I wasn’t sure what to expect going in to this novel but was pleasantly surprised. This book held my attention very well and was fairly fast paced.

The Things Went Dark was a quick read once I got about 15% in. It took a bit to get going through and I honestly thought at first I wasn't going to care for the story. The mystery was easy to figure out, but the story was still pretty enjoyable.

Wow! I loved this! I couldn’t put it down and read during every free second I could spare. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

3 stars- this fell flat for me which was a bummer. I was really looking forward to it. thanks netgalley + the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest reviews.

Thank you so much to Negalley and Sourcebook Landmarks!

This book was quite disappointing, tbh. I follow the author on Instagram and really wish I liked her book more than I did. It follows 6 characters living on an island alone for a month for a reality tv show, and when one of the contestants die on the show the rest are all suspects in his murder. It flipped between the days of the show and the murder investigation. I really liked the different timelines, and it also had social media posts in it that I thought were interesting. However, a romance developed pretty quickly in it and I thought the way the romance developed in three weeks was slightly unrealistic and underdeveloped.
I think fans of reality TV would like this book, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it to a hardcore thriller/mystery reader.

Not my favorite. The characters were essentially all alike and since they were all hooking up they all merged together in my mind. I like the idea of a reality show but this was not anywhere close to what it could have been.

Six already very famous, very glamorous people arrive on a deserted beachside paradise to compete in ICONIC, a new reality show. Millions will be watching them over the next few weeks --- and millions are watching as one of them dies, on camera. It sure looks like an accident, but the police aren't so sure. An investigation begins, and what happens among the law enforcement people is almost as interesting as the reality show itself. Great mystery, particularly for the many readers who can't get enough reality TV.

Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for providing an ARC.

3.5/5 stars, rounded up to 4. This book let me down a little bit in the mystery aspect: I didn't feel super invested, and the truth revealed at the end felt kind of unsatisfying. However, this book absolutely excels in creating an oppressive atmosphere of suspense and pressure. I had to put it down a few times because it was getting to me. (Spoiler) <spoiler> The real-time evolution of the abusive relationship was masterfully written, especially when we cut to the outside viewers' comments: it was genuinely upsetting to me, excellently done. </spoiler> Heed the trigger warnings in the beginning!

Overall, a solid read, with interesting characters and relationships, if a little lacking in the engagingness of the mystery itself.

3.5 stars!

I love reality TV and I'm on the hunt looking for the perfect reality TV thriller for me. Regretfully, this wasn't it. I feel like this was a really shallow commentary on the vapidness of fame, and I didn't really care about the person who was murdered unfortunately. I do think the reality TV part was fun, but I just needed the mystery to be better,

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A-MAZING!
This is a fabulous novel about a reality show done wrong. Told from multiple points of view including police reports we learn about the brand new reality game that was set on a small island...

What the contestants didn't know was that the reality show was live streamed at different times of the day. Millions watched and participated in popular votes. When the most popular of them all, Rhys, is murdered, there should be millions of witnesses, but it is a mystery unsovled!

Who is running the show? who is behind the scenes? Can anyone win? And who killed Rhys?
Pure fun, diabolically addictive - Then Things Went Dark #sourcebooks #beafitzgerald #thenthingswentdark

I really wanted to love this book but it fell kind of flat. The writing was okay, but the plot was a little unlikable. I think this premise of this book the idea was solid, but execution left something to be desired.

This had a great premise and cover but it sadly fell flat for me. It was hard to find a character I could relate to, I thought they were all so awful, tbh! The challenges they faced as well seemed very trivial and not very thought out. This missed the mark for me unfortunately. Thanks for the ARC in exchange for an honest opinion!

This book has such a great premise - reality TV show of 6 D-list celebs thrown on an island for a month, competing to be the most “iconic.” We’re told right away that one of the contestants is found dead in the finale, and the story unfolds with each chapter representing an episode on the show. We get an inside look into these extremely unlikable characters, and a bit of what they’ll do for fame. I think there’s a bit to say about a book that can get me so enraged at character to where I had to pull away and remind myself it’s fake :).

The part that didn’t work for me was the entire police investigation at the end of each chapter, it added extra characters and a subplot that was pretty pointless. The writing in each of the chapters was also inconsistent and the reality show plot and challenges felt a bit thrown together. I’m also super disappointed it didn’t somewhat redeem one of the characters in the end - won’t go into this too much to avoid spoiling but I thought it would have went along so well with how the character was described initially.

