I went into this thinking it was yet another protagonist-stuck-with-a-killer-but-who?-thriller but I didn't count on Kenetria and her dissociative identity disorder. Cole has written an unusual novel which makes good use of the various voices in Kenetria's head-mostly Ken. She's finally gotten a chance to return to her career, this time at a historic house, but then there's a man from her past and a murder. What really happened? No spoilers from me. This has good tension and atmospherics. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A good read.

Ken suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID), what used to be called multiple personality disorder. One of Us Knows is presented in first-person narrative with alternating perspectives of her different personalities. I found this to be confusing.

Ken wakes up after six years of her personalities ruling her life and realizes that she has a job as a caretaker for a castle on an island. As the ferry approaches the island, Ken thinks this castle looks like the place where the other personalities live in her head. Things feel strange on the island, Ken doesn’t know anything about the history or what is expected of her. 
Familiar faces show up from her past and things get out of hand, such as the dead body and fingers pointing to Ken. Can she figure out the truth and get off the island alive?

I started this book over twice and still found it confusing and hard to keep who the characters were meant to be straight in my head. And…I did not like Ken.

There are a lot of five star reviews so I think this is a goos story, but one that didn’t ring with this reader.

I will seek out another Alyssa Coke novel because I think she’s a good writer and storyteller.

Loved getting to know all of the different headmates and discover who has the most information. Kenetria is the sub for the reader when the tale starts, but quickly we start to know more than she does because her headmates are keeping secrets, and she isn't always around to hear what they're saying to each other. Ken needing to figure out what is happening in the inner world and outer world were engrossing, somehow everything's connected, but we don't know how or why. The title was at the forefront of my mind the entire time...I needed to find out who knew what and immediately!! So good, another great thriller from Alyssa Cole!

I have liked other books from this author more. This one didn't really work for me. It was an ambitious attempt, the trauma of a woman dealing with DID as well as racism as well as a mystery/thriller. The DID and her alters didn't feel very realistic to me and I didn't really like reading this part. I would read other of her books and I think others will like this, but it wasn't really for me

This story felt like a nice slow burn. It worked really well to where each chapter still drew me in just a bit more. It didn't feel slow as in boring but more so like this nice smoothe ride.

4.5 stars.

I absolutely loved One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole! I don’t want to give too much away about this marvelous novel, so I’ll just note the things that really stood out to me.

1. The characters are all vibrantly developed with true to life characteristics and human foibles. Each of them has a distinct voice and are very easy to tell apart. I really liked Kenetria Nash and couldn’t help but feel sympathetic to her experiences in both the past and present. And Celeste is also fabulous!

2. The setting! Oh my gosh, the island and castle are so incredibly life-like and realistic. Both give off such a creepy vibe it’s hard to keep from looking over your shoulder while reading. I greatly enjoyed how the different elements of the storyline come together in an unexpected fashion.

3. The storyline. Wowza! So creative and imaginative. The psychological and supernatural aspects are extremely well written and create a very atmospheric reading experience. I was thoroughly invested in the diary entries that provide chilling insight into the island’s history as well as Kenetria and her multiple personalities and their current predicament.

4. The book's conclusion is stunning and brings the entire thriller full circle.

If you enjoy reading psychological thrillers then I highly recommend One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole.

One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Ken is a youngish woman who suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID), what used to be called multiple personality disorder. The story is a first-person narrative with the chapters told from the perspective of different personalities. The story begins when Ken ‘awakes’ after six years of letting other personalities be outward facing. She finds that she has a job as a caretaker on for a castle on an island. As the ferry approaches the island, Ken thinks this castle looks like the place where the other personalities live in her head. This leads the reader to think that this place is an important part of her backstory and might be the reason behind the trauma that resulted in the DID.
One of us knows what that backstory is, but I can honestly say that I am not one of them. I can’t say that I liked the book, but at least I was engaged for the first half or so. I looked forward to the next chapter because I wanted to see how it was all going to turn out. I wanted to know which one of Ken’s personalities knew the real story. I was intrigued by what I thought was a good plot device, the DID. By the second half of the book, I was just confused as many other characters entered the narrative. By the end, I didn’t care as characters seemed to overlap and muddle together.
I did not like Ken. While I did not want her to die and I thought it would be nice if she worked out her issues, I also was not exactly rooting for her as she was a rather unpleasant person. I liked some of her other personalities better. The story felt very uneven, and it wasn’t because of the multiple personalities. I think there could have been a good story in here with a unique premise, but it just didn’t work for me.

