Tag: Thriller

Serena’s Review: “Everything We Never Said”

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Book: “Everything We Never Said” by Sloan Harrow

Publishing Info: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, may 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: It’s been months since the accident that killed Ella’s best friend, Hayley, and Ella can’t stop blaming herself. Now Ella is back at school, and everywhere she looks are reminders of her best friend—including Sawyer, Hayley’s boyfriend. Little by little, they grow closer, until Ella realizes something horrifying . . .

She’s in love with her dead best friend’s boyfriend.

Racked with guilt, Ella turns to Hayley’s journal, hoping she’ll find something in the pages that will make her feel better about what’s happening. Instead, she discovers that Sawyer has secrets of his own and that his relationship with Hayley wasn’t as picture-perfect as it seemed.

Ella knows she should stay away but finds herself inextricably drawn to him—and scared of everything she never knew about him. Perhaps it’s his grief. Or maybe his desires, cut short by tragedy. Or could it be something twisted only Hayley knew about?

Review: Every once in a while I do try to stray outside of my preferred genres to see how the rest of y’all are living. So when the publisher reached out about coverage for this YA thriller, I thought “why the heck not!” I was also drawn in by the promise of an interesting romance between two characters who both lost their close friend/girlfriend. So, let’s dive right in!

The challenging thing about reading outside of my typical genres it that I’m less familiar with the conventions and tropes of this type of book, and thus a bit more unsure when trying to distinguish between my own preferences and opinions and what is simply true to the genre, but not something that I’m as familiar with. That said, there were several things that worked for me unequivocally. The first thing is the sheer “readability” of this book. Even when I was coming across things that left questions in my mind, I still felt a draw to continue reading, swept up in the fast-moving plot and approachable style of storytelling.

On top of that, both Ella and Sawyer were very sympathetic characters, and I enjoyed spending time in both of their heads. Of course, much of the story revolves around their complicated feelings for their deceased friend and their own budding romance, but there were a lot of smaller looks at the different relationships they each have with their parents. Both their experiences with their families and with the various social groups at school were of the sort that I think will greatly appeal to many YA readers.

And, of course, the love story was very sweet. Now, it also walked right up to the line of “instalove,” so that’s something to keep in mind. But, again, the readability of the book carried me through this aspect of the storytelling pretty effectively. Stepping back, I think this love story will appeal to many readers, especially teenagers themselves. As an adult, I will say that I did struggle to believe that a teenage boy was quite as, um, romantically adept as Sawyer was presented, but this is one of those cases where no one really wants a true-to-life portrayal of the awkwardness of the teenage years.

As for the mystery of Haley’s death and the thriller aspects of the book, I did struggle a bit more. There were several “believability” issues that began to pile up as the story continued. For one thing, right off the bat, we are told that Haley died in a car crash when Ella was driving, after being seen drinking at a party. It strains every plausible explanation that Ella walked away from this situation with no consequences. Beyond that, she has many people reassuring her that Haley’s death wasn’t her fault. But…wasn’t it kind of, with this version of events?

I also found some of the late game reveals to be a bit predictable, but this is definitely a “mileage will vary” situation from reader to reader. There were several red herrings presented and their success as such will depend on readers’ familiarity with conventions, likely. There were also chapters from Haley’s old diary interspersed throughout the story, and I really struggled with these. They were written in a way that belied belief, with Haley seeming to be able to recount entire scenes verbatim in these entries. I get the purpose these entries were serving, but the style of writing was so removed from anything that resembled an actual diary entry that I found myself often skimming through these sections.

All of that said, I still had a mostly fun time with this book! It was a fast read, and my interest in Ella and Sawyer’s stories was enough to carry me through some of the other aspects that I struggled with. YA readers who enjoy thrillers and romances will likely enjoy this one!

Rating 7: Some parts of the the mystery were a bit predictable, but I enjoyed the fast-paced storytelling and the sweet romance at its heart.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Everything We Never Said” is on this Goodreads list: YA Novels of 2024

Kate’s Review: “Under the Palms”

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Book: “Under the Palms” by Kaira Rouda

Publishing Info: Thomas & Mercer, May 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from Sparkpoint Studio.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: During a weekend retreat, a powerful family plays a dangerous game of dark secrets and cold-blooded ambition in a novel by Kaira Rouda, USA Today bestselling author of Beneath the Surface.

Under the direction of the Kingsleys’ new president, Paige, the family has gathered for a weekend retreat at a luxurious Laguna Beach resort. Still clinging to the hope of succession are the sons of Richard Kingsley, the family patriarch and John, the oldest, who’s clawed his way back from a dark tragedy, and Paige’s estranged husband, Ted, the golden boy. When Richard’s ex and his wayward daughter join the fray, Paige finds herself with two fast allies. They know a secret that could shatter the family legacy. Call it leverage, call it revenge, the Kingsley women believe they have the upper hand.

But as the power games begin, greater threats than the howling Santa Ana winds are coming. Because this weekend, amid so much greed and betrayal, no Kingsley is safe. It’s family. Watch your back.

Review: Thank you to Sparkpoint Studio for sending me an ARC of this novel!

