Loved it! Partly the story and partly how it’s stitched together with all my favourite styles and tropes. This is not a book to take long breaks from though. I’d be so confused/bored coming back to it if I didn’t remember all the little random events and people. 

 

Energy: Distraught. Suspicious. Mysterious.  

 

🐕 Howls: Small plotholes (like no one noticing someone’s face is bruised and bleeding). 

🐩 Tail Wags: Letting the character snapshots sometimes overshadow the murder mystery in an intriguing way. How the snapshots interconnect but seem so random sometimes. Natural incorporation of social media. Characters that feel real. Character depth and development even for peripheral or non-consequential ones. Letting the story end on its own with unanswered questions (except for the murder, that is resolved). Me rushing to judgement with the suspect list, then feeling bad about it later 🥺

 

Scene: 🇺🇸 Set in a North Carolina campus town. 🍂 Mostly in November and December. 

Perspectives (10): A grant writer unraveling after divorce and thinking of their university roommate who was murdered. A teen navigating high school while supporting their mentally ill parent. The parent of the accused murderer who believes their child is innocent. A spouse marrying into a blended family with a baby on the way. A professor with a penchant for young students. The professor’s loyal spouse. Friends of the murdered student. The murdered student. A residential assistant at the apartments where the murdered student used to live. 

Timeline: 1999 and 2019. Presented in chunks starting with 2019.

🔥 Fuel: Starting at the ending. Parallel plots. Gradually revealed twists. Atmospheric tension and intrigue. 

📖 Cred: Realistic

 

Students shouting. Bourbon. Dusky bar. Diner. Reddit posts. Bonne Bell Lip Smackers. November chill. Sticky tables. Dining hall. Dorm rooms. Y2K. Church-sponsored youth group. Cigarette smoke. Deodorant. 

·       Atmospheric autumnal academia and campus towns 

·       Literary murder mystery

·       Cast of morally grey, complex, unlikeable and likeable unraveling characters

·       Abrupt, somewhat unconcluded endings

·       Throw in in the story, left to infer, ghost in the room with our eavesdropping narrator as guide

·       Religion as giving hope and harm

·       Sprinkling of social media sleuthing and reddit style posts

·       Show-not-tell social commentary, clues, and reveals (good book club discussion book?)

·       Snapshot study of large cast of characters 

·       Hints of randomness and slice-of-life character dev

·       Cinematic writing style

Content Heads-Up: Teacher-student relationship. Seizures (on page). Alcohol (partying, casual). Stalking (ex-partner). Obsession. Cannabis use. Misgendering. Loneliness. Social anxiety. Miscarriage (brief but descriptive recall). Loss of parent (as adult). Potential false accusation, imprisonment. Mental illness. Mania. Suicide, suicidal ideation (very brief mentions). Sexual content (brief; consenting, intoxicated). Sex shaming (of male). Anoxic brain injury (very brief). Nicotine (cigarettes). Loss of partner. Accidental death. Neurological disease, demyelination. Dog attack (on page). Cystic acne (negative thoughts). Vomit. Religious abuse, trauma (Christian). Abduction. Infertility. Sexual assault, rape, violence, exam. Violent alcoholic.

 

Rep: American. International student (Ukrainian). Cis. Trans. Hetero. Pale, dark, tanned, golden, and sallow skin tones. Intellectually disabled. Christian.

 

📚 Format: Library Digital

 

🥺 Potential Fav of 2024

This is not a traditional thriller or mystery, but a literary mystery. It explores the ripple effect of the death in the 2019 section through a variety of POVs and articles/online posts. (I have all the POVs listed in the spoiler section below). The 1999 section explores how the actions of Karlie and those in her life at the time built on each other to ultimately converge in her death. There are occasionally excerpts of Karlie's writing between chapters. 

To me, the 2019 section and the 1999 section felt like different books. There were POVs that could have been removed without affecting the story. This is partly because the 2019 section has a split focus - some chapters are focused on Karlie, but Joy's divorce and the effects on her family are given almost equal time. 2019 felt more like a collection of related short stories than a narrative to me.

Chapter POVs:

2019
Grand Mal - Joy
Unit 7C - KC
r/JusticeforKarlie - Joy
The Veldt - Sean
The Dark Forest - Sheri
The Weeper - Maggie
1999
Universal Love - Joy
The More Loving One - Jacob Hendrix
The Gathering - Joy
Bonedigger - Ian
The Walk-In - Lila
Karlie - Karlie
Dark - Kent
2019
When we were gone astray - KC