I loved this, but heads-up, it is Dark!

Energy: Blunt. Resolute. Disastrous.
Scene: 🇺🇸 A gated community in Pasadena, California
Perspective: We follow four characters: a couple each with a tragic past raising their 12-year-old child; excerpts of the child’s summer journal writing project; and an inmate sentenced to life for killing their 12-year-old and friends at a birthday party in the 1990s. We also get snippets of true crime media & interviews relating to the murders.

🐩 Tail Wags: The characters. Getting the tea upfront. The tangled web of twists and reveals. The evil scheming. The ending.

🤔 Random Thoughts:
This was so terribly fun, but it hits sometimes that although this is fiction…these things do happen 🤯

I love the upfront storytelling and reveals. No sneaking around behind the reader’s back trying to trick us. I was hooked (and horrified) watching it all unfold. If someone told me every spoiler leading up to the end, I think I’d still read this just to watch it all play out 🫣

If you are a fan of characters you love to hate and deep diving into twisted minds, this could be perfect for you. 😅

Check content warnings and proceed with caution if you’re not a fan of dark psychological thrillers involving family/children.

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🤓 Reader Role: Ghost in the room, ghost in their minds, eavesdropping on everyone. Thrown head-first into the story and the blurry picture of what’s happening gradually becomes clearer.
🗺️ World-Building: Immersive. Not overly detailed so lots of room to imagine yet sets a good foundation for later scenes.
🔥 Fuel: There’s twists and regular reveals, with the suspense from piecing together the motivations of the characters and how they’re connected. And watching the ending come to fruition, since we already know something criminal will happen. 
📖 Cred: Plausible, like one of those ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ crime cases.

Mood Reading Match-Up:
-Baking brownies. Pill bottle. Hot tub. Summer sun poolside. Party balloons. Prison gates. Security doors. Tinny phone conversations. Burgers and fries. Coughing.
-Domestic horror with scheming and a twist…not the typical thriller mom trope
-Parents behaving badly psychological suspense

Content Heads-Up: Personality disorder (narcissism, antisocial). Pedophilia (mention; recall off page). Pet cruelty, death (rabbit; brief recall). Terminal illness (lung). Child murder (preteen). Family annihilation. Possible false accusation, planting evidence. Jealousy, obsession. Blood. Emotional incest. Body shaming. Cosmetic surgery.

Rep: White and ambiguously described Americans.

📚 Format: Advance Reader’s Copy from Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley

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😅 Potential Fav of 2024