I could not put this down, which is similar to how I felt with her first novel. Stacy Willingham has done it again, for me at least. This is a solid 4.5 on my scale, which relies heavily on wanting to take the day off to finish it. I read it in under 24 hours regardless.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review!

A mother’s worst N I G H T 🫣 M A R E, a missing toddler and a year long search without any advancements! “All the Dangerous Things” is a chilling psychological thriller that revolves around a mother’s hell bent mission to find her child!

BOOK REVIEW: 🖤🖤🖤🖤/5

One year ago, baby Mason was taken from his crib while his parents were at home sleeping. After a year of no new evidence, Isabelle and Ben Drake have separated. Isabelle has not slept in a year and will not rest until her child is FOUND! The case has gone cold, so when a true crime podcaster approaches her for an interview, she agrees with the hopes that he will help her find new clues, witnesses or evidence on the case.

The LACK of trust is huge in this novel, especially due to Isabelle’s insomnia. Her breaks in reality often cut backwards into her past that has always haunted her. It becomes hard to tell what is real and what is twisted up in her mind as the fight and search continues for Mason 👀. This slow burn will KEEP YOU GUESSING with its intricate plots, deceitful characters and all of its twisted dangerous things 👏

This book is perfect for readers who enjoyed:
👀 Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier
👀 The Push by Ashley Audrain
👀 Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan
👀 When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain

Thank you kindly to @stacyvwillingham @minotaur_books @netgalley for my advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This book is worth all of the hype and releases January 10, 2023!

What a fantastic twisty thriller! I can’t believe how fast I was hooked with this book right out the gate! I love when books take us on a journey where you’re not quite sure what will come next thanks to the unreliable characters. This perfectly paced plot had me jaw dropped til the very end. I loved the writing, the scenery, the present and past timelines, the creepiness, and the mystery behind it all. The ending brought everything together so seamlessly making the reader understand the characters motives, making this one of my top thrillers for the year.

A missing child. A family torn apart. This book has all the makings for a good ride.

Isabelle's unwillingness to give up looking for her missing baby who disaapeared from his crib in the middle of the night has become her entire life. Her husband has left. The police seem to think she did something to her son. The journey to find the truth takes readers on a ride through some dark times and secrets.

I enjoyed this author's first book. I also enjoyed this one, but not as much as the first. The ending, while maybe a little shocking, wasn't the jaw dropping twist that other reviewers make it out to be. Did I see it coming? No. But that's because of how the information is doled out. So kudos to the author on that. But at the same time the whodunit was eyeroll worthy and a bit out there. Not a lot but a bit. And then the very end.... although it's what we readers want, it just wasn't believable for me.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a well paced book that kept me wanting to get to the next page with anticipation.

All the dangerous things

Oh my god. This book. It’s my second by this author and I am so hooked on her writing. As weird as it is to say, these are the types of stories I love. A murder, a whodunnit, the suspense of trying to figure it out. You think one thing for so long and then in an instant, you find out new information and the whole book takes a turn. That’s exactly how this was. I was so sure I knew what happened to Margaret and to Mason but one page later and I was stumped again.

Each new piece of additional information had me turning the pages as quick as I could. It wasn’t until the very very end that it all comes together and every theory I had was disproved as I read the truth.

Izzy is also such a relatable character, not based on her actual life but her thoughts. I’m not a mother but I can see myself being just like her and the way she’s made to feel so guilty instead of trusting her gut. This story is just amazing and so compelling and I cannot wait for the world to read it

Thank you St Martins Press and Stacy Willingham for sending me this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

