There’s just something so spectacular about reading a book from a debut author and getting blown away, which is probably why I still seek them out. For some reason, this phenomenon hits me even harder when the book is a thriller, because it’s often hard for even experienced and lauded thriller writers to write a thriller that will blow your socks off; so when a debut author does it (like in 2023 with Clemence Michallon’s The Quiet Tenant) the feeling is close to literary nirvana.

Nguyen has written a dizzying, creepy, effective psychological thriller about the daughter of a Vietnam War refugee (Annie) who has a form of OCD that runs along with feelings of disgust and contamination. This is in direct contrast from her aging, controlling, and abusive mother, who has the form of OCD that runs along with hoarding behaviors. Very early in the book the mother dies inside the carriage house she lives in on Annie’s family property. This death is only the beginning of the unraveling and fracturing of the life Annie thought she was living and the person she thought she was.

This story is told solely from Annie’s POV, though the timeline skips around a bit. Not to worry about it being lazy storytelling or infodumping: The flashbacks to past events between Annie and her mother help to shine light on both their relationship dynamic and who Annie is today, the cryptic present-day passages are disorienting at first, but once they catch up to present-day events you can see how they fit in, and a certain repetitive half-memory does get explained, eventually.

There’s a lot of commentary about intergenerational trauma, PTSD, the toll mental illness can take on children in families, and culture shock. Is there a twist? Yes. It’s a doozy!

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/AAPI Fiction/Psychological Fiction/Psychological Thriller

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for review.

I unfortunately had to DNF this one about 30% of the way through. The plot was not holding my interest, nor were the characters. They were all terrible people, especially the daughter who treated her mom terribly. By the time a bad thing happened to a dog, I was done.

You Know What You Did is an enjoyable and unputdownable thriller.
Annie Shaw nee Anh Lee grew up poor. Her mother immigrated from the Vietnam War with her son and unborn daughter. Their life growing up was hard as Anh’s mother suffered trauma and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. But Anh, now christened Annie, escapes to college From there she marries a loving and wealthy journalist and has become a painter of some esteem. When her mother dies, Annie, who has also developed OCD, finds her mental state slipping. Her symptoms, which were once in remission, of OCD rear their ugly heads. Then her art patron disappears, and her husband leaves for an assignment overseas. Annie starts having trouble telling fact from fiction. But she knows something is going on.
While author K.T. Nguuyen doesn’t share a personality with the main character, she also is recovering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This gives readers a unique and realistic view into disgust-driven, contamination-based OCD. Because of this, the book is heart-wrenching. You worry so much for Anh who also suffers generational trauma. The kind that is usual for immigrants fleeing violence. You just want to wrap a warm blanket around her and give her hot cocoa even when she makes bad decisions. It was hard to put down the book because you didn’t want to leave Annie.
That being said, I personally feel that mental illness is used unwisely in this book especially when trying to bring knowledge and understanding about OCD. I can’t reveal how this happens as I do not want to spoil the book. While I didn’t see the mental health aspect of the ending, I did see the big twist. (NOTE: I have read a lot of books and can see the ending to a lot of stories so that doesn’t mean that the author telegraphed the twist,) It was a bold move, and I liked most of how it went down.
Thriller fans will love I Know What You Did and get an education from it.

K.T. Nguyen's debut novel, YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID is a solid and fun thriller/suspense novel that deals with heavy topics, such as death of a family member and coming to America as a refugee. Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for a review.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I’m backlogged with my ARC’s but working diligently to get caught up. This book was intriguing because I don’t see many psychological thrillers based around the asian culture and the effects on immigrants. Much of the story was eye opening and closely mirrored some of the PTSD stories I’ve heard from people in my life. I really enjoyed the writing but wasn’t too impressed with the ending as it felt very predictable, and I didn’t feel that way about the rest of the book. If you like psychological thrillers with an unreliable narrator vibe, check this book out!

A complex mother-daughter story is always intriguing, and this one spans multiple generations. Annie deals with the challenges of an upbringing by her Vietnamese refugee mother and how she balances the differences of now being a modern mom to her own teenage daughter.

Because of how the book started - with her mom found dead in the very first pages - I thought this story was going to focus on unraveling that mystery. Instead, it skips over that pretty quickly and changes direction into further exploration of Annie’s place in the world.

There are several flashbacks to her own childhood and inner rumblings of her mind which is fueled by her OCD. This serves as one of the main drivers of the increasing tension and anxiety as the story builds to its second and third acts.

