Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

If you are looking for a clean, morally straightforward thriller where good triumphs over evil in a tidy bow, Impulsive Mean is not your book. A. Wolf’s latest novel is a visceral, uncomfortable, and brilliantly chaotic deep dive into the mind of a protagonist who is less “anti-hero” and more “live wire.”

The plot is deceptively simple: Jenna, a young woman diagnosed with severe impulse control disorder, finds herself as the sole witness to a violent crime. But the “investigation” that follows is not driven by logic or forensic evidence. It is driven by Jenna’s fractured, moment-to-moment reality. Wolf’s genius lies in refusing to let the reader get comfortable. Just when you think Jenna is about to do the “right” thing, her impulsivity—spelled out in sharp, fragmented internal monologues—sends the narrative careening off a cliff.

Gillian Flynn, Motherless Brooklyn , and psychological horror where the monster is inside the narrator’s head.