{3.5 stars}

Small town Massachusetts is nothing special but then a young girl is killed all of the secrets of the town are dug up and exposed in order to figure out what really happened to her. We get dramatic scenes of teens partying, using drugs and committing sexual violence and similar scenes of betrayals, affairs and substance abuse amongst their parents. There's lots of mudslinging and finger pointing as we try to figure out what really happened.

This was a like not a love for me. None of the characters were particularly likable, which I can overlook in a thriller, but the pace here was not fast enough for that. I wanted to know what happened but I also felt like lots of the characters were like nails on a chalkboard. It bothers me when casual sex and affairs are treated like NBD. The way these characters lived and interacted was definitely not aspirational. The ending made me mad, but that said, I bet it's how a lot of these stories end up in real life.

If you liked Big Little Lies, this one might be up your alley.

Thanks to Celadon Books for the gifted copy. All opinions above are my own.

This was a book I read in one day. The dysfunctional characters kept me entertained and listening but the payoff in the end just fell a little flat for me personally, but I have edited my review from 3.5 stars to 4 after marinating in the book a bit.

I appreciated the societal issues highlighted in the book. Who do we look to when we place blame, who do we avoid looking too closely at, what are the factors that put someone in one camp or the other. How far will parents go to get the truth, how far will they go to hide the truth? Where do friendship loyalties lie and what do we do to protect each other?

The characters are complex and each of their POVs contributes to the story.

Thank you to Celadon Books for the ARC of this book.

This was a debut that definitely makes me want to watch for future books by Stephen Amidon.

Told in alternating POVs, I found this to be an engaging story of privilege, manipulation, addiction and helicopter parenting.

Although there are a lot of people to keep track of, they are easy to differentiate between. This book held my interest throughout, but there were a few problematic elements. I love an open ending - especially in a thriller where the reader can decide if they think the character ultimately accused is the correct one. However in this book, the reader finds out who the killer is at the end without any resolution or affect on the story. There were subject lines within the story and characters who ended up having seemingly no purpose. Additionally, there was one character who the author continued to focus guilty energy on - which is a sure sign to me that they are not the killer. I think I prefer when I can see several characters as guilty - and then must work out the reasoning behind the motives.

Even with all that being said though, this story did a great job of getting me to flip the pages as quickly as possible to see what would happen next. I think a lot of people will enjoy this domestic thriller - there is lots of juicy gossip, social media frenzy and secrets. I gave this one 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 since I never considered stopping reading it.

4.5 stars Thank you to Netgalley for granting my wish for this book. Ay Dios Mio!!!! You know it was good when my spanish comes out. This was my first thriller of the year and I think it set a pretty high standard for the other to come. This book help my curiosity till the very end and there was never a dull moment. This book had multiple POV's and Im not gonna lie I wrote them down but each one had a good story line they are carried equal weight and I enjoyed it very much.

The beginning of this book was a little hard to follow. I found myself getting confused by all of the characters. It didn’t start making sense until about 40% through. Once I got the hang of the characters I really enjoyed this book. I found myself not being able to trust anyone and really having no idea how it would end. This was a very well written “whodunnit” type of book and the ending was surprising. Overall I liked this one!

In Locust Lane, 20 year old Eden turns up dead in what is a mostly white upper class suburban neighborhood. This is not the type of thing that they are used too and they want the crime quickly wrapped up. To their parents surprise, Eden spent her final night with three local teenagers. This book is written from multiple POVs as the parents and teenagers try to piece together the truth. I really enjoyed this book. I am a sucker for the idea of how far would you go to protect your child scenarios? In this book you see how wealth, privilege and race come in to play in the investigation. I was sucked into the story and read it very quickly. My only critique would be that because the book was told from some many points of view, it took me a little while to figure out the role and relationship of each character.

For fans of: Defending Jacob, Spells for Forgetting, A Good Neighborhood

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I loved this one! I’ve heard this style of mystery/thriller referred to as “rich people drama”, similar to Big Little Lies and Little Fires Everywhere, and I love it lol! I felt like we really got a firm grip on a lot of different aspects of the different characters, which I loved!

