Very Bad People, A Review

Revenge is a Dangerous Game.

SPOILER WARNING READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

I Killed Zoe Spanos Review.

Very Bad People follows Calliope Bolan, a young girl who moves away from home to attend The Tipton Academy after spending most of her childhood in a tiny town where everybody knew everyone’s business. Calliope is also feeling a somewhat recent family tragedy after her Mother was killed in a drowning incident when she drove straight into a lake with her three daughters still in the backseat. Despite excessive police investigation there has never been any official closure on Kathleen’s death and the general consensus is suicide.

Kathleen however had her own connections to Tipton and after Calliope is pegged to join the very same secret society her Mother was once part of she begins to realise that there is more to the story than she’d initially thought. Now officially a ‘ghost’ and part of the Haunt and Rail society, Calliope has access to past secrets and records. Digging a little deeper into the past Calliope hopes to finally close the lid on the Bolan family tragedy, but will she like what she finds?

After absolutely loving I Killed Zoe Spanos last year I was so excited to return to Frick’s writing and dive right into this one. I will say straight off the bat that I did have some issues with the storyline here (which I will discuss below) but I still really enjoyed the overall vibe and academic location. I’m always a sucker for a good boarding school/college based thriller (Where Sleeping Girls Lie, The It Girl) and The Tipton Academy was brilliantly used. The multiple locations explored, day to day class life and of the course the secret society were all really fun and despite some of my issues I definitely still enjoyed the environment here.

I hate to say this but the Haunt and Rail as a secret society were kind of… lame? The ghosts were built up to be this mysterious group that had been active in the college for years and years but when we actually got to see them operate they basically acted like a student council? The group’s ‘top secret missions’ basically consisted of campaigning for better student/staff rights and whilst this is obviously important it’s hardly something you have to meet up in secret to do. The group seemed to take themselves so seriously, meeting up at night and sending coded messages but when you actually got down to it they were a glorified student council at most, it was a little bit silly.

The main mystery here was also a bit of a let down and lacked a lot of the promise and intrigue that I thought it would. Again, don’t get me wrong it was an interesting storyline and I liked following Calliope as she investigated her Mother’s death but so many of the clues along the way turned out to be complete red herrings and the supposed evil society had absolutely nothing to do with any of it. It might just be because I overestimated things here but I was fully expecting a conspiracy with The Haunt and Rail and Kathleen’s murder but the two ended up being completely separate and so much of the build up felt like it was all for nothing? What’s more we only got into the actual murdery parts of the story in the last 50 pages and then that was left completely open ended as well, I was really expecting something else here.

Overall this book wasn’t what I was expecting at all and it might just be on me for overestimating the storyline but for me this book was not in. The main mystery of Kathleen’s murder seemed to fly under the radar, the so called secret society just felt a little too tame and even when we did get into the darker stuff it all left on a massive cliffhanger. I really loved I Killed Zoe Spanos last year but I’m afraid this book wasn’t at the same level for me and I was definitely expecting something else entirely.

The Fury, A Review

There were seven of us on the island. One of us was a murderer…

The Silent Patient Review. The Maidens Review.

The Fury follows Elliot Chase, a mildly successful writer whose friendship with award winning actress Lana Farrar occupies most of his time, with Elliot worshipping Lana to the point of obsession. The pair are also close with fellow actress Kate and decide to take a trip to their frequented island vacation home alongside Lana’s husband Jason and son Leo for a few days of relaxation. Tensions however are running high due to the recent discovery of Jason and Kate’s affair as well as the group’s general dislike of Elliot and Leo’s sudden desire to also become an actor. A few days into the trip a body is then found and among these supposed friends a killer lurks in wait. Narrated by Elliot throughout can the group get to the bottom of things without turning on each other or is this one murder mystery too complex for even the sharpest of readers?

The Fury had a very interesting style of narration and I liked how Elliot directly spoke to the reader and freely admitted his bias when it came to retelling the events of the murder. As a character within the story he was telling Elliot had his own stakes and personal feelings and I liked how he jumped around from events, inserting information where he saw necessary and then keeping things back until the ‘right’ moment. This was very much an unreliable narrator but not in the usual way and it was a really interesting way to tell a story, especially a murder mystery. The whole thing was engineered from Elliot’s POV and Michaelides really used that to distract and trick the readers, it was a really fresh take on a beloved genre.

