After reading A Flicker in the Dark last year, I knew I would pick up another book by Stacy Willingham.

All the Dangerous Things is a slow burn for sure, but at the end it's a rush. Isabelle Drake's seemingingly perfect life comes to a halt when her child is abducted while she sleeps. She understandably loses it and ends up losing her husband in the process, leaving her alone in the home she once shared with her husband and son.

She's entirely unreliable. She suffers from sleep walking and insomnia, which makes you wonder if she's so exhausted to the point of hallucinations, but she also has a secret from her past, which resulted in the death of her little sister Margarette. It leaves you wondering if her son Mason was truly abducted or if she may have done something to him...

As a mother, anything happening to my children is my worst fear, so while I was dreading the worst ending possible, I couldn't stop reading. I can't wait to see what Willingham has in store for us next, be sure to check her out!

All the Dangerous Things is available 1/10. Thank you to Minotaur Books,, the author and NetGalley for my review copy.

Isabelle Drake is a mess. She hasn't slept, really slept, in a year. Not since her son, Mason, was taken from his crib. When she can nap, Isabelle has very disturbing thoughts about the night, and also thoughts, maybe memories, of a night years ago when her young sister died. Could she have done something to her son like most people think she did? She doesn't really believe she could, but.... Isabelle decides to talk to a true crime podcaster for help with answers, but the more she finds out about him, the more she doubts he wants to help her; it feels like he believes her guilty as well.

This is a twisty, compelling and completely unputdownable book. I devoured it in less than 24 hours - I could not put it down.

I previously read and loved A Flicker In The Dark and I was so looking forward to this new book. It lived up to all the expectations I had for it.

I especially love a book that has twists that I did not anticipate. And this one had twists that completely blew me away.

5 stars from me!

Thank you to @librofm , @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the #gifted copy of the book. I listened to this one and enjoyed the narration.

So.freaking.good!!!! This fast paced, twisty, thriller is definitely a favorite of mine that I read in 2022. Isabelle Drake's baby was taken from his crib. Her marriage is in shambles and a year later they are no more closer to catching the baby snatcher than they were when it happened. Isabelle is obsessed with finding who did it. Her husband, Ben, has moved out and has a new girlfriend. With the help of a true crime podcaster, Isabelle finally faces the demons from her childhood which leads her to find the real perpetrator.

This book had me guessing until the near end! Isabelle is trying everything she can to solve the mystery of how her child was taken from her home in the night. She is giving talks, keeping the case alive with the police, and agreeing to participate in a podcast about the crime. All of this while fighting terrible insomnia and the breakdown of her marriage. Details from Isabelle's childhood and past experiences with sleepwalking make her start to doubt her own recollection of events. This story was a twisty, fast read and I couldn't wait to find out how it would wrap up. I definitely did not see the end coming until the final pieces starting to fit together. Thanks to Stacy Willingham, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What a great way to start off 2023. As far as thrillers go, this one really delivered and has solidified Stacy Willingham as one of my favorite thriller authors. A Flicker in the Dark was another great read, and as the follow up to that, All the Dangerous Things was still able to meet my expectations.

Isabelle Drake as a narrator is completely unreliable, and I enjoyed the fact that she questioned this herself. I found myself rooting for her, and at the same time questioning her as a possible suspect. The beginning of the books brings up a topic of Ture Crime and what seems like the growing fascination with it which I found to be interesting albeit a bit ironic.

This story was dark and intense and I was absolutely unable to put it down.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for originally sending me this as an ARC in exchange for my honest review. I loved it so much that I added the physical copy as an Add-On to my Book of the Month Box!

I absolutely LOVED this one! This author came back STRONG with her second novel. It had me cruising through to find out what happened!

Another book that grips you from start to finish. I devoured this one quickly as the storytelling is top notch. This keeps you on the edge of your seat as you try to figure out what happened to Izzy’s baby as she suffers from extreme insomnia and has a tragic past. Flipping between past and present we explore aspects of Izzy’s life that she has never questioned. It has twists and turns and nothing is as it seems to be. She comes from a southern family with a gothic haunted mansion and ends up in savannah in a gothic marriage. I loved how each character kept you guessing. Who did it and where is her baby? I also appreciate an ending that answers all my questions.

