Rhiannon Lewis is, to most people, extraordinarily ordinary – a dutiful girlfriend, an ambitious reporter, and a thoroughly active dog walker (when she’s not snacking on weight!). So what if she has a few…quirks? So, her boyfriend is cheating on her with her work colleague, so her bosses keep passing her up for promotion, so her sister thinks she’s a freak.

So what?

It doesn’t matter to Rhiannon when she can solve all her problems with one little list – a list of all her problems that she can strike off one at a time. A kill list. A list of people she might kill. A list of people she will kill. Rhiannon Lewis is a serial killer, and no one suspects her at all. How could they? She’s such a sweat pea. 

The story is conveyed to the reader in the form of Rhiannon’s diary, in which she begins each entry with the day, date, and a list of people who she’d encountered that day who deserved to die. 

Before I go any further, my reading of the crime genre has been somewhat limited. From my previous reading of the works of the likes of Anthony Horowitz and Lee Child, I wasn’t expecting such an immature style of writing from CJ Skuse. 

The novel is written entirely informally and overloaded with a range of insults that range in their creativity and level of vulgarity. There are numerous instances in which Rhiannon describes several of her colleagues, in particular, the head honchos Claudia and Linus (who unfairly dismiss and ill-regard Rhiannon’s contribution to the paper), in ways that would make a sailor turn his tongue in disgust. 

For a brief moment, I wondered if the trailer for the show had been a little more misleading than I’d thought. Perhaps this book was more aimed at young adult readers than mature adults. 

Continuing to read, regardless of my first impressions, I soon realized how wrong I was and how my early criticism was unfair and unfounded. Skuse might not have written this novel to be full of the literary devices and writing styles that I was more familiar with, but this novel isn’t meant to mimic the tone of voice or the detailed world-building of the likes of Lee Childs. 

Through Skuse, we are seeing the world through Rhiannon’s eyes, and Rhiannon has more than one reason to distrust and dislike most people. It’s through her eyes we see her boyfriend Craig’s sleazy behavior and the vane and vapid personality of her close friends, particularly the mouthy bride-to-be Imelda. 

It’s Rhiannon’s disconnection from humanity that makes us distrust people who have no reason to be suspicious – AJ, for example, Claudia’s nephew, who makes her toast one day (served with a wink) and the next is seen flirting with new hire Daisy Chen, who seems suspiciously interested in Rhiannon’s past.

I’ve never had a sibling, but if I did, I imagine reading Sweat Pea would be like reading their diary and gorging on the horrifically dark and thoroughly humorous anecdotes that had previously been kept private. This a perspective-driven story, and we are locked into Rhiannon’s eyes. Her perspective of the world is built on her trauma – it’s the reason why she goes out at night with a knife in her jacket, the reason she makes kill lists, the reason she can’t truly connect and must create ‘the act’ to fake her humanity.

Only at times it doesn’t feel so fake. Rhiannon is a compelling protagonist; she’s deeply humorous, terribly flawed, and filled with dread at thoughts of failure in her life and career. Though I can’t help but wonder – if Rhiannon is truly a psychopath, why is so likable?

Throughout the story, as Rhiannon goes about having her revenge on all sorts, from opportunistic rapists to high school bullies, I never feel entirely disconnected from her actions, for the most part, given Rhiannon’s past, it’s almost understandable why she commits such atrocities. 

And whilst reading about these atrocities and how Rhiannon goes out of her way to commit them, it almost feels as though the overarching plot is too fixed on these acts. By the time we’ve come to the last few pages and all the twists and turns have come up, I can’t help but feel as though Skuse is as lost in this story as Rhiannon is in her life. 

That is not to say I found none of the big reveal entertaining, but knowing that there are four other books in this series, I truly have to wonder if Skuse can keep the reader entertained for so long. Whilst Rhiannon’s less-than-polite journalistic style might keep you chuckling as she spills blood, this alone can’t carry her story through several sequels. 

Overall, Sweatpea is a thoroughly entertaining novel with a captivating narrative voice and dark humor that will tickle your tose lose as the bloody horror will make you curl up tight. 

7.5 out of 10.