Elliot himself was an absolutely detestable character and his complete lack of awareness towards his own personality and those around him really added to the book’s overall themes. Like I said above the style of narration here added to the book’s unique factor and Elliot’s complete mental block really added to the running tension between the characters. I think everybody has had a friend like Elliot (or unfortunately you might be the Elliot in the situation) where you have this notion that everybody loves you when in fact the complete opposite is true and Michaelides played it perfectly. Elliot’s obsession with Lana and his notions of fame and stardom turned out to be his downfall and honestly everything that happened to him afterwards was completely deserved, I’ve never rooted so hard against a character than I have done Elliot.

I really enjoyed the progression of the actual murder mystery element and how it played around with perception and the unreliable narrator aspect. I think initially this book had a very basic setup with the seven characters on the island, all in different locations when the gun went off and all with their own motives to kill. From here though we got some nice twists and I liked the double deception and how everything was engineered like a play or story. I will admit in the book’s first half I was a bit concerned that the mystery element would let this book down but Michaelides definitely came through with one hell of a twist.

I really like how Michaelides includes these running themes of Greek Mythology within his own work and how we even see characters from his past novels pop in and make these cameo type appearances. Here we saw Mariana from The Maidens as Elliot’s therapist as well as some mentions from The Silent Patient’s Theo, it’s nice how it’s all connected. I like when books have these almost calling cards in their writing to make them stand out and here Michaelides’ passion for all things Greek as well as his shared book universe is a really nice added touch for long time readers.

Overall The Fury made for a really enjoyable read and I loved how Michaelides played around with the unreliable narrator trope and used the character of Elliot in such a way. The mystery here was executed brilliantly and The Fury was able to go from basic crime setup to complex tale of revenge and more in matter of pages. I continue to love Michaelides and his style of writing and I can’t wait to see what he comes out with next, I’m sure it’s going to be brilliant.

AHS Delicate, A Book and TV Review

Her body is no longer her own…

SPOILER WARNING FOR BOTH THE BOOK AND SERIES HERE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

AHS Apocalypse, 1984, Double Feature, NYC.

AHS Delicate follows former child star and struggling actress Anna Victoria Alcott (Emma Roberts, Holidate) whose desperation for a baby with her husband Dex (Matt Czuchry) leads to unspeakable dangers and life-changing circumstances for all involved. After struggling to get pregnant for years the pair finally turn to Doctor Hill (Dennis O’Hare), a famed child specialist who helps Anna with the IVF process, kick starting another round of egg insertion after two previous failed attempts. Anna is also riding the success of a surprise film hit with even talks of an Oscar, something her publicist/best friend Siobhan (Kim Kardashian) is desperate to capitalise on.

Now juggling both her acting career and her new pregnancy Anna’s hormones are all over the place and she soon becomes convinced that something is deeply wrong with her pregnancy. After an apparent miscarriage and ‘miracle’ recovery, Anna becomes convinced that some one is after her child and will stop at nothing to get to them. With time running our before she gives birth can Anna survive her pregnancy and win her Oscar to boot or will darker forces at play change everything and make her regret getting pregnant in the first place?

This was the very first season of American Horror Story to be based on an already published book and also the first season to not have Ryan Murphy as writer or showrunner, which I think made for an interesting decision. Whilst I loved the original Delicate Condition novel (more on that later) I’m not entirely sure it was AHS material and I’ve definitely seen a lot of people complaining that this latest season didn’t really fit in with the rest of the show. Like I said with NYC in my review last year it does feel like the show is changing slightly and it seems like Murphy and his company are making stories to fit his already established series rather than following the usual narrative (something I especially noticed in his latest season of Feud). I’m all for new and exciting horror or drama series but I also feel like if you wanted to make a Delicate Condition adaptation it should have been its own miniseries and not just tackled on to the AHS name. Murphy is well known enough to make these stories so I don’t know why he’s attaching them to already running series, I just think in the long run it confuses everybody.

