A woman returns to the school where she lost her sister, determined this time to keep the same tragedy from occurring again.

I think, in all honesty, the biggest reason that this book didn’t work for me is the level of paranoia surrounding our main character - especially since her dead sister is, quite literally, haunting her. While I was reading this, I was under the impression that our main character was an unreliable narrator, seeing villains where there was none - especially since, by being able to see and interact with her dead sister, she cannot move on from the tragedy that haunts her school years. 

It wasn’t that I don’t believe such things happen (obviously), but her every interaction felt so determined to prove everyone to being the worst person they could possibly be that I felt like it wasn’t actually what was happening in reality. That, because she cannot move on from the tragedy that killed her sister (who she cannot move on from so much that she sees her everywhere) she is projecting her own traumas onto everyone around her. And the biggest issue is that the book does a fantastic job of making this the case. Our main character has occasional flashbacks that literally overshadow whatever is currently going on, and cannot help but impose previous people’s faces onto those she is talking with now. The narrative makes a fantastic job of making our main character seem unhinged and unstable, but never actually commits to it - and instead, simply just validates every terrible thing she’s done throughout the novel without any consequences. 

The book is so terrified of making our main character face any consequences for her actions that it - quite literally - allows her to get away with murder.

Also, in my opinion, the ending was so unrealistic and over exaggerated that it took me out of the story entirely. And there isn’t a single possible way that the ending could have happened and nothing being investigated or discovered. In short, this book is about a paranoid delusional woman who, somehow, never actually recovers from her delusions and simply gets away with whatever she decides to do - no matter the body count. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me this e-ARC.