Book Review: Swiped

Here’s my book review for Swiped by L.M. Chilton. Don’t forget to leave a comment if you’ve read it too. And check out today’s writing prompt at the bottom of this post.

Swiped by L.M. Chilton is wildly entertaining, and in a weird way, somewhat relatable—at least for those of us who have been on dating apps before, which is probably most of us. 

From the very first page to the very last page, I was hooked and could not put this book down. I read it in one sitting. Not only was I hooked on the looming murder mystery (or should I say mysteries, plural?), and discovering who the murderer was in each chapter I read, I was also hooked on the main character’s inner monologue, her dialogue with other characters in the story, and her morally gray character as she followed clues and hunches over the course of the novel. 

Never has it felt so right laughing my face off while reading about multiple grisly murders. Yet, I never felt detached from any of the victims as I was laughing off and on, and learning about their questionable behavior, which was oddly reassuring. Chilton does a great job of giving you enough distance from each of the horrible victims that shouldn’t be allowed to date anyone, while also encouraging you to see them as human beings in the end. Sure, they didn’t deserve to get matched with anyone really, but they still didn’t deserve to be murdered. 

I also enjoyed that as I was reading the novel, most of my hunches about the various characters were true, yet unfolded in ways that I hadn’t quite expected, which kept me surprised and wanting me to read more. Overall, the plot was so much more exciting than I had expected it would be, and I often felt like I was reading a romcom mixed with an intriguing true crime podcast. 

I’ll be honest: I’m always skeptical when I read novels written by men that have female main characters. But I appreciated how the main character Gwen was portrayed in this novel. She seemed realistic and interesting to me. Yes, she was sensitive at times, as all humans are, but she was also smart and decisive and sometimes morally gray, as all humans can be too. She wasn’t a boring heroine or damsel in distress, she was a human who still got stuff done. The male characters in this novel were also interesting. Yes, while most of the male victims from the dating app were less than top notch, there were also male characters that were interesting and sensitive and normal in the novel. I’m mentioning this because I can guess that writing about a dating app was probably pretty challenging to write about, more so than people may suspect, because it was probably challenging not to group people into stereotypes or by what algorithms tell us we should think of them. Especially if you’ve had some bad experiences on dating apps.  

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys novels with well-developed characters and a well-developed plot, who wants to read something with a bit of dark humor, who has been on dating apps before, and/or who enjoys true crime stories. And honestly, even if you only meet one of those criteria, you’ll still likely enjoy it. 

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Today’s Writing Prompt