Book wise I absolutely loved Delicate Condition and really enjoyed the mix of witchy vibes and classic thriller feels. The building of tension and Anna’s increasing paranoia was brilliantly done and I loved the constant feeling of unease. The strange occurrences paired with her pregnancy hormones made Anna a real unreliable narrator and Valentine did a great job at sewing these seeds of mistrust and making every single character just that little bit suss. It was such a fun mix of horror, supernatural, thriller and more and it’s definitely a really solid read, for the most part AHS really matched up this energy.

I will say though that AHS Delicate made for a pretty decent book adaptation with very few changes or alterations except for the ending. When I first heard that the book was being adapted under the AHS name I did kind of expect the whole thing to be turned completely inside out and changed in every way possible but the whole thing stays pretty faithful which is probably the reason so many people have struggled. As a direct adaptation AHS Delicate is really great and I’m sure fans of the book have really loved watching, as a season of AHS however the story struggles and compared to previous instalments it doesn’t quite hold up. The horror here isn’t the same kind of scares as Murder House or Freakshow and it’s a lot more subtle in its writing. We don’t focus on haunted houses or killer clowns, it’s more a growing unease and paranoia and so in comparison AHS is always going to seem more vibrant and Delicate Condition a lot more understated.

I think the biggest deviation from book to screen here aside from a few minor character changes was the coven’s motivation and how everything was wrapped up in the end. In the show The Witches were very much evil and using Anna and her baby for their own nefarious purposes, hoping to use the blood to stay young whereas in the book things took a much more positive turn. Siobhan (who had a much smaller role in the book) was actually acting in Anna’s best interest, bringing her baby back from the dead after the miscarriage and trying to protect her from the magical backlash. All of the creepy things and apparent stalkers were in fact forms of protection and in the end we even see Anna join the witches and have Siobhan reincarnate herself back into the baby’s body (it was all a bit strange I will admit). As changes go I did find this one pretty interesting and I kind of like both versions for their own different reasons? Neither were especially good or bad in the grand scheme of the narrative and considering how true the rest of the series stayed to the book I’m not mad at this ending change.

Overall AHS Delicate was a fun watch and definitely great for lovers of the book, it was a really solid adaptation. I will say that the storyline doesn’t 100% fit the usual AHS vibe, which is why so many fans seem to have taken against the season, but for me I had a great time watching and it’s far from my least favourite. Performance wise Emma Roberts and Kim Kardashian were great here and I loved the growing paranoia that really matched up with the original novel. An overall great watch and I can’t wait to see what we get from AHS next!

Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six, A Review

Family getaways can be killer.

Confessions on the 7:45 Review.

Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six follows Hannah and her husband Bruce as they head off on a luxury weekend away in the woodland, hoping for a chance to relax and recharge especially after the recent birth of their Daughter Gigi. Also in attendance is Hannah’s Brother ‘Mako’ and his partner Liza as well as their close friend Cricket and her new boyfriend Joshua, totalling six in the cabin. The group have all been close for years but bad weather and growing tensions threaten to upend the weekend and soon enough everybody is at each other’s throats. What’s more there seems to be somebody else lurking at the cabin just out of sight and a bombshell secret years in the making is just about to pop. Can Hannah and her friends make it until morning or will whoever’s waiting in the wilderness get to them first and spill the secret that will change everything?

The titular secluded cabin worked wonders here and I loved the creepy, isolated setting paired with everything that was already going on, it made for such a tense reading experience. Mystery/thriller writers often like to shut off their characters from the safety of the ‘real world’ and here tensions began to bubble over as the storm raged on, secrets spilled and soon enough lives were in massive danger. Unger did a great job at creating this closed off tension and I definitely had a great time reading this one.

The main group had such a wonderful chemistry here and I loved their family connections and deep history with each other and how this then drove the narrative forward. Family itself can be a tricky thing and you can either love or hate the people you happen to share genes with. The initial Christmas prologue already hinted at some family spats but as the book went on and we really got to know these characters it was clear that there was a deep history of cover ups and avoiding the obvious and I did like how Hannah acknowledged her own fault in everything that had happened simply by being passive and not accepting what was really going on.

