I had high hopes but Theme Music was a huge disappointment for me. It started strong with the chilling massacre described but then the story went downhill from there. While I'm all about suspending my disbelief for an entertaining story, this one was built on far too many convenient circumstances, enough that I rolled my eyes a few times. The main character felt like a caricature as the quintessential unreliable narrator. The ending, which was supposed to be shocking, was instead predictable and unsatisfying.

A great psychological thriller, Theme Music had enough twists and turns to keep me guessing until the very end.

This story tells us of an unthinkable act of violence.

When Dixie was one year old, her father butchered her family and then committed suicide. Years later she is still trying to connect with her family and when her home is up for sale she buys it and moves in. However, not satisfied with the story she was told she seeks out the original detective on the case to find out what really happened all those years ago. The more she digs into the events of that dreadful day the more she realizes her father may not be the killer.

Love this book!! Super creepy and a fast paced read! One of my favorite reads for the year! Definitely recommend!

From my blog: Always With a Book

I have no idea why I waited so long to pick this one up...it was an anticipated read when I first got it and then I sort of forgot I had it. That's the problem with e-books...out of sight, out of mind. Luckily, I saw that the audiobook was available at the library and I grabbed it...and I am so glad I did...I loved this book!

I don't read a ton of horror books, but this one was so good. I loved that it had so many different elements wrapped up into one - it wasn't straight up horror and I think that's why it worked for me. This one is as much a psychological thriller as it is horror and it has some paranormal elements to it that work really well, too - another element that I don't always love, but here, it almost needs to be part of the book.

I loved that this one really kept me on edge right from the start. It's a dark, creepy book and it kept me guessing all the way through. I can't imagine not only witnessing your family being murdered in your own home as a toddler, but then wanting to live in that home later as an adult. Talk about creepy! I loved that Dixie, the narrator, sometimes comes across as an unreliable narrator. It just makes things so much more suspenseful and keeps you wondering where things are heading.

This book was so good and I really am kicking myself for waiting so long to pick it up. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for what comes next from this author, especially since this is her debut novel...which just shocks me. If you haven't read this one yet, add it to your list now!

Audio thoughts: This was such a great book to listen to...and Sarah Mollo-Christensen did a fantastic job narrating it. Her voice was just perfect, and she added just the right amount of tension and emotion when needed.

You will not be able to put this book down even if you want to. Some disturbing creepy scenes but oh so frightfully fun.

I received the ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review from penguin group dutton and netgalley. I think overall this book is a perfect october creepy read. The prologue was stomach turning in its intensity but I pushed through and was rewarded by a satisfying (although at times unbelievable) read.

I'm one of those people who really enjoy bloody, gruesome, and dark books. Theme Music ticks all those boxes, and more! Some elements stretch belief to the breaking point, but I don't think that detracts too much from the book as a whole. Fair warning, the violence is graphic, and contains lots of gore, so if you aren't into that, I would just skip this one. For me, this was an excellent introduction to T. Marie Vandelly and the depravity of her mind.
3.5 stars

*I received a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Thank you to Dutton Books and Netgalley.*

Dixie's family is brutally murdered at the hands of her father, who slices his own throat while Dixie sits in her high chair, not even two years old. Needless to say, Dixie struggles to connect with her family - three brothers, mother and father, as she grows up in her aunt's home. The tragedy follows her throughout her school years - a mix of pity and bullying. As an adult, Dixie enjoys anonymity, selecting to divulge her gruesome past to a select few.
Her family's house goes up for sale while Dixie and Garrett, her long time boyfriend are searching for a home of their own. Dixie cannot pass it up. Though it creates a much turmoil in their relationship, Dixie moves into the house while Garrett refuses.
While moving in her family's furniture and belongings, Dixie stumbles upon the police report - including graphic photographs. Dixie comes obsessed. Her family haunts the house - blood oozes in the kitchen as their injuries continue to bleed. Dixie holds conversations with her brothers and mother, but especially her father who encourages her violent urges. Strange noises, items being moved or lost, lack of sleep, emotional stress all create an unstable Dixie. Then people start disappearing.
The author did a great job removing Dixie's sanity and credibility. Scenes created such confusion for me - I couldn't tell what Dixie was imagining or what was really happening. As a result, it was difficult for me to finish this book. The graphic descriptions of her decapitated family moving around in the house - body parts flapping. Dixie's struggle to decipher what was real, what she was imagining. These elements provided horror and confusion, creepy and suspense.
Dixie's discovery of her family's lie had been whispered throughout the novel. Not a great shock - yet certainly added another layer of horror and confusion. Why was Dixie left alive?
The final scene provided suspense as well as predictability. I felt the missing element was pretty obvious - the hints throughout the novel were easy to catch.
Overall, I thought this was a great story. I did struggle through my confusion to finish.

