Reviews

This isn't exactly what I expected, and I'm a *little* disappointed by that, but I still really enjoyed this. For those of you intrigued by the treasure hunt aspect of the story, there's less focus on that than I expected. As much as this is about a group of people trying to solve a puzzle, it's even more about their lives, relationships, hopes, and fears. There's a lot more introspection and character development than I anticipated.

This book is also jam-packed full of EVERYTHING. Characters with big personalities, witty prose and banter, eccentric billionaires, haunted houses, several murder mysteries, romance, grief, and the list goes on. If you're looking for something concise and elegant, this isn't it -- this is more of a big-hearted mess that somehow works in spite of itself.

emkral22's review against another edition

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3.0

This book wanted to be The Westing Game and just couldn’t get there. Some entertaining moments, but the pacing wasn’t very good.

mcplank's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

This is not my typical read, but I enjoyed it very much. The mystery developing alongside these characters searching for themselves was a nice balance. Imaginative tale well told.

bigsleepie's review against another edition

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4.0

3.5 stars, rounded up. I loved the first half of the book. Strong characters that interacted with one another in fun and weird ways, cool set up, promise of some potential spookiness, interesting conversations about grief, and a character who waxes poetic about falafel with such earnestness that she genuinely stole my heart. The second half of the book was fine, but I was disappointed to see the main cast kind of drift apart from one another as new characters and plotlines got added in, making for a bit of a jumble. By the final few chapters, so many things just kind of fell into place in a way that felt a little bit too good to be true. And there wasn't much for ghosts in this story either, not in any explicit way. Regardless, I still thought this was fun, and the audiobook was particularly well done!

jentidders's review against another edition

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3.0

This was a fun read, especially as I don't usually read anything from the mystery genre, and I enjoyed the various 90s references, but I felt it didn't quite keep up the momentum of the start all the way to the finish. Still, it was good to read a thriller with a strong female lead, an LGBTQ best friend/sidekick, and other diverse and alternative characters. I'll definitely be looking out for more by Racculia.
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bnryan95's review against another edition

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DNF about 50% through. This one had a lot of promise, but I just could stay interested. Ah well.

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