What in the looney toons just happened. Hold on while I pick my brain up off the floor. I admit this was super odd yet awesome. Now at times you will be like “WHAT…THE...EFF?” and you might think to yourself I should just stop but DON’T. This book is worth reading till the end.

Let’s meet the characters, shall we?
Mary Olivia Pentecost AKA Mop- Johanna’s daughter
Johanna- the sister of Aunty Liv
Aunty Liv-Sister to Johanna and Aunt to Mop

This novel is told in Mop’s point of view and her Aunty Liv’s, mainly jumping around all over the place from past and present within a two-year time frame. The story mainly revolves around that two years ago Mop’s mother died at Liv’s estate. Apparently, a fire broke out and she jumped off a cliff into the water, but her body has ever been found. HMMM…?
Since this tragedy Aunty Liv has shut herself away from the world. To help her fully grieve, Mop decides it is time to reunite with Aunty Liv but what she finds is more disturbing than she can handle. What secrets lie in this family, what is hidden in the barn, in the rooms?

Wellllll this stirred the pot of crazy for me. I enjoyed trying to figure out what was going on and who was the real crazy was of the bunch.

Thanks to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the e-arc I received in exchange for my honest review, sorry it’s so late but I finally got to it!

In The Vines by Shannon Kirk is a psychological suspense thriller about Mary Olivia Pentecost, also known as “Mop” and the secrets of her wealthy family especially her Aunt and the mysterious death of her mother 2 years prior. She returns to her Aunt’s estate trying to put the pieces together.

This story is bananas.

It’s like every Poe story smushed into one. And I haven’t decided if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

The timeline is a bit all over the place, present and two weeks ago (Mop) and two years ago (Aunty Liv) with many past memories interspersed. Surprisingly this works and the story feels cohesive even if it is jumping around. The writing is very atmospheric albeit a bit wordy. In fact, I think it would have made a great novella or short story as I felt a lot of scenes were too descriptive, the information over abundant.

Family secrets are revealed and psychopathy shines through in this crazy thriller with a touch of horror.

Psychological Thrillers are usually hit or miss with me. This one was more of a miss, mostly just due to the graphic violence. It was difficult to pick this book back up sometimes as I was a bit filled with dread.

For some people this will be the exact reason why they will love this book!

Shannon is a master at keeping you stressed out and sleepless with her well-constructed, twisty, and borderline disturbing stories.

Read this woman, please.

In The Vines by Shannon Kirk is well written and certainly creepy. The writing keeps you on your toes, waiting for another shoe to drop, so to speak. The gothic nature of this didn't really appeal to me, however. The story itself was good and the setting was well described and pulls you in.

In the Vines was a pleasant surprise. I was not expecting to enjoy it this much. It follows Mop, a young woman from a rich family, who has lost contact with her aunt Liv. They were inseparable when Mop was young but, after her mother’s death, her aunt changed. However, Mop has no choice but to face her aunt again but the woman looking at her seems to be buried in secrets. Mop must then choose if she wants them to remain buried.

This book got me hooked right from the start. It was fast-paced and exciting, I was always curious to discover what would happen next. It was told from 2 POVs, Mop and her aunt Liv, which added a lot to the book. My favorite was probably aunt Liv’s, just because you could see her slowly changing and becoming the person that we saw in the present.

The part that I disliked the most, or rather, was the least interested in was Mop’s relationship with Manny. He did nothing and I didn’t care for him at all.

Still, it was a really fun read and, if you have the chance, check out the audiobook. The voice actress did a great job depicting the characters, especially aunt Liv.

I'm not even sure where to begin with this one. It's been on my TBR forever. This was a gothic psychological thriller that kept me turning the page while it continued to get more BIZARRE and CRAZIER by the minute!

A very rich New England family has secrets. The cast of characters are odd and unlikeable. The first chapter hits you with a BAM but the writing style is a bit strange. With each chapter the time and setting changes so you must really stay alert.

I fall short at calling this one clever as for me it was just odd. If you like atmospheric and gothic and crazy this one might just be up your alley. The title is perfect.

I'd like to kindly thank NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer Publishers for granting me access to this Advanced Reader Copy.

Now this was a DARK read but I really enjoyed it. Kirk truly knows how to get under your skin. a true masterpiece in this genre. this book will keep you up well into the night to finish and have you scared to sleep once you do LOL

Very enjoyable book. Good mystery and was a real page turner! Looking forward to reading more by this author!

This book was full of surprises and so much drama and suspense, I loved it. I don’t want to give too much away, but the families in this novel are wealthy and powerful, and a bit crazy too! Full of mystery, thrills, secrets, and darkness, you will love this novel as it takes you on a wild journey. Exploring the craziness, the insanity, the uniqueness and the never ending drama in this family, you cannot get enough.

