This was the perfect mystery to keep me on my toes, and the drama had me hooked during every chapter!!

The first half of this book was a solid 4 star read. I liked how the narrative blended Lucy's present-day perspective with episodes from the podcast. It was a creative choice and the author pulled it off well. I also liked the way we were introduced to the majority of the characters through either their podcast interviews or their reunions with Lucy during her homecoming. Lucy's grandmother was by far my favorite and I wish she had been featured more than she was. Confession: I didn't actually like Lucy very much early on. While her snarky attitude was initially fun, it quickly became tiresome and her focus on imagining herself killing people in a variety of (sometimes quite graphic) ways was a bit much. She became much more palatable to me during the second half when these elements were more toned down. There were some nice twists early on which led to me devouring chapter after chapter.

What led me to drop my overall rating was the second half of the book. I can't pinpoint where exactly it started but I suspect it was around the time I realized that there wasn't just one or two illicit affairs taking place in this small town, but nearly EVERYONE had had (or was having) MULTIPLE sexual relationships or hookups with everyone else. And it wasn't like people were ashamed or even hiding it as there were several instances of characters being aware that their significant other was cheating on them and they used that knowledge as license to go have sex with someone else. One character is even described as having a different person hanging their house around every day and it's treated as something humorous. It's one thing to have an affair included for the shock factor (and added suspicion given that this is a mystery) but when there's this much, it just comes off as ridiculous. My enjoyment of the book was pretty much ruined by the way these affairs were normalized. And when a "romance" was eventually introduced, it was so sex-focused and given the excessive amount of sex happening all over the place, I just didn't care for more of it.

The last few chapters leading up to the finale were a little confusing to me. I also found the reveal and resolution to be on the weaker side - especially given how strong the things started. It felt like the author was running out of steam (and potential suspects) and needed to wrap this up. The voices/visions that Lucy experienced throughout the book were just ok. My preference would have been to remove them as they venture a little too far into magical realism for what I expected here.

I listened to the audiobook for part of the story and also read a physical copy. I would highly recommend the audiobook. The two narrators were quite talented. January LaVoy in particular was exceptionally good and I enjoyed the distinct voices she gave to the characters.

So while it was an intriguing (and mostly well executed) concept, I'd say this was more focused on the abusive and repulsive behaviors of residents of a small town than the thrill of solving a murder mystery. 

This was such a good book it kept me on my feet. I did have to keep putting it on hold from my library bc everyone and their mothers wanted to read this book but I finally finished it and it was so worth the wait

I was hooked from the very first page. I’m admittedly someone who loves a first person murder mystery and/or thriller type book, but this one had all the right pacing, character development and plot twists to keep me guessing. I liked that the plot twists weren’t so outlandish - it all felt very realistic and you could easily picture this being the plot of a real life true crime podcast. There have been a few books in this genre (true crime pod) that I’ve read lately and I think this is among the best. It’s fast paced, doesn’t get overly loaded down in irrelevant details or red herrings, yet still provides you with a fleshed out story and plenty of classic whodunnit moments. 

I really liked all the characters - not in the sense that I liked who they were as people, but they were intriguing and complex and imperfect in a way that was satisfying to read. It makes me want to continue uncovering the details chapter after chapter.

Also, side note: this book really drives home the wisdom between women of never trusting the “nice guy.”

TL;DR I devoured this book in a little over 24 hours and it only took me that long because apparently you have to sleep and eat and show up to other life obligations. I strongly recommend if you need a fast paced twisty thriller that isn’t so scary it won’t keep you up long after reading. It would be fantastic to pull someone out of a slump!