This was like a reality TV show meets a murder mystery, and I couldn’t look away! Six celebrities (well, kind of) are dropped onto an isolated island off the coast of Portugal, all competing for a massive cash prize. But the real competition? Making it out alive.

Told through shifting timelines and mixed media formats, the story flips between the chaos on the island and the aftermath, where Interpol is left to sort through the wreckage—while the whole world watches and judges. It’s packed with unlikable characters you’ll love to hate, sharp social commentary on fame and reality TV, and a whodunit angle that keeps you guessing. Dark, satirical, and full of drama, this book felt like a guilty pleasure reality show—messy, chaotic, and impossible to turn away from.

This has:
- Reality TV competition vibes but make it deadly
- Multiple timelines + mixed media format
- A cast of characters so unlikable, you won’t know who to root for
- Sharp, satirical take on fame culture and media sensationalism
- Twisty, unpredictable, and unputdownable

Thank you, Netgalley and SourceBooks for this gifted arc!

6 famous people, a chef, an influencer, a musician, an entrepreneur, an activist, and an actor are put on an island for a new tv show called Iconic. They are all competing to see who is the most iconic.

We start out like normal reality tv with drinking, showmances and sex. There is a confessional for everyone to talk about the others in the house. When someone ends up dead the police have to decipher whether it was an accident or if it was murder.

This book is told with the perspective of the tv show episodes and the current police investigation.

I liked the premise of the book however some of the characters were hard to like.

The premise of reality tv show on an isolated island has been one a lot of mystery thrillers have tried out lately. This one missed the mark for me a little bit. The characters were all awful, and the switching between areas on the island felt a bit confusing at times.

This book will have you hooked from the beginning!! I loved it!

Then Things Went Dark by Bea Fitzgerald is a thrilling and suspenseful novel that takes readers behind the scenes of a reality show gone horribly wrong. The story centers on six contestants who land on a desert island to compete in a high-stakes reality competition, with millions of viewers tuning in to watch. What starts as a glamorous, drama-filled show quickly spirals into something much darker when one of the contestants, Rhys Sutton, is found dead—on camera. Now, five remaining contestants find themselves in a Portuguese police station, under suspicion of murder.

Fitzgerald crafts a compelling narrative that blends the allure of reality television with a gripping whodunit mystery. The tension builds as each of the five suspects—the best friend, the rival, the girlfriend, the lover, and the sworn enemy—holds onto their secrets, making it clear that no one is innocent. With the whole world watching, the characters are trapped in a web of lies, motives, and hidden truths that unfold at a breakneck pace.

The novel is cleverly structured, shifting between the present investigation and flashbacks to the drama on the island, revealing the complex relationships and the growing animosity among the contestants. Fitzgerald’s sharp writing keeps readers guessing, offering twists and turns that lead to a shocking conclusion.

Then Things Went Dark is a captivating mix of mystery, suspense, and social commentary on the nature of fame and the destructive side of reality TV. It’s a gripping page-turner that will keep you hooked until the very last page.

This one was an interesting plot and very different characters but unfortunately this one was not for me. I didn't live it enough to get past 25%

Then Things Went Dark is very similar to Big Brother, but on a secluded island. There’s a group of people who all have secrets to hide and would do almost anything to keep them secret.

I really liked this for the first 50% and then I felt like it kind of dragged on a bit. It was hard to keep my attention focused on it. Overall though this was an enjoyable read! I loved to hate the characters!

Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark for my copy of this!

I love a good mystery and this was nothing short of a good mystery! The book was pretty good - I felt like some parts of the writing were lacking and the challenges or stakes involved in the contests didn't seem to match the difficulty they should. I felt confused when reading the Detective portion of the book. The characters were pretty flawed and pretty interesting. I think this is a good read for casual mystery readers!

I am obsessed. I love reality tv shows, so naturally this book captivated me from the first word. I loved the plot and cast of characters!!

Thanks NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
This was a DNF for me. There were way too many characters to keep up with right from the jump and that made it difficult to get invested in the story. This book felt way too long for a fast-paced thriller and had some repetitive plot points. I think with some edits and paring down the plot, it could have been a fun summer-y thriller. Unfortunately not for me, but others may enjoy a more in-depth, detailed thriller.

Pretty gripping storyline and narration, I was hooked to the book throughout. The author pretty much nailed the reality show aspect of it, aka the nastiness, the backstabbing, the betrayals, the "I want to improve my image but my past is haunting me". The ending ahhh, it reminds me of a famous Agatha Christie book which I can't say because, spoilers, but it was brilliantly written.

