⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Written by K.T. Nguyen

This was a twisty and confusing story from beginning until the near end. The narrator is unreliable and at times frustrating.

From the outside, Annie has the perfect life. But she has a mental illness that she had under control for years but lately her life has unraveled and she's unable to get it together. Lives are taken and she's in dangerous waters.

I couldn't put this book down and I also did research on OCD and PTSD because I thought it was important to be compassionate about the illness. The graphic depictions were disgusting and I think that's supposed to make me see and feel what she did.

Great twisty story.

This is good psychological thriller about a young woman working through her generational trauma.

Annie is a mom and a wife. She her mother who they have been taking care of recently does. Now she is trying to cope with more then the death of her mother.

This was a good thriller. It kept me engaged. You never really could tell him Annie was crazy or not. We switch between the past and the present, watching how Annie’s trauma first started and why she did the things she is accused us.

This is not the fastest paced thriller but it really keeps you guessing. The best part and always the good thing in the thriller is when you don’t guess the twist, which I did not.


Genre: Thriller
APK: Ebook
Pages: 384
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Series or Standalone: Stand-alone

Annie is an artist and the mom of a teenaged girl. She still suffers from being raised by her very demanding immigrant mother, a refugee from Vietnam, and has problems with OCD and black outs. Her life starts to spiral out of control after her mother dies and she no longer has any grasp of what is real and what is imagined. Did she harm people during her blackouts or is something more sinister happening?

2.5 Stars rounded up for this one.
You Know What You Did is about Annie Shaw, dealing with her own mental health issues and struggles after the death of her mother, a Vietnamese woman who came to America as a refugee during the war in the 1970s. Annie seems to live a charmed life with a loving husband and a career as an artist. Their teenage daughter Tabby is challenging, but what teenage girl isn't? As the book flashes back on Annie's life with her mother as a child, we put the pieces together about why Annie is so mentally and emotional scarred.
This book was very slow to set up and honestly I struggled to identify exactly what the point of the book was, because there were so many threads and side characters. For me, the writing was also extremely weak, and repetitive, with unnatural dialogue. Within the book ideas and storylines felt half developed, and over and over we get the refrain of "You know what you did." to the point that it became obnoxious. I did find the presentation of Annie's OCD to be thoughtful and well done, but it also felt like a crutch for a bad plot as well. The conclusion was rushed and also predictable, and overall the book just wasn't satisfying. I don't think I would have read it to completion if I didn't feel obligated to do so, having received an ARC.
Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

I like this one ok but didn’t like the unreliable narrator and felt it dragged through most of the book . I just felt it was to show for my tastes

This was a wonderful book, full of familial trauma and stress. It had a lot of twists and turns and had me guessing until the last few pages. Very well done!

This one started out a little slow for me. But once the plot advanced, I found myself getting more into the book. I really felt for the main character with the generational trauma and her OCD. It was heart breaking to read how her mother's struggles to get her children to safety had affected her entire life and how those struggles ended up affecting the main character, Annie. Some parts of the plot felt a bit hard to connect, but the author did a good job of tying it all together at the end.

This is the story of Annie Shaw.

Annie’s mother is a Vietnam War refugee and Annie knows what it is to be poor and looked down on. Annie is holding her now perfect life together with a very thin thread!

When her mother dies, this carefully crafted life begins to fall apart. Things go downhill from there. Is it all in her mind or is this real?

A mystery/thriller and a strong look at refugees and mother/daughter relationships.

I struggled with the first quarter of this one. With an unreliable narrator, you rarely get the full story. The ending was a bit pat, but I still enjoyed it.

NetGalley/ Penguin Group Dutton April 16,2024

Such a twisty suspense-y drama and I was absolutely here for it.

I definitely think this book can be triggering for some with mental health issues / relationship struggles, but as long as you're mindful of it - this slow burn is definitely worth it. Still confused in the best way possible. <3

Thank you so much to NetGalley & KT Ngyuyen (and team) for an advanced eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

You Know What You Did really worked for me as a portrait of generational trauma and mental illness, but as a thriller, the ending was just so-so. Plagued by the lasting effects of a dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship, Annie's marriage is on the rocks, her relationship with her teen daughter is a shambles and recurring intrusive thoughts are only making things worse. When people start to die around her, even Annie isn't totally sure if she's responsible or not. While things do come to a head, the ending was too easy and left me feeling, "Girl, you still need to get some real therapy."

