This is the story of the unraveling of theater critic Vivian Parry. She has created an existence where she only feels whole in the dim light of the theater where she can escape into the world of the play. Here reviews are often scathing. When she agrees to a conversation with a graduate student she never expects that her carefully constructed life will go off the rails. The student, David Adler, disappears after the conversation and she is drawn in to try and figure out what happened to him. The more she learns the greater her fear becomes and she begins to question everything. What is real and what is the theater? Will she figure it out before it is too late?

The narrator was excellent.

Here in the Dark
Alexis Soloski
Pub: Flatiron Books
Pub date: Dec. 5, 2023
Format: Audiobook through NetGalley
4 /5

Huge thank you to NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and Soloski for allowing me to listen to an ARC!

For some odd reason, my next three reviews are all going to be about books with incredibly unreliable narrators who all have trauma that affects them in public and with relationships. Vivian, our MC, is no exception here. A theatre critic, and failed actress, Vivian has created many enemies throughout her career due to her harsh reviews of plays in New York. Vivian simply does not care about others feelings, and is so enwrapped in her own need to act that she was difficult to understand, and would not allow her true self to exist.

After her mother died during Vivian’s college career, she has not been the same, and she had given up her dream of acting. She suffers from dissociation, panic attacks, difficulty sleeping, and creating and maintaining relationships. Vivian is wrapped up in her false world she has created, and paired with her “I don’t care about other people” attitude, she was a fascinating main character. There were times when I had huge amounts of sympathy for her, and other times I just wanted to give up on her story due to her own self sabotaging. Soloski walked such a fine line with this character, and honestly she hit it out of the park. I have always been fascinated with unlikeable characters. It is the same reason I will watch trashy reality TV, because I just love watching absolute trainwrecks. Everything bad that happened to Vivian was frankly her own fault because she could not escape her own self importance.

This book was witty, hilarious, and absolutely insane at times. The side characters were also all fantastic and added so much to the story as they made their way around Vivian’s orbit. This book was a super quick read and left me with an absolute “what the hell are these people doing” feeling throughout the entire book, and especially at the end when the mystery that Vivian was investigating was brought to light. If you are a fan of unreliable narrators, strange cases, and the lives of those in the theater industry, this is a great book to pick up!

It was compelling enough, but one must suspend a tremendous amount of disbelief to make it to the end. Also, while the theater details/parallels drawn are probably really impressive and thoroughly researched, there seemed to be a lack of research into things like how police operate, what constitutes a crime, etc.

Kept me guessing and turning with every page. I really enjoyed the characters in this book. It was an excellent read. With a great ending. Thanks NetGallery!

I couldn’t get into this. I love the theater scene in NYC and murder-mysteries on general, but this couldn’t captivate me, largely because the MC wasn’t someone I wanted to spend any amount of time with.

Thanks netgalley for my ARC ALC

DNF

So all thrillers come with a certain amount of ridiculousness. The main character has somehow not slept in weeks, never eats, uses, and goes to extreme lengths to solve some murder or crime.

But Here in the Dark goes a step further. Because the main character. Vivian, decides to derail her already messed up life to find out what happens to a guy that she spends maybe an hour with before he goes missing. At about 50% in the book I honestly wasn't sure what the plot of the book was because it wasn't entirely clear. And there isn't any proof that anything has even actually happened to him. I could see if she was the kind of person that was really invested in other people but she doesn't even like any of the people involved in the situation.

Vivian is also a highly flawed, unlikable character. If you don't like books with unlikable main characters this is your warning. Once you get to the end, I just don't buy that either of the situations in this book would happen.

The narrator does a great job of portraying a smart, angry character. I would definitely listen to more books narrated by her.

Thanks to NetGalley, Alexis Soloski, and MacMillan audio for the opportunity to read Here in the Dark. I have written this review voluntarily.

I loved this! It was gritty and a little nasty and so much fun! The narrator was perfect for the role. I was hooked and didn't stop listening until it was done.

