Meeting your in-laws for the first time is always a nerve-wracking event. 

 

Toby and his son, Luca, are headed to Texas with Toby’s wife, a pediatrician and heiress named Alyssa. Alyssa has given Toby every reassurance she can muster about her family, because Luca is starting to show signs of being queer and Toby doesn’t want him around bigots; and, well, Alyssa’s grandfather is a famous televangelist. Alyssa tells him her family is too rich to be bigoted. Well, you can see how well this is going to go. 

 

I liked the idea of this book much more than I liked the book itself. I liked the individual story components more than the whole. I liked the tropes, but not how they were assembled. Does that all make sense? It was like the ingredients were all there but the measurements were wrong and it was baked wrong. 

 

For one, it was baked too long. This book was too long by far. The third act of a thriller should be where you kick it up a notch, but I honestly thought the third act was the slowest of the entire book. I kept saying, “We’re not done yet?” 

 

Second, the repetitiveness. By the end of the second act my eyes were starting to glaze over every time I read the term “mind palace”. 

 

Third, the ending. I’m sorry, but I can’t vibe with the ending. It wasn’t good. 

 

In the end, it was a very average novel that was well-written for the most part but just didn’t vibe as a whole. 

 

I was provided with a copy of this title by Netgalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Since this review is rated three stars or lower it will not be appearing on my social media. Thank you. 

 

File Under: Gothic Fiction/LGBTQ Fiction/Murder Thriller/Psychological Thriller