The whole sperm donor storyline and how this then tied back to the main narrative was really interesting and I loved Henry’s chapters throughout as they followed his life story and later quest to find out where he came from. I loved this concept of needing both biology and chemistry to make a family match work and the explored concept that family is also what you make of it. The donor children and their perceived darkness was also interesting and again I liked this idea of negative traits being passed on through the bloodline.

Overall I enjoyed this one and I liked how it combined some classic thriller elements with the sperm donor storyline and this real exploration of family and chemistry versus biology. The book really nailed the secluded location (hence the title) also then bringing in this second narrative of Henry’s quest for family which I really wasn’t expecting. I loved the continued debate on family and the bonds that tie us together, resulting in both an entertaining and somewhat thought-provoking read.

The Club, A Review

Everyone’s Dying to Join…

The Club follows The Home Group, a collection of exclusive party locations that attract the rich and wealthy on a global level. The group’s very latest project is The Island Home, an island location transformed into the very height of luxury where celebrities flock for spa treatments, ultra relaxation and the parties of the century. This time around however all is not well within the group and soon enough reports are coming through of missing staff members, major disturbances and even dead bodies in the water. With so much at stake here can the heart of the problem be found and destroyed before it spreads or will this very latest party be the island’s last?

For starters I really enjoyed the titular club atmosphere here, The Home was posed as this ‘must-be’ place for the rich and wealthy and Lloyd was really able to showcase the hustle and bustle that went into running such a place. Through the different POV’s from the staff we got a real behind the scenes look into club life as well as the dirty secrets of the dangerously rich and I liked how hectic this book was, it really felt like the super successful business that it was painted to be.

Mystery wise however this book did fall flat and it’s almost like the murder plotline was an afterthought. The narrative had an incredibly slow start and even when we got around to Ned’s disappearance it was only really hinted or speculated at until the very last few chapters, instead it felt like the main goal here was to describe how amazing the club was in as much detail as possible. Instead of any real investigating we just got daily club life from our four POV narrators, so much so that any major plot revelations were sort of just swept under the rug. There was a part of the story where something major was revealed but it was dropped so casually into conversation that I almost skimmed over it because it just register as important to the story.

Speaking of the four POV narrators here whilst I did enjoy each character and their own personal secrets and personalities it also felt like there wasn’t really a protagonist and instead we were just following four random employees who all needed some serious development. Like I said each of the four was interesting enough but constantly rotating between them in under 350 pages meant that we never really got to know them properly, which was a shame because they were decent characters to follow.

Overall this is a tricky one for me because whilst I enjoyed the characters and atmosphere created here the actual narrative and mystery element fell completely flat and at times it was like I was reading a club brochure instead of a mystery novel. Lloyd seemed more concerned with showcasing how amazing this place was rather than building up an actual story and so by the end of the book I felt a little underwhelmed, it was a bit of a disappointment,

The Sanctuary, A Review

Four women. Three nights of pampering. One too many deadly secrets…

Your Perfect Life Review.

The Sanctuary follows a group of four women as they head off to an exclusive three day retreat targeted for pregnant woman, headed up by self-appointed baby expert Selina and her partner Will. The retreat promises three days of yoga, relaxation and plenty of pregnancy tips, exciting the four expecting Mothers who all come from very different walks of life. Once they are settled in however strange events begin to occur when a series of possible ‘pranks’ take a weird turn and it soon becomes very clear that somebody in the group is looking for revenge. With secrets piling higher and higher every member of the group has something to hide and Selina herself seems hellbent on bringing it to light in the most chaotic way possible. With time counting down until the retreat end can the women make it through until the end or is somebody not making it out alive?

The titular Sanctuary made for such a fun thriller location here and I loved the very isolated feel as events started to get weirder and weirder. Through the book we spent time with these five women attending various classes and sessions and I really enjoyed how tension was built through slow burn reveals as each woman revealed her true motives and/or feelings. The very closed off Devonshire countryside and surrounding woods meant that we dealt with a very small cast of characters here and when strange incidents began to happen and secrets began to spill it was truly every woman for herself.

I enjoyed the shared POV chapters here as we rotated between the four women and Selina herself over the three day retreat, delving into each woman’s own background as well as their reasons for attending the retreat and reactions once they were there. This was definitely a book with a lot of secrets and so each chapter revealed more and more about each narrator in turn, meaning that we were juggling a lot of information on the go. It felt like every single character was hiding something here and I loved diving into it all and trying to work out what was really going on.

