Locked room type mystery, where basically the friends/family and the lone survivor of the Memorial Day massacre are invited to like an Airbnb type place under the guise of a journalist, wanting to write an article about what they went through. Truly, nothing wrong with the storyline other than it just really didn’t do much for me. I’m not sorry that I read the book But definitely didn’t feel pulled in or have me thinking about the storyline when I wasn’t reading. I did feel it kind of hard to relate to the characters as there were several to keep up with and just not enough identifiable or relatable traits for me to keep them straight in my head. So I guess I would put that down to needed a little bit more character development to make it easier to follow.

Thanks to netgalley for my electronic advanced reader, copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Sadly ,I've had to do a soft dnf for now and come back to the book in the future. I think the writing was very good. Based on what I've read so far I would still recommend this to people I know would love this type of story.

Amy decides to leave a house party because her friends made her feel like she didn’t belong. So relatable. Who would want to stay somewhere, where they don’t feel like they belong. But within the next hour, her 5 friends end up dead. Twenty years later, a journalist invites 10 people with connections to the crime to a remote house. So many secrets. There is definitely someone in the house who knows more details about that night. This book will have you on the edge of your seat. It took a little while for me to get into it but once I did, I couldn’t put the book down!
Thank you NetGalley, Stacie, and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC!

This was my first time reading Stacie Grey, and I received She Left as an ARC from NetGalley. The novel presents an intriguing premise with a classic locked-room mystery setup. The plot is engaging, with several twists and turns that keep the reader guessing. The character development, particularly of Amy, is well-handled. Her transformation from a traumatized teenager to a determined FBI agent adds depth to the story. However, some of the secondary characters felt underdeveloped, which made it harder to connect with them emotionally. The ending, while surprising, felt a bit rushed and left a few loose ends that could have been better resolved. Despite these flaws, the book's atmosphere and suspenseful narrative make it a worthwhile read. Overall, She Left is a solid mystery with a compelling storyline and a strong protagonist. While it had its shortcomings, it shows promise for Stacie Grey as a writer. I'm interested to see how her storytelling evolves in future works. #netgalley #sheleft

This is a classic kind of isolated thriller "who dun it?” with all its murder mystery goodness. She left begins with 16 year old Amy walking home in the dead of night after leaving a house party after a falling out with her friends. I like this one for its quick pace and familiar structure.

I love a good locked room mystery and this one was pretty good! It was a fast paced read and kept me entertained. I feel like I guessed who done it pretty early on, so it took out the shock for me, but still had a good time reading this!

This book has a great premise where when Amy was a teenager she left a party that she was at with her friends and shortly afterwards her friends were all murdered. Now in present day, she is invited with others to a remote house to talk about the events from that day. But then people start dying. This book and setup sounded like my type of book. I love books that play with Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None and love mysteries set in isolated locations. This was set to be a very me type of read. And while I did enjoy it, it wasn't as amazing of a reading experience as I had hoped that it would be. One of the struggles I faced was all of the different characters. The setup was that someone related in some way (family, friend, acquaintance) to one of the five murdered teenagers was brought to this house under the same pretenses of talking about what happened so long ago. What made it confusing or hard for me was keeping track of those individuals and who they related to from the past or how. Also, Amy herself in present day now goes by a different name which didn't help matters. There were also a few others there that were just related to the investigation in some way like a witness and the detective that worked the case that were there too. It took me entirely too long to get it all straight in my head of who was who which effected my enjoyment of the book to a certain extent. I did enjoy the isolated location, the struggles the characters faced when a storm hit, and the mystery behind it all when people started dying. I just felt that the difficulty in really getting to know the characters and relations to those from the past took away from the mystery behind it all. That's just my opinion though. Overall, I enjoyed this book but didn't love it like I had hoped to. 3.5 stars and I will probably round down on Goodreads.

Readers who enjoy mysteries or are as intrigued by that premise as I was should definitely give this book a try. I would definitely read more by this author and am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

This is a lone survivor meets stuck together mystery that will thrill Agatha Christie fans. It really had an updated feel to a classic scenario with plenty of situational twists to have you blazing through the pages. The author sets an atmosphere of suspicion right from the start and carries that throughout her story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishing company for this Digital Advanced Readers Copy! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

A classic whodunit read, but I wish there were a little more twists because I felt like I was able to guess who the culprit was decently early on. Not the worst book but not my favorite either.

Predictable twist, but good writing and character development overall!

I really enjoyed the setting—Pacific Northwest-ish, in a secluded forest, in an older vacation mansion, in the middle of an epic storm. I loved all of the scenic detail, and the characters who claimed to be experts in one piece of outdoor living or another…and then just weren’t when they needed to come through.

The book started off with a LOT of characters. Obviously not all survive this old house in the forest, and once they started getting killed off, it was much easier to keep the survivors straight. There were a few who seemed inconsequential all the way through, however.

Overall, a quick read that kept me on my toes!

Poisoned Pen Press essentially means "this work will be great" at this point and She Left does more than just deliver, it sings with emotion and intensity.

A modern take on the classic locked room mystery. I liked the atmospheric setting that enhanced the tension in the tale. . Some of the plot twists were telegraphed early. which reduced the overall suspense and impact of the story.
Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

What even was that? I think it will be the first book to take me 3 months! to reach 37% mark and finally dnf it. At this point I don’t know if I want to laugh or cry for waisting my time.
I think it just tried too much to be like Agatha Christie story, but the main character in no way can’t be compared to Mrs Marple or Hercule Poirot. Therese was way too boring, had no charisma that Poirot has, and definitely wasn’t so charming as Mrs Marple.
The plot it self was so childish, that I couldn’t think about this book seriously. Was it meant to be a parody of a mystery thriller? Or was it supposed to be a cozy mystery? Author only knows…
I can’t get the time I lost trying to read this book, but I can at least try to save some of yours.
I think you guessed it… I do not recommend this book.

First I want to thank NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press and Stacie Grey for my ARC of She Left.

This was a fun read! Definitely more of a mystery than a thriller but it was still really good! It was a quick read and kept my attention till the end. I really enjoyed the setting of the book and I liked how we got to know the characters but the book kept moving. If you enjoy a good locked room mystery I would definitely recommend reading She Left!

I thought this book was ok. I really liked the premise but thought it could have been executed better. There was multiple times where in conversations I struggled to follow who was talking. It was such a slow build to a rushed ending. Would consider reading more books by the author.

this was just okay as a whoddunit book. Too many characters to keep up with it. I liked the premise though, of Therese’s guilt on leaving her friends, then making up for it by not leaving the mansion in the present when she had many chances to save herself.

This book was the perfect read, suspense with twists.
Characters worked well and could perfectly envision the words coming to life!

I was initially drawn in by the concept of this book and thought the opening chapter was particularly strong. However, as I continued reading, I found the rest of the story fell short of its potential.

There were too many characters to keep track of, and most of them felt one-dimensional, including the main character, who I found particularly uninspiring. This made it hard to connect with any of them or care about their journeys.

The plot also felt a bit forced at times, with certain twists and turns that didn't seem entirely believable. And while the final reveal did tie everything together, I had already figured out who the killer was early on, which took away any element of surprise.

SHE LEFT by Stacie Grey tries its best to be the kind of mainstream thriller/mystery that you'd find on the shelves along Riley Sager, Alice Feeney, and Shari Lapena, but it falls like TWO inches short of the finish line. Stacie Grey knows the formula and she knows how to write, but without something special to push her books over the edge, I'm unsure if we'll ever see one of her novels sitting among the greats. The was just perfectly okay.