Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC #TheRecordings by #KyleZona. This book is packed with action, drama and murder. There is some abuse but that all ties in with the story.

I initially chose this book for the cover - it looked like a creepy pyramid and I thought it might be some sort of paranormal horror. It’s actually more of a murder mystery, fairly fast paced with a handful of twists and turns told from multiple POVs. It had enough intrigue to keep me reading but I must admit I was scratching my head on a couple of major plot points that I couldn’t reconcile to the behavior of the characters previously. I really enjoyed the inclusivity of the LGBTQIA+ characters and the violent scenes were well written (and pretty graphic), so if not for these inconsistencies this would be a solid 4 star. I look forward to seeing more from KZ.

Thanks to Kyle Zona and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

2.75/5 rounded up to 3/5 stars

This is a complicated book to review for me—I stepped a bit outside my usual genre to take a stab at this book because its premise intrigued me so much, and so that will influence my review. While the story was engaging and rewarding in the way all of the threads came together, there were things that felt like they weren't as expertly crafted as they could have been either.

I did enjoy seeing the ways the major elements of the story and the characters interweaving paths fell into place narratively. The town with a tragic recent event, the murder, the smart homes, ex-boyfriends and childhood friend, it all coalesced in a way that made sense. So the book definitely has that going for it! Perhaps someone who is very into the genre will really love this story. However, I will also describe some of my big contentions that made this a not as great read for me.

Firstly, I didn't really like or care about any of the characters, and while I don't think that's always necessary to enjoy a book, at times I felt our three main characters were flat and one sided rather than dynamic individuals who are able to convince an audience to care for. Arturo was very much a Guy Who Likes Whiskey and Edison light bulbs and smoking weed but calling it "flower" which is such a specific type of guy that I know everyone has come across. Joseph was very much the picture of a rich ignore-my-emotions-to-be-Successful type of guy. Noah did retain more of the sense of mystery that made it easier to imagine him as more dimensional than Arturo and Joseph, but eventually just fell into a mold of a guy who's really into voyeurism and revenge.

Of course, this book came with some twists to expectations as it comes to characters but they came late enough in the game that they felt out of left field rather than supported by building evidence.

Likewise, the secondary characters weren't much better in terms of developed personalities, especially the women. Arturo's tía didn't have a name until the very end and it's only mentioned once despite her playing a pivotal role in the story and having several pages of dialogue. Additionally, Zona always put the word tía (and a few other Spanish phrases) in italics, which really threw me for a loop. I understand that sometimes style guides recommend italicizing an unfamiliar word, but when your character doesn't have a name until nearly the end of the story and is referred to as "Tía" 100 times in the narrative (I did a search and counted the results for tía) it becomes a familiar word very quickly to anyone who happens to come to this book not already knowing its meaning. It felt like an odd choice that reminded me that this book is a self-published novel with fewer sieves to be sifted through that would catch those issues.

I felt myself rolling my eyes at the characters because many story beats and decisions they made felt like inevitabilities. It also felt like the author chose to be overly graphic about details that to me seemed extraneous—is there another way to show that a father is disappointed in his ten year old son than describing him having hemorrhoids because he "shits too hard"? The level of detail that went into moments like this just seemed a little over the top.

I also found myself confused with the logic of the world and the story. It's a tiny town where everyone knows each other's business, yet it's big enough to support a bookstore that hosts multiple nights of the same author reading from his book and signing copies of it. Joseph finds out he's barely got any money left but it's not ever relevant to the story or brought up again. Several threads just aren't tied up.

Also, Joseph's paranoia that he was being followed by "The Killer" came too early on the story for narrative tension to really kick in, but I think that also was a result of us not finding out about the smart home device playing the murder recording until several chapters in. The book summary obviously gives that detail away, so I wonder if it would have been better narratively to start off with that scene rather than have the information come out in a dream that may or may not be a memory and then vaguely talk about "the recordings."

This book contained some incredibly graphic scenes of violence, murder, suicide and sexual abuse of children which it does warn for at the beginning. Heed those warnings because Zona is not lying or exaggerating!