Pregnancy was such a large part of this book and I liked how each of the four women had their own experiences throughout, exploring the various ups and downs of the ‘miracles of birth’. These four women were all very different from each other, varying in age, experience and background and so each had their own opinions on babies and levels of excitement towards their newborn. Obviously pregnancy isn’t a subject I’m all too familiar with but I did like how Duckworth really allowed her characters to be flawed as they struggled in their feelings and not always knowing what to do next.

Overall I enjoyed reading The Sanctuary and loved the isolated location and alternating POV chapters as we spend more time with these women and began to learn their secrets. The mounting tension and information overload made for a fun thriller vibe and I definitely enjoyed myself a lot with this one. Duckworth has once again really killed it with her writing and I definitely need to check out more from her in the future!

The Drift, A Review

Outside a storm rages. Inside a killer lurks…

SPOILER WARNING!! I DO DISCUSS MAJOR PLOT POINTS BELOW SO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

The Drift follows a world in which a deadly virus has overtaken most of humanity, either killing them off or turning them into the deadly whistlers, a fate arguably worse than death. We then follow three separate groups of survivors as they all become isolated in terrifying situations only to then discover they have a killer in their midst. Trapped in an overturned bus, a dangling cable car and a cabin full of secrets can out three leads make it until morning, find the killer and most importantly survive the virus or will whatever’s waiting in the wilderness get them far before any chance of survival remains?

This book wasn’t what I was expecting at all and instead of your typical thriller we got an apocalyptic horror about monsters and surviving the very worst of situations three times over. I don’t think I’d even read a plot synopsis before diving in here and so even the three separate narratives was a surprise for me, never mind the entire situation with the life-threatening monster disease. In under 400 pages Tudor was able to create this completely brilliant apocalyptic vision of a failing planet and I just loved the progression of the storyline and how we got such a solid world building throughout.

The coach crash with Hannah really kicked everything off (in more ways than one) and I enjoyed getting the situation from this medical view point, with Hannah acting almost cold and clinical as she assessed the best way for her and those around her to survive. Hannah being Grant’s Daughter also gave her a unique perspective and I really loved getting her thoughts on everything whilst also learning about this world through all three viewpoints and the characters within. Because this was the first incident chronologically it didn’t have some of the excitement/plot twists of the other two but I still loved returning to Hannah each time and definitely feel like her ending was one of the saddest.

The Cable car with Meg definitely felt like the scariest of the three situations, especially for me because I won’t even go near those things, and I really enjoyed the visual imagery of the group dangling in the wind and fighting for their lives. Meg’s chapters definitely felt the most entrapped and with a small cast and an even smaller location tensions ran high and drama soon entailed. I also feel like Meg’s narrative had the highest comical value (I loved her fighting with Sarah throughout) and I also her viewpoint as a Mother and former cop, again giving her a very unique insight into such a wild situation.

The Cabin with Carter despite being the least dangerous on paper still had this real air of hostility about it as the crew members began to turn on each other and the truth was slowly revealed. Carter’s chapters definitely held the most information about what was really going on and I really enjoyed the lab like setting and how we got to explore things from this different perspective. The Whistlers surrounding the cabin as the group slowly got smaller and smaller definitely felt the most horror adjacent and the final twists here were brilliantly done, Carter’s ending truly killed me.

I really liked the big twist with Carter’s character here and how he had actually been apart of all three narratives, hidden in plain sight and slowly plotting his revenge on those he deemed responsible for his Sister’s death. I think I took for granted that all three of these chapters were happening simultaneously and so I loved the twist that they were several years apart, each teasing out information and developing the ever-failing world that these characters inhabited.

Overall I absolutely loved this book and everything about it was completely unexpected, I really went into this one thinking it was your typical winter weather thriller. Instead we got an epic tale of monsters and diseases and fighting for your life whatever the cost, told through three very different view points in three very scary situations. The visuals and world-building here were both brilliantly done and I definitely need to check out more from Tudor in the future, this book felt like such an unexpected marvel.