Vivian is a theater critic with a sharp tongue, ripping apart performances from the safety of her darkened seat. When she meets with a stranger for an interview, he asks personal questions about her past that start to make her sweat. And then he vanishes, leaving behind a hysterical fiancée and a set of odd circumstances. Vivian takes up her long-dormant acting mantle and infiltrates a world of sketchy startups, odd investigators, and illegal hackers. Stumbling upon a dead body (literally) will make things even more convoluted, and Vivian suddenly has no idea how to extricate herself from the mess she's tangled herself in.

So, first things first: if Laura Benanti narrates it, I will read it. Period. The character voices she did in this audiobook are a WORK OF ART. Anyway, as for the book itself, it's a great time. Vivian is a perfectly unlikable heroine, in the best sort of way. She's dark and unhinged, but that gooey center is there, buried deep. I enjoyed her as a character, and the plot of this book did not go at all the way I expected, which was a great surprise. I think the ending was a little too abrupt for me, but otherwise I recommend this book for mystery/thriller lovers, especially if you're a fan of theater.

Thank you to Alexis Soloski, Flatiron Books, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for my advance audio copy.

Title: Here in the Dark
Author: Alexa Solaki
Narrator: Laura Benanti
Publisher: McMillian Audio – Flatiron Books
Genre: Thriller
Pub Date: December 5, 2023
My Rating: 3 Stars
Pages; 256


I am a big psychological thriller fan so this blurb got my Attention.
A dark and stylish novel of psychological suspense about a young theater critic drawn into a dangerous
game that blurs the lines between reality and performance.

Vivian Parry is a former actress, and is now working as the junior theater critic at a major Manhattan magazine, when a man who interviewed her for his thesis turns up missing!

This audiobook is performing by Laura Benanti, who is a Tony Award- winning actor.
Yes! She does fab performance of these unlikeable nasty characters.

I struggled with this the characters. I read enough Psychological thrillers that I know there will be twists and turns. - So hung in there hoping the story would be good.–but it never got to the point of enjoyment. The protagonist is definitely flawed – the author calls her ‘snarky’!

I didn't love this story and wanted to give it 2 stars.
I did give it 3 stars as I enjoyed the interview between the author Alexa and the narrator Laura. Ms. Solaki (actually Dr. Solaki as she has a PHD in Comp Lit with an emphasis in Theatre.) She tells us her inspiration for this story is based on a situation that actually happened to her. She also tells us that when she was young she wanted to write children’s books. – Needless to say this is far from THAT! In fact, her young daughters asked when they can read it – she told them when they are thirty!
I laughed and said to myself – I knew I wasn’t the target audience for this story!

Want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio – Flatiron Books for this audiobook.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for December 5, 2023.

Good news - you only have one month until this fun thriller is released! This audiobook is dark and witty and I thoroughly enjoyed the author’s writing and the narration by Tony award winning Laura Benanti. Being a theater critic herself, Alexis Soloski wrote what she knew when creating her main character, actor turned critic Vivian Parry. Vivian finds herself in a sort of cat and mouse game in which she takes on the role of detective trying to figure out who is playing against her. I wouldn’t say it is full of shock and twists as you may crave from thrillers, however it is a slow burn and pleasantly surprising. This is Soloski’s debut novel and I can’t wait to see what else she comes up with!

The audiobook also contains an interview at the end between Soloski and Benanti, in which we learn more about each of their backgrounds. I found it as interesting as the book 😊

Thank you Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, Flatiron Books, and the author for this ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Vivian Parry is an actress-turned-theater critic in New York. She loves going alone to the theater- siting in her seat in the dark and taking in a show is the only time she truly feels human. And then she goes on to right brutal reviews of those same shows. And beyond that, she drinks.

Vivian begrudgingly agrees to be interviewed, and from the moment she meets her interviewer, she’s unsettled by him and his questions. The next thing she knows, he’s gone missing and she’s somehow right in the middle of the investigation. Things only get weirder from there.

I enjoyed this story, even though the characters were hard to connect with, and I, however improbably, guessed the twist very early on. It was still an entertaining and suspense-filled read right up to the end.

I also appreciated the bonus feature on the audiobook at the end: a conversation between author Alexis Soloski and narrator (and Broadway actress) Laura Benanti.

The audiobook was narrated to perfection by Laura Benanti.

Thank you Alexis Soloski, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for providing this ALC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to listen to an early copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. Here in the Dark by Alexis Soloski will be released on December 5th, 2023.