Well “Succession” has been gone a long while, and now that I’ve finished it up fully (and hooray, the person I was predicting to come out on top did so!) I can better see the overall arc of the tragic tale of a terrible family fighting for control of their dynasty. Ultimately it was a tragic show filled with garbage people, but who all had a lot of interesting depth and nuance even through their terribleness. I think that The Kingsley Family in “Under the Palms”, the next book in the series after “Beneath the Surface” haven’t QUITE risen to the levels of wretchedness or complexity as the Roys, but hey, there’s still backstabbing, infighting, and heirs fighting for power. But at least in Kaira Rouda’s new story is also another murder. That just adds to the salaciousness, and I oh so enjoy that.

I do love a guilty pleasure read, and the Kingsley Family’s shenanigans are so nasty, catty, and over the top that this I found “Under the Palms” to be a lot of fun. Much like “Beneath the Surface”, it is split into different perspective chapters involving some of our main players, some familiar, others new. The Kingsleys are still mostly miserable and totally unlikable, but if you like a story about terrible rich people doing terrible things and having terrible things happen to them you have come to the right place. We do have a new salacious mystery at hand, as well as a new out of their control weather threat (this time instead of a stormy sea we have a fast burning wildfire, and given that I’m writing this as I can smell Canadian fires at my home I’m finding that a bit situationally appropriate), and we have basically the same set of suspects. I kind of figured out the solution to the mystery pretty early, but I was having a fun enough time with the backstabbing and snideness that it didn’t really matter. Soapiness is always a plus.

In my review for the previous book, I did note that I wasn’t as impressed with most of the characters, as they mostly seemed like two dimensional tropes and archetypes, and that doesn’t really change here. But I think that this time around I was more expecting it, and therefore it didn’t really turn me off as much as I anticipated it would. Though I will say that one of our new characters, John’s new lady friend Krystle, was a bit of a fun addition because she does have some layers, as she is trying to present herself in a certain way to get into the good graces of the total dud John, as she has ambitions that only connections to the Kingsley fortune can provide. And I still like Paige, who is now in charge of the company but finding her place in question as she hasn’t been performing to the levels that patriarch Richard expects of her. Which leads back to questions of succession in the company. It’s a little more of the same, but again, it’s so soapy I can’t even be mad about it. OLD SCHOOL SOAP, PEOPLE.

Alexis Carrington Colby would be proud (source).

If you can embrace that this series has gone less in the direction of
“Succession” and more in the direction of 80s prime time soap operas, “Under the Palms” will surely be an entertaining little treat in our ongoing story of the wretched Kingsley Family. I will be curious to see where things go from here.

Rating 7: Another soapy and over the top family drama with a twist of murder, “Under the Palms” continues the most unfortunate vacation streak for the Kingsley Family.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Under the Palms” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on the Goodreads Shelf “If You Liked Succession”.

Previously Reviewed:

Blog Tour: “When We Were Silent”

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Staff Portraits

Book: “When We Were Silent” by Fiona McPhillips

Publishing Info: Flatiron Books, May 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: An outsider threatens to expose the secrets at an elite private school in this suspenseful debut novel

Louise Manson is the newest student at Highfield Manor, Dublin’s most exclusive private school. Behind its granite walls are high-arched alcoves, an oak-lined library…and the dark secret Lou has come to expose.

Lou’s working-class status makes her the consummate outsider, until she is befriended by some of her beautiful and wealthy classmates. But after Lou attempts to bring the school’s secret to light, her time at Highfield ends with a lifeless body sprawled at her feet.

Thirty years later, Lou gets a shocking phone call. A high-profile lawyer is bringing a lawsuit against the school—and he needs Lou to testify. Lou will have to confront her past and discover, once and for all, what really happened at Highfield. Powerful and compelling, When We Were Silent is a thrilling story of exploitation, privilege, and retribution.

Review: Thank you to much to Flatiron Books for sending me an invitation to participate in this blog tour!

When Flatiron Books approached me to be a part of the Blog Tour for Fiona McPhillips’s debut novel “When We Were Silent”, I was definitely interested, but also a little nervous judging by the plot. I knew that it sounded very interesting and that I wanted to check it out, but I also knew that the themes present, specifically that of a prestigious Catholic high school in Dublin covering up sexual abuses of teenage girls to protect a predatory teacher, would almost certainly set off a rage trigger as I was reading. But it intrigued me, and I went in, steeling myself to the themes, and I am glad that I did, because “When We Were Silent” is absolutely harrowing.

McPhillips is a journalist, and this is her debut novel, but reads like she’s been writing literary fiction for years. We have two timelines at hand, and she blends them together seemlessly. In the present we meed Louise “Lou” Manson, a professor living in Dublin who is approached by a lawyer about testifying in a lawsuit against Highfield Manor, as she herself had been a whistleblower of sexual abuse that, at the time, went unheard. At least until someone ended up dead. In the past we see Lou as a lower class student trying to fit in, while also trying to get revenge and retribution for a friend who had been raped by a popular swim coach, and who Lou is trying to expose in a time where the abuses of girls within a Catholic institution were almost assuredly covered up. And how she herself becomes one of his victims in her pursuit, and how she isn’t believed and villified. As we jump through the two times we see who Lou was before, and who she is now, and how the trauma, rage, regret, and lack of closure has defined her life, as well as the loves of other girls who were victimized. It is an unflinching look at predation and child sexual abuse within a religious institution, and it does not hold back (and this, of course, comes with many many content warnings of rape, abuse, suicide, gaslighting, and many other things). I found this to be a very difficult read at times, but McPhillips handles these very heavy themes with respect and care, and it never felt exploitative or like it was crossing a line, at least for this reader. It also makes the stakes of the mystery at the heart of this novel all the higher, and it makes the two comparisons of Lou then and Lou now very complex. It’s also a good comparison about how there has definitely been progress made when it comes to sexual abuse of minors and taking it seriously, though it also shows that some things haven’t changed much. It’s honest and raw and very emotional.

