The first part of this novel was STELLAR. Sort of surreal but with a relatable main character and some jarring, gory, fascinating stuff with cult-like elements. Unfortunately, the 2nd and 3rd parts stepped away from the mysterious/ surreal elements and the cult vibes and instead focused on other elements. It was also during the 2nd and 3rd parts that the pacing became a little disjointed/ jarring. A few of the shockers starts the end felt more in line with the thriller genre so this novel doesn’t comfortably fit into a single category. The concept, however, is so unique and fascinating that I think it doesn’t need to be confined to one genre alone. Although I thought the first part was much better than the rest, I’d still highly recommend this book if you like gore, fabulism, or Frankenstein retellings.

3.5 stars. I don’t give thrillers three or four or five stars but this... I didn’t expect several things that happened (I did expect one though). It felt more like a mystery than a thriller, though I originally saw it pushed as a thriller on YouTube. If you like solving problems and different perspectives, you’ll love this.

Wow. I like the journey of reading thriller/horror/mystery type books but by the end I rarely give them anything above a two star rating because they’re often predictable or cheesy. This book was great! I HAD to know what was going to happen next- a great book to read if you wanna read something fast or are doing a readathon. Fast paced, infuriating but captivating. The only reason it isn’t five stars is due to some poor word choices in the book and the fact that the author does something a bit gimmicky towards the end. Still- a great, action-packed read.

I liked this book for what it did but I’m quite disappointed in what it didn’t do. The thriller aspect isn’t really there- although I saw some people on booktube call this a thriller, I’d say it was a mystery. At first every single character was someone I hated and I thought I wouldn’t be able to like anyone enough to finish reading it but after a while Ioosened up. One of the major issues is that most of the characters are extremely wealthy and privileged. While that’s not necessarily a 100% bad thing, it seemed like the book was building up towards some sort of message about wealthy people being manipulative and not trustworthy. I thought there would be some type of message or theme about class/ classism. However, that didn’t happen. The book did have a decent message about truth but we lost the opportunity to do better. One of the major villains, for example, is someone that started out a bit less wealthy than many of the other characters and the richest characters don’t necessarily come off as bad for reasons that could deliver a message about classism. However, some of the unknowns were interesting and some of the nervous moments were nicely affective.

A fabulous but very complex novel with political intrigue, unspoken discussions of gender dynamics, criticisms of white, western patriarchal structures, and more. All with an interesting use of narrative space and time.