Different major plot points felt disjointed, and the musings and memories were difficult to follow at times. Plus, with every character being morally corrupt, it was tough to distinguish if they were lying on purpose or wholeheartedly believed in their version of the truth.

You Know What You Did by KT Nguyen this book is about first generation Vietnamese American Anna Shaw she is an inspiring artist and thanks to her husbands income and family money she doesn’t have to work her and her 14-year-old daughter tabby have an antagonistic relationship but tabby loves her daddy. Anna doesn’t want to be like her mother who do to mental illness and the scars of war was abusive but that didn’t stop Anna from taking care of her mother until recently when her mother passed away in the carriage house where she lived. Anna feels guilty for the relief she felt knowing she didn’t have to tend to her mothers mental illness anymore but that doesn’t explain why since her death she’s had nightmares in the OCD she’s so successfully controls his comeback with a vengeance. This is just the beginning of a nightmare that will change in his life and that of her family before it’s over Anna will be accused of murder in the end those Anna loves will be the one she fears but is it her mental illness or does someone else have scars they haven’t let anyone see yet. It is always amazing to me that someone who can live their life as a righteous person who is dependable and lovable in one touch of mental illness can change their whole persona this book covers the different ways mental illness can affect and ruin peoples lives I thought this was an awesome read I also think this book is good at showing children can show devotion to a parent when it is the other parent who would get their life to keep them safe. This is a great book and one I definitely recommend anyone who loves mysteries and drama will definitely love this book. I always write a book by the way the end made me feel in the end of this book was astounding it happened in the last few chapters but OMG this book was so good a definite must read. I don’t think I have ever read a book by KT Nguyen before but I will definitely start following her on every platform I’m on I am so glad the literary world has opened up to new voices from other communities and it makes me wonder about all the great entertainment we have lost out on due to racism and ignorance because this was a top-notch read that we would’ve missed had things not changed. So thanks to everyone who fights the good fight! Like the good people at Penguin house Dutton who gave me my free arc copy via NetGalley please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I really wanted to love this book but I think it ultimately fell short of my expectations. Truthfully, if you are a fan of Celeste Ng I think you will get much more out of this book than I did. Our main character is a wife and mother with OCD who is experiencing intrusive thoughts that start to come true in horrifying ways. There are deaths and mysteries to uncover but I felt a little let down by the pace and plot. The book felt a little disjointed in terms of pace. The first half was incredibly slow, and honestly, I wasn't fully interested in what was going on until the last quarter of the book. The reveal at the end took me by surprise which I enjoyed but I had a hard time believing character's motivations and decisions. I wanted this book to either be much shorter or be more over the top for longer--especially with where we ended up at the end of the book Ultimately, not my favorite but I also wouldn't dissuade anyone from picking it up.

I received and ARC of this book from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Loved this book and can't wait to see more from the author. Thanks to the author and the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

In the literary world where thrillers often tread familiar paths, K. T. Nguyen's debut novel, "You Know What You Did," emerges as a harrowing journey through the psyche of a protagonist whose grip on reality is as tenuous as the reader's understanding of the truth.

The novel introduces us to Annie "Anh Le" Shaw, a first-generation Vietnamese American artist whose life, on the surface, seems to be the epitome of the American dream. However, Nguyen deftly peels back the layers of Annie's seemingly perfect existence to reveal a tumultuous inner world, marred by the resurgence of her obsessive-compulsive disorder following her mother's sudden death.

Nguyen's portrayal of Annie's OCD is raw and visceral, providing a window into the debilitating effects of the disorder. The author's personal battle with OCD lends authenticity to the narrative, making the reader feel the protagonist's anguish and the weight of her compulsions.

The plot weaves through past and present, nightmares and waking fears, as Annie finds herself entangled in a web of suspicion following the disappearance of a prominent art patron. With the police's eyes on her and her own mind betraying her, Annie's descent into paranoia is as compelling as it is heartbreaking.

Nguyen's prose is sharp, her storytelling skills evident as she maintains a tight grip on the reader's attention with dizzying twists and turns. The novel is a psychological thriller, an exploration of the refugee experience, the inheritance of trauma, and the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters.

"You Know What You Did" is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the complexities of the mind. It's a book that doesn't shy away from the darkness but instead confronts it head-on, leaving the reader to ponder the lasting effects of past horrors on present lives.