And back to the mysteries of this book, there are two at play. The first is the question of who actually died in the past narrative of they story. The second is the question of who is trying to intimidate Lou into not cooperating with the lawyer/testifying in the present, as she starts receiving mysterious anonymous messages trying to silence her. But while these mysteries are certainly compelling and kept me reading and interested, they are a bit of a footnote in this novel, never overhyped and never used as twists or gotchas. This is a mystery to be sure, but it’s moreso a literary work about trauma, abuse, privilege, corruption, and justice. It’s more about a woman who never got justice and was unfairly maligned because she spoke her truth, and how that has haunted her in the years since. It’s at times devastating, but it also a searing indictment of institutions that enable and cover up abuses to keep a hold on their own power, as well as an indictment of a greater culture that normalizes all of this. It’s rightfully angry and it’s powerful.

“When We Were Silent” is a difficult read, but it’s an important one. I will absolutely be checking out what Fiona McPhillips brings us next, because this was a great debut.

Rating 8: Harrowing, heartbreaking, and a rallying cry. “When We Were Silent” is a great debut from an author I am going to definitely follow going forward.

Reader’s Advisory:

“When We Were Silent” is included on the Goodreads list “52 Book Club 2024: #13 An Academic Thriller”.

Kate’s Review: “A Friend Indeed”

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Book: “A Friend Indeed” by Elka Ray

Publishing Info: Blackstone Publishing Inc, May 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a finished copy from Roger Charlie.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: When single mom Jo Dykstra was at her lowest—jobless and penniless—her childhood friend Dana McFarlane helped her out bigtime by securing her a teaching job and thus an opportunity for a new life in the affluent Pacific Northwest town of Glebes Bay. So, when Jo gets a frantic late-night call from Dana, sobbing and desperate for help, it feels like a chance to help her friend in return.

The last thing Jo expects to see when she arrives at Dana’s oceanfront mansion? Her friend’s handsome and wealthy husband, Stan, dead, sprawled face down on the floor. Dana admits to killing her husband following years of secret abuse and begs Jo not to call the police. For nearly two decades, Dana’s marriage and family had looked picture perfect. Who’d ever believe that pillar-of-the-community Stan was a monster? Determined to cover up her husband’s killing and shield her kids from scandal, Dana convinces Jo to help her dispose of the body.

But the cover-up starts to crumble when a blackmailer threatens to expose their crime. Hounded by gossipy neighbors, ill-fated lovers, and zealous cops, truth and lies are laid bare between Jo and Dana, putting their families in danger and threatening to shatter a thirty-year friendship. Shocking and fast-paced, A Friend Indeed is a riveting tale about the power of friendship and the deadly weight of lies.

Review: Thank you to Roger Charlie for sending me a finished copy of this novel!

Summer is so close I can almost taste it, and while it’s not my favorite season (uh, it’s actually probably my LEAST favorite season?), I do like having pool time while the weather is hot. Because at the pool I like to bring easy to read and entertaining books. And when I think of a good poolside read, I think of the kind of book like “A Friend Indeed” by Elka Ray. A tantalizing thriller, with some shady and desperate characters, and some far hidden secrets between friends who find themselves in over their heads when a body lands at their feet. PERFECT POOL READING!

(source)

As someone who has always enjoyed the tongue in cheek ‘a real friend will help you dispose of the body’ meme because of its gallows humor, it’s no surprise that the plot of “A Friend Indeed” is a huge plus in my eyes. When Jo gets a panicked phone call from her long time best friend Dana to come to her house in the middle of the night, she drops everything to help her. When she finds Dana standing over the body of her now dead husband Stan, she is horrified. but decides to help her dispose of the corpse. It’s a great set up on its own, and then you throw in a potential blackmail storyline as well as the rampant gossip of suburbia and it has all the ingredients for an addictive thriller. And I was pretty sucked in. The pacing is fast, the dual perspectives between Dana and Jo are well done, and I loved the examination of a close friendship that is REALLY being tested because of the crazy circumstances… And how perhaps Dana isn’t being fully open with Jo. I really enjoyed seeing both of these women trying to keep it together, and I really liked the examination of their friendship through the years and how, perhaps, it’s not as give and take as it seems. I had a hard time putting this one down because I was so taken with the breakneck pacing and the interesting perspectives of both women.

But I think that where this one stumbled a bit for me was with the amount of reveals, twists, and shocking developments that it throws at the reader. I’m a bit of the belief that less is more when it comes to thrillers and mysteries when doling out twisty moments, and that if you oversaturate the narrative with surprises and shocks it becomes less effective, bordering on tedious. And I felt like that happened a bit with “A Friend Indeed”. I don’t want to delve too deeply into it because I don’t want to spoil anything, but it felt like I was being bombarded with so many reveals, so many shocking moments, and so many twists and turns that it was too much. What could have been a tight thriller with some serious punch got bogged down in the need to be unpredictable, and that derailed my experience a bit. And of course we got another last minute twist. And we all know how I feel about those.

