I enjoyed this book although it was difficult to follow at times.

Well narrated and well written although the end is a bit crisp/abrupt . Almost like a tv show ending while in negotiations for a second season.....

I picked this up because I had heard of the Killing Eve TV series but not actually watched it nor known that it was based on a series of novellas. This book collects 4 novellas about Villanelle and Eve, with focus on Villanelle's origins and how her world eventually intersects with Eve's; overall, it was an extremely entertaining and engrossing read (or rather, listen), but it definitely had its flaws. Villanelle was the highlight of the book for me; I loved her point of view and found her narration refreshingly raw and distinct. Her sections in particular are a great balance of character study and action/suspense thriller, with the effect of creating a tangible image of Villanelle as a person, even if the premise of her character is highly stereotypical and far from a realistic representation of sociopathy. By contrast, Eve seemed to be written to be so aggressively realistic and "relatable" that her character loops back around into coming across more shallow and cookie-cutter at times - I got really impatient when we had to hear her self-talk about being "plain-looking" for the nth time. However, she begins to come across more active and real as a character in the final novella, where she becomes more focused on capturing and defeating Villanelle. As is typical of the spy/assassin genre as a whole, the storytelling is extremely filtered through the white male gaze. Lots of unnecessary emphasis on breasts and women's physicality, lots of gratuitous sex, the usual orientalism. That being said, Jennings' prose itself is really strong - intelligent and thoughtful, fluid yet restrained, with each word serving a clear purpose but no passage too long or overwritten (except maybe the scene with the nurse-themed kinky roleplay - that one went on too long). Laura Kirman was also a great narrator - she allows each character come to life with their own distinct speech patterns, accent, and vocal tics.

like the book, the narrator was fine