🌳 All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham 🌳

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5

Genre: Mystery/Thriller
⚠️ TW: Murder, mention of suicide, child loss, kidnapping, mention of depression (postpartum and otherwise)

📖 Read If You Like 📖
🌀 Twists and Turns
🎤 True Crime Podcasts
😬 Sketchy Characters
📚 Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier + All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers
⏳ Short Chapters
🔀 Alternating Timelines

💭 Thoughts:
WOW! This book was amazing! I binged this is one sitting because I could NOT put it down! I loved A Flicker in the Dark, and I went into this with high expectations. The twists and turns left me reeling! My heart was beating fast, my palms were sweaty, and I was truly taken on a RIDE 🎢 !! I highly recommend if you love thrillers!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

*Note: I will be posting on my bookstagram account (@therapist.book.swap) closer to pub day. I will edit this review and add the link once it’s posted.

A digital ARC of this book was provided to me by NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books. The opinions are my own and freely given.

⚠️ Warning ⚠️

Post-Partum
Characters:
Isabelle - mother of Mason
Ben - father of Mason
Waylon - podcaster

Told from THEN and NOW:
THEN - when Isabelle was 8
NOW - tells the story of Isabelle and Ben and Isabelle now as she searches for Mason

18-month-old Mason disappeared from his crib 1 year ago. Isabelle goes on to talk about the disappearance of Mason - at true crime shows. She meets Waylon who is a true crime podcaster and wants to help her find out what happened to her son.

All the pieces start to fit together, there are omissions of truth, lies, adultery and plenty of self-doubt. I too liked this 2nd book better than the first. Very well written and I didn't see the end coming at all.

I will say this reminded me of a Jennifer Hillier story. I was very much invested and highly recommend. Thank you, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, NetGalley and Stacy Willingham.

Thank you to NetGalley, Stacy Willingham and St Martin’s Press for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

This was surprisingly amazing for one of my first reads of the year. I was worried that the subject matter would get to me since I have a little one close to the age, but I think instead it made me all the more interested. I loved the twists and turns and how many red herrings are thrown at us. Definitely recommend!

Wow, what a book! Stacy Willingham took the thriller world by storm with her debut novel A Flicker in the Dark and she has really outdone herself with her latest book, All the Dangerous Things. As a mother, this new book is my worst nightmare, but as a reader, this is exactly the kind of thriller that grabs my attention and doesn’t let go.

The story follows Isabelle Drake, a woman who has barely slept a wink for the past year, not since the night her young son was stolen from his bed in the middle of the night without a trace. The police have turned up no leads or meaningful clues and are pretty much at a dead end with their investigation. While everyone else, including Isabelle’s husband, assumes the boy is dead and tries to move on, Isabelle refuses to give in to that way of thinking. Desperate to find out what has happened to her son and to bring him home, she becomes fixated on doing whatever she can to find the truth, even if it costs her everything.

When a true crime podcaster who has had some success with cold cases approaches her about telling her story, Isabelle agrees to work with him. The two of them work closely together at first, but when Isabelle realizes the podcaster is looking into some deeply troubling events from her past, she starts to doubt that his motives are as he presented them to her. He is specifically focusing his attention on the fact that, as a child, Isabelle was a sleepwalker and often did things she later had no memory of. Isabelle’s past had already been on her mind before the podcaster started digging and now that he has brought it to the surface, not only does she now distrust him, but she also starts to distrust everyone else she knows, including herself.

I really enjoyed this story because it kept me guessing every step of the way and because every time I thought I had a main suspect in mind, the story took a completely unexpected turn that made me have to reevaluate and find another suspect. I swear, by the end, just about every character had been on my suspect list and I was still wrong about who the perpetrator was, haha. I just love stories that do that, and I also loved how complex the main character, Isabelle, is. While she’s clearly flawed and a bit messy, going rogue with her investigation whenever it suits her, I just loved how realistic she was. Her exhaustion, and her desperation and longing for her child was palpable, and as a mom, I could easily relate to all the lengths she went to in order to try to find the truth. I especially admired her commitment to finding the truth even if it led her somewhere she really didn’t want to go. The writing is also fantastic – sharp, smart, and very atmospheric, making me feel like I was fully immersed in the story and in the marshy, southern setting.

If you’re looking for a twisty thriller that will keep you on your toes and guessing until the very end, you’ll want to kick off your 2023 reading with All the Dangerous Things.

I absolutely devoured this book! Literally could not put it down and there were so many twists and turns! Read it in a day!

