Reviews

This book…. Raised my heart rate, intrigued me, and blew my mind. I will read ANYTHING Ashley writes I cannot believe her mind. It will be really hard to recommend this book to people as it has every trigger possible but I loved it anyways? Idk what that says about me

The story line was SO original I could not predict the next thing to happen. It overall reminds me of a prequel to the Handmaids Tale and how women and men roles became defined and how Jezebels came to be (no it’s not part of Handmaids but that’s what my brain went to)

In a wonderful move, all the trigger warnings are listed at the beginning of the book so here they are:
Suicide, rape, physical violence, sexual violence, trauma, self harm, misogyny, gender essentialism, drug use

Read if you can handle these, it is a lot but really makes the story realistic.

Overall, not for everyone. It’s heavy and dark but dannnnng I couldn’t put it down and I loved this super original creepy thriller.

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

erica7lynn's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Really dark, pay attention to the trigger warnings

ipekreading's review against another edition

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4.0

Ashley, you crazy author
This was every bit as dark as everyone has mentioned and just WILD.
Will review when i can gather my thoughts!

jerzgrl626's review against another edition

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4.0

This book was one wild ride! I had already read In My Dreams I Hold A Knife prior to reading this so I thought I knew what I was in for, but this book surely surprised me!

Shay Deroy is a former columnist and bored housewife who recently quit her job to write her first novel. While trying to come up with ideas for her first novel, she tunes into a true crime podcast hosted by her former high school friend, Jamie. When Jamie's podcast topic turns to the recent death of Laurel Hargrove, who happened to be Shay's college roommate, Shay drops everything and returns to her college town, which she vowed never to return to. When she quickly realizes that Laurel's death was actually murder not suicide, she aggressively heads down a dark and twisty path to find out what really happened to Laurel. This forces her to confront dark demons from her past that threaten to tear her apart.

This book was full of surprises! I loved the character development and how all of the flashbacks contributed vital details to the current story. This was a deep, dark, emotional narrative that kept me guessing from beginning to end and I had a hard time putting this book down. Ashley Winstead has absolutely become an auto-buy author for me!

paperbackposts's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

meeshell89's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-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

4.0

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