This book follows six contestants as they film a reality competition show, and also are questioned for the murder of Rhys. I was excited to start this book, but I had a hard time staying engaged.

Every character is mostly terrible, and I really did like that. An unhinged agent of chaos is great, but four or five of them are even better. Rhys was actually my favorite until he began a relationship with Araminta and turned into a jealous, possessive psycho. He'd almost entirely dropped his earlier attempts to unnerve everyone else and began focusing entirely on her reactions with the other contestants. Kalpana and Isko were weak characters that failed to fill the void he left after this happened. Jerome was really terrible the entire time, but forgettably so.

The writing style didn't really work for me. I didn't understand why supposedly American characters were calling people "arsehole" all the time. I don't think I enjoyed the omniscient narrator mixed with the confessional commentary AND social media interactions lumped alongside the time jumps to the investigation. The chapters are titled as episodes, but the questioning from the investigators didn't really align with those events, and may have been better served as separate chapters. Additionally, the subplot with the two inspectors involved in a secret relationship was entirely unnecessary, and I feel like the reactions to that almost came across as homophobic. I also wasn't thrilled that the only openly pansexual character was portrayed as promiscuous (the STI joke, cheating on his girlfriend with multiple people, turning around and hooking up with Isko moments after breaking up with his second girlfriend, and all of that merely hours before expressing his undying affection for Araminta again) and then he wound up dead. I'm tired of seeing bi/pan characters given this treatment in books. There are ways to make a villain without falling into harmful stereotypes.

I really wanted to like this more, but I don't think it was the right book for me.

A train wreck I couldn’t peel my eyes away from. I loved how trashy reality tv and a murder mystery were joined to create a great book. The characters were both simultaneously likable and hated. Had a fun amount of romance and the perfect amount of drama.
I loved the social media aspects at the end of each chapter to see how their “real world” was perceiving their actions.
The ending gave me all the answers I needed but I felt like it didn’t give me what I wanted. I also was confused why the cops had a romantic relationship it really didn’t add to the overall of the story.
Overall will be highly recommending this book to all.

Suspenseful and twisty! Loved then premise of a reality TV show mixed with a little murder. Recommend to fans of the genre!

Good book! This book had a bit of everything! It had suspense, intrigue, action, murder, jealousy, revenge, mystery, gas lighting, a great who done it, great plot twist and some crazy twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting and had me glued to my Kindle! I definitely recommend reading this book as it was well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

This seems to be a popular plot lately. Sometimes it’s a good story and other times it’s not so good. I did not like any of these characters and the book itself just didnt do much for me. I didn’t find myself interested in much of any of it. Maybe it’s just overdone these days.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with an Advance Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited about the premise of this book, murder mystery, reality TV, and high stakes all around. This book certainly did not disappoint With True Crime meets Reality TV, Then Things Went Dark follows 6 well-known contestants in a reality show competing for half a million dollars. The contestants, and the world are shaken when the tragic death of Rhys Sutton is caught on camera and all 6 of the contestants are viewed as possible suspects.

This book is filled with high stakes, intense situations, and drama drama drama. While many of the characters themselves didn't hold my interest or steal my heart, the plot and story kept me going through this book and I found it thoroughly enjoyable. The book also swapped between TV episodes of the show and police interviews of each of the contests, providing an interesting dynamic and contrast in how the characters perform and interact of different "audiences".

Overall, the book was enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a more modern twist on the traditional murder mystery.

The things went dark follows 6 well known / celebrity contestants who are competing for the prize of half a million dollars (or more so trying to revamp their dying careers with a fresh public appearance)

The contestants include: a rockstar, an actor, an entrepreneur, a chef, an heiress and a women’s activist.

They all claim to be there for honourable reasons, but it quickly becomes apparent they are all harbouring some dark secrets in their past.

When two of the contestants begin dating, causing a third contestant to spiral into a jealous rage, tensions start to build and everybody starts to play dirty.

When the competition reaches an all time climax causing one of the contestants to fall to their death, the local police are now in charge of going back through footage to decipher whether the death was truly incidental or whether foul play was involved.

The purpose of this book is definitely to highlight fame culture and how pompous and vapid people can be, and as a result not a single character was likeable. Although that was the point of the plot, it makes it hard to stay engaged and invested when you truly don’t care what happens to any of these people.

I liked the idea of the plot, a 24/7 filmed reality tv competition with people who will fight tooth and nail to win, but it just didn’t vibe for me and I found the execution not extremely enthralling.

The most interesting plot line for me was definitely the romantic relationship between two contestants. For the majority I was rooting for them and hoping that their feelings were actually genuine and not just a show for the cameras. The end conclusion felt a little abrupt but we did get our answers.

What I did like: the overall plot, the setting, the format (swapping between police interviews and flash backs from the reality show episodes).

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for an opportunity to read this book!