The multiple timelines was very effective in this book and really aided in the mystery and really left me guessing what would come next. The book reads like a puzzle, as the reader is slowly putting all the pieces together and seeing the bigger picture come together.

It was creepy, unsettling, and left me questioning the motive of every single character.

When you think you have it figured out, trust me, you'll never see what's coming.

Stacy Willingham has officially become an auto-buy author for me! I fell in love with her writing style in A Flicker in the Dark and the love for it only got bigger in this one. Even though the stories move at a slower pace than what I prefer sometimes, her writing is so beautiful and descriptive that I'm completely captivated in the story, even if nothing big is happening. And my favorite part of her books is that even when you think nothing's happening, it actually is! Every little detail that's brought up earlier in the book was involved somehow in a bigger way when it all came together in the end and I LOVED that so much! I thought this story did a great job at not only drawing the reader in with the mystery element of what happened to Mason, but also did a great job at shining a light on what it's like to lose a child in a traumatic way, and what the grieving process can look like. I will absolutely be recommending this to anyone that I can, and can't wait to see what she writes next!

Holy Moley what a whirlwind of a book. It goes this way and that way and then a totally different direction again. When you start it make sure you have plenty of time as you won’t be putting it down.
I was given a copy from Netgalley. Opinions are my own.

Thank you SO MUCH Allison Z. & Minotaur for the arc in exchange for an honest review!
I have gotten my sister-in-law, my sister‘s boss, and my cousin, to all get into Stacey Willingham‘s books! I can’t necessarily put my finger on it, but there is something about the writing style of the book that makes it very easy for you to actually play things out in your head! Readers like me with ADHD tend to be more visual so her attention to RELEVANT detail is great! We have in this book a grieving mother, who has literally lost everything from her child, to her husband down to her relationship with her family members, and as somebody who does not have children myself I felt so bad for this main character. She had one goal and it was to figure out what happened to her child and everybody just wanted her to let it go but you will find out WHY and it was good! I rounded this up to 4 because about 98% of what happened came to full circle, the confrontation I feel was a teeny bit anti climactic because for the amount of trouble the main character went through I wanted a full blow Clint Eastwood The Good The Bad The Ugly show down, BUT I was very satisfied in the end and I can go to bed knowing I’ll pick up another SW book! Great Job!

I started the 2022 with A flicker in the dark and ended with this one! Oh what a ride! As a mother I can’t just read any book that involves missing baby/child because it triggers anxiety. What I loved about this one was the fact that the story leads you to believe that there is more (in a good way) to that! And I’m glad I gave it a shot! It was better than the first one!

Isabelle Drake hasn’t been the same since her young son, Mason went missing a year ago. Since that time it’s been 365 days of searching for her son, and for answers. Unable to sleep from the trauma, Isabelle fills her days (and nights) with research, trying to piece together the impossible.

But her son and sleep aren’t the only things Isabelle lost. Her marriage also fell apart, her husband walking away due to Isabelle’s consuming obsession with the truth. One day on the way back from a speaking engagement, Isabelle meets a true crime podcaster. Familiar with her case, he wants to help Isabelle tell her truth. At first she declines, but then she obliges. But the more she tries to piece together all of her losses, the more she starts to lose herself. Racked with a mix of sleep deprivation and desperation, Isabelle begins to question all that she knew to be true. Will she ever be able to put her demons, and her desire for the truth, to rest?

All the Dangerous Things is an addictive page turner from its start. The reader knows there’s more than meets the eye, but can’t quite put its finger in what that might be. While I did figure out some of the twist before it was fully revealed, it didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment.

If I were you, I wouldn’t sleep on picking up All the Dangerous Things sometime soon

I ended up reading this one physically as it was offered through Book of the Month. Overall, I enjoyed this one. I think it was better crafted than A Flicker in the Dark, which was good but not great for me. I liked the POVs and thought the overall premise was very intriguing. I think the child abduction angle added to the "thrilling" aspect, although I would classify this to be more like a mystery than a mystery/thriller. I think I will continue to read Willingham's work and am excited to see her progress.

I devoured this one in about 24 hours. Another thriller that I could NOT put down. All of the characters seemed sketchy to me and I honestly thought everyone was guilty. I didn’t love the ending as much as her debut BUT I still ate this shit up. Also the cover is creepy AF..