There were characters of different backgrounds in the story and I enjoyed how we got to see how the same incident impacted them all differently. I would highly recommend this if you liked Big Little Lies and/or Little Fires Everywhere.

This was such a riveting read! There were a few different POVs and I’m not entirely sure if I actually liked any of the characters, but it was done really well. It was one of those rare instances where I enjoyed disliking everybody.

The writing was very “short and sweet”. A lot of shorter sentences, getting straight to the point. Although I don’t come across this type of writing often, I didn’t find that the style took away from the book. I was too invested in the plot and needed to know what was going to happen next.

As soon as the big reveal happened, I was like of course, how did I not see that coming. It was a great reveal and obvious when it happened, but I actually didn’t predict it! I could not for the life of me figure it out beforehand.

And finally, that ending! I loved how the author ended things. It was very unsettling and eerie and open-ended.

Thank you to Celadon Books for my gifted copy!

Someone killed Eden. Was it Jack, Hannah, or Christopher? Or, someone else? Told alternately by the parents of the teens as well as Patrick, who saw something that night, this is very much about privilege and prejudice as well as murder. It's set in an upscale town where everyone seems to have a secret. Jack is a bully, Hannah is undervalued, and Christopher is different. And then there are their parents. To be honest, these are not likable people (although you will feel for Eden's mom Danielle) but that makes this more of a potboiler. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. The plot might feel familiar but it's a good read.

I wanted to love this book. It started out so promising. It fell apart the last 25%. I'll give it 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. I loved the pace of the book. I was intrigued by the characters. They ending did not do this book justice.

Well written tense chilling page turner.So many twists and turns I was drawn in from beginning to end.A really good edge of your seat thriller.#netgalley #celadonbooks

I really enjoyed this one! I loved the family and neighborhood drama as well as the mystery of who actually committed the murder . Money and power allow people to get away with a lot and this showcases that privilege. Most of the characters are not likeable but I was pulled into their world. It was a little slow paced but it was one I didn’t want to put down.
Thanks to NetGalley and Celadon Publishing for an arc for review.

This one falls outside of my usual reading genres as a murder mystery/suspense novel, but it was a quick and enjoyable read.

This is the story of the murder of Eden, a teenaged girl, whose body was found the morning after her death in her home in an affluent area. Three of her friends visited her the evening of her death but all swear they left her alive and well. The main characters in the story are the parents of the teenagers.

As the details of the night in question are slowly revealed, it becomes evident that some may not be telling all that they know.

As I mentioned above, I enjoyed this book and found it entertaining, but the plot was not very action-packed and the only characters that I felt were somewhat developed were Patrick and Alice (I don't think this is unusual for this genre). The end was one I did not predict and it was a bit of a cliffhanger- I'm still not sure what I think of it.

This is the perfect book for a plane ride or poolside vacation read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Stephen Amidon, and Celadon Books for providing this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was really excited for this book based on the summary. I did enjoy it, but I felt like it was very hard to follow along with the story. It switched points of views with the characters too frequently.

This review will be posted to my Goodreads and Amazon accounts immediately and also to my instagram account (@ginganinja333), and to my newly created bookstagram (@paulas.book.nook).

I was immediately drawn in by this book's premise of a small town, "perfect" suburban families and a jarring murder mystery. However, I immediately noticed that the POV shifted between a lot of characters making it hard for me to keep track of for me personally as I also didn't really feel a connection to any of said characters. I think, for me, it would've been easier to form that connection if I'd been given some POV from the teens whose actions were the focal point of the story.

The storyline itself was interesting, but it felt a little convoluted by the addition of so many other stories and backstories on top of it. The twist wasn't intensely surprising and overall, this read fell a little flat for me.

There is a reader for every book, but unfortunately this book just wasn't for me. However, if the blurb seems interesting to you and you enjoy suspense novels with a unique perspective, you should check it out!

Thank you to Celadon Books and NetGalley for an E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Locust Lane reeled me in at first, but then ended up being a bit underwhelming to me up until the last 25%.

