Entirely too long. The end started to pick up speed but the middle of the book nearly caused me to DNF. 

I really liked this most of the way through, in spite of significant sex and language, but the ending was so out of left field and left so many threads hanging that I just was super annoyed. 

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. 

SO BRILLIANT AND EMOTIONAL