Reviews

Perspective: We follow our main character, an entrepreneur that renovates and flips houses. Their father (recently retired from law enforcement), has passed and they are surprised to find they inherited his house, causing complicated feelings between our MC and their siblings.

🐕 Howls: Little parts leading up to the ending felt rushed to tie up plot points. I hated some of the characters and their lack of communication making them such jerks.

🐩 Tail Wags: The unease and mysteries. Hazel navigating family and personal mysteries. The scenes and settings. The overall plot and its execution.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

This is both dialogue and plot-driven, with character study bits sprinkled throughout via little monologues.

Yay finally, a house with a layout that’s described and consistent! It added to the scares around things going ‘thump’ in the night. Read at night for best results, preferably when home alone.

I like the high stakes action scene being brief and intense. I tend to zone out when action scenes go on for too long or people are scattered about and I can’t figure out where they all are. There’s some room to imaging how things turn out for everyone long term if you don’t like everything being tied up in a neat little bow.

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🤓 Reader Role: Caught in the mystery, assembling clues and figuring out who to trust alongside Hazel.

🗺️ World-Building: Rustic, foreboding, and atmospheric. I had no problem imagining the town, houses, and picking up the vibes.

🔥 Fuel: What are all these cars from missing persons in the lake? Why was Hazel left her father’s house? Why do so many of the mothers in this town abandon their families? Are the police trustworthy? Is Hazel’s family trustworthy? Is someone stalking Hazel?

📖 Cred: Realistic to plausible

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Spring. Moss. Evergreens. Cool breeze. Brittle grass. Wood rot. Lake waves. Boat engines. Cracked earth.
A sprinkling of romantic tension and rekindling old flames
Puzzle piecing and amateur sleuthing family and town secrets

Content Heads-Up: Drought. Heart attack. Parental abandonment (as teen). Loss of a parent. Gun violence. Betrayal. Murder. Sibling rivalry. Missing persons. Infidelity. Car accident. Alcohol (self-medicating). Corruption. Addiction (opioids, alcohol). Suicide (implied).

Rep: Diverse skin tones. Cisgender. Heterosexual. American.

📚 Format: Library Digital

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Content Warnings

jblanton24's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

rebeccasreadingrambles's review against another edition

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4.0

Megan Miranda has really honed her ability to make books chilling and forcing you to feel like you need to look over your shoulder while reading. Like in some previous books, there is an air of mystery and unknown danger to something innocuous - this time the lake. Even though this is a lovely sounding lake town where people allegedly come for vacation - you will get none of that atmosphere in this book. Instead, it's a back of the neck feeling like you cannot trust anyone and the town and it's people are holding so many secrets that are bursting at the seams. If I were the MC I would have probably left and never looked back. There are so many twists and suspicious things that she discovers, including someone going through her house, but for the memory of her parents she keeps on and finds out some shocking things. I enjoyed the ride and honestly I have a bit of a stress hangover after the end.

The audiobook is wonderfully narrated to bring an extra chilling atmosphere and drama to the characters (who you feel like you cannot trust).