I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

I always love throwing in a mystery/thriller book in between my fantasy books, as it brings a nice break from it all while still being really fun and entertaining to read! When I was approved for this book, I was honestly really excited, since it seemed right up my alley! I’d read a few podcast based mysteries before, and adored them, and was honestly so sure it would be the same here!

Unfortunately, that was far from the case. Right from the beginning, something about the writing and characters didn’t work for me. They felt so juvenile, in a way that set it apart negatively from other YA mysteries I’d read before. I know that with younger characters, more bad decisions, reckless ideas, and naivety is expected, but it almost felt absurd here. The worst character for me was Cam, and while I could relate to her on many levels, she was honestly just such a horrible person and friend. She never really had any care for others nor paid attention to how her actions would harm others, and she never really learns from her mistakes either. She consistently only cared about herself, and even after she caused more and more pain to her mother, friend, and others around her, she doesn’t really actually stop. At some point, it just also happens to work out in the favor of her loved ones, and all seems to be forgiven. Blair also felt really flat, and she really only seemed to have one driving force that wasn’t really fleshed out at all. It almost felt like she was a side character in her own story, that’s how underutilized she was.

The plot was also quite predictable, which is always really frustrating in these sorts of books. I was also just never fully swept away by the mystery, and I think from the set-up it already started falling flat for me. I never had a reason to really be invested in Cam and Blair solving the mystery, because I wasn’t invested in anyone involved (not even Clarissa, especially not Clarissa).

Overall, this book really wasn’t for me at all, and I’m so disappointed because I had really high hopes for it! (I did really like that we had a queer relationship in this book though!)