Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian
What's It About?
“Unlikeable Female Characters”They’ve become so popular, they now have their own podcast. The latest episode featured Megan Abbott — perhaps crime fiction’s ultimate authority on the subject. Except, the term “unlikeable” isn’t exactly accurate — not for Abbott’s characters and certainly not for Vera Kurian’s, um, “protagonist” in her twisted debut novel Never Saw Me Coming (Park Row Books).
A more apt characterization is that these women do not care one bit about being liked. For Chloe Sevre, the first-person voice that drives Kurian’s novel, it is clinically impossible for her to care. She’s a diagnosed psychopath. And she’s not alone. She’s part of a scholarship-funded university study for psychopaths, led by a renowned psychologist who once treated the Rock Creek Park serial killer.
It’s a collection of college kids incapable of rather important qualities like empathy and guilt. They’re also impervious to feeling fear. Dr. Leonard Wyman might not be convinced he can cure them, but he is committed to helping these people pretend to be, well, people.
PSYCHOPATHS CAN BE AN AWFUL LOT OF FUN …
It’s a novel conceit that requires some suspension of disbelief. In a culture bound by HR rules and endless liabilities, such a study — in secret, no less — would be a guaranteed way for a university to be sued out of existence. But there’s no need to dwell on real life here. Because it turns out psychopaths can be an awful lot of fun. They’re so honest. Even when they’re always lying or plotting conscience-free murders.
You may have your own definition of “likeable” characters, but I found myself rooting for Chloe Sevre. She’s upfront about her awful intentions. It’s refreshing. Better than the duplicitous nature of most standard, scheming college students. She’s charming, whip-smart, unashamed of her sexual desires, and knows how to adapt in any social setting. She also suffered a horrible trauma at age twelve, which has brought her to John Adams University in Washington, D.C.
AND OUR COUNTRY’S CAPITAL IS TEEMING WITH THEM
The city is an inspired choice. Per capita, the District of Columbia may have more committed psychopaths than anywhere else in the world. (Many, of course, are in politics and are invested in more macro evils than mere in-person murders … ) There are certain novels where you can sense an author smiling to herself as she writes. This is one such book. Kurian clearly has a warped sense of humor, not to mention expertise on her particular subject. Her author bio notes she has a Ph.D. in Social Psychology and lives in D.C., “her rightful home.”
Psycho can be an overused, overwrought term. From Norman Bates to Patrick Bateman, we connect it with murderous mayhem. Kurian is clever to make the distinction between the shorthand and the clinical definition of psychopath. As with other mental disorders, there’s a spectrum. It’s on that continuum of madness that these characters come alive. Some may become serial killers. Others, senators. Chloe Sevre proclaims that she intends to be a doctor.
Rest assured that nothing will stand in her way.
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