Heather’s Bookshelf: Author Interview with Kirill Khrestinin
Book Title: Dear AI, I Killed Her
Released: 03/10/26
Genre: Psychological Thriller/Serial Killer Fiction
Interview by Heather L. Barksdale
What inspired you to write “Dear AI, I Killed Her”?
Khrestinin: About ten years ago, I wrote Psychopath’s Diary, Vol. 1 and 2, after watching the show Dexter. I eventually turned that novel into Dear AI, I Killed Her. In the original version, the killer, Chester LaRue, sends me, the author, his diary with a request to publish it. About six months ago, I came up with an idea: what if Chester confessed to AI? This idea thrilled me, and I rewrote the entire book.
How did you come up with the names of your main characters?
Khrestinin: I usually pay attention to how names feel, whether they have a hidden meaning when you taste them while speaking them. Chester means fortress, a walled town, something that guards itself. Chester had a pretty guarded life as a serial killer. You have to, if you don’t want to get caught. Though I think Chester entertained this desire for public exposure of his crimes, or maybe not? I explore this idea a bit in the book.
Is there anything that you want readers to know about you, your writing process or your book?
Khrestinin: I love to understand myself through my writing. I try to be honest in books. The demons I’m in possession of, I slam almost violently onto the pages of my work. Fiction helps me handle reality, and reality helps me understand fiction.
Dear AI, I Killed Her was an interesting journey, years long. I still don’t know how I feel about Chester LaRue. Sometimes I feel there’s too much honesty in the book dressed in too much violence. But as Nabokov used to say, it doesn’t matter what you write about; it matters how you write about it.
If "Dear AI, I Killed Her" was adapted into a movie, who would you like to see cast to play your lead characters?
Khrestinin: I never thought about this, but Anton Yelchin comes to mind. Unfortunately, he’s not with us anymore, but I think he would’ve portrayed Chester LaRue greatly. Chester is intelligent and likable, with his demons hidden deeply underneath his teenage surface.
For Simulacrum 4.6, I would not want a conventional human performance. I would want a voice that feels calm, intelligent, and almost compassionate, but with something terrifying underneath.
If you could have dinner with any character you’ve written, who would it be—and what would you talk about?
Khrestinin: If we’re talking about my book Dear AI, I Killed Her, it probably would be Chester, and I would be extremely careful dining with him, since obviously he has a homicidal tendency about him. Actually, in the adjacent book Mythos, I met Chester LaRue for the first time. We didn’t have dinner, though, but the experience was quite rich and mostly unpleasant.
When you encounter writer’s block, what do you do to break yourself out of it?
Khrestinin: I keep writing and writing and writing. It’s all about discipline. You have to always exercise your writing muscles. I write articles five days a week for my Substack. I always work on something, trying to learn something, discover something. You have to push through the block and make a habit out of this push. That’s why I don’t think I’ve ever truly encountered writer’s block.
What’s the weirdest or most unexpected place you’ve gotten a story idea from?
Khrestinin: It’s hard for me to answer this question, since I don’t see weirdness in the things that inspire me. Also, the most unexpected places usually become pretty expected as a result of my dark fantasies.
When I was a kid back in Russia, I had this strange obsession with funerals. I could follow the procession along the street for hours, trying to see the deceased’s face. Then, the following night, the cadaver showed up in my bedroom door, staring at me silently through the distorted glass window.
What is your favorite genre, book, and/or author?
Khrestinin: I don’t have a preference in genre, but in authors. I learned my English by reading Stephen King. I love Fyodor Dostoevsky, Viktor Frankl, Robert Pirsig, Ayn Rand, John Steinbeck, and so on. I keep building my library from fiction and nonfiction, discovering names. I love books that make me think. I love books that make me feel. And if I can find a book that makes me do both, here’s the author I read and reread at least once a year.
What are you working on next?
Khrestinin: The upcoming book this month is Via Dolorosa. It’s a book about human tragedy and a struggle that, in some sense, we all have to go through. About life in hell and faith in God. About the cross that all of us have to drag silently, even if we don’t believe in a higher power.
I wrote it about six years ago and put it aside because it was too painful to do anything with this work. Now I decided to publish it. It will be on Amazon Kindle at the end of July.
Learn More About the Author and Dear AI, I Killed Her here:
Website: www.kirillkhrestinin.com
Substack: https://kirillkhrestinin.substack.com/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Kirill-Khrestinin/author/B08C6BZMJR
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20516986.Kirill_Khrestinin
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Kirill-Khrestinin/100063852527055/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/real_khrestinin/
Interested in checking out the book for yourself?
Find it for purchase here
Interested in submitting your book for review? Visit my review page for guidelines and submission requirements.
review