Book Review: Win, Lose, Kill, Die by Cynthia Murphy

‘Win, Lose, Kill, Die’ by Cynthia Murphy was released in 2022. It was a booktok sensation, after videos the first page circulated online. It certainly piqued my interest.

Something that is mentioned toward the end of the novel, a lie, could have posed a much more personable plot. Golden boy, furrowed away at a swanky school is actually a teen father? Now that could have posed dome great inner monologues. Instead we have Liz. And, as Murphy is quick to establish, Liz is a wallflower, a face in the crowd, mundane and unremarkable despite being a prodigy. Perhaps that’s what attending a school for prodigal students does to a person. 

What I was interested in was the patterns of the killings, and the almost unhealthyobsessionwith rankings. Instead of focusing on being grateful for the opportunities around them, students at the prestigious Morton Academy, seek status in the form of being Head Boy or Head Girl. This is a very compelling, teenage struggle, but, with university on the horizon, I as the reader, wanted to bash the characters’ heads together for their lack of perspective. People are dying, and you have universities to apply for.

I would like to say that the book lived up to the gripping first page, but, as I have said many times on this blog, thrillers, for me can be a big hit or miss. This one, for me, was definitely a miss.

Unfortunately, despite going along with the story, my first guess was correct. Yes, I considered other avenues as we were given crumbs of information, but to correctly guess the killer right off the mark is just a bit frustrating.

I felt like the pacing was fast, and engaging, but, at the same time, the scenes we got to see read as rather jumpy and episodic. But maybe that’s just the genre conventions beating me like a dead horse.

I feel like this book was a bit underbaked for me. Maybe it’s because of its notoriety on booktok, or maybe it is something else but I felt heavy disconnect with all of the characters. None resonated with me, and although the deaths were unique and gruesome, I found myself simply wanting to finish the book for the sake of immediate gratification. I wanted to know if I was right,not know if evil was thwarted. But, just because it wasn’t my favourite,  doesn’t mean it won’t be yours! Who knows, maybe ‘Win, Lose, Kill, Die’ will be right up your street!