Who hasn’t gone on their office Christmas night out, gotten drunk and then the next morning after they’ve sobered up afraid they’ve said something inappropriate to their fellow colleagues if they’re lucky and their boss if they’re not. Molly Monroe wishes that was all she had to worry about. With no recollection of the night before she’s mid apology when she finds out she’s the latest trending tagline after a video of her performing a certain act no nice girl would do in public goes viral on twitter – not a great look for a teen mag journalist! Just when she thinks her life can’t get any worse, she discovers her best friend Posey Parker’s body. When she finds an email Posey had sent her just before she died about the disappearance of a teenage girl that no one seemed to be taking seriously, in an attempt to take her away from her own problems, she decides to follow in Posey’s footsteps and find out what really happened to Lulu Lawrence.

I loved Katy’s first book, something about her dark humoured style of writing drew me straight in so it was a no brainer when I saw she’d written a new one and this book sucked me right in. Full of intrigue, twists and turns. Was Posey’s death an accident or was she murdered? Did she get too close to the truth about Lulu? What about Jack, Molly’s Knight in shining armour…. or is he? And then there’s the avalanche of secrets Posey had kept from Molly – just how well did she really know her friend? The story did get a little preachy about social media trolling and the inequality in blaming and shaming women while men are lauded for their laddish behaviour but ultimately all the threads came together, and all loose ends were neatly tied off. This is definitely an author to keep an eye on.

Molly is in a mess. Christmas dos are messy but this is to another level. She’s going be viral with an intimate act and her best friend / flatmate is dead…. And no one believes it’s murder, just a tragic accident…

But Molly ain’t taking that lying down … or hiding in a corner. She’s convinced there is something afoot here and I fell in love with her when she realised she had the power to solve a murder at the police had dismissed. Molly is amazing.

I loved this book. The tenacity of Molly to solve a double separate but linked case is just addictive. I was rooting for Molly to rise above the aftermath of the unforgettable Christmas party and come out the other end but what I got was just 😱😱😱

There is a different feel to TMATNB compared to Brent’s debut in that my protagonist is not a murderer (or is she??) but in the same breath it is the same. The characters are very real. They are such strong women with the world against them (in differing ways). And they’re fighting an unknown adversary…

Brent has created another very readable, different kind of story. I for one am loving Brent’s writing. Her dark humour is subtle but it works. Both her books so far I’ve flown through and loved them. Brent is becoming a must-watch author for me

I listened to the audiobook of Katy Brent's debut book "How To Kill Men and Get Away With It" and I absolutely loved it so wasn't going to turn down the opportunity to read this now was I? I am so glad I didn't, because this is another cracker.

This is a gripping, dark and entertaining book that is certainly of our time which deals with some difficult subjects with honesty and humour. The main character of Molly is excellent and very relatable; her plight in this book would send anyone screaming into the wilderness but she is determined to find out what happened to her best friend and we are taken along for the ride.

The story is relevant, up to date and frighteningly plausible which moves along at a really good pace. There are twists and turns which kept me reading way into the night so desperate was I to find out how it was all going to end and I wasn't disappointed.

This book will have you going through all manner of feelings and emotions and I highly recommend it and must thank the author, HQ, HQ Digital and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of this excellent book.

Name : The Murder After The Night Before
Author : Katy Brent
Genre : Psychological thriller, dark humour

My 💭:
[03/02/24 10.30PM ]
Okay today was the definition of a perfect reader's weekend! ^_^

Given the week I had, I deserved a day off from reality and just pour my heart and soul into escaping to a book world. So, of course I picked up a psychological thriller. Judging by the interesting book cover, I knew this book will be stitching me up today.

And I was completely correct. I literally read non stop throughout the day, right from lunch till before dinner and voila! I finished it 🤩. Oh gosh the plot was sooo damn interesting! No long and boring character and plot setting. Right from the first sentence, the book grabbed my attention. It was awesome to read from the protagonist, Molly's POV. The author has put such a dark humorous narration from Molly, I kept getting intrigued by her more and more as I progressed. The whodunnit plot was very very engrossing and sadly, I guesed the culprit wrong, my bad 😔. Although the main twist was GOOD, the secondary twist at the very end was a bit of a downer (I mean, like seriously? Wouldn't it had been more shocking if the culprit was the very one we all finally trusted at the end? 🤭)

The main theme of this book was quite sensitive and 100% true : how much women are still oppressed by patriarchy in today's world. No matter how progressive the whole world pretends to be, if something untoward happens, it's always the women whom everyone points fingers to and bullys. The social media harrasment Molly went through in this book, was so disheartening to read because it's all relatable. Seriously, just see people's comments on viral news posts. People always hurry to criticize, not sympathise. One of the many reasons that I love animals more.

If you ask what I learnt from this book, I will say that regularly drinking hard drinks is bad and way too much risky. Even wines. I have no idea why people keep glamorizing the party lifestyle, because it's not enjoyable AT ALL. Nothing is worse than not being control of yourselves, always remember that.