The death of Annie Shaw’s mother sends the middle-aged artist reeling. Mẹ had fled the Vietnam War and made a home for herself and young Annie in America. Their ongoing struggle for survival wound up acutely damaging the mental health of both, as Mẹ became a hoarder who emotionally manipulated her daughter in ways extreme even for an Asian parent of the late 20th century.

As a teenager, Annie had done her best to break free, eventually going away to art school and marrying Duncan, a handsome, accomplished journalist devoted to her needs. But when her mother’s condition deteriorated even further with age, Annie moved Mẹ in to the carriage house on the estate where she and Duncan live with their daughter, Tabitha. Someone has to look out for the elderly woman, after all. Mẹ’s unexpected death, combined with the now-teenaged Tabby needing her parents less and less, proves an unexpected if guilt-laden boon, giving Annie the freedom and time to concentrate on her art career once more. She even earns a promising commission from a local patron, the old and occasionally condescending Byrdie Fenton.

Things start going awry however, at first in small ways, and then in larger but still seemingly accidental catastrophes. Annie, whose mental health has always been fragile, tries her best to persevere, but might have finally reached her breaking point when her patron claims not to remember hiring her:

QUOTE
Up until this point, Byrdie, despite her age, had always maintained mental acuity. How could she have forgotten commissioning the mural? Annie casts a disparaging look at the jug on the nightstand. Was Miss Fenton drunk? Annie’s disappointment shifts to anger as she thinks about how much this project meant to her, the time she put into it, all washed away by moonshine. She envisions herself shaking the foolish woman to jog her memory. Would the brittle bones in Byrdie’s neck withstand the force? <i>Bones shake, a sick thud, screams</i>.
END QUOTE

Annie hides her real feelings behind a well-practiced facade of politeness and heads home, so is shocked when Byrdie vanishes soon after their disheartening meeting. Worse, the police suspect that she might have had something to do with the elderly woman’s disappearance. With Tabby heading away to camp and Duncan accepting another assignment overseas, Annie is left trying to deal with her crumbling mental health by herself. When she wakes several days later, naked and disoriented, in a hotel room next to a lifeless body, she knows she’s finally hit rock bottom. But is the violence truly all her fault, or is she just a convenient patsy for murders she did not commit?

You Know What You Did is an absolutely fascinating portrait of the way trauma, in this case specifically from the refugee experience, informs mental health down generations. Annie knows she has a problem, but the way that her mother inculcated her with shame makes it difficult for her to admit weakness and reach out for help. K.T. Nguyen writes from personal experience as she depicts Annie’s struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder:

QUOTE
Annie is a master of creating worlds–in her paintings, her gardens, her identity. Like many with contamination-based OCD, she’d learned to cope by mentally carving out separate, distinct spaces. Inside and outside. Clean and dirty. She could function in the external, dirty world because it was “contaminated” anyway. Only by decontaminating herself–undressing, shampooing, showering–could she reenter her clean world. Calamity struck when the two worlds collided–inside-outside, clean-dirty. The blurring of borders triggered punishing uncertainty.

<i>Did your sock brush against the curb? Before you showered, did your elbow bump into the doorjamb?</i> Seemingly meaningless questions precipitated an agonizing mental review of everything she’d done before and after the incident in question. But these churning thoughts only left her with more doubt.
END QUOTE

Annie’s paralysis as she initially refuses to get treatment can be hard to read, but the pace of the novel picks up even as she begins to accept that people genuinely want to help her get better. By the end of the novel, I was wholeheartedly cheering her on as she untangled the mess of her life and figured out who was behind all the terrible things happening to her. This sensitive, emotionally honest thriller is an excellent parable of not allowing shame and discomfort to stop you from doing what is healthiest for yourself in the long run, and is essential reading for anyone wanting to better understand the many ways in which trauma can manifest for refugees.

What if you don’t know exactly what you did?

Annie “Anh Le” Shaw appears to be living the American dream, but when the police come knocking in the midst of an OCD flare-up her thoughts start to spiral out of control - she realizes that she has lied to herself & rewritten pieces of her past while blacked out, so the ultimate question comes down to this: is Annie somehow causing the horrible things in her mind to come to life? Is this all her fault?

