Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - All the Dangerous Things

This is the second book I read from Stacy Willingham. I'd like to read everything she writes. I love her storytelling. I feel captivated and intrigued by her stories. Her writing is evocative and thought-provoking.

Isabelle can’t sleep since someone took her baby from its crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were sleeping in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold.

Isabelle's entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle's past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance

This book has overtones of a domestic thriller. I must say that I don't like domestic thrillers. Especially if they have an unreliable narrator. Even more so if that character is a woman obsessed with her charming ex-husband. In general, these types of characters always have memory loss or cannot remember events due to drug or alcohol use. And their charming ex-husband turns out to be a misogynistic asshole who is the one who committed the crime.

But somehow, Stacy Willingham gets away with it. All these elements I hated in other books seem to work perfectly here.

All the Dangerous Things is a smart, intriguing, and unsettling psychological thriller. The book portrays messy and complex women and their relationship with motherhood. Also, it touches on themes such as mental illness, sleepwalking, insomnia, memory loss, motherhood, and how women are perceived in our society if they don't fit into the role of a perfect mother.

The book has a slow beginning. But in the last 100 pages, the author uplifts the pace, and it's where everything happens. I saw some twists coming, but others were pleasing and surprising.

I wish the author would incorporate the podcast aspect as mixed media. I think the book would have been enriched by it as The Night Swin or Sadie did.

Content Warnings

emeraldjulep's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This is one of those thrillers that are hard to put down until the end. Luckily it’s a fast read. There are plot twists aplenty that keep the reader very engaged. This is a dark story and has a deeper theme of motherhood and mental health at the center. It is a thriller however…so these truly difficult issues are dealt with rather superficially. Just know that. Please read the author’s note from Willingham *after* finishing the story for a little more reflection by her. I will definitely read another of her books.

Content Warnings

kat_rowlen's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Such a gripping thriller! Nice short chapters and pages that turned themselves!

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