Ending my review by saying this : if you are in a reading slump or life has been a bit hard and you need an escape, this is your book.

Having enjoyed How to Kill Men and Get Away with it, I was excited to see another book by the same author. Going in I was expecting something very similar to the first book but, although dealing with similar themes, this one came from a completely different angle.

Our main character, Molly, is way more relatable than the main character of HTKMAGAWI, a struggling journalist who can barely afford to keep up with her bills. However Molly isn’t necessarily a likeable character and as the story progresses you are constantly challenged by the actions she has taken versus what has happened to her. Just because someone is messy, and sometimes down right stupid, does that justify horrible things happening to them? In that way it’s a great story for challenging common societal beliefs, especially towards women.

My only grudge with this book is that things wrap up a bit too nicely and I would have liked a little more grit to the ending.

Overall though a strong second entry for Katy Brent and I’ll definitely be following her next books.

this was really good but also… i don’t know how i feel about it. i mean i enjoyed it but not a lot. i think i preferred katy brent’s debut to this but i would still recommend it
i loved all the mentions of patriarchy and feminism and the way women are treated - it all rings true and i feel the same. it is devastating and harrowing, and the themes brought up in the book are much needed conversations.

This is such an amazing book!

I won't lie, I thought I'd been sent a proof misprint as there was no mention of Posey until like 15-20% through and I had no idea how Molly's story could fit into everything but omg!

I flew through this one, and I highly recommend if you're after a fast-paced but also somehow slow burn thriller. It just keeps you guessing until the literal last page.

I really enjoyed this book! Much like Brent's debut, I devoured this in just 2 sittings. It's fast-paced, addictive, clever, and funny. A really well written thriller, with a complex and well developed protagonist. So much fun to read!

Having been gripped from the first awful scenario as a young woman becomes an online sensation after being caught in a (sexual) act by a camera person who shared Molly’s situation quickly and effectively, to then find a body in your flat, would be difficult for anyone to deal with. I don't know this writer but I know I'll be keen to look at anything else she has written because she knows how to fully immerse a character into the reader's mind. We may not share Molly's lifestyle, but we quickly know everything she's going through. The twists and turns are not expected, which is always good. Katy Brent deliberately misled the reader from the start, almost from the first page, until the conclusion. I had no idea who the murderer was until the writer, took me through the clues. On a few occasions, I was guessing who might have been the murderer and I was terribly out of place. The writing is very good, occasionally funny even in dire and drastic situations and the mystery element of this book kept me wanting to turn pages consistently. My one thought at the end of this book was that a lot had happened yet I didn't feel there was too much happening as I was reading it. We learn so much about a couple of characters who don't appear alive in this book and this is pure genius. My favourite read of this year so far.

This book had me hooked from the very first chapter & had me guessing right until the end. You can't help but love some characters & be really angry at other. Such a well written book that bring out all of your emotions. I don't want to say too much & don't want to give any hints or spoilers so I'll sign off here. Huge congratulations to & thank you so much for allowing me to advance read. Always grateful 💕

I’m gutted that I didn’t enjoy this book more. The storyline was intriguing and I wanted to know what happened, but that’s the only reason I kept reading this book. Even so, I was disappointed by the ending. I really struggled with the characters. I found them to be immature and a lot of the things they said or did made me cringe. Although I enjoyed How to Kill Men and Get Away With It by this author, I did struggle with the writing in this book. I was able to keep reading, and it wasn’t a bad story, but it’s one that definitely disappointed me.

I love Katy’s first book so was excited to read this one and I think I enjoyed this even more than the first. I had no idea what direction this was going to take from the get go and enjoyed uncovering new suspects and how the stories (and crimes) would slowly become interlinked as the story progressed.

“Something bad happened last night, but I can’t remember a thing…”

What an unexpectedly fantastic surprise - my first ARC of the year! I never thought my new little NetGalley account would be chosen to read this in advance, so imagine my delight when I got the email saying I’d been selected! Last summer I read Katy’s first novel How to Kill Men and Get Away With It and immediately fell in love with her writing style; witty and humorous, twisted and emotional, and clever enough to have you rooting for the morally dark main character, despite her murderous tendencies. Suffice it to say, I had high hopes for The Murder After the Night Before from the day it was announced.
Main character Molly’s life is turned inside out when a video of her giving a blowjob to a guy outside a pub goes viral online. She has no recollection of the act, nor who the stranger is she wakes up next to…nor that her best friend Posey is lying dead in her bath in their shared flat.

Dealing with the fallout from the video while trying to find out what happened to Posey leads Molly down some dangerously dark paths, brings up memories of her own traumatic past, and weaves a web of deceit and coverups that keep the second guesses coming until the final pages.