Then Things Went Dark follows a group of celebrities living temporarily on an island for a reality show that is going to crown one of them as the most iconic of the group. Throughout the book we learn each character’s reasoning for wanting the title and cash prize, and follow the investigation into the death of one of the contestants.

I was not the biggest fan of this book. All of the characters hooking up with each other made it difficult to differentiate them, so it took me a while to remember who was who in regards to their back stories. It also was difficult to become interested in the story line when a lot of the focus was on them hooking up with each other.

The ending was very interesting to me, the author did a great job with it, and it was worth the read. This wouldn’t be one of my go-to recommendations but it would be a decent summer read.

I would like to say thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and Bea Fitzgerald for providing me with an ARC copy of this book in return for my honest review.

This had all the drama. I love when books are about reality shows and this one was done really well. It took me a minute to get used to the narrative style but I grew to appreciate it.

3.75

This was a very different reading experience to the author's debut book (which I enjoyed) but not a bad one. It was fast and intriguing for the most part. None of the characters are even a smidge likeable, but then again that's the point so the author's done a great job creating thoroughly hateful characters with toxic behaviours who're all out for themselves and nobody else and have tons of secrets to hide. The ending felt a bit anticlimactic in comparison to how the narrative was built up (a back and forth of present-day storyline at the police investigation and the throwback narrative of the cast on the show), but still a fun pacy thriller.

Thank you to Netgallery and Sourcebooks Landmarks for an early release copy of Then Things Went Dark by Bea Fitzgerald, this book will be available for purchase on August twenty-seventh of 2024.

I really enjoyed Then Things Went Dark! I found all the characters to be thoroughly entertaining, the plot of the reality tv show kept things interesting. The characters felt fleshed out, we get to know quite a bit about each of our characters and I thought it made the story even more interesting. I liked all of our characters in here even Rhys, I thought he was going to be unbearable to read about but the author definitely writes him in a way that it rather tolerable to read.

The plot is written well and kept me entertained but the main bit of drama on the show feels to be the toxic relationship between two characters and I just wish it was a little more then that. I was pleasantly surprised with the addition of the lgbt aspects in here however I was kinda disappointed that we didn’t get a solid queer relationship. I’m definitely looking forwards to reading more from Bea Fitzgerald, I think her writing style is detailed and fleshed out. I really liked the way she would switch perspectives of our characters mid chapter, it was written in a way that made the switch smooth.

I absolutely loved this book!! I couldn’t put it down.
I just loved all the characters. I highly recommend this book.

Review: I enjoyed this book, but it was a little slow going for me. I loved that it read like a reality TV show as I love reality TV! But I was having a hard time getting into the book at parts because all of the drama going on and I felt like some parts were dragged out. Another thing I liked is how after every episode, you went to the police interrogation regarding the murder so you would get snippets into the lives of the contestants. All in all, it was a good book. Thank you @sourcebooks and @netgalley for my advanced copy!

First of all, thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for granting me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was not what I had hoped for it to be. I really wanted to enjoy this book, I truly did, however I just could not. The book is written in episodes so it reads just like a tv show--there are 17 episodes and then the finale episode, 18 in all. The writing style was hard to adjust to in the beginning, however the story was also just hard to get into. I wanted to give up and quit reading several times throughout. Once I got about halfway through I was accustomed to the writing style and the storyline got better, so I stuck it out and finished. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I feel that the final chapter, the "finale" was anticlimactic and lead up to much of nothing. The entire book was spent showcasing drama between the contestants, much of the time Rhys being at the center of it, so any one of the fellow castmates could have done it which was the whole premise of the book--who killed Rhys and why.

I feel like the book fell flat and that last chapter was the only one with the slightest bit of mystery surrounding it. The rest of the book was unneeded filler that was too drawn out and didn't have enough twists and turns and shock that a thriller should. It semi-established the characters, I'll give it that, however it didn't do a lot for the overall plot of the book. There were truly only a few pages of the book that could even be considered "thriller" or "mystery" to me because the rest basically just told a story that was lackluster in all honesty. There was not much of the story that was devoted to motives of why one would kill Rhys, just unnecessary everyday drama--nothing worth killing over. Even the very ending didn't seem to be enough to murder someone over. The cumulative effect of all the characters contributing in the last chapter should have been something that was explored a lot earlier in the story and I feel it could have made for a better book and story overall.