Overview

Kill Your Friends is set in the London music industry during the height of Britpop. The novel follows Steven Stelfox, a record label executive whose job is to find the next hit and discard everyone else. As competition intensifies, his ambition, cruelty, and excess spiral into violence.

Writing & Voice

We found the voice aggressive, fast, and deliberately offensive. Niven writes in sharp bursts that mirror Steven’s rage and arrogance. The prose is blunt and propulsive, designed to overwhelm rather than charm.

Content & Perspective

The story stays tightly inside Steven’s head as he navigates labels, clubs, drugs, and deals. There is little distance between narrator and action. The book offers no moral safety net and makes us sit with behaviour that is ugly and relentless.

Themes

Kill Your Friends explores ambition, commodification, and cultural emptiness. It looks at how success erodes empathy and how systems built on hype and disposability reward the worst instincts. We were struck by its sustained anger at the industry it depicts.

What Worked

• Ferocious satire of the music business.
• Uncompromising voice that commits fully to its narrator.
• Clear sense of time rooted in 1990s London.

Minor Quibbles

• The sustained nastiness can be exhausting.
• Steven’s voice leaves little room for contrast.

Final Thoughts

We found Kill Your Friends abrasive and darkly funny, its relentless voice exposing how ambition and excess hollow out empathy within a culture built on disposability.

Rating: ★★★★☆ / 5