All the Dangerous Things is a phenomenal thriller from start to finish. Filled to the brim with twists and a captivating plot, this one is sure to keep readers hooked. The characters are well-developed. The story is incredibly fast-paced. This is one not to be missed! Highly recommended! Be sure to check out All the Dangerous Things asap.

This book follows Isabelle. A year ago, her toddler son was abducted from his crib in the middle of the night and ever since then she's been unable to sleep more than a catnap here and there. Estranged from her husband, Isabelle works tirelessly to keep her son's case alive in hopes of having him returned safely to her. There are flashbacks to her childhood and we learn more about her family and the tragedy that happened, changing her forever.

I acknowledge that this book was amazingly written, the plot was well done, and the content within these pages was expertly researched by the author. I went into this expecting great things because of how much I adored her debut, A Flicker in the Dark. Unfortunately, that lead to me having really high expectations that were not quite met.

Though it is almost entirely a "me" thing, I didn't enjoy this one very much and ended up giving it 3.5 stars. There was an incident that occurred shortly after Mason's disappearance that didn't sit well with me and honestly put a sour taste in my mouth for the remainder of the book.

The topics focused on in this story are difficult, especially as a parent, however I think any standard thriller reader would really enjoy this novel.

Loved this! Such a good premise and well conducted by Willingham. This totally captivated my attention and I love the twist-on-twist style.

Amazing. I listened to the audio and was entertained and engrossed in the story the whole time. Definitely going back to read the authors first book now.

This is the second book by Stacy WIllingham, and the second book that I have read of hers. Sometimes it is hard to beat a first effort of an author, but I truly believe that Stacy Willingham comes close in this book.

This book shook me to the core, as a mother of young children. The author really created a horrifying situation that any parent would not want to go through. The air of terror and shock (initially) spiraling into despair and sadness, then into determination to resolve the situation is something that most parents would attempt to do, but fail at, along the way. And the gaslighting that goes on in this book is terrifying and not surprising (sadly) as I believe it would definitely happen if this situation was a true one (and not just in a novel.)

As terrifying and close to home as the situation was, I loved the novel and thought that Stacy Willingham hit the ball out of the park with this one. Definitely recommend to those to enjoy mystery/thrillers, and a "gasp at the end" finale!

Isabelle Drake has been living a nightmare for the last year since her son Mason went missing, a nightmare made all the worse because her ability to sleep went away when her son did too. Isabelle isn’t a stranger to tragedy, or sleeping issues. When she was a young girl Isabelle sleptwalked, sometimes scaring her little sister Margaret, a sister that tragically died. Determined to discover what happened to her son in the hopes that she is still alive, Isabelle gives talks to keep his case out there while conducting her own investigation. While her husband Ben seems to have given up hope, Isabelle does seem to find an ally in Waylon, a true-crime podcaster who seems rather focused on helping her, but to what end?

Willingham uses a duel timeline which I really liked; the action jumps between Isabelle’s present and past, revealing tidbits of information at just the right time to create suspense and suspicion. In some ways it was hard to fully enjoy All the Dangerous Things because I did not really like Isabelle. I didn’t like how her relationship with Ben began, and that, along with some other character traits, may have affected how I felt about the novel overall. I did like Waylon, and wanting to know how things would work out for him is what kept me reading.

This was quite the ride and definitely worth the read/listen. Things are definitely not always as they seem and when I thought I had it figured out, she would throw that theory out the window. Ms. Willingham has a way of writing unstable narrators that you care about, and you know could easily be yourself of someone you know.

Fast paced, unpredictable and unputdownable. This authors second book was another amazing read. I can’t wait for more!

All the Dangerous Things had all of the components for a well-paced, solid thriller. I don't have anything negative to comment about that. I think the issue I had was mainly with the characters. I didn't relate to any of them in particular, and I definitely didn't trust them. I will probably try reading this one again at a later date, as I don't believe I gave it enough of a chance the first read through. I don't know what it was about it, but it just wasn't my favorite. That said, it was certainly well placed in the thriller/mystery category, but for me, it was just missing something for it to be a stand-out read.

Thank you always to NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books, for the early digital copy and the opportunity to share my review!

I enjoyed this one! The mystery of a missing child was interesting and could have felt overdone, but it felt different and new. I think the sleepwalking/insomnia and flashbacks to what happened to the MC's sister as a child really kept the story fresh and interesting. There was also a lot of good things about women and mothers going on in this book and discussions on mental health/post partum depression/etc that isn't seen very much. The author's note also touches on this and helps to bring this point home even more. I also liked that the FMC was unreliable because of sleep issues that she wasn't really able to have a ton of control over and not because of drugs or alcohol...because that feels a little played out. The ending came together a little quickly, but I did like how everything played out and how all the pieces fit together.

All the Dangerous Things was a well-paced, tense, thriller. Mason, a young child, goes missing without a trace and his mom seems to be the only one still looking for him. I enjoyed how many possibilities/explanations there were for what happened, and I found the ending satisfactory.

