This book was kind of all over the place. The strongest plotline — the political drama of Symmes Robinette and how he died — ended up falling flat. I thought that the ending was very anti-climactic. The gossip column ended up having very little impact on the plot despite the fact that the book was named after it, which disappointed me because it was why I picked up the book in the first place. 

I liked the protagonist Conley and her budding relationship with Skelly. I was charmed by G'Mama and Winnie.

Really out-there sci-fi mystery. The sci-fi elements did a really good job at illustrating the theme of the value of human life. However, I think that the strangeness of the narration somewhat took away from the mystery. The story was told through the perspective of Abi, an omniscient AI, yet framed through the perspective of a singular villager, Emory, so it was difficult to determine how much information was being purposefully held back from the reader by Abi. The characters were interesting. I liked how the differences between the villagers and the elders got more and more apparent as the book went on.

I absolutely devoured this book! I was so captivated that I read it in a day! There were some twists that I guessed

(January's paternity)

and many more twists that completely blindsighted me

(Krissy's affair, Billy being January's killer)

. I liked the fact that there weren't any contrived romance plotlines, because they usually annoy me in mystery/thriller novels.

The fact that this book is so obviously based off of JonBenét Ramsey made me feel kind of weird...

A cute romance with an interesting meet-cute! The cover of this book is absolutely gorgeous! I really enjoyed reading it as a beach read!

The characters just didn't quite work for me. I just found Emma and Justin to be kind of bland at best and kind of depressing at worst. Neither Justin nor Emma seemed ready for a committed relationship by the end of the book. Justin was bizarrely codependent from the moment he met Emma and Emma had attachment issues that very obviously needed therapy to address. 

The tone of this book confused me so much. Half of the time the tone was lighthearted romcom with a quirky meet-cute. The other half of the time it was very serious as it tackled issues like Emma's childhood abandonment/trauma and Justin taking custody of his siblings.   

Finally (and this isn't a valid criticism, it just bothered me so much), the constant references to reddit felt very milennial, and not in a good way.

One of the most fun books I've read all year! I adored the protagonist, Chloe Sevre! Chloe was a gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss icon! The campus setting felt very realistic. I enjoyed the amoral characters. The dynamic between Chloe, Charles, and Andre was so much fun to read! The balance between the revenge plotline and the mystery plotline was very well balanced.

A story so beautifully written that I wish I wrote it myself. The way that Ann Patchett writes her setting is so masterful — there is a transportive quality to her writing that makes you feel like you are there. All of the settings in this book, from the cherry orchards to the little family cemetery to the shore of Lake Tom, are so lovingly written. 

The narrative is slow, but in a purposeful way. The slowness of the plot really did remind me of the early pandemic months, when the days did tend to drag on and on, and yet they all felt the same. 

The fact that Meryl Streep narrated the audiobook was the cherry on top, so to speak. There is a tender quality to her voice that perfectly matches the tender quality of the writing.

The twist wasn't all that interesting. There were so many moments throughout the book that either didn't make sense at all or only existed to be red herrings:

the mountain lion attack, Grace falling into the pit of dead animals, Calvin being able to change the guestbook seemingly instantaneously, the police only investigating one of the four missing girls, Grace falling off of the horse, Uncle Albert's strange behavior.

The beginning and middle were SO SLOW! The book really didn't get interesting until Grace tried to leave the ranch, which was 90% of the way through the book. The writing was very juvenile and Calvin's perspective didn't read like an actual adult man.

I was not impressed at all by this book. I have another Jeneva Rose thriller on my TBR but at this point I'm considering whether or not it would even be worth it to give it a chance. 

An extremely well researched account of what happened at Memorial Hospital during and after Hurricane Katrina. The way that the author lays out the context behind the decision to involuntarily euthanize patients during the evacuation makes a very clear case for unethical behavior on the part of the physicians, Anna Pou in particular. The book was a lot more dense than I think it needed to be, which made it difficult to read and difficult to differentiate which details were actually important. 

Interesting thriller with a mindblowing twist! Of the two major plotlines,

I thought that the Caitlin plotline was leagues more interesting than the Luke plotline, so it was a little disappointing that the Caitlin plotline was wrapped up first.

 

The author did an excellent job at foreshadowing

the duel timelines. The little details about a Christmas tree being put away versus Meghan going shopping for Christmas gifts hinted at the story taking place in both November and January, but I truly didn't put it all together until after the bridge scene.

Overall I was intrigued from start to finish!

Cute romance with likable enough characters. I really liked having Lexie as a POV character — she has such a big heart and it really shows through her perspective. 

I wish we had gotten more tension and mystery out of the Magnus plotline. I never actually felt like Lexie or Midas were in any danger since it was pretty clear that Magnus wasn't going to be an actual threat. I also wish that the setting was more vibrant. Hawai'i is such a beautiful place and I would have liked to explore more of the island through the characters. However, all of the dates that Lexie and Midas went on were glossed over instead of fully explored, so we never got much out of the setting.