I enjoyed this!

 

Energy: Focused. Restless. Wary. 

Scene: 🇺🇸 Set at an Airbnb and hotels in Jersey City, NJ

Perspective: Our MC is tagging along with their partner who is travelling for work in NYC at a finance firm. 

 

🐕 Howls: Sometimes spinning wheels plotwise. 
🐩 Tail Wags: The pacing. The story and writing style. Bree. Immersive audiobook. 

🤔 Random Thoughts:

I predicted some of the twists but I was invested in Bree and what would happen to her so it never ruined the story for me. 

I love the choice to keep unreliable narrator tropes out of this. It made it much more suspenseful. 

The ending is open and abrupt (I liked it). There wasn’t much more to say, and the epilogue was almost acknowledging what would occur next, and giving us a taste.

 

🤓 Reader Role: Hanging out with our MC. She’s narrating what she’s doing and experiencing, telling us straight up what her motivations are and why. 

🗺️ World-Building: Cinematic and sensory. Can see the reactions and body language of characters. Not overly detailed but easy to imagine. Real locations given so you can follow along on Google Earth and explore! 

🔥 Fuel: Character evolution and escalating stakes. Who killed the woman in the Airbnb? Where is Bree’s partner? Did he do it or is he a victim too? Will the police believe Bree? 

📖 Cred: Realistic

 

Train tracks. PATH announcements. Traffic. YouTube channels. Instagram stories. Phone haptics. Elevator dings. Manhattan skyline. Hotel lobby. 

 

Content Heads-Up: Racism (prejudice, systemic, bias, assumption). Police (incompetence, bias). Murder. Blood. Missing person. Loss of romantic partner. False accusation. Loss of parent (as child). Masking stage of COVID-19 (brief mentions; no lockdowns). Betrayal. Domestic abuse/controlling spouse (recall; off page). 

 

Rep: Black and White Americans. Cisgender. Heterosexual. 

 

📚 Format: Audible

 

Lost points for centering cryptocurrency as a plot device

    When Breanna, a woman of color, goes to an Airbnb in another state, where a white woman is missing, for a vacation with her boyfriend, Ty, she ends up finding a dead body and Ty is nowhere to be found. Internet sleuths are on the case, but that's not always a good thing, especially when you have a Black man suspected of killing a white woman, and a Black woman is the only one left to tell the tale.
 
     I enjoyed the book a lot. It had a great fast pace. But I did figure out one of the mysteries early, though others were harder for me to figure out. The book was much better than if it had been a white couple at the Airbnb, the racial elements added additional tension and a more complex narrative.
    While I'm a consumer of things like true crime books and podcasts, I am disgusted by murder tourism and everyone thinking they can be a detective with zero training. I think civilians can do certain things like going through documents to find things and then bring them to the attention of qualified people. We shouldn't be confronting people we suspect of crimes or bombing their social media with hate before even the police have announced the criminal much less, they are convicted. I think this book tackled those topics well.
 
 Narrator Rating: 4.75 stars
  The narrator did an excellent job! I wish there'd been more tonal shifts for different characters when they talked. 

I would recommend this to people who enjoy crime thrillers or people looking to get into crime thrillers with a strong book. I also think this is a great match for people who have complicated relationships with true crime, particularly the community around it. I think the strongest aspect of this book is the fact that the writer knows what she’s talking about: the social issues surrounding true crime are the foundation of this book rather than scene-dressing, and she’s clearly well-versed in her genre, so the meeting of those two elements is practically perfect. The only thing left to be desired here is a pinch more character development—and a lot of that is because I enjoyed these characters so much that I wish we got to spend maybe 25 to 50 more pages with them. I think extending the ending just a little bit would have been nice—I loved the final shot we’re left on, but I would have loved to see one more scene of Bree and Adore. I’m very interested in seeing what Kellye Garrett writes next, and I’m hoping to read her already published works in the future.

As someone who grew up over-exposed to true crime and still consumes it in as conscious and critical a way as I can while also being very alarmed by certain aspects of the community, especially in conjunction with the way we as a society are conditioned to think about crime, this book really spoke to me. The narrative is very compelling. It’s both a quintessential twisty thriller and overall very believable, something that I really appreciate in the genre but often feel isn’t executed well—this, however, is a book that pulls it off. There’s an interesting throughline about trust and the unreliable ground it stands on: both interpersonal—trust in one’s loved ones and trust in strangers, in community—and systemic—trust in the establishment, in news media, and in social media. The way it intertwines with themes of identity and betrayal is potent and effective.

The cast was very memorable to me, each character’s dynamic with Bree being compelling and unique. The complicated friendship between Bree and Adore spoke to me; losing close friends and finding your way back to them is something I don’t see enough in books. The chemistry built up at the beginning between Bree and Ty was believable and electric, even in moments of tension, lending to the effectiveness of the mystery. I appreciate that the secondary narratives are tied into the overarching plot so well—for example, Bree’s backstory is used not only to explain her internal conflicts about persons of interest, but it anchors her relationships with Adore and her mother.

The pacing is straightforward and mostly linear, with some backstory exposition peppered through it when necessary, and it’s an incredibly quick read, easy to get sucked into. Repetition is occasionally utilized here for dramatic effect, but it’s not overdone. Conflict is built well: the plot and backstory threads are woven together well to create recurring tensions. The resolutions, while leaving room for a little mystery at the end, are well-earned and satisfying. The stakes are well-established and remain consistently high throughout.

There’s a stylistic element of fragmenting sentences, with a reasonable amount of structural and length variation to balance them out. Visual and sensory description are well-employed, and not overwhelming. Character voice is captured well throughout dialogue, being consistent, natural, and without sacrificing characterization. The e-ARC itself was a little buggy, but the construction of the book itself is solid: lucid grammar and word choice paired with strong, clear syntax. The style is persistent and congruous to the narrative, and the third-person limited perspective captures Bree’s way of thinking well.