic scene. There is also the running joke that all it takes for a scene to change vibes entirely is to change its soundtrack – how many times have we seen the George Michael song swapped into a somber or serious scene and had a chuckle? Thompson turns the tables by making her protagonist aware of all those rules fans of romance and/or horror even subconsciously know by heart. Her protagonist Jamie, is perfectly aware that she finds herself in a movie, even more so because the serial killer that has hijacked her speed dating evening is making it so on purpose. The only thing left to determine is whether she can make it out of it alive and preferably whole.
As a surprise to nobody who knows me, present tense narration and I don’t get along for reasons no one, much less me, will ever understand. But, every once in a while, an author’s style is so fun and dialogical that it works even for this stupid brain, and I get to have tons of fun. Thompson’s voice is so natural and full of character that you forget you’re reading and not listening to a friend recount wild events instead. Her protagonist is as relatable as she is real, swinging between wry observations and self-deprecating or aggrandizing humor like the best of us. The author understands humor as a coping mechanism, and expertly delivers a narrative pace that keeps us on our toes without tiring us out. She also fully encapsulates the realities of women fighting in the trenches of the current dating landscape while also making it a point to not fall into the pitfalls of outdated romance tropes. Wherein, for example, the leading lady is an island and her friendships merely an accessory to fill the hole that only the male lead can possibly fill for he is the only significant relationship that the woman will ever have. Catch my eyes rolling by, will you?
The romance in this is indeed only secondary to the female friendship within at times, and I am so ok with it since the number of times I’ve had to catch myself from swearing at the TV because the leading lady chose the guy she just met over the friend she grew up with is more than I like. Which isn’t to say that the romance wasn’t good. Thompson plays a good game of red herrings while also granting us several fully emotionally intelligent adults that communicate maturely. There are no cheesy declarations of undying love after merely a few adrenaline and terror filled hours, for that matter. Instead, the hopeful realization that this thing that’s budding between them might have a really good future if only they can make it out of it alive and have the chance to test it out, is a refreshing change of pace.
Best or worst first date ever??
There really is a lot to be talked about within this book, from girlhood, genre studies, or gender biases, to the importance of therapy after big trauma, and more. It is as funny as it is tense and keeping you guessing on what might happen next, all the while playing around with reader and genre expectations in between all the pop-culture references. It’ll make you cringe perhaps if you’re a lil’ light of stomach but also swoon and chuckle in equal measure and, by the end of it, you’ll feel lighter and satisfied, which is something I feel we all need from time to time.
Until next time,
Eleni A.E.
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