I’m starting to get excited about the upcoming new year, meaning I’m starting to read advanced copies of some books that come out in January! I started All the Dangerous Things over the weekend, and I have been trying to find more time to read it ever since, even though the weekend and this week have been busy. Today was rainy and gross in the Northeast, and I wanted nothing more than to curl up with FT and finish this book. Alas, I went to work - but I finished the book as soon as I got home (with FT curled by snoring by my feet).
Written in first person, this thriller follows Isabelle, whose toddler son, Mason, disappeared in the middle of the night, one year prior. Isabelle has not been able to sleep since Mason’s disappearance, and she is consumed by figuring out what happened to him, refusing to imagine she won’t be reunited with him. The story switches between the current timeline and Isabelle’s childhood. I anticipated one twist, but there were others that I did not see coming at all!
I loved that the book is set in the Savannah/Beaufort area where my parents live - I could perfectly picture the locations in my mind. I read the first half and listened to the second half - Karissa Vacker does an excellent job with the narration, and I probably could have binge listened to the book in one day! One thing the audiobook is missing, however, is the great author’s note - this is definitely worth reading after finishing reading or listening, as it addresses some key content. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Minotaur Books/St Martin's Press for NetGalley ALC and eARC copies in exchange for my honest opinion. I can’t wait for others to discover this - and if you haven’t read Willingham’s debut, A Flicker in the Dark, published earlier this year, you should check that out!

Very underwhelmed with this one. It was slow and frustrating. I thought the book was leading somewhere and then it took an abrupt turn which should have been exciting except I just found myself annoyed that the whole middle of the book seemed like a waste of time. What was the point of her sleepwalking??! It was definitely not the page turning thriller I was hoping for, more of an introspective domestic mystery, Kind of interesting but too slow moving to keep my attention.

Unpopular Opinion Alert: I really did not like this book. My first issue is the premise of the main character, Isabelle, not sleeping for a year, yet somehow is able to live alone and function like a normal person. This is not feasible. The longest someone has gone without sleep is a little over 11 days. On top of that the symptoms of extreme sleep disturbance would not allow for an individual to be able to function normally, even if against all odds they were able to live for a year with no sleep. Despite this flaw, I continued to read the book. I knew the twists and how this book ended early on. I don't recommend reading it.

This is every mother's worst nightmare. Your toddler is kidnapped during the night while you are sleeping. When it happens to Isabelle, she cannot move forward, even a year later. Her husband leaves her, the case goes cold, her friends drift away, and Isabelle still can't move on. Mason's disappearance throws her life into a totally different direction, her whole reason for living revolves around finding her son and finding out what happened to him. This is a difficult read because from the beginning, it definitely looks like the danger comes from within. As the reader goes on this journey with Isabelle and past events are revealed, you can't help but hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

I was wary going into this book based on the subject matter, as I have a young toddler myself. This story is about a child taken in the middle of the night and has yet to be found, which we can all understand is every mother's worst nightmare. Knowing this going into the book, I wasn't prepared to love this one. But I really loved it!

This pyschological thriller is SO bingeable and sucked me in from the beginning. Isabelle Drake is a mother suffering from insomnia after her son was kidnapped from his room in the middle of the night. Isabelle has started to doubt herself as she struggles with her lack of sleep and desperately works her own investigation to find out what happened to her son. I love an unreliable narrator when it's done well, and this one is done SO well!

I thought I had this book figured out several times, but I was wrong everytime. I love it when a thriller can surprise me, especially when it's not completely out of left field. This story is told with flashbacks into Isabelle's childhood, plus flashbacks to her time leading up to her son's disappearance. With both of those and the present timeline, I thought it would be hard to keep track of. But it all transitions nicely, and everything comes together in the end.

I read A Flicker in the Dark and while it was a solid debut that I enjoyed, I didn't love it like I did this book. This book was on my radar, but not necessarily a super anticipated must-read for me. But now I can tell you any books Stacy Willingham writes will be an auto-buy!

A lot of main character's inner monolgue really stuck with me and pulled at my heartstrings as a mother, so I was surprised to learn that Stacy Willingham isn't actually a mother herself. She does a great job at conveying the complicated feelings of motherhood including guilt, societal expectations, and the utter devastation I imagine any parent would feel in the main character's shoes. I'm very impressed she was able to pull this off so well! She talks about this in the Author's Note, and I really give her kudos for taking the time to research this and do it justice.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

So I will only accept thrillers being written in first person now after reading this. I HAVE CHILLS. this story was so eerie and had me guessing until the very end!

Isabelle's son, Mason, disappeared from his bedroom in the middle of the night one year ago. She is now a broken, sleep deprived woman who wants nothing more than to find out what happened to him.

Told through dual timelines, we follow Isabelle's journey as she uses true crime conventions and podcasts to try and find answers to all of her questions.

