You’d Look Better as a Ghost is a darkly funny thriller that’ll leave you questioning your own morals

Joanna Wallace’s debut novel, You’d Look Better as a Ghost, is so sharp, unsettling, and hilariously deadpan that I found myself rooting for a serial killer—and questioning why.

What happens when your favorite hobby is murder—and someone finds out? That’s the dilemma Claire faces in You’d Look Better as a Ghost, Joanna Wallace’s wickedly clever debut novel about a part-time serial killer trying to keep her extracurriculars under wraps. It’s a comic thriller with bite, grit, and just enough gore to make you flinch and laugh in the same breath.

Claire is, to put it bluntly, a sociopath. She kills with cold precision and a touch of flair, usually reserving her blades and poisons for those who “deserve it.” Think abusive caregivers, manipulative creeps, or those who commit the crime of inbox clutter (seriously—an errant email is all it takes to get on Claire’s list). And yet… she’s grieving. The death of her father, who suffered through a grim stay in a memory care facility, hits her hard—so hard, in fact, that it disrupts her carefully calculated rhythm. Mistakes are made. Big ones. Like leaving a victim’s head bobbing around in her fishtank for far too long.

Grief makes Claire sloppy, and sloppiness makes her vulnerable. When someone begins blackmailing her, threatening to expose her secret life, Claire must decide whether to double down or get out before everything comes crashing down. The result? A cat-and-mouse story so full of dry wit and uneasy empathy that I didn’t know whether to cackle or squirm.

And that’s the genius of Wallace’s writing. Claire isn’t someone you’re *supposed* to like, but… you kind of do. She’s methodical, yes, but also introspective, emotionally reactive, and startlingly funny. There’s a thread of real humanity running through her, even if it’s occasionally hidden behind duct tape and body bags. As the novel unfolds, Wallace invites us to ponder: Is Claire a killer because she was born that way? Or was she shaped by trauma—specifically an abusive, emotionally cruel mother?

This moral ambiguity is the novel’s secret weapon. Claire isn’t a hero, but she’s also not the cartoon villain you’d expect from a “murder comedy.” She grows over the course of the book—maybe not in a redemption arc kind of way, but she evolves. She starts making connections, questioning her instincts, and even considering the possibility of… stopping.

Will she? Can she? Should she?

You’d Look Better as a Ghost is a wild ride through grief, guilt, and gallows humor, led by a narrator who may or may not carve up her problems. If you love your thrillers smart, your antiheroines unhinged, and your humor pitch-black, this book is for you.

Now it’s your turn: Would you root for a serial killer if she only killed people who “deserved” it? Let me know what you think in the comments—just don’t email me about it. Claire might be watching.

Related Content

• Why the Serial Killer Novel Is the New Feminist Fiction (Crime Reads)
• 7 Dark and Thrilling Novels about Women Who Kill (Electric Lit)
• These Novels Prove That Women Make Fascinating Fictional Killers, Too (BuzzFeed)
• Book Review: ‘You’d Look Better as a Ghost’ by Joanna Wallace (What is Quinn Reading)

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Now that Jack has been forced to reflect on everything he has to lose, he resolves to do better. He’s determined to spend more time at home with his family and repair the relationships that have suffered over the years while he’s been so focused on work. But as Callie’s behavior becomes increasingly bizarre, Jack realizes he has a lot more room to improve than he realized – and it might be too late to save his daughter after all.

For fans of We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Push, and Baby Teeth.