Ashley Winstead's In My Dreams I Hold A Knife was so gripping and kept me guessing until the very last page. A thrilling debut and I can't wait for the next thriller from her.

First of all, that cover! Although, why is it scissors and not a knife on the cover?

Let's start this review off with a funny coinkidink! My 10 year high school (which is in the south) reunion is coming up soon so I related to the premise of this book right away. There was no murder in my group of friends (thank goodness...), but we did drift apart.

Okay, that's where the similarities end thank goodness, because This group of friends is TWISTED. I mean toxic, incestuous, secretive and tight knit.

This is a character driven book, usually those aren't for me, but in this case it made for compelling reading! Of course none of them are perfect, even our protagonist is deliciously devious.

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife has so many twists and turns! Not mind boggling, but entertaining.

Mash ups: Pitch Perfect, Monsters College, Heathers and The Big Chill

Twisty and turny! Totally unexpected storyline and I love the character development. It keeps you guessing and really unsure of what actually happened to Heather. I did not see this one coming, so that's always a pleasant surprise. 3.5 stars and I recommend it as a good read!

I went into this one with HIGH expectations. I've seen so many people list this as one of their favorite/top reads of 2021. I've seen so many 5 star reviews, I couldn't put off reading this one any longer. With that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this debut thriller and thought it was well executed. However, I never got that feeling that made me fall in love with the story or characters. It took me awhile to differentiate between everyone (Heather and Courtney), all of the guys except Frankie were synonymous. Their stories wound up being well fleshed out, I just think it was too many characters for me to keep track of for some reason. I never felt a connection to any of them.

Overall, great twists and pacing. I enjoyed Eric's interrogation and getting to see what each character was hiding, as the secrets came out. Everyone is hiding something and no one can be trusted.

If I would've read this earlier, maybe it'd be a five star but I went in expecting more. I think the hype left me a tiny bit disappointed. Still, I'm excited to see what Ashley Winstead's next thriller is like.

When a circle of college friends reunite at their ten year reunion, the tragic murder of their friend is revisited. As repressed memories are brought to light, so is the killer.

The premise to IMDIHAK started out strong. The idea of a circle of friends reuniting after a tragedy. The flashbacks to their earlier years to set the scene of their friendship. But it was the telling that just fell flat for me. Eventually, the flashback scenes became t0o cyclical and unnecessary. The disjointed/disorderly retellings of those flashbacks-all non-sequential and some seemingly pointless- just became tedious. And almost all the flashbacks were told by Jessica and from her perspective (until suddenly, they weren't). Also my feelings were Jessica were often ones of indifference. I think this was another case of hype killing the book for me. It just dragged too much and I was not as impressed as I hoped to be.

A dual-time lined thriller set between college and a college reunion where a group of friends confront what may or may not be an unsolved murder of one of their own.

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars)

My thoughts: WOW.

This book is written from multiple POV’s and on multiple timelines, but there is one main narrator and two main timelines. It sounds way more confusing than it actually was.

As I was reading this, I found myself identifying with the main narrator SO MUCH. She didn’t get into her priority college straight out of high school (I had to go to community college for two years before I got into mine), she didn’t get into her preferred sorority (I wanted Delta Gamma, my mother’s sorority, but got into Tri-Sigma), and she never felt like she was actually good enough or belonged.

Maybe it was because of that, or because the mystery was just THAT intriguing, but I literally couldn’t put this down until I was finished (well after midnight). This will be high on my favorite books of 2021 list for sure.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately, this book wasn't really my cup of tea. I found the characters to be too shallow and juvenile, in both their college and adult storylines. I wasn't very interested in any of the cliquey backstories and I really just wanted to see who committed the main murder and why. The answer was a bit underwhelming for me,

🩸🔪Happy Friday🔪🩸
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I want to start by saying I am not much of a thriller person… because in my dreams after I read thrillers other people are usually holding the knife😉 With that being said… this thriller just worked for me. (It’s my favorite thriller of 2021) Don’t get me wrong there still were disturbing moments, but I was so swept away in the drama, deceit, and dirty secrets that plagued Duquette.
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall:
🔪I LOVE COOP. I get he has “red flags” but I’m just going to put on my rose colored glasses and call them pink💗
🔪 I really like that Jess is sort of an unreliable narrator/ not always the most likable. This sounds weird but I liked not trusting her almost as much as she didn’t trust herself.
🔪I also sort of loved the fact that all of these characters were flawed in their own way. I just think it made it more real than just a singular “bad guy”
🔪The twist at the end…
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Overall: While I thought the book itself was interesting, I can’t help but still be thinking of the authors note and overall concept for this book. I think a lot of times obsession really isn’t recognized as human nature because it’s given a negative connotation. But when obsession with grades, climbing social and professional ladders, being the best, thinnest, prettiest, most likable starts to see the light of day and breaks through the facade… the green eyed monster, shame, and the overall ugliness of humans that hides behind our masks can’t help but permeate through the night when it thinks no one can see. I have more to say on this topic so I think I’ll actually make a blog post and post it this weekend because I have not been able to stop thinking about this…dare I say obsessing??🤫
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I’m going to echo what my friend @thrillofthepage said on her review and just say how cool I think it is that @ashleywinsteadbooks is a fellow Houstonian and we should totally be friends (but in the real not Duquette way lol)♥️
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Thank you to @sourcebookscasa and @netgalley for the digital copy🖤 (pictured is my physical copy from @target)
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This book is out now!!! I totally recommend everything about this book besides holding a knife while you sleep😉🛏🔪

An excellent debut! Winstead is definitely an author to watch. Totally binge-worthy, addicting, and unforgettable. Seven best friends met in college, but by senior year one is dead and another is the suspect. At the ten-year reunion, emotions are high, accusations are flying, and no one is sure who the real villain is anymore. A great dark academia novel that touches on a lot of important topics such as consent, manipulation, self-esteem, sexuality, and so much more.