“A Friend Indeed” is going to be a good choice for a pool or beach read with the upcoming summer, as it’s entertaining and addictive. I just wish that it hadn’t relied on too many gotcha moments.

Rating 7: It has a really addictive mystery and it kept me interested until the end, but there are a few too many twists and reveals for my liking.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Friend Indeed” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but if you liked the Netflix show “Dead To Me” you will probably like this.

Kate’s Review: “When She Was Me”

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Book: “When She Was Me” by Marlee Bush

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, May 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: There’s only one way out of these woods…

Ever since that night, twin sisters Cassie and Lenora have been inseparable. As the sole permanent residents of Cabin Two, their refuge on an isolated Tennessee campground, they manage to stay away from prying eyes, probing questions, and true crime junkies. Just the two of them, Cassie and Lenora against the world. The peace and quiet is almost enough to make them forget what happened all those years ago. Almost.

Until a teenage girl camping at the neighboring cabin goes missing, and the memories come rushing back. As the crime becomes ever more recognizable—they know better than anyone that so-called ‘happy families’ can be anything but—each sister suspects the other knows more than she’s letting on….

Trapped in the isolating, claustrophobic wilderness, Cassie and Lenora must piece together the truth of what happened—and the sinister truth lurking in their own pasts—before it’s too late.

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me an eARC of this novel via NetGalley!

What can I say, I love a good cabin the woods story, as I myself love a cabin in the woods. You know, assuming it’s not one of those pesky horror movie ones where everything goes terribly wrong. But I do love a book where there’s a cabin in the woods where everything goes horribly wrong, so of course I was interested in “When She Was Me” by Marlee Bush. The cover is clearly SCREAMING ‘I’m a cabin in the woods and things are about to go wrong!’ It also has twin sisters, a missing girl, some unreliable narrators, and promises of dark secrets. All of this is totally my jam!

To start, I really liked getting into the minds of twin sisters Cassie and Lenora, who have a shared traumatic past and a fierce devotion to one another. A devotion that is probably bordering on unhealthy. We jump between their two perspectives, learning about each other both from their own thoughts, but also sometimes from the other sister’s perception of the narrator at the time. I especially liked how this device made for. both better insight as well as a potential layer of unreliability. After all, Cassie may know more about Lenora than Lenora would like to admit (and vice versa), but there may also be misconceptions each has about the other due to their shared history and shared secrets. Sometimes when this kind of story of siblings, especially with twins, is taken on it can be have mixed results, but this was the strongest aspect of the book for me.

Now the mystery itself. It is definitely easy to read, and entertaining when the reader is in the thick of it. But I will say that it was pretty standard for a thriller, with all the boxes checked that you would expect to be checked (unreliable narrators, an isolated setting that makes for more difficult maneuvering, twist after twist after twist), without really doing too much outside of the box, or doing it in a way that is unique. There are misdirections that I could predict coming (though not to their full resolution or reveal, I will say), and I wasn’t invested in many of the characters outside of Cassie and Lenora, and even then that was more because of their dynamic and not because I was particularly attached to them as characters. It’s serviceable to be sure and I could see it being a perfect breezy beach read, and one that I enjoyed in the moment. But it didn’t really stand out from the litany of thrillers that came before it.

“When She Was Me” is entertaining and an enjoyable read. When I was in it I was in it. But it didn’t wow me as much as I had hoped it would.

Rating 6: It’s a pretty standard thriller, entertaining and addictive, but not really reinventing the wheel.

Reader’s Advisory:

“When She Was Me” is included in the Goodreads article “42 New Reader-Approved Mysteries for Spring”.

Kate’s Review: “Missing White Woman”

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Book: “Missing White Woman” by Kellye Garrett

Publishing Info: Mulholland Books, April 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: The truth is never skin deep.

It was supposed to be a romantic getaway weekend in New York City. Breanna’s new boyfriend, Ty, took care of everything—the train tickets, the dinner reservations, the rented four-story luxury rowhouse in Jersey City with a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline. But when Bree comes downstairs their final morning, she’s shocked. There’s a stranger laying dead in the foyer, and Ty is nowhere to be found.

A Black woman alone in a new city, Bree is stranded and out of her depth—especially when it becomes clear the dead woman is none other than Janelle Beckett, the missing woman the entire Internet has become obsessed with. There’s only one person Bree can turn to: her ex-best friend, a lawyer with whom she shares a very complicated past. As the police and a social media mob close in, all looking for #JusticeForJanelle, Bree realizes that the only way she can help Ty—or herself—is to figure out what really happened that last night.

But when people only see what they want to see, can she uncover the truth hiding in plain sight?

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

Two years ago I really enjoyed Kellye Garrett’s book “Like A Sister”, as I found it tense, complex, and endlessly readable. Because it was such a win for me I was absolutely interested in reading anything new that she came out with, so of course “Missing White Woman” was going to make my must read 2024 list. Already enjoying the author is a huge plus, but the name alone carries promise of deconstructing certain problematic issues in media and the public when it comes to in real time true crime. Just icing on an already promising cake, really.

