An interesting thriller with a cult-style premise. Good twists and turns and a lot of cerebral work into creating the plot. There is some pretty smart manipulation of the narrative here and the writing feels pretty solid.

Unfortunately, the pacing was a little slow for the first half and there were moments that seemed to be a bit over the top for shock value that didn't really feel fully believable. There seemed to be a few moments where Nicole's judgment just wasn't logical, so these questionable moments pulled me out of the story. It was a very intense read with some decent stakes and there was definitely a lot packed into the story with an emotional load that felt like it was swinging all over.

The ending was okay with some great surprise twisting, but ultimately it just felt a bit rushed and didn't really fully flesh out the circumstances.

Overall, a decent read and some good writing that makes me think I may have to give McKenzie's backlist a glance.