This is a tricky review to write because I’m still having trouble determining exactly what type of book this was. At different points, I thought it may be a thriller, a coming-of-age story, or a retelling of the movie “The Bad Seed.”

There’s no problem with a book being all those things and more! But it’s difficult as a reader when you can’t detect the predominant theme. The result is a more diluted story, with no one point standing out against the rest.

Overall, I did like the book! The dual POVs and the structure involving a tell-all celebrity interview were engaging. There’s a murder mystery element as well, which did surprise me. However, I’m still unable to justify a few major choices due to a lack of motivation. Considering how we’re taken through the sisters’ lives from a very young age, their actions towards the end of the book felt out of character.

One consistent element, which I enjoyed was the writing! The scenes detailing Isla and Marlow’s upbringing were poignant and included great detail and character development, especially concerning their grandmother, Moni. Considering this, I’m interested in seeing what the author has planned next. With a more structured plot, I think her follow-up book could be a win!

"Marlow Fin is as famous for her beauty and success as she is infamous for her past, some of which is a mystery even to her. Is the public ready for the truth? Is she?"

This mystery-thriller sadly fell a little short for me. In 1995, In 1995, young Isla Baek finds an abandoned six-year-old girl in the woods near their family's lakeside cabin. Traumatised, Marlow cannot remember where she came from or how she got to the woods, and she's soon adopted into the Baek family. As the two girls grow up together, nobody is prepared for how disruptive Marlow's presence will become in the family or as she ascends to celebrity status.

The book unfolds between two timelines: present day as Marlow reveals everything in a prime time interview, and throughout their childhood from the 90s onwards. There's plenty of tension throughout and I did feel gripped, wanting to know what the twist was, but there are some huge pacing problems here. Lots of the scenes are really overwrought and, between that and the dual timeline, it unfortunately slows the whole story down. The truth finally comes out at around the 85% mark – thanks Kindle! – but I suppose I'd already lost interest by then.

I adored the representation of Moni, or Halmoni, the grandma and matriarch of the family. This sort of representation in East Asian stories feels so personal to me. Annoyingly, there's not much character development for, well, anybody else in the cast, which feels like a missed opportunity.

A gripping mystery-family saga with plenty of pacing issues.

Family drama doesn’t begin to describe this story! A hidden cabin, an abandoned child, a mysterious death…and more! Alternating between different time periods, this is a journey into the lives of Isla and Marlow….from their beginnings to the current day. I really enjoyed this book!

This book is a quick and fun mystery thriller but sadly it missed the mark for me. I didn’t connect with the characters, especially Marlow, which made me less invested in the story. I found Marlow to be a bit too psychotic, though some might find it justified, and honestly it made me question the characters. How could they see the behavior and ignore it? Continuing to let her be around their family? I wished there had been more common sense shown in certain moments, i.e. therapy, and it seemed like they almost deserved what they got given how blinded they were. I struggled with the writing style of this book and felt that it was trying to be simple and very visual at the same time and it didn’t successfully find a good balance. However, If you like morally gray characters (and dishonest/unreliable narrators) then this is for you! I did find the ending to be a bit anticlimactic and the twists were predictable but it was an easy and quick read.

This book was AWESOME! Definitely one you will want to pick up and won’t want to put down.❤️

Young Isla is on a camping trip with her parents. She finds a young girl in the woods. Isla’s family become her emergency guardians and eventually adopt her, calling her Marlow. Flash forward to present day, Marlow is a famous model and actress and a mess for lack of better words. Even as a child, she was disruptive and challenging. The secrets Isla’s family have kept, and Marlow as well are about to come to light in a highly anticipated tv interview.

I loved how this book spanned over decades, told from the POV of Isla, and during the interview with Marlow. As the secrets started to come out, I was shocked. This thriller with family drama knocked my socks off and I didn’t want it to end. The tension was palpable, and I had to know all of the explosive secrets Marlow was going to reveal.

