Reviews with content warning for Racism - All Her Little Secrets

A lot of telling rather than showing, there are still a few graphic moments depicted as noted in content warnings. V much rooted in the corporate world and relies on law and order to navigate the plot. Rounded up for the audiobook narrator’s standout performance.

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katiefaye's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Loveable characters? No

2.5

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smatthews0486's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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graceheartsbooks's review against another edition

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1.25

My book club picks were going so well for a moment that I almost hoped things would be going up…but then this book appeared🙃

I never ever give a book a one star—especially if I finished it—but this is the exception. It’s most definitely my worst book of the year.

It’s good to have flawed or unlikable protagonists in fiction—female characters that are flawed or unlikable are especially important to literature (and can be difficult to pull off).

But Ellice was just so haughty and condescending to everyone around her (including insulting random strangers through her descriptions of them). I know she came from a poor background, I know she had a hard life but none of that excuses her bad decisions or how she interacted with people around her. Also, for claiming to be so smart, she made a lot of bad/stupid choices throughout the novel. She sees herself as above everyone with her expensive clothes and constantly refers to others in a condescending manner (only her brother calls her out on it). It’s a wonder she’s achieved the position she did (assistant general counsel at the start before becoming general counsel) when we don’t see a single scene of her networking and she’s a very passive character (at a board party in Savannah she isn’t seen mingling or interacting with others, just observing and just happens to stumble upon an argument between two people in the company).

Ellice bemoans turning 40 and not having any children or being married, apparently not happy where she currently is at in life. Forgetting the fact that she followed a married man to another company without a second thought. Near the beginning of the book, it’s mentioned she eats a bag of barbecue chips for dinner—seeming to imply that single women don’t cook or wouldn’t, I don’t know, order takeout for dinner??. To be honest, I found it all to be a little misogynistic (or probably more accurately reeked of internalized misogyny since the protag is a woman). The author mentions in her acknowledgements that she set off to do a book that was about family but quite frankly, I didn’t see it—especially with how Ellice is just as awful to her family and friends as she is to everyone else (insulting her brother, looking down on her old college roommate/supposed best friend for marrying a retired basketball player and then having the audacity to go back to school to get a law degree after she was tired of “being arm candy”, etc).

This book was very fast paced, I will give it that. However, it was a bit too fast paced in terms of the story’s timeline: Ellice’s boss/lover Michael dies and three days later his funeral is held. By next week his office is cleared/cleaned up (he died in there so there was a lot of blood) and all of Ellice’s brand new furniture is all in (which she complains about being expensive BTW despite being the one to pick it all out). Huh?? There’s no way any building services works that fast—even in such a rich or expensive place😅

I knew from the moment I opened this book, I knew I wasn’t going to like the writing style. If I hadn’t had to finish this for a book club I would’ve never finished it at all. Chocked full of overly descriptive metaphors, every character being described in detail despite some only appearing in a scene or two (shoutout in particular to a flight attendant in a goatee/mohawk and an assistant/woman in her 60s with bleached blonde hair and plucking her chin hairs while at work—because all older women are vain apparently) and skin colors that sound absolutely made up (“mahogany wood skin”??? What is he? A coffee table lol).

Not to get too in depth about it but all the writing advice I’ve ever read tells you that you should never describe people’s skin tones using food or other such metaphors—especially for BIPOC skin tones. I know the woman who wrote this is a black woman but I still think it’s bad practice.

This book also attempts to do foreshadowing (or what I assumed was meant to be foreshadowing) but fumbles it so bad that it all comes across strange and not at all realistic.

Usually, I’m pretty good at keeping track of characters (I was a Warrior Cats kid so I’m use to books with large casts) but with how many of them flit in and out without anything to keep them memorable, it can be difficult to keep track of everybody. Which is especially important to do in a thriller that relies on keeping track of information to figure out the mystery.

The one thing I can appreciate from this book is the way it discusses racism within the workplace and how BIPOC are treated on a daily basis. Although the twist at the end was a little far-fetched.

A white supremacy—‘The Brethren’— is behind everything and Micheal refused to be part of their schemes. Though I think it would’ve been interesting if he had been involved as it would’ve shattered this image that he's presented with

Lots of themes in this book reminded me of this young adult that I read and loved last year: Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé so if you enjoy YA or want a similar plot in an academia setting, I highly recommend that.

Overall, this book was nonsensical and very disappointing.

Content Warnings

thissagreads's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

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

1.25

I REALLY wanted to like this book since I liked the author’s second book “Anywhere You Run” but this was not the same. This book was SO PAINSTAKINGLY SLOW and all of the secrets were revealed in the last 5 chapters?

Then the author tried to tie in this huge underground white supremacy group that was puppet stringing or a part of the wealthy and powerful elite, but there were too many characters and names to keep up with, and it made the reveals pretty confusing as a listener. And on top of that chaos, the security guy that killed her brother Sam???? I don’t even remember the reason why because it was such a lazy, haphazard reason, but I think it was because Sam was simply just someone in the way of the security guard’s master plan of selling guns illegally, through the company, to this white supremacy group. Which in my opinion was so ridiculous

I didn’t DNF the book simply because the flashbacks were of previous characters I read from “Anywhere You Run” but you don’t have to read the books in any kind of order. Also TRIGGER WARNING

The main character has flash backs to child abuse, rape, and abortion.

I might give the author one more try, but if it’s any consolation, “Anywhere You Run” is the second book and was better than the first, so the third book might be solid!

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emilyilyily's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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