Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Read advance reader review of Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

Summary | Reviews | More Information | More Books

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

Never Saw Me Coming

A Novel

by Vera Kurian

  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Published:
  • Sep 2021, 400 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Reviews


Page 1 of 4
There are currently 23 member reviews
for Never Saw Me Coming
Order Reviews by:
  • Julia A. (New York, NY)
    Gripping
    It is rare to read a novel in which the protagonists are psychopaths, but this author has the professional expertise and background to pull it off credibly. "Never Saw Me Coming" gripped me from the first page. I did like the other characters more than I liked Chloe, but she and everyone else was interesting and complex enough to keep me reading. Most of the non-psychopaths were rather flat, but with two notable exceptions, they were really just background noise anyway. I let many of my daily chores go for two days to finish the book. There were some minor inconsistencies, but not enough to distract from the story. The solution to the mystery was set up well, but nonetheless may catch the reader by surprise, partly because he or she may not want to believe that things can turn out that way. I highly recommend "Never Saw me Coming," and hope the author will write many more novels.
  • Peggy A. (Fairfax, VA)
    I Couldn't Put it Down Until the Last Page
    "A psychopath is a person suffering from a serious mental disorder that causes them to commit violent or antisocial acts without any remorse."

    A group of college students, previously diagnosed as psychopaths, join a clinical program to study their lack of emotions and feelings of guilt.

    Lying, cheating and murders happen in this fast paced novel that I couldn't put down until the last page.

    I would recommend this book to anyone who might be interested in the subject of mental illness.
  • R. David Johnson MBA, Ashland, KY, Book Critic
    An On The Edge Nonstop Psychological Thriller With Unexpected Twists Page After Page
    Vera Kurlan may be a fresh addition amongst the literary community. However, her first novel contribution to readers with, "Never Saw Me Coming," demonstrates favorable new on-the-edge psychological suspense with every turn of the book's pages. Carefully written with vigilant attention to detail, from the shady casts of psychopathic young characters to the calculated crimes within the novel's plot, Kurlan additionally produces elements of drama, love, thrills, mystery, and suspense, within each chapter that is more than anticipated of a good psychological suspense novel. Furthermore, with the novel's setting in the heart of Washington, D.C. at a prominent university, Kuran's casts of characters, from young college students to influential professors, easily relates to young adult readers to the middle aged professionals. This new novel will keep the reader intrigued with the plot's new developments with each turn of the book's pages. This new novel is one that does not fall short a true psychological suspense.
  • Mary G. (Greensboro, GA)
    Crazy Good!
    Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian is one of those books you read when you want to reward yourself for good behavior. In this complicated thriller, young diagnosed psychopaths are recruited into a college study. They matriculate into the school like any other students and are not supposed to know the identities of the other 6 students in the program. But, being psychopaths, three members quickly find each other out. When students in the program start to die, the three must decide if they can trust each other enough to work together to stay alive. Or, is one of them the killer?

    These deliciously twisted characters are somehow quite likable and are the reason the book works so well. The ending is satisfying and this is definitely a book that will get passed around from friend to friend.
  • M K. (Minneapolis, MN)
    What do you think you know for sure?
    This novel is about a college program that has given free tuition to seven students who are deemed to be psychopaths. They have smart watches which systematically chart their locations and moods. They don't know the other students in the study. The psychologist who has created the program believes he can help these people manage their illness. But when a couple of the students are murdered, the question becomes can a psychopath trust another psychopath. Like many great mysteries, I felt interested on the first page. The book was deliciously engaging, fun even, and I didn't know the murderer until the last few pages. All the winding plot twists made it a very entertaining book that I enjoyed very much.
  • Shelley C. (Eastport, NY)
    I Never Saw It Coming
    A group of students get a free ride to attend a Washington D.C. College. All they have to do is participate in a special psychology department program. And did I mention that they are all diagnosed psychopaths and that's why they were chosen? What could possibly go wrong?

    When students in the program start dying, some of the other students start their own investigation into the murders. Who is the murderer? That is the focus of this fast paced psychological thriller.

    It was an interesting look into modern college life as seen through the eyes of three of the students. The story was well plotted. The characters were well drawn. All in all a good story that I do recommend.
  • Gina T. (Natick, MA)
    a modern thriller with a twist
    Never Saw Me Coming was a very satisfying whodunit. College students, Washington DC, the current political climate all came together in a fresh crime novel. The characters all drew both compassion and revulsion simultaneously. I found it captivating. I usually do not read this genre, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommended it to all my "true crime" friends.

More Information

Read-Alikes

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: My Friends
    My Friends
    by Hisham Matar
    The title of Hisham Matar's My Friends takes on affectionate but mournful tones as its story unfolds...
  • Book Jacket: James
    James
    by Percival Everett
    The Oscar-nominated film American Fiction (2023) and the Percival Everett novel it was based on, ...
  • Book Jacket
    But the Girl
    by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu
    Jessica Zhan Mei Yu's But the Girl begins with the real-life disappearance of Malaysia Airlines ...
  • Book Jacket: Patriot
    Patriot
    by Alexei Navalny
    On the 17th of January, 2024, colleagues of Alexei Navalny posted a message to his Instagram account...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Berry Pickers
by Amanda Peters
A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl disappears, leaving a mystery unsolved for fifty years.
Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

I have lost all sense of home, having moved about so much. It means to me now only that place where the books are ...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.