Whoa! This book had me screaming through the pages. I was completely enraptured as soon as I dove in. This was a completely unique read and I was here for it. Ken has had dissociative identity disorder or multiple personality disorder since she was young. Her upbringing was rocky at best and in order to deal with all of the trauma, she spread it out to all of her Headmates. Each having their own layered personality that brings so much depth to the book. Ken has been dormant for six years, leaving her Headmates to scramble and make up for her absence. When she comes to, she is standing on a dock waiting for the ferry to take her to her new job as a caretaker to a castle on its own island. No one knows anything about this job and, Della, the one who has been leading, is nowhere to be found. Ken is tempted to say no to the job, but they have lost their apartment, and have no other choice. She steps onto the ferry and into her new life.

The entire island is wrapped in weird tales. Goblin hunts, hauntings, and the castle looks like the exact one she has in her head, where her Headmates reside. How can that be? There is a storm heading straight for the island. Making the wind whip, and the castle creak. The entire is story is atmospheric and chilling. I do not want to go into any more detail and give up the entire story line. Just know that you are in for one intense thrill ride. Where the past and the present will meet in one fantastically, charged ending. Thank you to Alyssa Cole and William Morrow for this closed room thriller.

I think I am still trying to fully process this book. There are aspects that I truly liked. I enjoyed how it started off. I feel like each distinct personality was enjoyable. They were well flushed out and individual enough while still fitting in to create a whole. What I didn’t like was the middle it really dragged. The beginning and end were action packed and drew me in but with the middle lagging so much it really made it hard to stay as focused as I could have. I also feel like the grand reveal needed maybe a bit more fleshing out. I still am not quite sure why the hunt was so important, what was really the point of it, etc. While I wanted to like and understand this book, I just think there are some pieces of the puzzle I am still missing.
Thank you to William Marrow and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

One of Us Knows - What a great subject for a novel! The mystery 'they' find themselves in is as intriguing as the inner mystery. I loved the storyline and it moved along well. Very enjoyable novel.

3.5⭐️
What a wild ride!!
Kenetria wakes up and is not sure where she is or what’s going on. An alarm goes off that tells her she is starting a new job as a caretaker for a historical castle. She has dissociative identity disorder “DID”. Which means she has multiple personalities and different people are living in the same body. She has been dormant for 6 years and is getting information from her inner world on what she has missed. And which one of them applied for this job.
As soon as they arrive at the island, things feel strange. Ken doesn’t know anything about the history or what is to be expected.
Familiar faces show up from her past and things get out of hand. A dead body. Fingers pointed at Ken. They must figure out the truth and get off this island alive.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. I enjoyed it, however, I found it to be confusing at times. I just didn't think all the pieces came together smoothly. I had a lot of "wait what?" and "Huh???" thoughts while reading and I didn't necessarily get all the answers I was searching for. It just felt like pieces were thrown together and not much coherent thought to how the pieces are supposed to actually go together, like puzzle pieces that don't quite fit correctly.

I was completely speechless after reading this book, I've never read anything like it. I have no experience with DID but if this is what it's like...wow. I can't recommend this book enough. It's one you read once and immediately have to read again to get a different perspective.

Wow, what a story. I really enjoyed this one. I've always found DID interesting. The author did a lot of work planning this book and it shows. I will be recommending this book to customers.

Thank you, for my gifted copy.

I'm a big fan of Alyssa Cole's romances but this was her first thriller for me. There were parts I truly enjoyed but on the whole this was only ok for me. It turns out multiple personalities is not my jam. There was a lot, and I mean A LOT going on here but it was also pretty slow at times.

Thank you to William Morrow books for my e-ARC in exchange for my review!

One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole publishes April 16th, 2024.

