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.

When I read the synopsis and saw sapphic thriller, I knew I had to read this one. While we have seen a wave of new sapphic books releasing, I always get super excited whenever we get new releases in the thriller, fantasy, and sci-fi genres. And while I do think this book will find its readers and its fans, I don’t think I’ll be one of them in the end, unfortunately.

I think this book played up the expectations of a thriller a bit too much, where it’s more of a psychological look at characters falling apart after surviving a shared, traumatic event. Most of the action of the book actually happens before the book has even begun, with both the main characters and readers unsure of what actually happened. I do think this book could have worked for me if structured a bit differently because the build-up of the book does seem to play up the thriller/mystery aspect of the main character’s past and the truth of this event, when in reality this book ends up focusing on different aspects of this story. It’s more about what the unknowing does to the MC, rather than what the truth actually is. While this is a unique premise, and one I can definitely get behind, it just wasn’t what I was expecting, and it made the ending and the book as a whole feel unsatisfying.

There is also a lot of filler content in this book, especially for a thriller. It feels like there are a lot of breaks and pauses between finding out new things and plot events unraveling, and while that might be to show how the MC is also unraveling, it actually just becomes repetitive quickly. The MC has a few thought patterns that all events seem to lead into, and while this can show how her mind is twisting and warping, it was also just a bit too repetitive. As a reader, I got the point after the first few times, it didn’t need to keep repeating it for me. I saw another review mention that this book could’ve been a novella, and I agree! I think it actually would have been extremely strong in novella format, and would’ve changed the expectations I had going into the book, and would’ve led to a lot of repetition being removed.

Overall, I do think there were strong aspects to the ideas and character building of this story, and I do want to try other and future books by this author, but I think this book was hindered by the expectations of both the longer novel format and being sold as a thriller. It feels more psychological in nature (and not necessarily in a ‘thrillery’ way, except for certain bits), and hopefully, new readers will come into this book knowing that, and enjoy it more than I did!