I absolutely loved this feisty, freaky thriller: In My Dreams I Hold A Knife. The novel totally lives up to its punchy, attention grabbing title. We start with an event many of us have experienced, the ten-year college reunion. Who hasn't wanted to go back to a reunion and show everyone how well you've done? Our main character, Jessica, certainly does. She's successful in the work force, beautiful, so why is she so worried she won't be the success she's determined to be.

Jessica was a member of the East House Seven, seven friends who bonded in the early days of college and were golden, everyone wanted to be them. All of the group will be gathering except for Heather, who was murdered right before graduation, and Jack, who was accused but later absolved of her murder. How did such a close group of friends end this way?

Slowly we "peel the onion", examining layer by layer what happened in the lead up to Heather's murder, and ultimately, who did it. The author builds complex characters, and with each chapter we get to know them a bit better. They are complex, a bit twisted, and exceedingly human with warts and flaws, but that just makes them more interesting. We may not admire them, but I couldn't help rooting for Jessica a little in her quest to be the best.

The chapters go back and forth between the time frame when the friends were friends and in college, and the present, where they have gathered for homecoming, but are forced to confront the question, who actually murdered Heather? I found both time frames equally compelling and readable, and would finish one chapter at night, only to say, "just one more!".

I didn't see the ending coming on this one. Yes, it's a little over the top and fantastical, but do I care? No, because it is so much fun getting there! Do yourself a favor and make this your next thriller read!

Thank you to NetGalley, SOURCEBOOKS Landmark, and the author Ashley Winstead for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ten years ago, six close college friends lost one of their own to a murderer. The murder was never solved and the case went cold. Fast forward to present day, where the now estranged friends are reunited again at their college reunion. Someone at the reunion has been planning all this time on getting the group together to find out who the murderer is. When the "friends" are confronted, all kinds of secrets start coming to the surface. It turns out that this once close knit group didn't quite know each other as well as they thought they did.

This story alternates between the present and different parts of the past during the group's college days, mostly told by the perspective of one particular character. I was worried in the beginning that I would get the characters confused (yes, it happens), but the author did a great job of making them memorable to the reader. Pretty much all of the characters had some major flaws, which made their development through the book even more interesting. I kept going back and forth with my guesses on who the true murderer was. I really enjoyed IMDIHAK and I'll definitely be checking out more from this author!

My favorite book of the year, hands down. Addictive and oh so satisfying. Cannot wait to read her next books!!

My favorite summer read this year 2021. So intoxicating and I could hardly stand to put it down. Psychological thriller. Fantastic read and highly recommended.

Another of those bunch of friends go to college and someone dies and they come back and the killer gets found. I actually really enjoyed reading this one, but I've read so many with this particular setup, they're kind of bleeding together.

This one leans heavily on memory loss until the thrilling conclusion.

Thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead.
This book is a psychological thriller where every character has a motive and a desire to murder one member of their friend group. Winstead masterfully sets up the plot alternating between time periods and character's thoughts. The reader falls for the bad guys and loathes the self righteous. This book is a page-turner that keeps the reader guessing throughout.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Yet another novel about a college reunion for a group of friends where one of their group was murdered. I'm starting to think my college experience was rather boring as we all made it out alive.

Good match for those looking for a large, complex cast of characters and a mystery with twist and turns. Just to similar to others I've read recently so it didn't do it for me.

This was a Perfect fall read!
I got all those back to school feels but at a college level.
We follow a group do friends as they return to their old college stomping grounds for their 10 year reunion.
We quickly learn this group split up after one of the members of their little college clique is found dead in her room at the end of their senior year.
A murder mystery ensues as the brother of the Heather, the murdered student, claims he knows one of them killed her and he won’t stop until he knows who.
Literally every character in this story is suspicious and had motive. This was an extremely well written novel with characters you love to hate. The author found the perfect balance of keeping us suspicious but also
relating to this large cast. It is a lot of characters, but was such a good story.
Certainly one of my top thrillers this fall!

I read this in one sitting, as I had to know which person killed Heather. The characters were fully developed and had good/bad traits just like people in real life do, which is always nice. The ending did not disappoint either.

Aww, this feels so much like going back to college! Except for the part where everyone is (maybe, probably) trying to murder each other.

Ashley Winstead’s campus thriller is an intriguing and propulsive read, working in two timelines as a tight group of college friends reckon with the fact that there is a murderer among them.

The mystery itself is just ok, employing a lot of well-used writing devices and obvious red herrings to make it tick. There are a lot of twists for twists’ sake, and it’s not hard to pick out the murderer well before you’re supposed to because the plot and writing are so formulaic.

All of this isn’t ideal for a mystery thriller, but it’s fine (at least the solve made sense!) as long as the book offers other things, and this one absolutely does.

Where Winstead really excelled was in writing Jessica’s incredibly complex and fascinating character. She’s deeply relatable for many of us in ways that aren’t exactly comfortable, and that relatability creates some moral grey areas that leave the reader wondering just how far they would go, what they would do if they were Jessica.

The rest of the group is interesting as well, though in some cases mostly in the way they exist in relation to Jessica. It’s a bizarrely well-executed character study in a genre that generally relies on ham-fisted tropes like “drunk!” or “memory loss!” to explain its characters’ behavior in the simplest of ways. Both of those things factor into this story as well, but in much, much smarter fashion.