So, so good. I loved both Cleo and Katrina and I felt immediately invested in their respective stories. I like how the book was organized- following Cleo after the incident and Katrina before. It expertly weaved together the before and after and ended in a satisfying way.

I wouldn’t say the ending was predictable, but I will say that Will gave me weird vibes from the very beginning. That said, there were a lot of moving pieces with the different characters and I think it all worked together really well.

Wow, this mystery is just what I needed to read this weekend. I love a book that takes place in NYC and changes narrator perspective each chapter.

While I did end up figuring out one of the twists at the end, I really enjoyed the process to get there. There were multiple layers to this story, and actually not too many to keep track of. At times, there were a lot of characters but the story kept weaving the back in which made it easier to move forward.

Highly recommend to those interested in murder mysteries and missing person cases with twists. Not too heavy, not too scary, just enough suspense to keep you wanting to read instead of getting up from the couch!

What a richly complex story. Katrina and Cleo are Mother and Daughter. Cleo, a college student, is coming home for dinner when she enters the house and finds blood on the floor and one of her mother’s shoes with blood on it. Her mother is nowhere to be found. As Cleo begins to search for answers, she realizes she has more questions than answers.

Thus begins, a complicated, but in a good way, story of mother/daughter relationships and what parents hide from their children. This story is told in alternating voices of Kat and Cleo. It’s a story that builds and leads you down paths. By the time you realize what happened, you end up with an appreciation for the doozy of a wonderful mystery. This is well written, the story and plot line thought out, and the characters are complex and engaging. I enjoyed the complicated relationship of mother and daughter. The mother trying hard to protect her child, the daughter rebelling against the protection. You will enjoy this book!

When NYU student Cleo arrives home for a reconciliatory dinner with her mother, she finds the door open, food burning in the over and blood on the floor. Katrina, her mother is missing without any sign of where or why. So begins this domestic thriller.

McCreight's latest book is a slow-burner. After the compelling start, she slowly unfolds the characters: Cleo, the emotional student, Katrina, the buttoned-up lawyer, Aiden, the swaggering husband, and Kyle, the rich boyfriend / contemptuous drug dealer. And as she does so, new facets of each emerge.

Cleo begins to see that there is more to her mother than meets the eye. There are secrets from her past that are coming back to haunt the present and determine their future.

Although opposites in many ways, Cleo is her mother's daugther and despite stern warnings from the police not to get involved, she takes it upon herself to investigate and solve Kat's disappearance. And it's not until almost the very end that McCreight drops a bombshell that ties the daughter in with the mother so that it becomes truly like mother, like daughter. A very fun and fast read.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I struggled to read this one. It WAS well written and all. But there was just something about it. Too many characters i believe…. I was shocked by some twists but overall I just had a difficult time really enjoying it …. 3.5 stars for me

4/5 stars for me. Great storyline and plot, but some details seemed unnecessary and didn’t move along so fast. The multiple timelines were easy to follow along with and definitely helped build the story. I still have unanswered questions, but I was pleased with most of the book regardless!

First, thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Overall, this was a good book. There were some gaps in the storyline between characters as you read and some of those gaps don't ever get addressed. Some of the gaps get addressed within the last 30 or so pages of the book and everything kind of comes together and you're able to make your own conclusions fairly easy. I liked that the main antagonist didn't really come to fruition until the last 20 pages or so, leaving me wanting to keep going and find out if my suspicions were on point (they were not this time). I also enjoyed the realities of a mother trying to be the best mother she can possibly be, but also realizing she isn't doing everything the right way due to her past. She admits to these things consistently and eventually realizes what she needs to do to help her relationship and does what she can and that spoke to me as a mother myself.

When a daughter comes in to find her mother missing, she's left putting all of the pieces together. We learn from both of their POV's the events that transpired, and that they also did not have the closest relationships. Everyone has their secrets though, and Cleo is discovering her mother's as she tries to figure out what happened to her. This book takes you on a rollercoaster and the writing, while bouncing back and forth from different POVs is easy to follow. Thank you to Kimberly McCreight, Knopf Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy.

I read this book in a day! Fast paced, which is my jam. But it fell flat. It did have all the plot twists and kept you guessing but it was just a 3 star for me.

This was a very twisty, edge of your seat thriller. I loved Reconstructing Amelia, so I was very excited to read this, and McCreight did not disappoint! I absolutely did not see the twist coming! Thank you for the chance to read this!

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

While I wasn’t sitting at the edge of my seat, I thoroughly enjoyed this read! I enjoyed the past and present POV, it made me curious about what was going to happen. The mother and daughter each had their own distinct voice so I did not feel lost. Some things I felt were lacking were the character development: I felt like they didn’t have much depth. I would’ve loved to see more journal entries and transcripts, because I feel like that drove the storyline for us readers.

A fantastic read!! So many suspects and hidden agendas. All the twists and turns that a thriller and mystery reader could ask for. One of the best books I will read this year for sure.