I give five stars to any book that makes me unable to put it down. This was one of those. The story flowed and I was enthralled. I was tense, and twisty, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Thanks to NetGalley and St-Martin Press for this advance copy of All the Dangerous Things. I offer my review freely. Publication date: 10 January 2023.

After A FLICKER IN THE DARK and now ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS, I am officially a Stacy Willingham fan!

Willingham’s sophomore novel was fantastic and really raised the bar from her first novel. It had all of the psychological components that I hoped for, but weaved a clever story that had me rapidly turning each page.

I want to keep this review short so that I don’t give any of the plot away - honestly it’s best to go into this one without reading too much about the plot so you can really immerse yourself and have the full reading experience as every twist and turn unfolds.

Needless to say though, I thoroughly enjoyed ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS and loved the way Willingham had multiple story lines that all came together perfectly in the end.

Make sure to add this book to your 2023 reading lists!

I was a huge fan of Stacy Willingham's A Flicker in the Dark, so I knew I had to get my hands on this newest release somehow. Once I began reading, I couldn't put it down. Isabelle Drake as a sleep-deprived mother searching for hope that her kidnapped son is still alive pulls at your heart. But, as you learn more about her as a narrator and experience her sleep deprivation, you begin to wonder if the story she is presenting is accurate. How much is her lack of sleep impacting her perceptions? I appreciated the author's acknowledgements regarding how hard it was to write a book about a mother when she is not one at present, but I feel she did so respectfully. Isabelle's mother and Isabelle both struggled with postpartum depression/anxiety and you can see how differently their cases were treated. I cannot recommend this book enough for thriller fans.

Isabelle Drake's toddler son is kidnapped in the middle of the night, while she's asleep in bed with her (now ex-) husband. She's obsessed with finding her son, but she's suffering from debilitating insomnia and is a mess. A true crime podcaster expresses interest in her case, and Isabelle isn't sure who to trust anymore.

I really wanted to like this much more than I did. I was not the biggest fan of A Flicker in the Dark, but still wanted to read Willingham's second book. Some of the twists were fun, but I am deeply dubious of books with unreliable female narrators with wacky reasons for being unreliable (amnesia in particular, but insomnia is right up there -- though... at least she wasn't a drunk!), and I found the whole thing to be a bit much, especially the super bonkers ending.

I'm certain many readers will love this book, but I did not.

I enjoyed this thriller. I was a little nervous about it because even though the concept was compelling, Willingham's A Flicker in the Dark wasn't a hit for me.

Some of the twists were predictable or at least guessable, but the final reveal was at least partly a surprise for me. The mixing in of both true crime podcasts and conferences - and how they can help or harm victims' families were a compelling feature of the story. The narrator of the audiobook did an excellent job infusing emotion into the voice of the mother.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this ARC!

Woah! I was very stunned with this book! I did have one twist figured out half way through, but didn’t see the other coming!

This is the sophomore novel I was hoping to get from Willingham. With her first book, it was OK BUT I saw a lot of potential and couldn't wait to see what she wrote next.

All the Dangerous Things walks a great balance between themes and thriller. The emotional struggles of a mother and a relationship after the loss of a child is just one.

The twists and turns just started coming and didn't stop. Both timelines were engrossing. And not only were the twists brilliantly laid out, but the last gasp was complete whiplash

One year ago Isabelle’s son Mason went missing. He was pulled from his bed in the middle of the night and vanished without a trace. Since then, Isabelle hasn’t been able to sleep. The lack of sleep is beginning to catch up to her, and while her only goal in life is to find her son, she is beginning to feel like she can’t trust anyone…even herself.

I always love a good unreliable narrator, and this one was no different. I did a mixture of audiobook and physical book for this one, and the audio was so good. It pulled me in right away, and I continually questioned what had actually happened to Mason! This was an excellent thriller that I highly recommend!

I feel like I say “this book had me hooked” so many times that I need a new way to say it, but this one really did have me hooked from beginning to end. It was always suspenseful and I didn’t at all expect two things in particular to turn out the way they did. The main reveal was a total surprise. I’m excited to have enjoyed another book by this author and look forward to what she’ll write next!