While some of this story was difficult to read it was also a searing picture of what people suffering from contamination-based/disgust-driven Obsessive Compulsive Disorder go through on a daily basis. The way the author incorporated Annie’s mother’s escape from Vietnam & the way it impacted their relationship was a compelling portrait of motherhood, especially when juxtaposed with Annie’s vastly different & yet somehow parallel bond with her own teenage daughter. The flashbacks to Annie’s childhood, to earlier in her relationship with her now-husband, & the fractured scenes from the hotel where she wakes up disoriented kept the pace of this novel quick, & I am definitely looking forward to more work from this writer after reading her debut.

Thank you to NetGalley & Dutton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There really is just so much going on here that it became difficult for me to focus, especially with OCD playing a larger role than I had previously imagined which irritated my own OCD. Otherwise it's a nice thriller, but very heavy.

This book was so so so fun. I couldn’t finish it fast enough—the suspenseful story made me feel like I couldn’t put it down. The situations seemed too convenient, and the unreliable narrator in Annie made it seem like anything could be happening. I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone who enjoys a thriller!

BONES SNAP. STEEL CRUNCHES. THE SICK THUD OF A SKULL SLAMMING AGAINST THE DASHBOARD. "YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID."  This is the mantra Annie (Anh Le) Shaw often tells herself when she becomes overwhelmed with helplessness, anxiety, anger, or fear.  As the reader devours K.T. Nguyen's new thriller, we learn how mentally fragile Annie truly is.  She is very codependent, relying on her husband Duncan to take care of most things in her life at the moment. Everyone tells Annie how lucky she is to have him.

Annie is the daughter of a very traumatized, very traditional Vietnamese woman who was forced to leave her war-torn homeland, to save her unborn child. Me' (mother in Vietnamese) eventually landed in middle-America, where she struggled as a poor immigrant woman without a partner. Me' had abusive partner after abusive partner, men came and went as if there was a revolving door.  Perhaps the trauma of war, the emotional and physical trauma of her new life in America was what caused Me's mental illness. For whatever the reason, Me's mental health issues certainly affected the mother-daughter relationship of Me' and Annie. Me was, and still is, often abusive both physically and verbally, That abuse has carried over into Annie's adult life, and haunts her every day.

Suddenly, Me' dies, and Annie is left dealing with her 'mommy issues' and reliving her childhood, as she raises her own child Tabetha. Annie begins to judge her mom's mothering, and sees the parallels in her own style of parenting. She is fearful she is unraveling, and is becoming overly paranoid.  She begins to hear her own mother's voice "You get what you deserve, Anh. You know what you did' all the time.

As people close to Annie mysteriously begin to die, or become seriously hurt, she begins to go deeper and deeper into psychological distress.  She begins to think she may be the one responsible for all the suffering around her.  Annie wonders if she is dangerous and might hurt the ones she loves.  While Annie thinks she is having a psychotic break, Duncan is pushed to the limits and gives Annie an ultimatum "either seek counseling or I'm going to have to leave with Tabby." He and Tabby leave Annie alone, to fend for herself during her mental instability. What will happen? Will Annie ever get back to reality, or will she be found guilty of the crimes happening around her?

Embark on this wild ride with K.T. Nguyen in her new bestseller and you will not be able to put it down. There is never a dull moment. An honest depiction and well-told tale of the terror of mental health issues! This story clearly illustrates how we are often the product of our childhood environment, and how it affects our own actions in adulthood.

I absolutely loved this book and have nothing but positive things to say! Thank you NetGalley,  Penguin Group Publishing, and K.T. Nguyen for this eARC book in return for an honest review. Looking forward to reading anything Ms. Nguyen publishes next!

The main storyline of You Know What You Did centers around Annie. Annie’s mother, a compulsive hoarder, was found dead by Annie. That death pushes Annie’s mental health to the limit. Annie suffers from contamination-based OCD, and she finds herself spiraling into routines that she hasn’t done in years. With her employer’s disappearance and the death of a man she barely knows pinned on her, Annie finds herself losing grip on reality. What is going on? Did the death of Annie’s mother set her off, or is there a more sinister reason? Can Annie figure out what is going on?

Annie had a time for it in the first half of the book. Her mother dies, and then she catches her best friend’s husband getting pleasured at the school carnival; the husband then starts sending threatening texts/pics to Annie. Tabby (her daughter) is awful and leaves for horse camp; her employer disappears, her dog dies, and Duncan leaves to cover a story in Syria. Her stress level was sky-high, and the pressure just kept mounting. I got stressed just reading about her predicaments.