This novel is told from alternating point of views as well as timelines. Parts are told from Aunty Liv’s perspective and parts are told from her niece’s point of view, a woman named Mary Olivia Pentecost (aka Mop). I liked Mop’s character, and enjoyed seeing things from her perspective. Aunty Liv was quite the character as well, and I actually laughed many times as Aunty Liv I found to be quite humorous most times.

I loved this book and I am looking forward to reading her next novel, Gretchen, which is releasing soon.

Very descriptive writing style, overly so. Each scene is bogged down with so much unnecessary detail it becomes boring. The plot is exciting as it does pull you in, but the long descriptive prose is just too much. I found myself skim reading the last half of the story

This book was SCARY, way more than I expected, and I read a lot of thrillers. It was good, but it was also bizarre at times. I'm still not sure exactly how I feel about it.

was a gripping thriller that took you to every aspect of trying to figure out what was really going on and what was going to happen next! This was such an amazing book and I can’t wait to see what else is released from this author!

Mop as she is known wants closure on the sad, tragic death of her mother. And returns to the mansion of her now eccentric, cloistered aunt. The aunt who was very close to her and looked on her as the daughter she never had.

The story is convoluted because the deeper mop goes to solve the mystery of her mother's death, the more she unravels, none of which are acceptable or palatable to her. Is digging deeper really what she wants to still pursue.

The story starts off in one way and ends in another. Gothic, creepy and how power and position can hide secrets more effectively than anything else can.

Not an easy comfortable read, but a very intriguing one.

This was a strange, creepy book told by two POVs, which I enjoyed. The atmosphere build and builds up to a truly shocking conclusion. The writing was engaging, the characters well developed and the story cleverly plotted. Recommended!

4.5 stars- I will admit that I was a little weary when I started reading In The Vines because so many bookstagrammers were giving it all the hype but I thought it was going to be a slow read. I quickly realized that it was one of those “it’s not you, it’s me” moments and I ended up LOVING this book. In The Vines by Shannon Kirk is a haunting and beautifully written story that will absorb you in its pages. It's thought-provoking, addictive, and atmospheric. I highly recommend this book! It will stay with you well after you’ve finished reading it.

Thank you NetGalley, Shannon Kirk, and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read In The Vines. It was my pleasure to write an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was sort of odd. I was initially drawn to it due to the cover. It was sort of creepy and rotated between two narrators. While it was quite strange, I ended up liking it.

Mary Olivia Pentecost, known as Mop, is who this book starts with. She is hiding in a burned cellar, along with someone else, a companion, while a mad woman holding a bloody hatchet is ramagings her Aunty’s lawn looking for them. That’s quite a scene to start a crazy book like this one!

The story goes like this. Two years after her mother has died, Mop is seeking closure, by driving to her Aunty’s New England estate. Aunty Liv used to be the closest relative Mop had, besides her mother. She practically lived in the Aunty’s house, when not in the family Rye estate. And so was her mother.

However, the person Mop finds is not the Aunty Liv she once knew and cherished. She has changed and the secrets she has been keeping for two years now have come to haunt her. How many secrets can a wealthy family have and how can they affect Mop’s life? She is about to find out!

Shannon Kirk has her own writing style that can drive a reader mad, until they understand what is actually happening. In this one, Kirk has created a dark Gothic atmosphere to support her narration.

The games a mind can play on a person are the protagonist here. Several of those have been going through the main characters, creating this creepy, crazy setting the book lies on. It’s when you lose track of time and reality and even yourself that unexpected things happen. The main characters are as crazy as hell, and that’s an understatement! Past events, have led to the awful horrible situation Mop finds herself in the very first chapter, but they are also hidden behind what happened two years ago, during the night of the fire and maybe a couple days earlier.

In Shannon Kirk's in the Vines, this standalone thriller will have you tangled in a patch of thorny vines from start to finish. For Mary Olivia Pentecost, aka MOP, she was born in a wealthy and guarded family in the New England region. She just graduated in college and madly in love with her boyfriend, Manny Acista, who's also wealthy and well-known too. But since her mother's mysterious death two years ago, she had always wondered what happened to her, since she was an only child and really close to her mother. Besides her aunt, a former nun named Mary Patience, and another aunt, Lynnette Viola (Liv for short), they knew the secrets of what happened then and what had happened now. For Liv, she was in love with a married man and had plotted to frame his wife for a murder. She had kept the secret clutched to her chest until MOP discovers a big secret. She would do anything to keep it from her when the truth had unraveled before her eyes. Not only that her mother was alive for two years, awakened and weak from a coma, but her aunt's rival pulled a surprise of her own. In the end, both Liv and MOP fight for their lives to keep it unwrapped with a shocking ending.