bmanatee_reads's Reviews (658)

Enter 5 so-called friends who decide to go on a last minute camping trip.  The aspiring influencer and their ambitious boyfriend, the best friend and their conspiracy theorist brother, and the secret ex-girlfriend.  What spells disaster more than that?  When the influencer Maylee winds up missing, the remaining four are interviewed by the police and the stores start to unfold.  In the police's words, tell me what really happened!
This book kept me guessing until the very end.  It was a fun, quick read, but unfortunately not one that will be very memorable.

This book was nearly perfect, a true gem from Kim.  Somehow Kim turned what I thought was going to be a mystery thriller into a discussion about the discrimination of non-speaking individuals, racism, and the sometimes ambiguity of what we consider truth.  Kim writes with an expert voice from Mia's perspective and draws the reader in from the first page.  I could not get enough of this book.  The micro-aggressions toward the main characters made me feel angry and disgusted on their behalf, then in the next breath, they, too, struggled with their inherent beliefs toward others.  Kim also chose to navigate the Covid time period, which she brought into the story without allowing it to take over, as so many other story-tellers have done recently.

The only negative, although this is looking for something to dislike here, was that the excerpts from Dad's "happiness quotient" notebook could have been reduced.

Kim will most certainly be an instant-buy author.

4.75/5