Thank you to Kyle Zona and NetGalley for access to an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

I was hooked from the moment I read the synopsis. My love for this book escalated with the introduction of 3 intertwining stories between 3 queer men (not certain if they are all labeled with their sexualities, all followed a gay forward story line.) The ideas that Kyle Zona brought to this mystery/thriller truly had me on the edge of my seat. The scenes (although graphic) are all very well written and truly give the reader a clear idea of just the emotion that fueled the events. This book is quite HEAVY on some highly sensitive topics, please check the trigger warnings before reading (the author does not hold back.)
I would say all in all, the twists and turns that I felt with this book were simply what I look for in a thriller. I did give this a 4 due to the fact that with the "home device" playing a BIG role in the synopsis, i felt the use of this plot was not as well used as it could have been. The idea behind this was truly amazing to me and I was wanting that story line to go further. Without giving anything away, I felt the author could have pushed more of this story line and laid off some smaller insignificant story lines.

I have already recommended this to at least one friend as soon as i finished.

I would like to thank Kyle Zona for providing me with an ARC on Netgalley for my review.

The Recordings
Kyle Zona
328 pages, Kindle Edition
Thriller, Mystery, Queer

I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kyle Zona definitely delivered a fast-paced thriller to keep you on the edge of your seat this pumpkin spice season. Thrillers are not my usual cup of tea but I found myself intrigued by the lives of these characters and the sinister mystery surrounding them. The novel is told through three different perspectives after a mass explosion brings a sleepy small town to a jolt and a killer is set loose, intent on hiding his murder in the aftermath. The killer's POV included in the narrative was chilling since Zona doesn't hold back on gory details. The novel also deals heavily with subjects of grief and anxiety so be advised to check the trigger warnings before reading! I liked the cozy small-town depictions of Baxtor Springs amidst the tragedies that continually befall the town. I also liked that almost all the characters were gay, including the three main perspectives, which is a refreshing representation. I loved that surprising twist!!! I didn't expect anything more than a few scare jumps and some mystery, but the twist around the middle of the book left me confounded and prompted me to devour the rest in one sitting. It's really a solid dark and gritty thriller about guilt and trauma that I'd recommend to anyone looking for a fast-paced, adult queer mystery read.

TW: Pedophilia, Unaliving, Massacres, Gore, Physical violence

2.5 stars rounded up for being a debut. I'm the outlier though since everyone else seemed to have really liked this one.

The premise seemed so intriguing to me, but the actual story seemed to have happened after the synopsis, so it didn't really line up with my expectations. I don't know if I just missed something, but the plot and timing of everything didn't really make sense to me for most of the book.

I also wasn't a huge fan of any of the characters. I did come around to Arturo by the end, but it was hard to connect to any of them, which left me not caring that much. I also felt like Arturo and Joseph's relationship was a bit weird with how quickly it moved and how familiar they seemed with each other after like one day.

I will say that I enjoyed how much representation was in this book and how natural it all came across. It didn't feel forced at all.

I can see the appeal for people and how unexpected the plot became halfway through. I think the writing style just wasn't for me personally.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kyle Zona for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, I'd like to echo other reviewers before me and say that this book deals with heavy subject matters, so heed the content warnings (listed below the review) if you read it.

This novel's plot was different from what I'd expected when I first read the description, but I really enjoyed it! The first half was a little bit slow as it was a lot of setting & character-building while delivering the main elements of the mystery, but when the halfway point hit, I felt like I'd gotten metaphorically slapped on the face and the stakes got really high. The pace also picked up quite a lot by then, which made for an engaging read because I was dying to know the truth behind everything. In the end, I feel like everything was nicely tied together and I was satisfied by the outcome of the book.
I also enjoyed the rotating POVs between the characters as it helped deliver more information to the reader without feeling too jarring.

The characters themselves were interesting, though I was a little frustrated by Joseph and his decisions at times. I also enjoyed the gay representation in this quite a lot, it's refreshing to read about gay characters in a thriller for once over what I'm usually reading.

The violence in this book was pretty brutal, and I'm personally saying this in a positive way as someone who enjoys a good dose of horror in his diet. This book would be up the alley of anyone else who likes their thriller kills to be on the bloodier and messier side.

