Thank you to Netgalley and Soho Press for the eARC!

Compelling enough story and quick to read, not sure if it was the ease of the writing style or because I was trying to squeeze one last book into 2023.

I didn’t always like the MC Teddy, she made very questionable choices and was judgmental or toxic a lot of the time. Which she’s going through it with so much loss. I don’t mind unlikeable characters but make it interesting, not unlikeable for the sake of being unlikeable. There was also zero character development unfortunately.

Also hated the romantic aspect of the novel due to the age gap (and more so when they met 👀) that was 🤢

The transitions are very abrupt and jarring. One minute we are at the mom’s house and the next Teddy is at school texting Mickey? It made things really confusing.

More crime than mystery/thriller and not at all what I expected from the synopsis. It’s also marketed as “twisty and sexy” and it’s anything but 🙃 it wasn’t predictable but it also didn’t shock me if that makes sense? Things were revealed and it was like an “oh okay, moving on” feeling. As for sexy…suicide, missing sister, a creepy older dude that knew you as a kid, and mistreatment/death of animals is not sexy?!

And going back to the mistreatment/suffering of animals; Why is the dog having cancer and being put through misery and slowly starving to death necessary? What was the point? It was completely unnecessary to the plot or characters and was just there. Sorry I just don’t like books that have gratuitous descriptions of animal suffering to try and make some weird symbolism or representation behind the story/characters. It was disturbingly graphic.

Finally the ending doesn’t give us concrete answers and felt rushed. We get a sort of picture of what might have happened but it’s quickly passed over.

Overall I’m giving it 3 stars because I was intrigued and entertained enough to finish. Less a mystery/thriller and more a deep look at obsession, grief, unhealthy relationships and a woman with severe mental health issues. If you know that going in and don’t mind graphic descriptions of animal suffering and death, you may enjoy this more than me.

TW/CW: animal death, cancer, suicide, infidelity, drug abuse, death of parent, sexual content, animal cruelty, body shaming, stalking, toxic relationship, self harm, blood, gun violence, ableist slur (brief mention),