I loved this book! I read Stacy's last book, A Flicker In the Dark, and enjoyed it but thought this one was even better. It kept me guessing the whole time which is always the sign of a great thriller. This author is going to be on my auto-buy list from now on!

This book has been all over IG. It was okay for me. I really enjoyed her first book so was really looking forward to this one. I was medium on it. I predicted all of the twists so was a little disappointed on that front. I hope the next book will be even better.

Stacy Willingham quickly climbed my ranks of fav thriller authors. She just KNOWS what to do and how to execute a good thriller, a GREAT story! I loved the past and present POV and feeling like EVERYONE was a suspect! Cant wait for her next book!

Incredible read!!!

I devoured Stacy Willingham’s first book, and was thrilled to read this one. Exciting, fast paced, and full of surprises. Highly recommend!

The inspiration for All the Dangerous Things was an idea that came to author Stacy Willingham one day. "What would it feel like to be trapped inside the mind of a sleep-deprived mother who, deep down, believed that the disappearance of her child was somehow her fault?" Not yet a mother herself, Willingham says she pondered why a mother would feel that way until she realized that women and, in particular, mothers, "are conditioned from birth to feel guilty about something. We always think things are our fault. We always feel the need to apologize: for being too much or too little. Too loud or too quiet. Too driven or too content. For wanting children more than anything or for not even wanting them all." Willingham confesses that she was afraid to pen a book focused on motherhood, so she did a lot of research on the subject. And was dismayed to discover that many women don't express their emotions because of the guilt they feel about experiencing them. Which is actually tragic because their emotions are largely universal. "We feel completely alone in an experience that's shared by so many," Willingham observes, which propelled her to create the variety of female characters featured in All the Dangerous Things who are "flawed, complicated, messy . . ."

In a compelling first-person narrative, Isabelle Drake reveals at the outset of the story that her life changed exactly one year ago when her son, Mason, was kidnapped. And -- unimaginably -- during that year, she has not had "a single night of rest." Despite trying sleeping pills, eye drops, caffeine, and therapy, Isabelle is only able to "microsleep" for two to twenty seconds at a time, so she has been "stumbling through life in a semiconscious dream state" for a full three hundred and sixty-four days. Nonetheless, she is still "no closer to the truth." She is a wreck -- physically and mentally.

Although it is emotionally draining for her, Isabelle travels to true crime conferences and conventions at which she speaks about Mason's unsolved case. She does it because she hopes that an audience member might be able to shed light on Mason's whereabouts and, in exchange for her participation, is provided a list of the attendees' names and addresses. When she returns home, she studies those lists and researches the backgrounds of her audience members in search of even the most attenuated clues.

Willingham also performed extensive research on sleepwalking and found that about one-third of children sleepwalk at some point during their childhood. And about two percent of them continue doing so in adulthood. Isabelle explains that she has always been a heavy sleeper and, as a child, sleepwalked from time to time. Now, suffering from severe insomnia, she recalls moments from her childhood for which she lacks a cogent explanation. She grew up in a house near a marsh, and there were nights when she woke up disoriented, confused. Inexplicably, there were muddy footprints on the carpet. Her younger sister, Margaret, mysteriously drowned in the marsh one night. Mason's stuffed dinosaur was found on the banks of the marsh near their home. Isabelle is haunted by the "similarities between then and now" and "the icy silence from my parents that never seems to melt." (She is virtually estranged from her parents, although they do send her checks that she is loath to cash, even though she needs the money to cover her living expenses so that she can keep searching for Mason.) The detective assigned to the case has always made her uncomfortable because, of course, when Mason went missing, both she and her husband, Ben, immediately came and have remained under suspicion.

Unlike Isabelle, Ben quickly moved on with his life after Mason disappeared. He bought a condominium near his office, leaving Isabelle in the house they shared, and is in a new romantic relationship. Isabelle describes how they met, worked together after Ben hired her, and married quickly after his first wife's tragic suicide. She details their journey to parenthood, and how their marriage began falling apart before Mason was born, and collapsed fully under the strain of Mason's kidnapping.

She meets Waylon Spencer on a flight home from a conference at which she again related her story. He explains that his popular podcast led to the closure of a cold case and, despite her misgivings, she contacts him later and agrees to grant him access to all the information she has amassed about Mason's case . . . and her life. As he interviews her for the podcast and his inquiries grow increasingly intrusive and accusatory, Isabelle grows increasingly suspicious of Waylon and his motives. Is he really an ally?

The centerpiece of the story is Isabelle's fear that she may have harmed her own child. After all, one of her neighbors insists that he observed her walking past his house in the middle of the night, but she has no recollection of doing so. She reviews every moment of the video footage from the baby monitor in Mason's room to see if she entered his room during the night while he was sleeping but was eft with no memory of doing so. She believed her sleepwalking stopped when she was in college. But has she continued to sleepwalk, right up to the night Mason was taken? She doubts herself even to the point of pondering whether she might be capable of homicidal sleepwalking, an exceedingly rare, but scientifically documented phenomenon. Her therapist explains that it is possible for sleepwalkers to do "terrible things, that they would never do if they were awake. They can't differentiate between right and wrong" because the upper frontal lobe of the brain is asleep during sleepwalking.

