Infinite Books

Sophie Braam lives in a small town somewhere in Virginia. This is the place where during winter, men mostly go to the bars and get drunk; in summer, there are tailgating parties revolving around beer and having a good time. For many men, having a good time means they can harass and insult women. Sophie knows it first hand – she is a bartender and has met her share of arrogant drunks sitting at the little Blue Bar. As the saying goes, it’s all good until it isn’t… Something in her breaks, and she doesn’t want to accept it any longer. Sophie hates men, their false feeling of superiority, constant talking, and expecting women to listen and agree. Her first killing of a man is in self-defense after he tries to rape her, but she quickly moves to punish men in general. And so the psychopath in her emerges relatively quickly, and killings become a hunting game.

Nora Martin is a police officer who comes to a small Virginia town and tries to fit in with the all-men police department. She is an outsider, driven in her work by constant images of abused and killed women, the ones she couldn’t help. Now the bodies of men are being discovered, some badly decomposed, and Nora is convinced that a woman serial killer is behind it.

“You Know Her” by Meagan Jennett is a dark, disturbing, psychological thriller, with a small town’s claustrophobic atmosphere perfectly described. One can almost feel the wintery cold and the humid, summery air. The bar is also precisely pictured through Sophie’s eyes, with details about making cocktails.

On the surface, Sophie looks like every other young woman; she is pretty, petite, with long dark hair. As the title says, “you know her.” Her psychopathic personality is hidden; for example, no one knows that she is fascinated by the decay of the flesh. Observing the insects, she starts calling fruit flies her “sisters” – similarly to her, they destroy organic matter that is no longer needed. Likewise, Sophie doesn’t see any reason for the existence of aggressive men. She becomes a praying mantis – without any sexual involvement with her victims – luring them and killing them.

Will she be finally caught and find her match in Nora? Or their female bond will be too strong to put them on opposite sites? Two women who are so different yet so alike propel this thriller, bursting at its seams with anger.

YOU KNOW HER, by Meagan Jennett, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, April 2023