Approaching this as a thriller first and foremost, Garrett has once again crafted a really interesting mystery that not only has some solid twists and turns, but a perspective that has some greater weight due to the sad realities of systemic racism (and societal but more on that later) in the United States. Our protagonist is Breanna, a Black woman who is on a much needed short vacation at an Airbnb in Jersey City with her new boyfriend Ty. While it starts out well, the on the last day Breanna wakes up in the house to find not only Ty has disappeared, but there is a dead body in the house, who appears to be that of Jenelle Beckett, a missing white woman whose disappearance has gone viral online. Breanna is met with some suspicion by the cops, though their focus is mostly on Ty, who is missing. It’s a simple story about a woman trying to clear her name and also the name of her new boyfriend, with the help of her former best friend turned lawyer Adore, and it has a lot of good surprises, red herrings, and suspenseful moments based not only in Breanna perhaps being in danger, not only because of not knowing Ty’s involvement, or the public starting to gnash for blood, but also because of the fact she’s a Black woman who is a person of interest in a dead white woman’s murder. It doesn’t help that Breanna has a VERY traumatic history with law enforcement, as she was the victim of police mistreatment when she was a young woman and a police officer pulled her over and profiled her as a Black woman, which led to an unjust arrest and conviction that ruined her life. This means that it not only makes Breanna more likely to be cagey around law enforcement and make her seem more suspicious to them, but that we also have to worry about it happening to her again even though we know she didn’t do it. It’s a dynamic layer that really worked for me.

Garrett also does a fantastic job of tackling some pretty relevant issues in regards to the pitfalls of true crime as it exists on the Internet and on social media platforms. And she does it in a way that doesn’t feel ham fisted or preachy! The most obvious is the subplot of a beauty influencer named Billie Regan who has platformed the story about Jenelle and is blasting it on her TikTok to seemingly build up views and to bring attention to herself/get some clout on the back of someone else’s tragedy. I really enjoyed the transcripts of Billie’s lives as she puts on a huge performance about how worried she is about Jenelle, and how she is feeding the frenzy of her followers and true crime addicts who fancy themselves armchair detectives and whips them into a hysteria about this missing white woman. Add into the way that she does her own unethical and reckless investigating and blasts Ty and Breanna to millions of followers, and makes them targets of random people who are out for blood and it’s all the more upsetting. It combines the already insidious racist implications of the ‘missing white woman syndrome’ (see the title) and how that kind of case gets ALL the focus while victims of color are all too often ignored, with a misguided mob of people who take a real tragedy and try to make themselves a part of it for clout, attention, or to feel like they are doing SOMETHING by targeting two Black people. It would be SO EASY to make this kind of commentary about true crime and social media feel well meaning and correct but SO clunky and preachy that it’s just obnoxious, as we have seen this kind of thing before (looking at you, “Black Christmas” 2019). But Garrett nails the tone, captures the gravity of it, and finds the nuance and trusts her readers to be able to parse it out without having to spoon feed it. Apparently this is a fine line to walk for some, but Garrett succeeds.

One quibble that I will note because it probably explains the lower rating number after all the well earned praise: the ending. It’s not a bad ending by any means, but it did feel a bit rushed and anticlimactic because of it. I also would have perhaps liked a little bit more time to see some of the fallout of how it all shook out. I never like feeling super rushed in a thriller.

But that’s just a quibble! Overall I enjoyed “Missing White Woman” quite a bit. It’s engaging and addicting, and with summer coming up and a need for vacation reads about to skyrocket, this is a good one to keep in mind!

Rating 8: A twisty thriller with a really well presented message about racism, social media, and missing white woman syndrome is hampered a bit by an ending that feels a little underwhelming.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Missing White Woman” is included on the Goodreads lists “2024 Mystery Thrillers Crime To Be Excited For”, and “2024 Books By Black Authors”.

Kate’s Review: “You Know What You Did”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “You Know What You Did” by K.T. Nguyen

Publishing Info: Dutton, April 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: In this heart-pounding debut thriller for fans of Lisa Jewell and Celeste Ng, a first-generation Vietnamese American artist must confront nightmares past and present…

Annie “Anh Le” Shaw grew up poor but seems to have it all now: a dream career, a stunning home, and a devoted husband and daughter. When Annie’s mother, a Vietnam War refugee, dies suddenly one night, Annie’s carefully curated life begins to unravel. Her obsessive-compulsive disorder, which she thought she’d vanquished years ago, comes roaring back—but this time, the disturbing fixations swirling around in Annie’s brain might actually be coming true.

A prominent art patron disappears, and the investigation zeroes in on Annie. Spiraling with self-doubt, she distances herself from her family and friends, only to wake up in a hotel room—naked, next to a lifeless body. The police have more questions, but with her mind increasingly fractured, Annie doesn’t have answers. All she knows is this: She will do anything to protect her daughter—even if it means losing herself.

With dizzying twists, You Know What You Did is both a harrowing thriller and a heartfelt exploration of the refugee experience, the legacies we leave for our children, and the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

It’s been a little bit since I’ve tackled a straight unreliable narrator thriller on the blog, though that isn’t super surprising because of all the tantalizing horror novels that have been coming out this Spring. But we are finally firmly back in this genre, and this time with a debut that caught my eye awhile back! “You Know What You Did” by K.T. Nguyen has been patiently sitting on my NetGalley for awhile now, and like I almost always do with my NetGalley books this was because I wanted to read it closer to the release date. By the time I came to it it had been kind of simmering on my book back burner, and I was eager to dive in.

