A cute middle grade that hopefully broke my reading slump. The first middle grade that I've picked up in YEARS. So cute and also good on audio. Wish I had the illustrations, but recommend the audiobook.

Reader, it was not in fact a device free weekend.

31% in and we still don’t know more than the barest of details in how everyone knows each other. There are entirely too many characters in this one and there’s no singular character we can anchor to in order to get a footing. 

As many others, I was a sucker for this TikTok darling gone viral due to the author's daughter sharing her father's story.

Also, as a Hoosier I'm always excited to support fellow Hoosier authors that also set their books in Indiana. 

However, that leads to one of my biggest issues with this book: the author has so many obscure towns to choose from in Indiana, but then uses fake names and completely makes up a BS airport that's not IND, but probably close to IND for the FBI to commute to from Chicago. I guess at least he gets the Greyhound Station right in Indy?

Also I know I'm from Northern Indiana and that the dialect is completely different between north and south, but why do all of the Hoosier characters sound like they're from the deep south??

This was about three stars going into the second half, but then it derailed quickly. The ending was rushed and didn't make sense and don't even get me started on the pointless epilogue. 

I liked the theory of the how behind the crimes, but it wasn't fully explained well at the end. Nothing came together, it just fell into a jumbled mess. 

Additionally, the romance between the FBI agent and the sheriff was so ridiculous. 

Finally, the little additions of xenophobia and racism against immigrants and indigenous people were unnecessary. However, considering this was written so long ago, I'm not actually surprised that it was included. 

Unproven theory: if Georgie was a real person, she'd be a Trump supporter because she's way too trusting of men because WTF was this?

This has to be some of the worst writing I've ever read. 

I’m not sure I was trying to read the same book you all loved 

Sometimes you can just tell after the first two chapters that a book definitely isn’t for you. 

I’m not sure if it’s the audiobook narrator or the characters themselves, which are giving a knock off Crazy Rich Asians and Gossip Girl vibe, but I’m setting this down.

Seems like this one got a ton of publicity money from the publisher ahead of publication, but with the amount of reviews that publicity didn’t help. 

If you're considering picking this up, try out the audio. Narrated by the author,  I think he conveys this epistolary novel well. 

I'm a little confused on why all of the 1-2 star reviews think all scumbag dads deserve redemption arcs, because they don't. They can try to redeem themselves at the end of their lives, but it never works and that is what the author showed here. 

This could've been five stars for me if there would've been a few chapters from Isaac's POV reading the letters from his father. Even just one at the very end. 

If you're considering picking this up, try out the audio. Narrated by the author,  I think he conveys this epistolary novel well. 

I'm a little confused on why all of the 1-2 star reviews think all scumbag dads deserve redemption arcs, because they don't. They can try to redeem themselves at the end of their lives, but it never works and that is what the author showed here. 

This could've been five stars for me if there would've been a few chapters from Isaac's POV reading the letters from his father. Even just one at the very end. 

Some of the best writing I’ve ever read in a classic, but with the most insufferable cast of characters. Oi with the misogyny already 

Also The Atlantic lied in their blurb, ‘Exciting…a book that belongs in the top rank of fiction’

Exciting? Where?