When Dixie Wheeler finds her family home for sale, she has to see it. The last time she was there, she was a baby sitting in a high chair with her murdered family laying around her. For twenty-five years her aunt and uncle, who raised her, would tell her very little. Hoping to remember or unearth the past, Dixie feels she has to have this house. When she tells her live in boyfriend, Garrett, who knows of the murders, this is her old home, he refuses to live there. So Dixie moves in alone. Then all kinds of hell starts happening in the house and to her. With all the things happening around her, and the belief her other uncle maintained before his death that her father was innocent of committing the murders, Dixie questions if any of what she knows of the events surrounding the murders are what actually happened. The more she searches, the more lies Dixie finds she's been told. But, will searching get her killed, or will she unearth the truth after all these years and stay alive?

I don’t put down a book midway through very often, but I just couldn’t get through this one. It was too unrealistic and really disgusting.

Thank you, Dutton, for our gifted review copy.

Add this to your list if you're looking for a darker whodunnit! This one is very graphic regarding the violence so the faint of heart need not apply. It's a great mystery novel.

I found the synopsis quite interesting, but there was more graphic violence than I expected. Some parts seemed a bit far-fetched, and other parts had me a bit confused. The numerous characters were hard to follow at times, and there just felt like there was too much going on. It made me feel like I never really had a chance to know Dixie, or any of the other characters. On the plus sides, the author used vivid detailing.

Ok. Wow. 😳

First of all. Let me start off by saying this book is NOT for the faint of heart... if you have a weak stomach I suggest that you pack up your things and turn around now, because you aren’t getting through the first couple of pages.

Those of you that want to continue on this journey of blood, guts, and body parts ... my friends, you will not be disappointed. There is plenty to go around, and it is done very, very well.

Dixie “baby blue” Wheeler moves into the home where 25 years earlier her father butchered her entire family, slits his own throat and for whatever reason, leaves her unharmed. WHAT POSSIBLY COULD GO WRONG?!

From the first page this story is bone chilling. This is legitimately “read with the lights on” type of stuff. On top of that, the writing was done so well that I was constantly trying to figure out the plot & that is one of my favorite things in a mystery. I was never 100% sure of what was going to happen, I like to keep guessing and play detective through out the story. That being said there was 1 tip off that I caught on to, BUT, I am not even mad about because the ending was so phenomenal... more on that later.

Let’s talk characters. Magnificent!! Each and every single character in this story came to life for me. Imagery, scenery... spectacular. This creepy house... well let’s just say I can still picture it. I’m writing this review DAYS later, and I’m STILL picturing the kitchen, the table, the chairs, the sack of potatoes.

So, why is my rating 4.5 stars and not 5? The police procedural aspect in the story is just way too unbelievable for me. I know that A LOT in this story is unbelievable, BUT, I just can’t with a few things. However, I didn’t go into this looking for a “police procedural read” so I didn’t let it effect the experience too much.

ESPECIALLY because this book has one of the MOST climactic endings I have ever read! Sometimes I read a book and there is so much anticipation for such a short conflict/climax... but oh NO SIREE BOB! Not here.

I want to start off by thanking the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. This was a very well written book by a new author for me. The book had a very good storyline with a lot of twists and turns and a twist at the end. I enjoyed reading this and didn’t wanna put it down. I highly recommend this book to anyone. I look forward to reading more in the future!