As far as a thriller and as a mystery, I generally enjoyed this one. It has a unique hook and a unique voice, as we follow Annie, the daughter of a Vietnamese refugee who has tried to maintain a complete control over her life and identity in the face of a difficult upbringing and OCD diagnosis. After her mother dies, Annie starts having a potential relapse of her disgust driven OCD, and starts to question her reality and the things that she is, or maybe isn’t, doing. It’s a pretty solid device that is meant to deepen the mystery of what is going on with Annie (more on that below), as well as what involvement she may or may not have when one of her clients goes missing, and her erratic behaviors ramp up. In terms of the straight up mystery of Annie’s role in the combustion of her sanity and her potential propensity towards violence that she can’t recall, I had a pretty good guess from the jump as to what was going on. That isn’t to say that Nguyen didn’t have a well thought out mystery, as she did. The puzzle pieces were placed very well and it all came together seamlessly. The suspense about Annie’s mental state was also well done, as I was definitely worried about her. But if you look past the various red herrings, the truth of it all was fairly easy to predict.

And while I am generally apt to kind of side eye thrillers that have mental illness as a plot device to propel the conflict, I thought that “You Know What You Did” did a VERY good job with these themes. It almost certainly helps that Nguyen has an author’s note about her own experiences with OCD, and how that helps contextualize the symptoms and the thought processes that Annie has which intrude upon her every day thinking, and adds to her unreliability. Her OCD makes her fixate on things and makes it so she has a hard time potentially knowing what is real and what isn’t, and as strange and at times violent things happen in her vicinity, it makes for questions about how much is due to her own actions, even if she doesn’t realize it. But it also never paints it as a grotesque caricature of the condition, which can be a trap when various mental illnesses are used to drive the conflict of a thriller. I also appreciated that this doesn’t just apply to Annie, but also as we peel back the layers of her emotionally distant and abusive mother. When we start learning about Annie’s mother, we see a woman who is a hoarder, who does little more but insult her daughter, and who has decimated her self worth to make her dependent on her and within her control. But we also explore what made her this way, by learning about the trauma and loss as a refugee in the years after the Vietnam War. It doesn’t make excuses, but shows how generational trauma and untreated mental illness can have far reaching consequences, and how we don’t always know the full picture of things, be it a person or a thriller novel.

I am definitely eager to see what K.T. Nguyen brings next, because “You Know What You Did” was entertaining as hell.

Rating 7: A unique and well plotted thriller that succeeds in using mental illness as a plot device without being exploitative, this mystery is entertaining, though perhaps easier to untangle than I was expecting.

Reader’s Advisory:

“You Know What You Did” is included on the Goodreads lists “Mystery & Thriller 2024”, and “Female Psychological Thrillers/Suspense Written by Women”.

Kate’s Review: “The House on Biscayne Bay”

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Book: “The House on Biscayne Bay” by Chanel Cleeton

Publishing Info: Berkley, April 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide in New York Times bestselling author Chanel Cleeton’s atmospheric new novel.

With the Great War finally behind them, thousands of civilians and business moguls alike flock to South Florida with their sights set on making a fortune. When wealthy industrialist Robert Barnes and his wife, Anna, build Marbrisa, a glamorous estate on Biscayne Bay, they become the toast of the newly burgeoning society. Anna and Robert appear to have it all, but in a town like Miami, appearances can be deceiving, and one scandal can change everything.

Years later following the tragic death of her parents in Havana, Carmen Acosta journeys to Marbrisa, the grand home of her estranged older sister, Carolina, and her husband, Asher Wyatt. On the surface, the gilded estate looks like paradise, but Carmen quickly learns that nothing at Marbrisa is as it seems. The house has a treacherous legacy, and Carmen’s own life is soon in jeopardy . . . unless she can unravel the secrets buried beneath the mansion’s facade and stop history from repeating itself.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with and eARC of this book!

At the beginning of the month my family and I went to Florida so that my four year old could experience the joy and chaos that is Disney World, and the nostalgia factor for me (outside of being burnt out to hell by the end of all of it) was ample. Being back in the Sunshine State reminded me of my family trips there when I was little, specifically to, yes, Disney, but also to visit my family in Miami. While Florida is a state that I have a lot of opinions about, I do have a place in my heart for Miami thanks to the time spent there as a kid (as well as a trip in 2017 for my cousin’s wedding celebration). Because of this nostalgia, I was very interested in “The House on Biscayne Bay” by Chanel Cleeton. Not only was it touted as a Gothic mystery, it also had the setting of first half 20th Century Miami. What a combination! I went in with high expectations. And was somewhat disappointed.

