heartbreaking: this 'female rage' novel is actually misogynistic

Recap — Spoilers Throughout

Frankie set out to make a different video, but Kill for Love annoyed her so much that it took over the whole project. She’d been excited enough to buy the book herself, and jokes that author Laura Picklesheimer’s surname may be its best feature. The premise—a sorority girl who kills frat boys—also sounded irresistible. Frankie’s disappointment is that the novel gestures toward a gender-swapped American Psycho satire without, in her view, giving that idea much to say.

Tiffany’s Story

The story follows Tiffany, a wealthy, beautiful sorority student who feels empty and discovers that killing men temporarily fills the void. Her first victim, Tristan, is stabbed with a knife conveniently left by his bed. Tiffany is more horrified by the possibility of blood damaging her skin—and by the aftermath of a binge-eating episode—than by having killed him. Frankie likes the grotesque joke but questions what the novel is actually satirizing. Tiffany’s motives also keep changing: at first, she seems driven by a sexual fascination with men’s bodies, but that thread soon fades.

Tiffany kills again at a Halloween party, taking out her rival Stephanie’s boyfriend, Jeremy, and stealing Stephanie’s ring as a keepsake. One of Frankie’s favorite running jokes is Tiffany’s disastrous attempts to establish alibis: she behaves so suspiciously that she practically announces where she was. The lawyer her wealthy family uses also seems to know what she’s doing, though their odd, unspoken understanding strikes Frankie as more suited to a campy movie than this novel.

After a failed attempt to kill a man she meets off campus, Tiffany is rescued by Weston, a handsome, wealthy, apparently perfect man. She quickly stops wanting to kill and makes him her new obsession. Frankie sees this as another missed opportunity: the only truly “good” person in the book is a man who is nearly flawless, while the women around Tiffany are mostly depicted as vain, catty, shallow caricatures. Even women with a different style—such as the environmentally conscious girlfriends Lydia and Tabitha—are mocked as petty and hypocritical.

Tiffany’s sorority “little,” Emily, is the closest thing the book has to a sympathetic woman. Emily becomes increasingly troubled by alcohol and family loss, then is assaulted by Malcolm, a wealthy student known for preying on women. Tiffany eventually kills him in a graphic revenge scene. Frankie is uncomfortable with how the assault is used as a plot device and questions the story’s fixation on genital violence. She does, however, praise one moment in which Tiffany strikes Weston during a fight: it echoes the men in the story who turn to violence when they don’t get what they want sexually.

As Tiffany’s relationship with Weston deteriorates, her reasons for killing become increasingly arbitrary. She murders Weston’s best friend, Dean, out of jealousy and irritation, then kills more people whenever Weston is away. Emily eventually realizes Tiffany is a killer and leaves, though Frankie finds her motives and the aftermath of her departure underdeveloped. A later revelation adds that Tiffany’s father was also a serial killer, tying up earlier hints about the family lawyer—but Frankie finds the explanation melodramatic and unearned.

The ending takes place amid widespread violence and wildfires in Los Angeles. Weston finally breaks up with Tiffany; she reveals that she is a murderer, and he beats her brutally, focused on destroying her face. Tiffany shoots him, survives, and eventually accepts her disfigured appearance, concluding that she can still kill. Emily briefly reappears, seemingly as another killer, but the book does little with that suggestion.

Frankie’s Verdict

Frankie’s final verdict is that the novel is fast-paced but not an effective beach read, because its gaps and shifting motivations are too distracting. She argues that it mistakes mocking individual women—especially their vanity and efforts to meet beauty standards—for feminist satire, without examining the systems that shape those pressures. The recurring joke is that the book keeps setting up potentially sharp ideas, then dropping them. Frankie closes by hoping her next video can finally be about a book she loves.

People Mentioned

• Frankie — The reviewer and narrator of the video.
• Laura Picklesheimer — Author of Kill for Love.
• Tiffany — The novel’s protagonist and a serial killer.
• Emily — Tiffany’s sorority “little.”
• Weston — Tiffany’s boyfriend.
• Tristan, Jeremy, Dean, Malcolm, and Keith — Men connected to Tiffany’s killings or attempted killings.
• Stephanie, Lydia, and Tabitha — Women in Tiffany’s orbit.