Theme Music has a brilliantly chilling start that had me all geared up for an equally chilling tale. And it does deliver on that in a lot of ways. The setting and atmosphere don't lack on the creep factor scale. Even though the house has been updated and seems to be in a good neighborhood, the writing and tone of the story give it an almost gothic feel.
The author has quite the imagination, and it is shared with us in graphic detail. The problem with that is I too have quite the imagination and most times, I can imagine it worse than a book can describe it. So, I usually find that less is more when it comes to the gory details. The gore and graphic details run rampant in this one, and while I would agree that those details were probably necessary to give us a good visual of the scene, it becomes repetitive all too quickly between Dixie's imagination and crime scene photos. Speaking of, I'm still trying to figure out why the detective, who is now retired, would've still had any files or photos from the scene, or why anyone related to the family would be given access. Wouldn't those have been part of a case file on record?
Anyway, back to those repetitive details - am I the only one who started getting really worried about Dixie's gag reflex? Seriously, about halfway through, I was already tired of Dixie's need to throw up or actually going through with it. There are other reactions to fear and turmoil, and I wouldn't have minded seeing a few of those in place of the all too frequent vomiting - freeze, pass out, freak out, scream your bloody head off, just do something other than throw up.
Despite all that, we do get some solid suspense reading with Theme Music. Is Dixie crazy? Is she haunted? Was someone else involved? All of those questions are bound to go through a reader's mind at least once while reading this one, and the author does get tricky with some of the happenings. We also have the equivalent of a couple of decent red herrings to wonder about as things progress along with some pretty good twists, especially in the last quarter or so of the book. There is also a supernatural element, which I didn't mind and felt like it worked with the story.
In the end, this one had things I liked and other things that I didn't, landing me firmly in the middle. I do think it was way longer than it needed to be, and with a bit of trimming down on the repetitiveness, this could easily have been a more entertaining and even creepier thriller. As I mentioned earlier, the author does have a great imagination and based on many things in this debut novel, I will be interested to see what she does next.

Dixie Wheeler was known as Baby Blue for the song playing when she was discovered at the crime scene where her father murdered their family and killed himself. She seeks understanding and closure in purchasing her family’s house and recreating her childhood home. Things happen that make her question her sanity and her own propensity for violence, and eventually her father’s guilt. Vandelly did a superb job evoking sympathy for Dixie through graphic descriptions of the family’s murder, her memories, and the weird occurrences in her family home. But she includes a supernatural element that wasn’t explored well enough to invoke speculation from Dear Reader. I was fortunate to receive a digital copy of this marvelously macabre story from the publisher Dutton Books through NetGalley.

Dixie Wheeler is moving back to her childhood home. It’s now 25 years after her father brutally murdered the rest of her family. Wanting to find a connection to a family she doesn’t remember she begins to unravel the past. This is a dark psychological thriller. It’s the kind of book you don’t want to read when you are home alone at night. It’s hard to believe this is a debut. It was well written and I loved every minute of it.

"It’s time to choose my own theme music, a song that can define my life, and what I have gone through, and the woman I have become."⁣
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Dixie Wheeler's mother and siblings were said to have been killed by her father in their home before he took a knife to his own throat. She was only eighteen months old and the sole survivor. Now she is looking to buy a home and has discovered that her family home is for sale. She thinks that moving into it would help her connect with the family she never knew. This leads to her looking into the tragedy and trying to figure out the whole truth.⁣
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This book grabbed me from the very start. Jaw dropped. Pages turning. Twisting and turning. This book was very good.⁣

Vandelly has hit it out of the park with this mind-blowing debut. The sole survivor of a family massacre moves back into her family home on the twenty-fifth anniversary of that horrific day. Soon, sleep deprivation and unnerving mishaps begin to nibble at the edges of Dixie's sanity. Deception and half-truths erode her relationships, causing her to question everything she thought to be true about herself, as well as those around her. I'd she haunted by the living or the dead? Is she the monster or victim? Taunt with anticipation, the author expertly leads the reader through hairpin twists and turns to a shocking end!😱

I started to read this book but wasn't interested in moving forward with reading it. It didn't draw me in right away.