First, of course, the things I did like. I absolutely adored the time and place in this book, as well as the descriptions of Marbrisa itself. I so rarely read stories set during the time period that is during or adjacent to World War I, so when it is a timeframe in a book I’m already interested because of the opportunities it opens. In spite of my family connections to Miami, my knowledge of its history is pretty limited, and I really liked the descriptions that Cleeton had about the town as it was growing and the challenges that presented the culture shock, the isolation, the alligators!). And when looking at the timeline that Carmen, Carolina, and Asher are in, I liked the way that the house had changed and transformed and had built up a reputation throughout Miami, and how that was affecting those living there. I also did enjoy our two protagonists across these two timelines we are following, Anna and Carmen. For Anna, I liked that she is a high society woman and wife of a New York businessman, Robert Barnes, and how she is expected to be grateful and thrilled about him building her this house, but instead finds herself trapped and stifled because of being plucked from her comfortable life and plunked down into a whole new community. Without any say. Seeing her have to grapple with this, as well as suspicions about her husband after a death happens at their estate, was really interesting. And for Carmen I liked the perspective of yet another woman being plucked from all she knows (this time her home in Havana after her parents die unexpectedly) and put in a whole new setting with sister Carolina, whom she has a contentious relationship with, and brother in law Asher, who is practically a stranger. And then when Carolina is murdered, she is suddenly alone with strangers in a strange house, possibly with a killer. I really enjoyed Carmen’s resilience and her verve.

But while I did like the melodrama and the way that both Anna and Carmen were maneuvering in their presents in Marbrisa, the two mysteries in both their timelines didn’t grab me the way I had hoped they would. For Anna, the death of a woman named Leonora at their first (and only) lavish party to show off the house has led her to wonder if the drowning was accidental, or something more sinister. For Carmen, there is not only the sudden death of her sister Carolina, but also the lingering question about what happened to Anna, who disappeared years prior. I wasn’t totally swept into the mysteries because, in the case of Leonora, I had a pretty good idea as to what happened from the jump, and in the case of Carolina, while the twists and surprises were well done, I just wasn’t invested in that outcome because I wasn’t as invested in Carolina. I WAS invested in Carmen and worried about her, but that would have been the case even without the mystery. I DID like the Anna Barnes mystery, but one out of three isn’t a resounding average.

“The House on Biscayne Bay” had some really well done historical beats and felt Gothic in all the right ways, but it wasn’t as thrilling as I had hoped it would be. That said, for historical fiction I will be looking into more Chanel Cleeton!

Rating 6: I liked the historical drama and I liked our two protagonists, but for whatever reason the mysteries at hand didn’t capture my attention.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The House on Biscayne Bay” is included on the Goodreads lists “Anticipated Literary Reads for Reader’s of Color 2024”, and “Mystery and Thriller 2024”.

Kate’s Review: “The Darkness Rises”

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Book: “The Darkness Rises” by Stacy Stokes

Publishing Info: Viking Books for Young Readers, April 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from the publisher.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A gripping speculative thriller perfect for fans of Lauren Oliver and Ginny Myers Sain, about one girl with the power to see death before it happens–and the terrible consequences she faces when saving someone goes wrong.

SOMEONE WANTS REVENGE…

Whitney knows what death looks like. Since she was seven, she’s seen it hover over strangers’ heads in dark, rippling clouds. Sometimes she can save people from the darkness. Sometimes she can’t. But she’s never questioned if she should try. Until the unthinkable happens—and a person she saves becomes the perpetrator of a horrific school shooting.

Now Whitney will do anything to escape the memory of last year’s tragedy and the guilt that gnaws at her for her role in it. Even if that means quitting dance—the thing she loves most—and hiding her ability from her family and friends. But most importantly, no one can know what really happened last year.

Then Whitney finds an ominous message in her locker and realizes someone knows her secret. As the threats pile up, one thing becomes clear—someone wants payback for what she did. And if she’s going to survive the year, she must track down whoever is after her before it’s too late.

Review: Thank you to Kaye Publicity Inc. for sending me an eARC of this book!

I will forever and always be a complete sucker for a supernatural tale that involves a psychic character who is trying to cope with their powers. That has been my absolute jam for a VERY long time, and therefore if any book has a hint of that and ends up in my radar, I’m going to be on board. So it’s no surprise that I was totally in when “The Darkness Rises” by Stacy Stokes ended up in my mailbox. A teenage girl dealing with a psychic gift which has led to uncertainty and guilt, and has led to a mysterious stalker going after her for the perceived part she played in a tragedy. OH, YES PLEASE.

As a supernatural thriller, this very much falls into the category of Young Adult in a number of ways. Our main character, Whitney, is a teenager, and she has pretty expected teenage problems (a scummy ex boyfriend, an ex friend who has become an antagonistic rival, a strained relationship with her mother, the list goes on), but is also someone who can predict a person’s death due to being able to see a dark cloud over their heads that no one else is privy to. She struggles to keep this to herself, as she wants to help people, but it has bitten her in the ass a number of times. In more mundane ways it has made her seem weird and creepy when she tells someone to go to the doctor or not to drive a certain way, only to find an illness or to narrowly miss a car accident. But in the biggest way, she once stopped the school weirdo from jumping off a building… and a few days later he brought a gun to the school football game and opened fire, killing eight and wounding many others. When someone starts hinting that they know her secret, and that they are going to expose her, or worse. The mystery was pretty easy to figure out from the get go, and while I liked Whitney and liked how complex she was, her detective work, as well as some side plots involving her nemesis and a new boy at school that she has feelings for, were in a lot of ways pretty well worn territory for the young adult age group. This isn’t a bad thing by any means, and it works for the audience at hand. It just means that it wasn’t doing much outside of the box in the thrills department.

