Kill for Me, Kill for You

The two protagonists of Kill for Me, Kill for You both experience traumatic events that change their lives. Amanda White’s life “implode[s] in loss” after the deaths of her daughter and husband (2), while Ruth Gelman is hospitalized in a psychiatric facility for seven years after her home invasion and her husband’s subsequent death by suicide. The novel posits that traumatic events have long-lasting effects that manifest in a variety of different ways including PTSD, physical symptoms of panic and anxiety, and other mental health crises. Amanda and Ruth’s stories demonstrate how dramatically these types of events can affect survivors’ lives, mental and physical health, and fundamentally shift their behavior. The loss of her daughter and husband brings “more dark horsemen” to Amanda’s life, including “unemployment, debt, addiction and pain that at times [feels] too great to bear” (2). Amanda’s grief becomes “an empty void that threaten[s] to consume her” (111). Cavanagh also pairs Amanda’s grief with anger: “[S]he want[s] to kill [Crone] so badly, it [has] taken over her life” (93). These passages frame Amanda’s grief as unbearable, all-consuming, and life-threatening. Cavanagh describes the trauma of Ruth’s home invasion and assault as equally debilitating. Because she feels that “her future” has been taken from her, Ruth experiences an extreme mental health crisis that results in her hospitalization for nearly a decade.