A Line to Kill, A Review

On a small island everyone’s a suspect.

The Word is Murder Review. The Sentence is Death Review.

A Line to Kill follows Hawthorne and Horowitz as they this time ditch the crime scenes and head up to the Alderney Literary Festival where both are asked to give a talk on their partnership and the books that came from it. Tony is initially hesitant at attending such an obscure event with an even stranger guest list but Hawthorne’s surprisingly optimistic attitude changes his mind and the pair travel down to the tiny island for the weekend, completely unaware that yet another murder is waiting for them.

The island itself is plagued with controversy as a mainland power line hopes to plan a new route through the village, promising new jobs and opportunities but with it picturesque views ruined and graveyards uprooted. There is a very clear split between the residents on the power line and when the festival’s wealthy sponsor is found dead there is no shortage of suspects and no time to lose when it comes to investigating. Now working against the clock can Hawthorne and Horowitz solve yet another tricky case or is their partnership doomed to only work in fiction based murders?

A Line to Kill had a slightly different set up from the previous two books in the series and I liked how we got to establish the characters and setting before the actual murder, giving both us as the audience and Hawthorne and Horowitz time to get to know our surroundings. In the previous two instalments Tony is invited onto the case post killing and so he only really writes the characters as suspects rather than actual people, here the pair travel to Alderney for the writing festival and have no idea that a murder is even going to take place, meaning we get an almost real time reaction to everything and not a tilted view.

Speaking of Alderney I really loved the island location used here and how it trapped its small cast of characters, very much in the style of the Golden age of Crime and Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. I loved the writer’s festival set up (and the running jokes insulting Horowitz’s lack of fame) and how we got this real diverse group of writers and ‘celebrity’ guests, once again showcasing Horowitz’s character writing abilities. The various talks throughout the weekend gave us a chance to get to know these characters before and after the murder and I really enjoyed Horowitz’s own POV as a writer and the dynamic with Hawthorne throughout.

The power line subplot and ‘BAN NAB’ debate made for a really fun addition here and I liked how it drove a lot of the motives throughout and acted as this real red herring. On the surface the power line was a commercial success for the island but then when you actually examined the ramifications of a literal line running through people’s homes you really understood both sides of the argument. Again on paper the whole thing sounded petty but petty debates can often lead to the bloodiest of murders and the whole thing made for a really great side plot.

Overall this was another fab instalment in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series and I continue to love this meta attempt at the murder mystery on Horowitz’s part. He and Hawthorne continue to make a brilliant duo and I love his attempts to solve each case and how they usually end in ridicule or made theorising, very much mirroring the real life crime reader. The actual mystery here and island location were both great and I can’t wait to see what happens next and read the next instalment, bring on book four!

Where Sleeping Girls Lie, A Review

Secrets haunt these hallowed halls.

Ace of Spades Review.

Where Sleeping Girls Lie follows Sade Hussein, the new girl at the Alfred Nobel Academy, a prestigious English boarding school. Sade arrives at ANA having recently lost both of her parents and having been home-schooled her whole life, really having no idea what to expect. On her first day she meets her ‘house-sister’ and roommate Elizabeth who shows her around the various buildings and houses, also introducing her to the school’s clique system and ways of life.

The next day however Elizabeth fails to show up to class and is missing from her room, launching a school-wide investigation, worrying Sade and Elizabeth’s other friend Baz. The pair decide to conduct their own investigation, especially after a bogus email is supposedly sent from Elizabeth’s dead relative but when another student then turns up dead Sade and Baz realise there is much more to Elizabeth’s disappearance than meets the eye. With time running out can Sade infiltrate the mysterious Fishermen group and find her friend or will ANA prove to be all too overwhelming and sent Sade running for the hills before her first term is even over?

After absolutely devouring Ace of Spades back in 2022 I was so excited for this one and once again Àbíké-Íyímídé has completely hit it out of the park, Where Sleeping Girls Lie was an instant win for me and I might even like it more than Spades. The main mystery of Elizabeth’s disappearance set against the moody boarding school setting make for the perfect read and I really loved following Sade as she attempted to get to the bottom of things whilst also navigating her very new and scary environment. When another student then turns up dead things are really turned up a gear and we really get to dive into the school’s seedier history alongside some very mature themes, resulting in an all around wild read.

