I Hunt Killers

I Hunt Killers - “People matter. People are real. Remember Bobby Joe Long.” What if you grew up in a small town and your father was grooming you for the family business? What if that business was the business of killing? Jasper Dent is 17 year old, he's living with his wacky, racist, and unstable Grammy. His father is the nations most notorious serial killer, Billy Dent who killed 124 people and is serving multiple life sentences with not a chance of parole. Jazz life is not normal, he was groomed to be just like Dear Old Dad, and his world is just about to be turned upside down... again.“If anyone would know how to custom-design a sociopath, it’s Billy,” Jazz had said.Are you a product of your environment?It has long been a heated debate in the Psychology world, Nature Vs. Nurture? Genetic Inheritance or Environmental factors that shape our human development. Can these personal experiences shape who we can become? Or do those enate qualities rule over us? I don't know. In the case of Jasper Dent, we don't really have an answer. What we do have is a book crafted from this theory. A novel unlike any other that i've read and one that kept me on the edge of my seat (so to speak) the whole time. This is Young Adult with a shot of adrenalin. Not your average YA book. Jazz is an engaging character to read, you cannot help but want him to fight the badness that his father put into him. His internal daily struggle and the montra he would say to himself People matter. People are real. I will never kill in a way proves his ability to feel empathy for others. Jazz reminded him again, staring down. He knew he was supposed to feel something here. Even coroners felt a momentary glimmer of regret when someone so young and healthy was laid out before them. But Jazz looked down at the body and felt…nothing. Exactly, precisely nothing. If I Hunt Killers was all doom and gloom then it would have been too much, because those aspects of this book, killings, mutilations and torture are shockingly gruesome. We add Howie into the mix, he brings the humor and down to earth feeling of this small town. He's the best friend who's a hemophiliac. He's not your average crime fighter but he balances out Jazz. Their friendship is deep and Howie has stood by Jasper during all that happened when his father was caught.Howie Gersten was a type-A hemophiliac, which meant that he bled if you looked at him too hard. The two had met when they were younger, when Jazz had come across Howie being tormented by a trio of older kids who weren’t quite stupid enough to cause any serious harm, but who reveled in poking at Howie’s exposed arms, then chortling over the bruises that blossomed almost immediately. Howie’s arms had taken on an almost lizardlike appearance, with overlapping bruises of blue and purple that looked like scales. “Have the lambs stopped screaming, Clarice?” Howie said suddenly in a dead-on Hannibal Lecter impression. “Stop that!” This is my first novel by Barry Lyga and I found his writing to be fresh, new and honest. I was enthralled from the first page. You might ask, "why not 5 stars?" Well, i'm not really sure. I rate my books on emotion, yeah, i'm such a girl. Even with 4 stars (which I believe is a high rating) this book is moving to my favorite list. I Hunt Killers is the first book in the Jasper Dent Series. I Hunt Killers 2 is due in the Spring of 2013. In closing: I loved this book. For someone who loves crime drama it was like Dexter and Silence of the Lambs all meshed up to form this new type of Profiler. Balanced with the humor that Howie brought and the depth of agony and pain that Jasper endured, makes for a great read!“Want to know the difference between good and evil, Jasper?” Without waiting for an answer, Billy raised his right hand—LOVE—and snapped his fingers. “That’s it, kid. That’s the difference. You won’t even know you’ve crossed the line until it’s way back in your rearview mirror.”