TWs - extreme gaslighting of a partner on page + mild violence against a partner, cheating/adultery, murder (I can't say how the murder was done coz again, spoilers)

-- ty to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy!

This was an enjoyable thriller! I liked the idea for this book but found the plot a bit underwhelming for what I expected going in. I loved the characters they felt very realistic and easy to relate to and root for! Definitely recommend checking this book out!

On a desert island to tape a reality tv show, six contestants are hungry to win. When one of their deaths is witnessed on TV by twelve million viewers, someone has to be held accountable.

As a reality tv fan, I was excited about this book, but it was just not a win for me. I found it hard to get into and it ended up being a slog.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for a copy of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Six people travel to a deserted island for a reality TV show. When one person ends up dead live on TV, everything changes.

I love reality tv so I was excited to read this book. The writing style just wasn’t for me so it was hard to get invested in the story. I really wish I could have gotten into the story because it really seems like something I would have loved. Unfortunately this one just wasn’t for me. Thank you NetGalley, Bea and Sourcebooks landmark for the ARC!

Big thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC copy!

Unfortunately this one fell a bit flat for me. I was hooked on the idea of this, but the execution just didn't do it.
It seemed as though some bigger pieces that would have connected the story better may have been missing?
I also think that this may have worked better had it been in a different person so we got different POVs to go along with the story.

It was just meh for me. Sorry!!

Then Things Went Dark by Bea Fitzgerald is a mystery/thriller novel about a reality tv show on a deserted island.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Sourcebooks Landmark, and the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


My Synopsis:    (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)
An island off the coast of Portugal is the setting for a reality TV show called ICON, which will feature six very different, yet headstrong contestants, all with a need to prove themselves to the audience.

They will be the only ones on the island, but cameras will be everywhere.  During their time on the island, they will be given challenges to complete to earn points.  The one with the most points wins big money.  But some of these challenges are emotionally draining, and things are quite competitive.

The contestants were to remain together for a month...but while 12 million people watch, one of them dies on camera, and one of the other five may have killed him.  Police are determined to find a killer, but no one is talking, and they all had motive.

The six participants are all somewhat famous.  They include: Kalpana Mahajan, (activist), Francisco Andrado  known as Isko (chef), Jerome Frances, (Tech Entrepeneur), Araminta Yaxley-Carter, (sculptor, influencer), Theo Newman, (singer/musician), .... and Rhys Sutton,  (actor, musician, director/writer - deceased).


My Opinions:
First, this is definitely not my type of book.  Reality TV is not on my watch list, so I'm not sure how or why I picked this book.  However, since I have done so, I will try to evaluate without my own prejudices.

The story alternated between the police interrogations, and the television episodes that aired, with "asides" by the contestants so that we knew what they were thinking.  This all worked smoothly.  The writing was okay.

Although I do not watch reality tv, and am therefore unaware of the procedures behind things,  the challenges in this book seemed "off".  They were aimed to cause animosity between the contestants, and maybe that's normal, but I found it highly annoying, and the contestants so childish that their over-reaction to them just grew tiresome.

However, I didn't like, nor could I relate, to ANY of the characters.   The supposed sexual flirtation between all of them was just so predictable.

All of this made for a slow, dis-interested journey through the book.  If I had had someone to route for, it definitely would have helped.  I was in about 40% before I felt I could finish it.

So overall, I did not enjoy it, and it wasn't all to do with the topic.  I tried.

However, if you are a big fan of reality tv, you'll probably love it.

2.25 stars
Thank you to Netgalley and the Sourcebooks Landmark for the arc!

It only took me five months but I finally finished this book. Reality TV and murder collide in Bea Fitzgerald's Then Things Went Dark. Six contestants on a reality show arrive at a desert island. Only five return. The story flips back and forth between the police investigation and what happened on the island.

The characters in this were all awful and unlikeable. I'm not really a fan of reality television so this could certainly be a factor in why I didn't find this story entertaining in the slightest. I wanted to dnf it so bad but I don't like to dnf arcs. I thought the writing was good at times though. These six people's hunger for permanence was captured really well but I just ultimately wasn't invested in their outcomes.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I don't think the writing style is for me. I am not personally a fan of reading stage directions and it made it difficult to root for any of the characters.

Just because this one wasn't for me, doesn't mean it isn't for you!

I loved Beas writing. It grabbed me in from the start. I’m excited to read more this author. I highly recommend this book you won’t regret it

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a little backlogged with my ARCs but working diligently to get caught up. I really liked the idea behind this book and storyline, but some parts didn’t translate well for me. There are lots of characters points of views which took a while to get used to, especially without very much backstory for them aside from what they do. Certain parts had me curious and guessing but I found the ending to be predictable and lacking.