Speaking of her relationships, I wasn’t a huge fan of Duncan or Tabby. Duncan came across as condescending or a jerk while he was with her. I could picture the tone he used with her; that imaginary tone made me grumpy (I don’t like condescending people). He also seemed to be undermining her parenting of Tabby. Everything she said or did that concerned Tabby was immediately challenged or changed by Duncan. As for Tabby, I understood she was a teenager and had that attitude, but she still aggravated me.

Annie’s relationship with her mother was also a massive part of the storyline. But, there was also a disconnect for me. I wanted to see more of her and Annie’s interactions when Annie was growing up. I wanted to know what caused such a massive rift between them. I also wanted to know more about her time in Vietnam. The author did go back to 1978 and explain a few things-like hoarding.

I liked Annie, but she was a very unreliable narrator. There were times during the book when I couldn’t figure out if what Annie was saying happened. She had vivid dreams about people that seemed to come true (which was freaky). Even her mother’s death was suspect in my eyes. Even after an explanation was given (and this goes with the twist I mention below), I still couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe she wasn’t all innocent.

The mystery angle of the book was terrific. I thought I had everything figured out, and then, bam, the author throws in a huge twist. This twist I did not see coming. All I could think was that that person had done an insane amount of planning to accomplish what they did.

I also like the book’s horror element. While it wasn’t subtle, it wasn’t in your face. Reading about Annie’s spiral into her OCD routines was both heartbreaking and frightening. But watching Annie’s mind become more and more fractured was truly horrifying. Lost hours and memories, on top of her OCD routines, set the tone for the last half of the book.

The end of You Know What You Did was terrific. I liked how the author revealed what was happening and who was behind it. As I said above, I was beyond shocked by who it was. The epilogue wrapped up the other storylines one year later, but I still couldn’t figure out what happened during the final fight in the carriage house. It was alluded to, but since Annie was so sick (mentally), I couldn’t tell if it was real. And folks, that is what made this book so good to read!

Many thanks to Penguin Group Dutton, Dutton, NetGalley, and K.T. Nguyen for allowing me to read and review this ARC of You Know What You Did. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

I was so excited to receive a copy of this book as an ARC. I unfortunately quickly found myself losing interest, as I didn’t connect or really care about any of the characters. This was unfortunately a DNF for me!

Thank you to NetGalley and K. T. Nguyen for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A brilliant debut novel! This is a wonderfully crafted story with well developed and compelling characters, it has twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat right to the last page. It was so captivating and exciting that I simply couldn't put it down!

The author’s insightful look into both the psyche of people suffering from OCD is intriguing and frightening. The end had a satisfying, realistic conclusion; there is no magic bullet to rid the world of these people who prey on the weak and helpless, but enough justice for everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton who provided me with a copy of this book. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

What a fun book to read! A story about a women with past mental illness wondering if it is coming back or if something else more sinister is happening. It jumps around time lines making the confusion more lifelike to the reader. Are her worst fears coming true? Or is it all in her head? I read it quickly and rated it for stars. Visit my TikTok account @jillandjackets for a full review.

Annie Shaw, daughter of a Vietnamese refugee grew up seeking connection and approval from only one person. Her mother. And after her mother passes away and she thought it was finally over, her toxic relationship with her mother frequently regenerates itself in Annie's head so the rest of Annie's life comes crashing down all around her. Imagination and reality start to blur, leaving her as a main suspect in multiple ongoing police investigations. But she doesn't know who to believe. Herself or the evidence. Only one person knows exactly what she did.

Phew. THIS. BOOK. has so many elements I loved I don't even know where to start.

The characterization was absolutely amazing. Nguyen connects you with each character but always leaves you with suspicion hanging in the air after every encounter. Really grabbing your attention and holding onto it, making it hard to sit down. With your want to know what they do next quickly turning into a NEED to know, you will find yourself flying through these pages.

And the way the OCD representation that was portrayed built such a uniquely skin tingling and unsettling feeling. I defenitly got the heebie jeebies on more than one occasion.

And that ending. It was shocking, twisty and very impactful. I am still not over it.

I highly, highly recommend
If you like:
•Unreliable Characters
•Creepie Crawlies
•Mother/Daughter dynamics
•Domestic Thrillers
•Body Horror
•Mystery
•Drama
•Character Studies
•Art
•Mental Health (OCD, hoarding)

Thank you so much to @ktnguyen_author
@netgalley and @duttonbooks for the free advanced copy.