I wouldn't classify this as a thriller. It's not quite a horror or contemporary either. Its kind of a genre-bending mix of all three. It's slow and character driven builds up to to an ending where everything falls apart for the characters. I thought the writers did a good job exploring influencer life intermixing themes of motherhood, roles in marriage, and revenge. It asks the question: who are we when no one is looking? 

This is lush, beautiful literary horror. I fell in love with the characters, the house, the history. Just everything about it was wonderful. 

DNF at 30%

There was a lot of smut which isn't necessarily a bad thing if that's what you're looking for. The problem I had was that there was really flimsy emotional tension between the characters. So it was smutty but lacking the actual romance and character development I personally need to enjoy a romance. And with this one, I'm DNFing the series as a whole.

The end of this one gave m whiplash. This is a fun series

I wanted more coffee talk and I missed New York. This also had a few problematic homophobic and ableist comments. 

I really enjoyed this bit of escapism. I found myself attached the characters by end, especially Fern. I'm a little sad because it looks like Viv leaves Murk in the next book and we leave these lovely characters behind. 

DNF. 

It has happened to me. It happens to everyone one bookternet at some point...I was swayed by hype with this series. I think I rated the first book higher than I actually like because I felt like I was surely missing something. These are so popular. Why didn't I like it more? 

At 10% into this one, I admitted defeat. This series is fine, but I didn't like it enough to invest 600+ pages of reading into it. 

This is an interesting book. Probably best to read if you have a basic education in business, especially marketing concepts and strategies. Good information, but oh my lord the repetition.

This is a good portrait of enmeshment between a borderline and a narcissist. 

I admit I am unfamiliar with Joan Didion. This is the first of her work that I've read and I really don't know anything about her as a person or her life aside from she's a well-respected investigative journalist. I found her writing to be an artful stream of consciousness--almost like a nonfiction version of Virginia Woolf's prose. That being said, I don't think this is a good first Didion to read. I think to truly appreciate it, you need to be well-versed in her body of work and life story.