But there is absolutely something that elevated “The Darkness Rises” from what could have been a run of the mill YA thriller, and that was the frank and realistic way that Stokes tackled the topic of gun violence in schools and how the trauma reverberates through everyone who is touched by it. While we have a clear conflict of Whitney feeling guilty for saving the shooter from suicide in the days before his rampage, we also have the conflict of how Whitney feels like she should have done more in the moment once it was clear what was happening, and her survivor guilt is couched in with the guilt of saving him as if doing so made the shooting and all the deaths her fault. At first I was thinking ‘oh come on, Whitney, he’s the one who pulled the trigger, he’s the one who killed these people’, but thinking about it, I imagine that trauma, survivor’s guilt, and grief would probably twist one’s perceptions in this way, even if you take the supernatural elements out. I liked that Stokes was able to address these themes without sounded like she was checking boxes of necessary things to say, and that it felt natural and flowed well, and grounded in the harsh realities of gun violence in this country. And as an author’s note she had a good section about resources, statistics, and facts about school shootings and gun control measures. I really appreciated the way she approached it as a plot point.

“The Darkness Rises” is a speculative thriller that makes darker subject matter easy to parse through without diluting it. Fans of YA Thrillers absolutely should check it out.

Rating 7: A pretty typical YA thriller is elevated with a stark and intense take on gun violence.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Darkness Rises” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on “Psychic Heroes in Mysteries and Thrillers”.

Kate’s Review: “The Reappearance of Rachel Price”

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Book: “The Reappearance of Rachel Price” by Holly Jackson

Publishing Info: Delacorte Press, April 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Lights. Camera. Lies.

18-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on.

But the case is dragged up from the past when the Price family agree to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again.

Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And – could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead . . .

From world-renowned author Holly Jackson comes a mind-blowing masterpiece about one girl’s search for the truth, and the terror in finding out who your family really is.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

Holly Jackson is one of my must read authors, as I absolutely adored her “Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” series (note to self, pick up the novella based in that universe, it’s been on your shelf for far too long!). I also enjoyed her other standalone novel “Five Survive”. So I was, of course, super eager to get my mitts on her newest YA thriller “The Reappearance of Rachel Price”. NetGalley came through, and it’s no surprise that I read the book in about two sittings. Yep, we have another addictive thriller from Jackson on our hands!

Our cast of characters has a few to chew on, led by Bel, teenager whose mother Rachel Price disappeared sixteen years ago, and who has lived with her father Charlie and tried to cope with the feeling of loss and, in some ways, abandonment. Bel is not a likable character, but I imagine that it absolutely reflects the trauma and loss she has been dealing with ever since Rachel disappeared. And not only that, but being defined as the daughter of a notorious missing woman, and all the baggage that comes with it. So while she wasn’t exactly likable, I really did like her, and thought that she was a totally different voice from some of Jackson’s previous characters, and a convincing one at that. I liked how she interacted with those around her, whether it’s her fierce devotion to her family (especially her cousin Carter), or her flirtatious and snarky relationship with Ash, a young man on the camera crew of the documentary, or even her relationship with the newly re-appeared Rachel, as Bel refuses to accept that Rachel is just back and that is that. Her hostility towards her mother is very in character, but it also makes for a compelling reliability issue; after all, Bel feels a HUGE sense of abandonment and resentment towards Rachel (as until she reappeared it was unclear as to if she had just left or met with foul play), so it’s hard to know if her observations of potentially odd behavior are clouded by this. Rachel is also a fascinating character, as you are only seeing her through Bel’s perspective, and it’s hard to gauge what her deal is. Is it really Rachel Price who has returned? If it is her, is she telling the truth about her whereabouts, and if she is, why are there things that it seems like she’s hiding? I liked the weird cat and mouse dynamic that Bel and Rachel have in this book, as it makes the suspense that much higher. And I also have to shout out Ash, the quirky camera assistant whom Bel takes a shine to. He’s a goofy and kind ray of sunshine when she is an abrasive ball of resentment, and their dynamic is pretty cute.

As for the mystery elements, Jackson really knows how to keep her readers guessing. I have a terrible habit of trying to figure out the twists in any book that I’m reading instead of just going along for the ride, but in “The Reappearance of Rachel Price”, I found myself trying to guess and never quite getting it right. At first, when the documentary crew starts to film and we are learning about Bel and Rachel and the rest of the family, we find out that Bel thinks Rachel just ditched her, while the community thinks that Charlie had something to do with her disappearance (even though he was exonerated by a jury), so when Rachel reappears, and seems to be hiding things, we get a whole new level of mystery. She lays the puzzle pieces throughout the narrative and has enough misdirection throughout that for me the answer was just out of reach, and I while I was somewhat on the right track I was still surprised by elements of it. She also builds up the suspense in a very well paced way, and I found myself questioning and getting nervous in the same ways that Bel was as the story progressed. And while one of the final pieces and explanations/solutions didn’t QUITE fall into place for me and felt a little too easy (I won’t be spoiling it however), one small stumble is easily forgiven because everything else was so earned and meticulously planned for. I love a tightened up thriller that seems to cover everything, it makes it all the more satisfying once you reach the end.

“The Reappearance of Rachel Price” is another triumph from Holly Jackson! She is a powerhouse in Young Adult Thrillers, and I am already very much looking forward to whatever she comes up with next. I can hardly wait.

Rating 8: A suspenseful mystery with some really well done twists, “The Reappearance of Rachel Price” is another great thriller from Holly Jackson!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Reappearance of Rachel Price” is included on the Goodreads list “2024’s Most Awaited Books”.