CW: A dog dies (it's somewhat graphic, and I was unprepared), OCD, intrusive thoughts, generational trauma, infidelity,

This was a good read but not a fun one. The immigrant experience, generational trauma, and insect-driven gore were difficult to read at times but not as difficult as reading through the intrusive thoughts the FMC had that were almost triggering. The end felt almost anti-climactic, and the plot dragged in the last 1/3 of the book, but overall, an interesting read. I think if you like reading horror, you'll like this book. Do pay attention to the trigger warnings tho.

Took awhile to get into , because of how slow it but was very interesting at the same time ,with the twist and turns it had thought out the story , plus non of the characters was very likeable .

Interesting story line with flashbacks. Gaslighting at its finest.
I appreciate the ARC and will purchase this book for our library

Annie's perfect life becomes unraveled upon the death of her mother. Annie has it all- a great job, perfect husband, and a lovely daughter, all of which seem to come crashing down when her mother dies. All of a sudden she's haunted by the generational trauma and abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother. She starts taking on characteristics of her mother, like OCD, and questioning if she loves her husband. Is her mother trying to get at her from the grave? Soon things start happening in Annie's real life that seem implausible, especially when she's accused of murder. The author does a great job demonstrating how OCD and other conditions affect your life and mental health. As things get more and more out of control, Annie must do everything possible to protect her daughter. Just when you think the book is going to end one way, a completely new twist comes out of nowhere. Definitely a unique thriller that will have you questioning the main characters' sanity, and perhaps your own!

I received an ARC, thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton.

It was hard for me to get into this story at first- the inciting incident doesn’t take place until you’re 1/3 into the novel- but once the plot really picked up its pace, I couldn’t put it down.

There are several themes explored, including mental health, generational trauma, loyalty, and mother/daughter relationships. At times, I felt there may be too much happening within the story, but it all came together nicely in the end. The twist at the end was not what I had been expecting, which is always appreciated in a thriller.

This book started off well enough for me, but I only made it about 32% of the way through before I completely lost interest. I just couldn't connect with the main character, the plot seemed to be going nowhere and the husband really got on my nerves with his constant reprimanding of his wife when it came to their bratty teenage daughter.
Overall, it just didn't appeal to me.

Wow wow wow. Holy smokes. This read had me over the edge. I couldn’t even put it down! This needs to be on your list of books to read

4.5 stars! A must for your thriller/horror TBR for 2024! WOW oh Wow and I promise a complete review coming soon. Thank you NetGalley , K.T. Nguyen for the opportunity to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Nguyen developed nothing short of a slow burn, throbbing story about grief and mental illness. As the story picks up, you start to wonder just how much you know about Annie. How much you can trust her. Inside her head, you become more and more convinced that she could do terrible things. I can usually guess plot early on, but this one kept me on my toes. A brilliant debut; I won’t hesitate to pick up Nguyen again.
As someone who comes from a family with OCD, Nguyen’s portrayal, specifically of contamination OCD, is incredibly visceral. If you deal with this yourself, or consider yourself to be in a low point with your OCD, I recommend caution or passing on this one.

“The latter came as a shock to Annie, whose only knowledge of OCD came from television. The quirky germophobic detective, the neat freak with a color-coded closet, the lovable sitcom neighbor who knocks three times fast and two times slow before entering a room. None of these lighthearted portrayals bore any resemblance to the debilitating disorder that consumed her or the intrusive thoughts that held her hostage at times. Annie wasn't afraid of catching a disease, nor was she especially organized or tidy. How could she have OCD?”

You Know What You Did is an unraveling of a wife, a mother, a woman. I found myself in this thriller in many ways. Ways that disturbed me, ways that enlightened me, and ways that shook me to my core.

A lot of people joke about having OCD when they like things a particular way. But what they don’t get is how all consuming it is, especially when you have Contamination OCD. Every ounce of thought spirals into darkness, doom and death, and it is impossible to stop. It makes the behaviors of our main character, Annie, seem plausible. The loss and distortion of time lead us down dark passageways, asking ourselves, “Did she really do this?” It’s a question, I’m sure, a lot of people with Contamination OCD ask themselves on a daily, hourly, minute by minute basis.

You Know What You Did is beautifully written, with commentary that I appreciated so much as a mother, a daughter, a wife, and a person. There is so much to say about this book, and I feel like I have heavily fixated on the OCD aspect, but at the beginning of the book, it is dedicated to “mothers, daughters and daughters who mother.” I know every mother daughter relationship is fraught with some kind of tension, but daughters responsible for their mother’s emotions will especially connect with this book.

This will be, easily, one of my favorite deep reads of 2024. You do not want to miss this one.