Willingham deftly portrays a woman terrified by the possibility that she lost control over her own behavior to the point that she harmed her own child. She loved Mason more than anything, and cannot really conceive that she could be capable of such a heinous act. She is desperate to find any other plausible explanation, any scrap of evidence that will lead her to answers and, hopefully, her son -- alive and well. But her guilt is not so limited. Because she is his mother and it was her job to protect Mason, and she feels the judgment of everyone in her life, as well as many of those strangers who listen to her relate the story at those conferences and conventions. After all, Mason's bedroom window was open; the batteries in the baby monitor were dead. She also feels guilt about her feelings prior to Mason's kidnapping. Being a full-time mother can be an isolating and disappointing experience, especially for a woman who had a successful career as a journalist an misses working and having a social life, as well as a husband who found her interesting and desirable. And there is the strain of being constantly and relentlessly needed and depended upon by your child. It is fear, guilt, and ruminating about the past that keep Isabelle from sleeping, and she knows time is running out because human beings cannot survive without sleep indefinitely. She is conscious of the fact that she is becoming increasingly paranoid, and unable to discern what is real from what she imagines.

All the Dangerous Things is a tautly-crafted, tense, and absorbing mystery that is, at times, difficult to read. Because as Willingham examines her protagonist's deepest fears, Isabelle is relatable and empathetic. After all, the idea of being so out of control and beyond one's moral boundaries that one could be capable of committing unspeakable acts is horrifying and terrifying. Isabelle's angst and self-doubt are palpable and affecting, even as Willingham inspires readers to view her with suspicion while injecting clues to Mason's whereabouts at expertly-timed intervals. Isabelle is surrounded by other female characters who are empathetic and compelling, especially Isabelle's mother whose story Willingham unravels compassionately. The mystery around which Isabelle's misery revolves is plausibly constructed, and the conclusion shocking. All the Dangerous Things is almost suffocatingly atmospheric, which heightens the dramatic tension. It is engrossing, solidly entertaining, and ideal for readers who enjoy slow-burning mysteries.

This book freaked me out. I was not a huge fan. If you’re into that kind of thing go for it. I do think the author is a great writer though.

Synopsis starts off good... One year ago, Isabelle loses her toddler son, Mason in the middle of the night. There is little evidenced and practically no leads for the police, leaving the case to go cold. Isabelle does everything she can as a mother to continue to bring attention to the cold case by being involved with the media still. Over a year passes and still no clues, Isabelle is starting to lose sleep... at this point she doesn't sleep at all.

I picked this book up primarily because of the author's previous work with A Flicker in the Dark, that has to be one of my favorite books of all time!! I'm sad to say, this book didn't quite live up to my expectations, but it was still really good!

I liked the character, but some parts I really wish I could have grabbed ahold of her and gave her sleeping pills so she could knock out for 2 days and think more clearly. Not sleeping can make someone paranoid, delusional, and have hallucinations. Something happened in Isabelle's past that was never clarified, leaving her to believe the worse possible scenario and affecting her present-day life.

Overall, it was a good book, however it took about 60 pages to pick up. I was struggling in the beginning with the plot building up, it was quite a while until I started to become more involved in the storyline. Once it hit around page 70, I swear the pages were flying by. Next I would check and see I'm on page 160. I sadly guessed one of the two big twists which put a damper on how I rated the book just because I was expecting a bit more.

Will I continue reading Stacy Willingham's books?? of freaking course!! love the concept behind these psychological thrillers.

Stacey Willingham has quickly become one of my favourite authors with her fast paced and twisty thrillers. Isabelle Drake's toddler son Mason was taken from his crib in the night one year ago, with no viable leads the case has gone cold with no answers. Desperate Isabelle shares her story to keep Mason's story alive at conferences. After attending a true crime conference she is interviewed by a true-crime podcast in hopes of uncovering a new clue. Isabelle Drake has secrets, and when the podcaster starts asking questions about her past, Isabelle relives some concerning memories from her childhood. Suffering from insomnia Isabelle starts to doubt her own memories and who she can trust, what really happened the night Mason disappeared?
What I love about Willingham's novel is the descriptive nature of the stories, set in the South, her novels are immersive. The description of a hot summer day is so intense you feel the heat yourself, even on a cold January day! Willingham's characters are strongly developed, and you feel the emotions along with the character. The backstory is rich and leads the reader down windy paths where they truly will never guess how the story will unfold.. If you are looking for a excellent thriller you will never fail with a Stacy Willingham novel! Thank you to Negalley and Minotaur Books for the digital ARC of this incredible read, all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this read, it was entertaining and I couldn't put it down. I did figure out a couple of things that were going on but the plot was still great. The pacing of the story line was good as well as the character development.