Gah!!!😍 I just loved this book! Might just be my favorite July read!

Marlow Fin, a famous troubled actress with a mysterious and infamous past has finally granted an interview. Will she tell the truth about so many of the mysteries and suspicions surrounding her life? Does she know the truth?

A young girl, filthy, traumatized, and unable to speak is found by Isla, the young daughter of the Baek family on vacation at their lakeside cabin in the woods. Though the parents (Patrick and Stella) are at definite odds as to what should be done with the child, the result is that they agree to care for "Marlow" temporarily giving authorities time to find where she came from. No family is found, and Marlow becomes a part of the Baek family. The tension and disruption that Marlow brought to the family the day she was found, continues to grow and swell, overtaking all of them in the years to come.

Ellen Won Steil has written an engrossing novel about family dynamics through the years. Told in multiple time frames by various characters, we get to see the impact of the repercussions of decisions made over three decades of the Baek's family life. Not one family member is left blameless or unscathed.

The author has a noticeable gift with words and captures the emotions and thoughts of each character well. The book flows well, with short chapters propelling the reader on and is filled with intriguing twists, many of which cannot be imagined. A delight read that is highly recommended!

My thanks to Lake Union Publishing for granting me access to a digital review copy of this book via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

Isla and her family find Marlow in the woods by their cabin and their lives are never the same.

Who is Marlow Fin? Where did she come from? Why is she being accused of killing her sister? The pieces of a troubled actress’s mysterious life come together in a riveting novel about family secrets and unspeakable lies as she discusses it in a tell all interview.

This was a captivating thriller right from the first page. It is a bit of a slow burn in the start but it does pick up eventually and I was completely immersed in the story.

I enjoyed reading the book especially since we get both Isla's perspective through self narratives and reflections as well as Marlow's which is done in a sensationalised interview format. The back and forth between the past and present adds up to the suspense and I was curious to see how it all comes together in the end.

However I found myself a bit confused as the ending was quick and felt a bit rushed. I recommend reading this book if you love complicated family dramas with a little mystery and thrill.

Thank you @netgalley and @lakeunionpublishing for an eARC to read and review.

Becoming Marlow Fin is a wild ride from start to finish. The story is a rollercoaster of emotions - characters pulling at your heartstrings before a sharp turn has you completely conflicted. The darkness of human nature when pushed and the depths a person will go to are at the forefront of this suspenseful & thrilling family drama.
I truly didn’t foresee where the plot was headed. As I got closer to the end of the book, I couldn’t put it down. The ending does not disappoint with so many revelations in the final quarter of the story that will leave you in disbelief!

I have posted this review on Amazon, Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6695304994

And Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9xqltWxjVG/?igsh=bzY3NmU3MTFnaWE5

I was intrigued to read Becoming Marlow Fin and I wasn't disappointed. The twists in the plot take you from the discovery of 6 year old Marlow, abandoned in the woods, by Isla, as she becomes part of Isla and her family's life, and the two girls share a closeness but with an edge.
As you read through you are hooked in to their lives, the tragedies, the lies and secrets which all come together with the perfect twist at the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Becoming Marlow Fin.

Becoming Marlow Fin is a twisty, suspenseful tale that will leave you guessing right until the end, even if you think you've got it all figured out. Famous model turned actress Marlow Fin's sister, Isla, has gone missing and is presumed dead. Marlow was the last person to see her alive. In a live TV interview, the actress lays out her side of the story.. Simultaneously, Isla's story is told in retrospect. Somewhere between the two sisters' tales is revealed the dark truth. What will that truth reveal to the world, and who is Marlow Fin after all?

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. I thought this book was excellent. It was so propulsive that I ended up finishing it in just a few hours. This family and the sister relationship was so toxic. I also like that things weren't all tied up neatly at the end. I don't usually enjoy a more ambiguous ending, but this one worked for me and this story. I haven't seen too much hype about this book, but there should be! I will definitely read anything else this author writes.

