Review: Perry's Killer Playlist

Sequel to AU REVOIR, CRAZY EUROPEAN CHICK
By Joe Schreiber
Available now from Houghton Mifflin
Review copy

Like its predecessor, PERRY'S KILLER PLAYLIST is a slim volume.  224 pages nowadays seems more like an appetizer than a meal.  But Joe Schreiber's second young adult novel puts the pedal to the metal and doesn't let up.  This would be one exhausting novel if it were much longer.

(Although it could use a few less chapters that are only a page or two long.)

Fans of character-driven novels should look elsewhere.  PERRY'S KILLER PLAYLIST is all about the action and comedy with little room for anything else.  Perry is a young man touring Europe with his band Inchworm.  This could be their big break.  But then he runs into Gobi Zaksaukas, the foreign exchange student his family hosted during senior year - until she revealed herself to be an assassin on prom night and forced Perry to drive her as she sought revenge.  Now she's killing again and Perry is once more caught in the crossfire.

There is some attempt at characterization, but it's secondary to the crazy set pieces.  Honestly, I found PERRY'S KILLER PLAYLIST extremely fun.  I enjoy a good action movie, and PERRY'S KILLER PLAYLIST is like the book version of The Killers except not terrible.  (Let's face it, it should be criminal to screw up, "One is a cold-blooded assassin!  The other is an ordinary person!  Together they escape certain death!")

I think PERRY'S KILLER PLAYLIST can be read and enjoyed by those who haven't read AU REVOIR, CRAZY EUROPEAN CHICK.  The beginning starts with Perry and does a pretty good job of introducing who Gobi is and why he hopes to see her despite having a wonderful girlfriend.  And this isn't a series that asks you to remember any complex backstories.  There is continuity, like Perry's issues with his father, but I think father issues are pretty easy to understand.

Do you want to read something quick, funny, with bursts of improbable violence?  Then you'll probably enjoy PERRY'S KILLER PLAYLIST.  You might not care deeply about the characters, but it makes for an entertaining hour or two.