Cleo enters her parent’s house to have dinner with her mother, Kat, and instead of finding her mother, she finds a bloody scene and her mother missing. Kimberly McCreight tells this story in different chapters from Cleo’s perspective in the present and Kat’s perspective in the days leading up to her disappearance. Through the search for her mom, Cleo learns that her mothers life is way different than she had ever known- her mom’s upbringing, her mom’s job, and the relationship between her mom and dad.

I couldn’t put this book down. McCreight’s storytelling had me hooked from the beginning and I enjoyed the excerpts of therapy recordings, text messages, and news articles that all come together in solving the mystery. Although I do think there was maybe a little too much going on and didn’t fully understand the ending. I would recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I remember enjoying Reconstructing Amelia when it first came out, and I was excited to read this. I enjoyed it! But there was something that didn't quite work for me, that I'm having trouble putting my finger on. Nothing was Bad, per se, but I didn't feel the pull to stay on the couch and readreadread as much as I'd hoped. I guessed a lot of the twists, so by the time they were revealed, they weren't so exciting. I'd still read another book by the author, I think, but I wouldn't push it to the top of my list.

Kat and her daughter Cleo are not on the best terms. Cleo thinks Kat is overbearing and too hard on her. Kat loves her daughter and is trying to help steer her in the right direction. When something happens to Kat, Cleo is on the search to help. She learns some of Kat’s secrets and sees her mom in a new light. Like mother, like daughter- Cleo’s strong will and perseverance are key to solving the mystery.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. This is my second Kimberly McCreight book and I really enjoy her writing style. I loved how the puzzle pieces came together in this book. While I guessed some of the “twists” in the story, I still thought it was a fun read!

“When Cleo, a student at NYU, arrives late for dinner at her childhood home in Brooklyn, she finds food burning in the oven and no sign of her mother, Kat. Then Cleo discovers her mom’s bloody shoe under the sofa. Something terrible has happened.
But what? The polar opposite of Cleo, whose “out of control” emotions and “unsafe” behavior have created a seemingly unbridgeable rift between mother and daughter, Kat is the essence of Park Slope perfection: a happily married, successful corporate lawyer. Or so Cleo thinks.”

I'd like to thank netgalley and penguin random house for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really thought that the premise of your book was good. However, the book was a bit all over the place. At times, I'd get a bit confused with the alternating povs. There was so much going on and I felt some stuff was just unnecessary.

Cleo comes back home to find her mother missing and a puddle of blood. Her dad tells the police about her not the greatest relationship with her mom, Katrina. Katrina had insisted that Cleo needed to stop seeing her boyfriend because he was a drug dealer. Cleo wonders if this could have anything to do with her mom going missing. She sets out to find the truth.

Overall, the book was good but I felt that it could've been better and a bit more simplified.

I feel like I enjoyed her books before this one didn’t do it for me. I felt like all of the characters talked and acted in the same way. I guess with the title I should’ve expected that but really I had a hard time keeping people straight because they all felt so similar. Was such a stereotype with the nose ring and the clothes maybe the target audience is baby boomers who are scared of that sort of thing? It just made the book feel dated I did like that it was that it was the mom who disappeared in the beginning during preparation.

I think it would’ve been better without the drug and pharmaceutical company storyline that just felt very weak. I mean these things happen, but it felt like a bad mix with the rest of the book. I don’t know why you’d make that choice as a storyline. I think a more domestic storyline would’ve worked better. The flashbacks are kind of boring even when they tied into the present. It was very uneven.

This book was just *okay* for me. There were too many characters so it made it difficult to grow attached to any of them. I really liked the book in the beginning but the end kind of fell apart for me and I lost interest. I still thought it was worth the read.

3.75 - rounded up to 4
“Every daughter is a monster in her own special way”

Cleo is a young woman studying a NYU. She has her whole life ahead of her. A loving father, a semi-emotionally unavailable mother, friends, and a loving boyfriend. Cleo loves her life, but Cleo hates her mother. At least, she thinks she does until her mother suddenly goes missing and she is thrown into investigating just what happened to her. The search for her mother will lead her down roads she didn’t think possible and will also show her, she didn’t really know her mother at all.

This book was a slow burn from the start, at least for me. It took me about 100 pages in to feel like I was hooked. I think where I struggled with was with Cleo. The absolutely awful way Cleo treated her mother was really had for me to move past. I understand, that often times we feel our parents don’t “get us” or they try to make our lives difficult for “no reason”, but I feel like Cleo was a completely emotionally immature character. I personally did not feel connected to her and I did not feel like there was much character development with her. She was the sore spot of this book for me. Kat on the other hand I totally loved her. I felt like her character developed from what seems like a corporate mom with no time for “feelings” to a mother who is so deeply misunderstood and is constantly trying to protect the ones she loves. The ending felt rushed, and sadly, I did not find it satisfying. Overall, I am glad to have read this but maybe it just was not for me.


Thank you netgalley for allowing me early access.