The Alfred Nobel Academy made for the perfect moody mystery setting and the dark academia vibes throughout were perfectly crafted, I could really picture myself walking through these hallways and classrooms. I’m always a sucker for a good boarding school thriller (Wednesday, If We Were Villains) and I really liked the amount of detail we got here, the various different houses and buildings were fun to explore and I loved the day to day school life alongside the main mystery.

I continue to love how openly diverse Àbíké-Íyímídé’s books are and how she’s able to craft these very real feelings characters with flaws and struggles alike. Described as Mean Girls meets murder with the ‘Unfriendly Black Hotties’ as the lead, we really get to have some fun with your high school clichés here albeit with a much more diverse feeling cast. In both Spades and Sleeping Girls Lie we get really great queer rep as well as characters who aren’t afraid to be unlikeable. Sade, Bas and the unholy trinity were all completely brilliant and I loved exploring the dynamics between them amidst a very dangerous backdrop.

Overall I absolutely loved this one and continue to adore Àbíké-Íyímídé’s writing, I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next. The murder mystery set against the boarding school backdrop was perfect for me and I really enjoyed the diverse cast and mean girl vibes throughout. Where Sleeping Girls Lie was an absolute vibe for me and the dark academia meets high school feel was perfectly balanced, allowing for some fun catty moments alongside some darker themes as well.

The Shadow Girls, A Review

There’s something wicked in Burning Lake.

Trace of Evil Review. The Wicked Hour Review. The Witching Tree Review.

The Shadow Girls follows Detective Natalie Lockhart, still in the midst of her previous case when town witch Veronica Manes was found dead after being tied down to the local train tracks. Her fellow detective and childhood friend Luke Pittman also remains in a coma after being attacked, plunging Natalie into a world of worry and unknown. It isn’t long before another case is opened however when costume store employee Randolph Holmes is found dead is his place of work, soon opening up an entirely new line of enquiry when Randy’s own home is discovered to be a bunker for several infamous missing girls. Now Natalie must juggle several cases at once as well as her own precarious love life, still holding a candle for Luke and struggling with new partner Hunter. With so many secrets hiding in Burning Lake can Natalie get to the bottom of things this time or will the somebody get away with murder once more and contribute even more to the town’s darker nature?

I know I say this every time I read this series but I continue to love the vibe here and how Blanchard mixes your classic police procedural with some seriously witchy business. Burning Lake is such a fantastic location and even here in the March/April setting it feels like it’s Halloween every day, the year long costume store especially was a nice added touch. I think regardless of your feelings towards the fantasy/magic genre everybody has had a witchy phase at some point in their lives and these books encapsulate that feeling and turn it to 100, I just love it.

Both mysteries here were really well done and I loved the continued arc from book 3 as well the new murder case with Randy and his later connection to the titular shadow girls. The Witching Tree definitely ended on a major cliffhanger with several loose ends and so I’m happy we got to address everything here and finally solve Veronica’s murder. Randy’s case also added an extra layer of intrigue and it went so much deeper than your typical murder mystery, Blanchard really knows how to play the long game.

The Shadow Girls really felt like a completion of so many arcs for this series and for Natalie herself and I loved the way everything came together, connecting all four books across the series, I have no idea if Blanchard intends to write more Natalie Lockhart mysteries (I really hope so!) but if not this does feel like a nice ending point. The way all four books were connected through this one coven, going all the way back to Natalie’s childhood was brilliantly done and the whole thing felt like it was years in the making. I’ll admit some of the stuff towards the end happened very quickly and I would have liked a bit more build up but overall we got some great reveals here and I loved how every single mystery in this town seems to be linked together.

Overall I really enjoyed reading The Shadow Girls and it really felt like a nice completion to a lot of the series’ initial arcs, again I have no idea if this is the last Natalie Lockhart book but it definitely feels like the end of an era. The mystery of Randy’s death coupled with the ongoing investigation into Veronica’s murder was nicely done and I just loved how everything ended up being connected, it felt very rewarding to long time fans. I continue to love this series and definitely hope we get to see Natalie again, her and Burning Lake make for a great duo read.