The story is told in multiple perspectives from the parents (and step-parent) of three teens who were with a murder victim shortly before she was murdered. I generally do not have a problem with multiple POVs if executed well, and I think having the views of multiple sides of the story was good in a way that it showed some the prejudices and stereotypes. But in this case, it was confusing to get everyone straight at first. I kept getting Alice and Celia mixed up (it doesn't help that their names are anagrams of each other). It also gets repetitive, which I think is why the pacing suffered. Also, I think I would have liked to have a few chapters hearing from the teens' POVs.

The pacing was slow. The prologue was intriguing and reeled me in, but then it was a slow-paced read, delving more into the characters' complex backstories than the mystery and suspense. This is not always a bad thing, but I found it to be dragging a bit until about 40% of the way through when the action started building more. I found it to be more of a drama than a thriller.

That being said, I did enjoy the last 25% of the book when the suspense and action picked up. The ending, to me, seemed unsatisfying, yet authentic. I still am not sure how to feel about it.

3.5
A story surrounding an evening of teenagers drinking, doing drugs and who knows what else except that one of them ends up murdered by the end of the night. The book follows these teens and their stories of what happened that night, intermixed with all of the adults. You know, those parents of the children! They sure complicate things as they stir the pot with concern for their children, and their own sketchy behaviors. There are lies, cover-ups, and bad behavior in general regardless of age!

I'm starting to grow weary of teenagers behaving badly and someone ends up dead. I feel like this is starting to be a little tropey in the mystery section of books. Especially when people "can't remember" what happened. It kind of drove me crazy!

I did like that this intermixed the teens and the adults POV's/stories. It was a complex weave of lies and the story itself that it was well formulated. I liked how it ended and it was creatively done. Because of the large cast I needed to take notes to make sure I knew who was married to who, who was their child and then the other relationships throughout.

Thank you to Celadon Books and Netgalley for the advance e-book!

This is a solidly written mystery that keeps you guessing what to believe until the very end. Locust Lane opens with a girl found murdered. While the police rather quickly find a suspect, we soon learn that there were 3 other teens at the house the night she was murdered and it's not exactly clear what exactly happened. The story shifts views from one parent to the next as each works to defend and support their own child's version of events. There is Christopher who is somewhat of an outsider and lives with his father who runs a local restaurant. Then we have Jack who is wealthy and privileged yet has somewhat of a suspicious past and can definitely be a bully. And then Hannah, who is sweet and meek and dating Jack. All the stories intertwine and intersect. It's clear the children are all hiding something and yet the parents seem to be just as secretive as well. If you are fan of domestic drama, I think you will like this one. The town is small and the gossip is big. It kept me entertained until the end and I found I had guessed it all wrong.

LOCUST LANE is a twisty “whodunit” thriller that kept me on my toes but not so much for the thrills.

For starters, the format was very different. There were only a handful of chapters and POV would switch mid chapter with all the heads we got inside. The paragraphs were broken up with character names to indicate said POV switch, so you weren’t completely lost by any means.

The more I think about this thriller, the more questions I have. Because again, I think this thriller was good, just not topping the charts for me.

My biggest question is, why only POVs for the adults? A teenager is murdered, yet we only have the POV of the parents, not the kids themselves who were at the scene of the crime / witnesses. Sure, the parents were all somewhat connected, but a few of those relationships were a stretch and it felt very forced. Not only that, one character who doesn’t know the parents or teenagers plays a pretty big role.

Without divulging too much to avoid spoilers, the murderer was pretty obvious and there were a lot of storylines thrown in that seemed kind of unnecessary.

Do I think this is something worth reading? Yes, because it definitely was a quick read. But if you consider yourself a thriller snob, it may not be for you.

Content warnings: alcoholism, death, sexual assault, addiction, bullying, racism

Big thanks to Celadon and Net Galley for the gifted ARC! You can get your copy January 17, 2023.

Locust Lane started off with a bang and like it would be a good thriller. It took a slightly different turn after that first scene, but it was still very gripping. I would categorize it as a mystery rather than a thriller though.

Locust Lane is a twisted web that is slowly untangled. It is told in multiple POVs and alternating timelines. I don't always like the latter especially when it is frequent, but Stephen Amidon makes it work. It has many layers and is filled with twists to the very end.

Locust Lane is a gripping mystery that kept me guessing. I am looking forward to reading Stephen Amidon's other books.

Thank you to Celadon for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.