Barry Lyga's I Hunt Killers

“Human beings, we have dark sides: we have dark issues in our lives. To progress anywhere in life, you have to face your demons”. This quote by John Noble is meant to explain that although we all have issues in our life in order to move forward we must face the parts of our life we may try to keep hidden. This is true in both life and literature. In the book I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga, Jasper Dent nicknamed Jazz the son of notorious serial killer Billy Dent goes through many trials and tribulations while trying to seal away his past. He was raised to think that killing was normal, has frequent killer instincts, and ends up facing his father to get himself closure.

To begin in I Hunt Killers Jazz’s upbringing under Billy scared him greatly. He constantly has memories of Billy’s victims and his upbringing. Often times also has nightmares about his past “A line of blood bubbles where the knife slices. Good boy. Good boy”(Lyga 164). He is traumatized of the things that he once thought and did. To conquer his past he tries to live a normal life and he constantly reminds himself that “People matter, People are real” to make sure he never becomes like BIlly.

He gets the urge to kill or sees weakness in a person and starts losing his sanity “one quick thrust to the heart. A twist to the left”(Lyga 342). Jazz is afraid of what he might do to others around him that he cares about. He often calms himself by telling himself that he won’t become like Billy. Also by having a friend like Howie who is the almost the weakest they get he has managed with some issue his instincts for