The Knife That Killed Me

The Knife That Killed Me is a young adult novel by Anthony McGowan, published in 2008. It has been shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Prize, longlisted for the Guardian Award and longlisted for the Manchester Book Award.

The Knife that Killed Me is a novel which follows a teenager, Paul Varderman, as he tries to fit in with a group in his school.

At the beginning of the book, he is a loner, looking into the groups from the outside. A series of events in which he stands up for members of a group known as "The Freaks" lead to him becoming included by them. "The Freaks" are different from the other groups as they do not live under the rule of the school thug, Roth.

As Paul becomes more involved with "The Freaks", he also begins to become influenced by Roth. Roth uses Paul as a messenger between himself and a rival school and gives him a knife. The relationship between the two schools develops, with Roth leading the way to war between them.