There’s something deliciously unhinged about a book that opens with speed dating and closes with a body count. How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson throws you into a blood-soaked nightmare where rom-com meets slasher, and somehow, against all odds, makes you root for love amidst the carnage. This debut novel doesn’t just blend genres—it dissects them with the precision of a horror movie buff wielding a scalpel.
The Setup: Speed Dating Meets Serial Killing
Jamie Prescott isn’t looking for love when she walks into a Brooklyn speed-dating event. She’s looking for a distraction from her film theory dissertation, maybe some decent conversation, and definitely street food afterward with her best friend Laurie. What she gets instead is a front-row seat to a massacre orchestrated by someone who’s watched one too many slasher films—and learned all the wrong lessons.
The premise is deceptively simple: ten dates, ten minutes each, and one killer who’s turned the entire evening into his twisted romantic gesture. But Thompson elevates this beyond simple genre mashup through Jamie’s encyclopedic knowledge of horror tropes. Our protagonist isn’t just a Final Girl in training—she’s a woman who’s studied every Final Girl who came before her, and she’s determined to write her own ending.
The Meta Commentary That Actually Works
What makes How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson stand out in the crowded horror-romance landscape is its self-awareness. Jamie constantly references horror movie rules, rom-com conventions, and the ways real life refuses to follow either script. This could easily become exhausting or pretentious, but Thompson walks the tightrope with the confidence of someone who genuinely loves these genres.
When Jamie mentally catalogs which horror movie “don’t” she’s about to break, or analyzes whether she’s living through a slasher or a romantic comedy, it doesn’t pull you out of the tension—it amplifies it. You’re watching someone try to survive by using fictional blueprints that don’t quite map onto reality, and that gap between theory and practice becomes the source of both humor and genuine terror.
The book’s greatest strength lies in how it honors genre conventions while simultaneously interrogating them. Jamie knows she’s “too old to be a Final Girl and too young to be a Leading Lady,” yet she refuses to let someone else’s narrative dictate her role. This meta-awareness never overshadows the visceral horror of people dying around her or the genuine chemistry developing between her and potential love interests.
The Romance(s) That Complicate Everything
Let’s address the love triangle—because yes, there’s romance blooming while bodies drop. Jamie finds herself caught between two very different men during the night’s chaos, and Thompson somehow makes this work without trivializing the horror surrounding them. The “attraction under aversive conditions” (a real psychological phenomenon the book cleverly references) adds layers to relationships formed in extremis.
Wes Carpenter, the detective with hero complex and devastating eye contact, becomes Jamie’s unlikely partner in survival. Their chemistry crackles from their disastrous first speed date—where Jamie’s horror movie knowledge sends him running—through increasingly dangerous encounters with a masked killer. The slow-burn romance develops through shared trauma, quick wit, and mutual respect that feels earned rather than manufactured.
The romantic elements never undercut the horror; instead, they raise the stakes. When Jamie realizes the killer sees their blood-soaked evening as the ultimate romantic gesture, the intersection of love and violence becomes genuinely disturbing rather than purely metaphorical.
Where the Knife Dulls: Pacing and Character Development
How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson doesn’t escape all genre pitfalls. The middle section occasionally stalls as the group splinters and reunites in ways that feel more formula-adherent than organic. Some secondary characters, particularly among the speed-dating attendees, remain underdeveloped before meeting their grisly ends. When the body count climbs, it’s hard to mourn characters we barely knew beyond their ten-minute speed dates.
The killer’s motivation, while creative in its twisted rom-com logic, requires significant suspension of disbelief. The elaborate planning needed to transform an entire nightclub into a death trap feels almost too meticulous for someone driven by romantic obsession. Some readers might find the villain’s grand romantic gesture veering into implausible territory, even within the heightened reality of horror-romance.
Additionally, the book’s constant genre commentary, while generally effective, occasionally tips into over-explanation. Jamie’s internal monologues sometimes spell out connections that sharper readers have already made, slightly dulling the cleverness of Thompson’s construction.
The Writing: Sharp, Witty, Self-Aware
Thompson’s prose moves with the propulsive energy of someone who’s mainlined every horror movie and rom-com ever made and is eager to share why they matter. The first-person narration captures Jamie’s voice perfectly—she’s whip-smart without being insufferable, scared without being helpless, romantic without being naive.
The author excels at balancing tones. One moment you’re laughing at Jamie’s internal commentary about which horror movie rule she’s breaking; the next, you’re genuinely unsettled by the killer’s pink heart-shaped mask appearing in the darkness. The violence is visceral without being gratuitous, and the romance develops with emotional authenticity despite the extreme circumstances.
Cultural references pepper the narrative naturally, from While You Were Sleeping to Scream, from Taylor Swift to slasher movie final acts. These aren’t just name-drops—they’re the lens through which Jamie understands her world. For readers who share her genre fluency, it’s catnip. For those less steeped in horror and rom-com lore, it might occasionally feel exclusionary.
The Feminist Edge Beneath the Blood
Beneath the genre play and romantic tension, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson offers sharp commentary on gendered expectations. Jamie’s struggle to be both Final Girl and Leading Lady mirrors the impossible standards women navigate daily—be strong but not threatening, be independent but still desirable, survive but stay pretty doing it.
The book examines how women are forced into narrow narrative roles, whether in fiction or life, and how breaking those roles requires conscious choice. Jamie doesn’t accidentally become a survivor; she deliberately crafts her own story from the pieces of every movie she’s studied. This agency transforms what could be simple genre exercise into something more substantive.
The Verdict: A Bloody Good Time with Heart
How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson is that rare hybrid that respects both its genres without being enslaved to either. It’s funny without undermining its horror, romantic without trivializing its violence, and meta without disappearing up its own clever premise. Thompson has crafted a debut that feels both like loving homage and fresh take—no small feat in well-trodden genre territory.
This isn’t a perfect book. The pacing falters, some characters deserved more development before their demises, and the killer’s elaborate scheme requires generous suspension of disbelief. But it’s a wildly entertaining one that understands why we love both horror and romance: because they’re both about the choices we make when everything’s on the line.
For readers who’ve ever wondered what would happen if someone who’d studied every horror movie trope found themselves living one, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson delivers bloody, swoony satisfaction. Just maybe don’t read it right before your next dating app meet-up.
If You Loved This, Try These:
- Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alison Montclair – Contemporary romance with true crime obsession
- Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano – Mystery-comedy with romantic elements
- Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver – Dark romance between competing serial killers
- The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling – Romantic comedy with supernatural danger
- Happy Place by Emily Henry – Contemporary romance with emotional depth
- My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones – Slasher homage with Final Girl protagonist