If you are a theater fan, you will likely enjoy this book. Here in the Dark follows Vivienne, a theater critic with a past involving addiction. She is contacted by a student at the local college who is requesting an interview with her as part of his thesis - she agrees and they meet up. That is the last anyone will see of the student before he disappears and Vivienne is pulled into a personal investigation due to being the last one to see him. The story features a cast of different characters and personalities and the author does a really good job of letting all of them shine through - the narrator does great voices for these characters as well.

Now onto my review. I didn't love it. I went back and forth a lot while reading this book - on one hand, I enjoyed the production of the audiobook, and I enjoyed the premise of the story and the writing. On the other hand, I wasn't super invested in finding out what happened. I don't know what it was, maybe I couldn't connect with the theater aspect of it.

Overall, Here in the Dark is a fine story. I would definitely recommend picking up the audiobook version of the story.

OOF. This one was all over the place for me, and if perhaps I was more into Theatre, I would have appreciated this one more, but it hit weird for me. I am still very thankful to Flatiron Books, Macmillan Audio, Alexis Soloski, and Netgalley for granting me audiobook access to this twisty, theatrical thriller before it hits shelves on December 5, 2023.

Vivian Parry is a well-established critic and journalist for a popular theatre publication in NYC, writing reviews of performances, breaking hearts, and making Directors' dreams come true. When a college student reaches out to interview her for his thesis, she's on cloud nine, but days later when that same man's fiance reaches out to her in tears because he's gone missing and is searching for answers, she begins to panic, because she's the last one who saw him alive.

Viv begins to receive weird and cryptic messages from the supposed captors or killers of David, the college student, which only inspires her to dive deeper into her investigative journalistic side. What she finds is twistier than a spider web of lies than she could have ever imagined.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, the author Alexis Soloski, and Netgalley for providing me the ALC in exchange for my honest review! The title will be published and publicly available on December 5, 2023.

Potential readers, please note that this is more of a general fiction story than a mystery/suspense/thriller. There are psychological suspense and mystery elements, but the novel is so heavily character-driven and focused on protagonist Vivian’s experiences.

Summary: NYC theatre critic and former actress Vivian Parry is looking to advance her career. A confrontational interview, her interviewer disappears! Vivian feels responsibility as the last person to see him alive and uses her acting skills to conduct her own investigation.

The author writes a spacious internality to the narrative, her protagonist’s expression of personality and opinions emphasized rather than emotive navel-gazing. Vivian is vibrant, opinionated, and bold. Vivian also self-medicates with alcohol, sleeping pills, and sex. She has suffered since she lost her mother and struggles with her mental health. The author takes care to give Vivian a backstory that actually influences who she is as a person.

The amateur detective investigation plot is really just a vehicle for the protagonist to express herself. (It's quirky but not as detailed and thrilling as your typical investigation in a detective/crime/thriller novel.) Your engagement and enjoyment with this book will probably depend on whether or not you can gel with Vivian’s narrative voice and character. I did not personally love the book and was bored in the middle third of the book; however, the premise, main character, and end reveals made the book a bit of a tour de force.

I do wish that the theatre world and atmosphere had been a central focus or at least utilized to greater effect. Also, Vivian is so interesting that the slice-of-life content and side characters were often in comparison uninteresting to me.

NARRATION: A Broadway actress herself, Laura Benanti gave a fun, animated performance that managed to make even the mundane details lively. I really enjoyed the bonus content tacked on after the end of the story, where Benanti and author Alexis Soloski converse about the inspiration for the story.

As a fan of theater, I enjoyed this so much!

Premise - Vivian, a brutal theater critic and an addict, finds herself flung into a very unsettling production, where it’s unclear what’s real and what’s theater.

Vivian is a fascinating character and the book is well-written and engaging through and through. She’s incredibly flawed in a way that makes her choices unpredictable - and yet they feel true to the character all the same.

I would definitely read more from this author!

Thanks, NetGalley and Flatiron, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Even though this was a slow burn story I did enjoy it. I narrator was excellent and I didn't see that ending coming.

Many thanks to Macmillan audio for my gifted ALC.