Molly is a flawed person, she’s unhappy in her job, she drinks too much, and she’s dissatisfied with her life. In contrast Posey has a successful career, a caring family, and is loved by all who know her. But there’s plenty of secrets for Molly to uncover that leave her reeling and questioning just how well she really knew her best friend.

As far as thrillers go The Murder After the Night Before is one of the better ones I’ve read for a long while. It doesn’t let up, there are no stagnant sections, and even with a tangle of threads being woven it never feels convoluted or confusing. There were a couple of twists that I didn’t see coming, and one that I had an inkling over that proved to be correct, so it really felt like the book was full of surprises!

The underlying commentary around the standards women are held to, and how one bad choice can negatively affect all areas of life, is an important one. We’ve not all been caught on our knees behind a pub and had footage of it shared online, but we probably have in one way or another been on the receiving end of some form of trolling, trashy comments and mean girl behaviour. It might be a sign of the times but it really is not ok, and if you’re of the ‘be kind’, mental health advocacy mindset that needs to extend to everyone, not just those you happen to care about.

If you're looking for a thriller that tackles modern issues and keeps the guesses coming, this is one for you. It is sleek and dark, with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and funny pop culture references to boot. An all-round great choice and a triumph of a sophomore for Katy Brent.

Rating: ✨✨✨✨

The Murder After the Night Before is available now, and I’d like to extend many great thanks to NetGalley and HQ Stories at Harper Collins for giving me the opportunity to read this book in advance of publication.

Happy Publication day to this book! Katy Brent has done it again
Thankyou very much to @netgalley and @hqstories for the early copy of this book in exchange for a review
If you liked How to Kill Men and Get Away With It then you’re going to love this, it was so fast paced with quite a few twists and turns along the way I was itching to find time to finish it!
Molly Munroe is such a relatable character all you hope is that things get better for her as we start the book off with her going through a traumatic event and dealing with the aftermath of it being spread across social media…then she finds a dead body and then the real truth starts to unravel.
The whole time I also kept thinking ‘If jack is a bad person I’ll go nuts’ and yes I was rooting for them but I like how their story ended
Speaking of endings….THE ENDING?! My jaw was on the floor in the middle of my lunch break, I was sat there thinking ‘this can’t be it’ and now I need like a short novella or a whole second book in a series please and thankyou Katy
Also this book is 99p on Kindle this month so everyone has no excuse not to buy it!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this arc. Well I loved this book devoured it in one day. This story had everything great characters well written a brilliant mystery and moments that were funny. Yet this book also explores some tough subjects as it delves in to grief and how the world treats women and girls. Would thoroughly recommend

What a fab read. The writing is brilliant and it had me laughing, sympathising, cringing and desperate to find out how it would end, (in a good way. )This is the first book I have read from this author and certainly won't be the last. I just loved the humour, despite there being sensitive subjects, it was written so well. So happy to have started 2024 with such a fantastic book. I will definitely recommend this book to friends and as many people as I can, its sure to be a bestseller.

The way this book started had me laughing out loud with the way we were introduced to Molly. After that high point I was run through just about every emotion that I can think of in the story of Molly trying to find out what happened THAT night.
It feels very now in the way the women are treated and the reaction from Social Media especially through the narrative. The more we learned about who Molly is and what is happening, the more you just have to root for her finding the answers and surviving to the end of the book!
This was a very cleverly written story which had a fair few twists and turns that made for times when I was curious if there was anyone really supporting Molly herself or if everyone in her life was there for some other reason!
This was a well written hugely entertaining read

What a brilliant read by Katy Brent. I thoroughly enjoyed her previous novel How To Kill A Man And Get Away With It, so I had high expectations for this one and boy it doesn't disappoint!
Molly is having the day from hell which starts out with the worst hangover in the world but if hat wasn't bad enough she wakes up with a complete stranger in her bed and she can't remember a thing from the previous night.
Now if you think that was bad enough when she eventually gets into work, she writes for a teenage magazine called Sparkle she immediately knows something is wrong. Everyone is staring at her and when her boss calls her into her office things take a turn the the worse.
Molly has gone viral but not in a good way!
Someone has filmed Molly doing a sexual act in a public place and to top it off her roommate turns up dead!
This book had me hooked from start to finish and the ending!
Brilliantly written.

I feel like I have read a completely different book than most of these reviews so quite possibly it’s just not the book for me, but I was not a fan of this in any way unfortunately. The storyline shot all over the place, one minute Molly is a twitter sensation for a drunken episode, then she wakes up with a stranger, then she’s recognised by strangers on the bus for the twitter video, then she goes home and her best friend’s found dead. One of the storylines would have worked better for me, the combination of the two just confused everything and I was glad when it was over.

This story started off a bit rough. Molly wakes up after the most awful drunken night to find she's an internet sensation of the most embarrassing kind. Her day and week gets worse and worse. I like the twists and turns as she starts investigating everything. It might be a bit brash but it's quite a serious storyline too.