This book is so unique!! The main character, Kenetria, has dissociative identity disorder (DID), and has multiple ‘alters’ or ‘headmates’ who take turns ‘fronting’ or driving her body, actions, and decisions. When Ken finds herself fronting after a nearly 6 year dormancy, she finds herself on a journey to become a resident caretaker of a historic home. Based on what little memories she has, she quickly learns she is on the verge of homelessness, and this job is crucial to her security. However, upon landing, she finds herself isolated in an incredibly creepy and haunted home with only an estate gardener as a companion. With a Nor-Easter storm imminent, multiple members of the estate’s trust arrive for a surprise event. Ken is shocked to see two men from her past included as board members of the estate, and when one of them is murdered, she becomes the lead suspect. In a race against time with a murderer loose, Ken and her alters must figure out who the killer is and uncover the history of the estate and how they are seemingly connected to its past.

With a creepy and immersive setting and a brilliant cast of alter ego characters, this thriller was fresh and fast-paced. Cole did a fantastic job portraying DID! I spent half of my time doubting the alters and the other half cheering for them! I didn’t know what to expect or believe, as Cole drove the plot forward to its unique conclusion. Don’t sleep on Cole’s newest thriller masterpiece!

I was so excited to see a new book from Alyssa Cole (I loved her last thriller) but this one was a bit of a miss for me. The premise is intriguing enough--we are following Kenetria Nash, who has dissociative identity disorder (DID). Ken and her alters have just started a new job as caretaker for a historic site on an isolated island, but something feels off from the moment they arrive. They have very little information about the historic site or the job itself, and a brewing storm threatens to trap them on the island despite their growing unease. When members of the site's trust show up unexpectedly, Ken realizes there's more to this job than she has been told, and must figure out if and how it is connected to her past in order to make it off the island alive.

I'm struggling to articulate what didn't work about this for me. The writing was great as always, and Cole does a good job of differentiating between who is speaking--whether the conversation is happening in the "outer" (physical) world or within the "inner" world of the DID system. The journal entries from the different alters were helpful in establishing who was who, and I do feel like I could tell everyone apart fairly easily. (Although the story is mainly told from Ken's and Solomon's points of view and I wish we could have seen more of the rest of the alters to round out their personalities more.) I guess I felt like the pacing was off. There was a lot of introductory stuff at the beginning which made it hard to get into, and then it felt like the action/reveal/wrap-up at the end was all pretty rushed. It felt like things were not as well-explained as they could have been. I also feel like the publisher's summary is a little misleading--there is a dead body as mentioned, but it doesn't show up until way too late in the story (in my opinion), and including it in the summary like that makes it feel like it should have happened much earlier in the book. I'm not sorry I read the book, but I did have some trouble motivating myself to keep reading at the beginning because the pace was just much slower than I expected.

I think the key is to just know what you're in for going in to the book. If you are looking for a slow-burn, atmospheric and eerie, suspense-ish book touching on mental health and social issues, I would give this one a try. If you're looking for a fast-paced, pulse-pounding thriller, this is not it.+

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Kenetria (Ken) has dissociative identity disorder (DID), or multiple personalities. Ken has just emerged from being dormant for 6 years to find herself on a dock with luggage and a ferry coming towards her. Through her thoughts, she communicates with her personalities to find out what is going on and discovers that they have gotten a job as a caretaker on Kavanaugh (or Daybreak) Island. The only caveat is that they must make it through that first night.

Turns out, Ken and her headmates (her personalities) arrived a day earlier than anticipated. She doesn’t need to survive the first night but the second night. This is the night that members of the trust for the island arrive, including Ken’s ex-boyfriend and his father. When someone turns up dead, everyone assumes Ken is the murderer (she had attacked him years before).

Each chapter alternates from the POV of Ken to each of her “headmates”. Sometimes a journal entry will appear in between.

This was a tough, confusing read. There were several typos throughout the book. Normally, I can figure out the gist of what the author is writing but there were several times in this book when I had to reread the sentence because the typo changed the sentence completely. At one point, a character was thinking something was a figment of their imagination, but the author wrote “…fig mint…”.

I love this author and I will read everything she reads forever and I am so grateful for this ARC.
However, I had a hard time with this book. I think it was my own bias about DID and the sheer amount of young people who claim to have it, and my own struggles as a caregiver for a sibling with a serious mental illness.
Please keep producing books. I promise I will rush to read them all.

A mystery featuring a protagonist with multiple personalities who is hired to be caretaker of a house on an uninhabited island. It does get a bit confusing at times as the author transitions between personalities.