The Death Row Club by V.A. Vazquez

Some things run in the blood… especially when your parent is a serial killer. 

Now, plenty of people have lousy parents, but Nicola’s father was just convicted of killing five women, including her best friend. Then her life goes to shit, she loses her teaching job, she’s about to lose her house… it’s bad. But then she’s extended an invitation to join the Death Row Club, a club with membership exclusive to those who are the adult children of serial killers. 

This club is having their annual retreat very soon, and when an intruder shows up at the retreat, and then one of their members goes missing over the first night, we have to wonder if someone is stepping into the family tradition… 

Of course I am talking about V.A. Vazquez’s The Death Row Club! This book publishes on July 14.

First and foremost, thank you to V.A. Vazquez for writing this spectacularly suspenseful story, and to Gallery Books/Scout Press and Simon & Schuster for allowing me the chance to read this book in advance to share my thoughts! And, of course, to NetGalley for facilitating it all. 

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

My thoughts on The Death Row Club:

I loved this story's setup. This group of people all share one thing in common: they’re all the children of serial killers. And while technically not every one of their parents is on death row, because not all of them live in states where they can be sentenced to death, it probably wouldn’t have had the same ooomph if it was called something like the Serial Killer Kids Club. You know?

Nicola runs into some pretty crazy things throughout this book, and we occasionally follow two other perspectives as well. One kinda comes in right near the end of the novel, and I’m not typically a huge fan when that happens, but in this case, it makes sense. You’ll see why!

At the start of the ARC, an executive editor from Simon & Schuster mentioned that she couldn’t figure this book out at all, and if anyone did, they should contact her. So, Hannah, check your inbox because I have sent you an email! Though I didn’t have most of this book figured out, there were two or three things I had figured out in advance. And of course for all of you watching this right now, I’m not going to spoil any of that for you. So you’ll just have to read this book for yourself! 

Mark your calendars because The Death Row Club comes out on July 14th! (Also, that’s my mom’s birthday, so happy birthday, Mom. I will buy this book for you. I just hope this story doesn’t resonate with you too closely…)

Question of the day:

Do you feel like being in a group like this would be healthy? To be able to talk about what you’re experiencing with people who understand? Or would you rather keep it to yourself? Let me know what you think!