I do have some nitpicks, however: the timeline of events prior to the novel's main story was a bit too confusing to me at times, and the build-up in Joseph and Arturo's relationship felt a bit too fast and could have perhaps benefited from the main story taking place over a longer span of time.
I also wished the home tech element was a bit more prominent since that's what I'd expected from reading the book's description, but that is more of a personal feeling than something that took me out of the story.

Overall, this was an enjoyable book with an intriguing plot and interesting cast of characters, and some pretty gnarly scenes of violence too!

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Content warnings: Graphic violence, gore, suicide, pedophilia, grooming, alcohol & drug use/abuse, vomit

Received digital ARC for honest review

The Recordings is thrilling and heavy mystery centered around a small town tragedy and three men that get connected through it.
I'll second what other reviews have say and heed you to check the trigger warnings (I'll put mine at the bottom of this review).

This book definitely had me on the edge of my seat. From the first page, the reader is hit with horror and mystery and then you're dropped into an normal event albeit, one put on by tragedy. You are surrounded by all the emotions of this small town and then one incident really ramps up the action. I'll tell you, my second hand anxiety for the characters really skyrocketed from that point on.

I feel like the main characters are well developed. The chapters switch between their points of view so you get a good 360° of the events. There was in instance where one of the character's motivation seemed thin but as you get more information about him, you realize it wasn't as out of the blue as you initially thought.

This book is full of puzzle pieces and it was amazing how they all came together. A lot of back story about the characters is needed but the way it was presented flowed well with the plot so the reader isn't trudging through endless exposition.
This book was a thrilling read and I'm tempted to read it again to see if I missed where small pieces of the puzzle fit!


TW: murder, suicide, SA of children, body horror, alcohol and drug use/abuse. Characters also deal with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and flashbacks.

This was gifted by Netgalley and the publisher for reviewing purposes.

I originally was interested in this book because it is queer and it claims to be a cat mouse thriller, which are two things that I love and I love them even more when they’re paired together. Our main character, Joseph is recently fired after being a little too involved with a student. Now he’s moved away and he’s hoping to publish a novel. His experience is publishing textbooks, but he really wants to get out of that field and into something more fulfilling. He has an idea for the book but he’s not sure if it’s really a morally sound idea this incorporates the use of his home device, and when he asks his smart home device to do some thing it instead does something that he didn’t ask for at all and begins playing him the recording of a murder this gives our main character inspiration for his new book. So he continues writing the book and he finishes it and now what do you do? You put it out in the world so he be friends a local bookstore owner and there he needs somebody who becomes a little too interested in his book and his story..

This was unlike anything else that I’ve ever read before, and I really found the smart home elements of this to be eerie, and also enjoyable at the same time. It definitely feels a little bit genre, bending as you have certain Syfy elements, and you have certain, mystery and thriller elements to it as well. If any of these tropes sound like some thing that you would like, I would recommend picking this book up. It’s definitely interesting and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it but I think I’m going to settle on a three star for now..

This gets pretty dark and touches on some really disturbing topics but wow! I absolutely did nit see those twists coming and it made me reevaluate absolutely everything. Its a really original storyline and it keeps up a good pace and builds the tension throughout. I absolutely loved the concept and how well it was written, it all came together perfectly and didn't leave any plot holes and had even the most irrelevant things still tying in nicely. Highly recommend

First things first : Check the trigger warnings before jumping into this one, it gets pretty heavy. Protect your mental health 😌❤️
Okay, now that this is out of the way, lets talk about this book : i really enjoyed it! It got me hooked right away. Intriguing characters, including a killer’s POV, which is always a plus in my opinion 👌🏻 It was actually really interesting for me to have all those puzzle pieces during that first half then having everything shift by that TURNED OF EVENT I DIDN’T SEE COMING. 😳 (maybe i’m too trusting, need to self reflect here). It switched everything for me and after that, it just felt like the tension was higher and i really appreciate this shift.
The atmosphere in this story was really heavy, each page felt painted by grief, hurt and guilt, and having this much pain plaguing a small town really made those emotions more vivid.
Kill scenes were fantastic 👌🏻
Also, every one is queer. So, you know i’m into it. 🤷🏻‍♀️
and can somebody PLEASE give Arturo the biggest hug of all time? Please and thank you.