Scan barcode
kriseaf's review against another edition
5.0
Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC.
Setting: If you are like me and want to read a mystery/thriller in the same setting as the book, you’ll want some combination of: luxury resort, an old world forest, or a cliffside over a beach. Enjoy!
My thoughts: The first 40% was very slow and hard to engage with. There are a lot of characters, though they’re very interesting, and a lot of information/backstory is very obviously being withheld from the reader. The story elements are intriguing, though, and the setting and ambiance and approaching tension and escalation are very well-crafted. The surprisingly disparate characters also bring a lot of “how is this person possibly connected?” small thoughts to the reader.
Foley is a master at nailing the execution, though. Everything escalates so smoothly, so inexorable, so alarmingly high and tensely. All of the secrets are revealed, one by one, and complete a wonderfully detailed, intricately woven plot. The ending is so satisfying on so many levels, not the least of which is from a craft perspective.
I had so much fun reading this!
Recommended for: I think this book has broad appeal, honestly. It’s more on the thriller side than the mystery—a lot of the secrets unwind quite naturally, rather than any one character trying to solve something within the world itself. There’s also nothing alarming or problematic that I would recommend anyone stay away from the book either.
I realize that one of Foley’s previous books has a big, ugly “Reese’s Book Club” sticker on it that we must all suffer, but I do think her books lend themselves well to chatting with friends or discussing in groups. There are plenty of fun elements that you can think about more deeply or consider how you yourself would react to.
It’s also not bad for reading slowly and in sections, if need be; the story changes POVs frequently and that gives you easy points to enter and exit. I do urge people to push through to at least halfway before giving up on it. I struggled in the beginning but the action-packed second-half more than redeemed any slow moments!
Content/trigger warnings were not included in my version, here’s what I noticed:
Sexual assault (on page and off), physical assault (punching), emotional abuse/gaslighting, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, psilocybin/mushrooms use and abuse (non-consensual and graphic), death (on page and graphic), attempted suicide (off page), blood (descriptive), animal sacrifice (farm animal, off page), familial abandonment, birds*
*Included because my mom is deathly afraid of birds thanks to The Birds movie, and this book would freak her out. So if anyone else has the same issue, this is not your book.
Setting: If you are like me and want to read a mystery/thriller in the same setting as the book, you’ll want some combination of: luxury resort, an old world forest, or a cliffside over a beach. Enjoy!
My thoughts: The first 40% was very slow and hard to engage with. There are a lot of characters, though they’re very interesting, and a lot of information/backstory is very obviously being withheld from the reader. The story elements are intriguing, though, and the setting and ambiance and approaching tension and escalation are very well-crafted. The surprisingly disparate characters also bring a lot of “how is this person possibly connected?” small thoughts to the reader.
Foley is a master at nailing the execution, though. Everything escalates so smoothly, so inexorable, so alarmingly high and tensely. All of the secrets are revealed, one by one, and complete a wonderfully detailed, intricately woven plot. The ending is so satisfying on so many levels, not the least of which is from a craft perspective.
I had so much fun reading this!
Recommended for: I think this book has broad appeal, honestly. It’s more on the thriller side than the mystery—a lot of the secrets unwind quite naturally, rather than any one character trying to solve something within the world itself. There’s also nothing alarming or problematic that I would recommend anyone stay away from the book either.
I realize that one of Foley’s previous books has a big, ugly “Reese’s Book Club” sticker on it that we must all suffer, but I do think her books lend themselves well to chatting with friends or discussing in groups. There are plenty of fun elements that you can think about more deeply or consider how you yourself would react to.
It’s also not bad for reading slowly and in sections, if need be; the story changes POVs frequently and that gives you easy points to enter and exit. I do urge people to push through to at least halfway before giving up on it. I struggled in the beginning but the action-packed second-half more than redeemed any slow moments!
Content/trigger warnings were not included in my version, here’s what I noticed:
Sexual assault (on page and off), physical assault (punching), emotional abuse/gaslighting, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, psilocybin/mushrooms use and abuse (non-consensual and graphic), death (on page and graphic), attempted suicide (off page), blood (descriptive), animal sacrifice (farm animal, off page), familial abandonment, birds*
*Included because my mom is deathly afraid of birds thanks to The Birds movie, and this book would freak her out. So if anyone else has the same issue, this is not your book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Death, and Drug use
Moderate: Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Animal death, Abandonment, and Suicide attempt
More...