Becoming Marlow Fin by Ellen Won Steil was a really great read!
This story has the same great pace, interesting characters and so many twists that I couldn’t stop reading until I turned the last page of this book.
The mystery was engaging and I was kept on the edge of my seat.
Suspenseful and intriguing, I was completely enthralled throughout the entire story.
With twist after twist makes this book impossible to put down.

Thank You NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I love complex and unique stories and this one really surprised me. It was full of twists, secrets and lots of drama. Multiple POVs, one of them told as an interview, I loved that, it was a bit of a slow burn, but it kept me guessing until the end.

Thank you Suzy Approved Book Tours for this tour invite.

𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗙𝗶𝗻 by Ellen Won Steil releases tomorrow July 23, 2024.

BECOMING MARLOW FIN by Ellen Won Steil is a twisty, engaging, marvelously well-written thriller of a ride. From the very first lines, this is a story that grabs you with intrigue and keeps you reading with taut, vivid details, robust characters, moments so everyday in the midst of tumult, tragedy, and shifting realities. The title, the cover, the every detail about the story is tight, complete pleasure. I stayed up way too late reading this one, never knowing what was going to happen and next and thrilled to be in the hands of such an exceptional writer. Truly a wonderful read! I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

Once I finished it, this book felt weird. It seemed like everything made sense, but something still felt off. It's like a thread that still needs to be taken care of. Overall, it is an engaging story that kept me interested throughout. The story is told in alternating chapters of a TV interview and flashbacks that run between the 1980s through the night before the interview. I think that was brilliant because you never knew which piece of the puzzle was coming next. There were some things that I figured out before the end, but there was also a big twist that I did not see coming, so the predictability balance worked out in my favor. I recommend it to anyone who likes something with an exciting mystery but without the extreme thriller aspect.

3.5 Stars

This book is a mystery, family drama, romance, and psychological thriller.

In 1995, a six-year-old Black girl is found abandoned in the woods and is adopted by the Baek family that finds her. Stella and Patrick bring her into their family which also includes their eight-year-old daughter Isla and Patrick’s Korean mother known by all as Moni. That abandoned girl, Marlow Fin, becomes a supermodel. In 2021, she grants a tell-all interview in which she discusses her life and her role in some tragic events within her family. The nature of these tragedies and a number of family secrets are slowly revealed.

The book has multiple points of view. Isla’s sections, narrated in first person, focus on the past: how life within the family changed with Marlow’s arrival. Marlow’s section, in the present, is in question-and-answer interview form. There are also some third-person chapters from the perspective of a young woman named Wren; she describes events in her life in the 1980s.

There is considerable suspense. It becomes clear that there is an undercurrent of anger and tension within the family. Stella is reticent to accept Marlow and the husband and wife argue regularly, though Moni tries to protect the girls from witnessing these angry exchanges. Then as the girls grow up, jealousy arises between them. Marlow’s beauty tends to upstage Isla, though Marlow seems envious of her sister. And there is definitely a dark side to Marlow: “She was beyond the realm of control.”

The only truly likeable main character is Moni who loves everyone in the family. She is kind and welcoming to everyone. When the girls become friends with Sawyer who moves in next door with his grandmother, Moni welcomes them into the neighbourhood and ends up feeding Sawyer almost daily. Other characters prove to have less than admirable qualities and all have secrets.

There is a vagueness about some events that is problematic. Exactly how certain events happened is never explained. The ending also does not answer all the reader’s questions. This nebulous quality affects the novel’s credibility. I want details so I can believe that what supposedly happened could realistically have occurred. The somewhat open-ended closing may bother some readers.

The plot is carefully constructed to maximize twists. There are layers of family secrets, some of which I guessed though others are worse than I expected. These revelations leave the reader to re-evaluate impressions of characters so a re-reading might be interesting.

This book is recommended to those who enjoy trying to find the truth amongst secrets, lies, and rumours.

The story of Marlow Fin by Korean-American author Ellen Won Steil, is a thriller and mystery anchored in family dynamics and drama. The Baek family once finds a girl in the woods near their cabin by the lake. The family takes in the girl, Marlow and later adopt her. We find out how Marlow became Marlow Fin over the years up until present day when Marlow Fin, now a celebrity, is giving an interview. Meanwhile, there is one other POV on a past timeline that gives us an observer narrative of the Baek parents. We only find out who this POV belongs too and the very end; a hidden secret attached to the family since the 1980s destroys the family in present day as it is uncovered.
I recommend 'Becoming Marlow Fin' to readers who like a good thriller and mystery with tropes around family dynamics and hidden secrets.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for giving me an ARC to review.

Marlow Fin, a 6 year old girl, is found during a storm outside a family's lakeside cabin. She ends up being taken in by them when it becomes clear she has no one else.

The book starts in 1995 and travels through the years to the present. Most of the story is told from Isla's perspective but in the present, Marlow is an actress/singer and is recounting an event that happens in 2020 to an interviewer. I mostly enjoyed the story but I did not like how it ended and that Stella seemed to disappear and there was no interaction between her, Isla and Marlow when the story was concluding. I did like that everyone had flaws except Moni. I absolutely loved her.

I would like to read Ellen's other book and will look out for her future books.

A storm rages outside Isla’s family holiday cabin by Lake Superior, where she has come with her parents and grandmother Moni. As she looks out into the darkness, the face of a young girl is looking back at her. When the girl turns and runs, Isla darts outside, following without thinking. That fateful night brings Marlow into their lives as, with Marlow having no memory of her life before, and no one coming forward to claim her, Isla’s parents slowly draw Marlow into their own family. Years later, Marlow, now a highly successful model and actress steps in front of the camera for a hugely anticipated prime-time interview to have the conversation everyone wants to hear. Who really is Marlow Fin? And what happened to Isla?

Moving back and forth in time, between several timelines and perspectives, including Isla’s and the transcription of Marlow’s interview, Becoming Marlow Fin traces the trials and tribulations of this newly created family through Isla and Marlow’s childhood, adolescence and into adulthood.

I loved Isla’s character development over the years, in particular her relationships with her childhood friend Sawyer and with her Korean grandmother Moni, a nurturing and wise character who in many ways is the heart of this family. Marlow herself is an unsettling and enigmatic character but we see flaws in all of the characters bar Moni. Steil beautifully explores the bonds and strains of sisterhood created under such strange circumstances, while also exploring themes including the families we have and the families we long for, love and the lengths it drives people to, loss and trauma, secrets and envy, addiction, self-destructive behaviour and the devastating consequences, identity, and how people can seem to have it all yet feel like they have nothing.

The writing is atmospheric and I really enjoyed the format, shifting from narration to the interview transcription, adding to the sense of tension and mystery as we move towards what we know will be some explosive revelation. A haunting novel that gripped me more the more I read, where at times we are served only clues rather than full answers, with a powerful, gut-punch ending.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the DRC.

In 1995, six-year-old Marlow Fin is found abandoned in the woods by young Isla Baek near the family's lake cabin. Marlow, traumatized and with no memory of her past, becomes a part of the family and grows up to be a world-famous celebrity known for her beauty and her recent troubles. The story is told from Isla's point of view over years, and through an exclusive interview given by Marlow in the present, where she has promised to reveal all her secrets. As time passes, the seemingly perfect Baek family's underlying issues and tensions begin to surface. Moni, Isla's grandmother, is the glue that keeps everything together for the two girls as they grow up. Once they become women, a tragedy tears the family apart.

Ellen Won Steil's Becoming Marlow Fin is a domestic mystery thriller with many surprises. The unveiling of family secrets and lies keeps the story tense until the very end. It was a decent read but I was disappointed with some of the revelations. It's an intriguing story which started out very strong but lost some of its appeal for reasons that would be a spoiler. I seem to be in the minority on this one.

Rated 3.5 stars.