The synopsis drew me in right away, one of my favorite reads reads this year also revolved around a game show and murder so I was excited to see a new take on it. The story jumps between before and after the murder of Rhys, the most hated contestant. The characters weren't very likable. It does get a bit confusing at times trying to remember all the people and timelines.

This one kept me on the edge of the seat and turning the pages. I recommend for a good autumn vibes read!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

Six people arrive on a desert island to participatein a reality show. . The contestants are all glamorous and dramatic. The stakes are high, and with millions of viewers watching, losing is not an option. Three weeks later five of the contestants are at the police station being questioned about the death of one of their cast mates.
Twelve million people were watching livenwhen Rhys Sutton died on camera. Was it an accident or murder. No one is talking. Everyone has their secrets. The only thing known for sure is that before his death Rhys was the most hated man on TV.

The story alternates between the police investigation and flashbacks from the show. It reads like you're watching a reality show. This means reading between the lines and figuring out what's real or just for TV.

The characters are all unlikeable. Due to the format we don't get much of an idea of who they are before everything begins taking place. This makes it hard to care about what happens to any of them.

I think fans of reality TV shows like the one portrayed here might enjoy this more.

Thanks to Netgalley and Source Books for this EARC in exchange for an honest review.

Six strangers come together on a tropical island to challenge one another on a reality TV show to win cash money!!However, the book opens on one of the contestants dying on live TV, was this an accident or a murder captured in real time?? And if so, who did it?

This was a lot of fun, it was an easy to consume thriller, that I found hard to put down sometimes. It was nonstop in the drama, the audience added on to it, the contestants were almost goading each other on, and the challenges set them up for fights and other drama to unfold.

I surprisingly loved the reality tv aspect, mainly because I found the challenges really kept the plot moving forward. It was fun to see every chapter what challenge would unfold next and who would be on the chopping block.

I found the characters very annoying and everyone of them was very hypocritical, which is to be expected from reality tv stars lol. But I wasn't really rooting for everyone and there wasn't much room for character development or nuance. I didn't find the detectives scenes all too compelling, I feel like those could have been more flushed out, it would have made for a more exciting ending possibly.

Overall a fun summer thriller I think lots of people would enjoy!

I love reality tv thrillers!
And this one was definitely full of drama.
Six contestants are competing on a reality tv show on a secluded island. When one of them turns up dead, the others are now suspects.
Each chapter is an episode of the show which is flashbacks leading up to the murder. There is also a now POV with the investigation.
For me it was hard to keep up with all of the POVs and jumping around with different characters. It’s definitely a full cast of unlikeable characters!
Drama, murder and secrets!! What happened to Rhys and who killed him?!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the copy. Unfortunately I was not able to finish Then Things Went Dark. I found myself with no interest in the storyline. I do believe that I will try again in the future.

This story was catty and drama-filled and I loved every bit! I'm not generally a big fan of reality shows in which they put horrible people against one another, scheming and untrustworthy but, in fiction? I'm here for it. I normally pride myself with having my suspicions on whodunnit figured out pretty quickly but, I was about 50-60% in before I had a solid idea of who was to blame. The story was fast-paced and intriguing. My only pause was the history of the detectives, I didn't really understand how that fit into the story. 4.5 stars rounded up.

I picked up Then Things Went Dark by Bea Fitzgerald when I needed a quick escape from reality, and this a game-show gone wrong plot gave me exactly what I needed!

This locked room thriller opens up a Pandora's box of messy characters! Simply put, this book was a shit-storm of pseudo-celebrities fighting for top spot! There was a menagerie cast of eclectic protagonist/antagonist-adjacent people with a clear, well labeled and targeted antagonist - making it easy to get sucked into the fray! Fitzgerald created a pressure cooker on this remote island, easily establishing a tumultuous love/hate relationship between the reader and each character! The plot was both cut and dry but also open to a bit of interpretation! I loved how this book answered the who-done-it question, solving it with an incredibly satisfying ending! Speaking of, this ending worked SO well for this type of book!

Another amazing audiobook! Zura Johnson manipulated her voice in amazing ways, and skyrocketed herself to one of my favourite narrators! Just listen to her reading off the social media commentary to hear what I mean! I am absolutely blown away, and this audiobook will be one I recommend again and again!

Fast-paced and full of all the drama reality TV brings with it, this book is just the perfect binge-worthy escape!

Thank you NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark and Tantor Audio for the complimentary copies to read and review.

I thought the overall story was twisty and thrilling, but had a hard time keeping up with who was who.

"Then Things Went Dark" by Bea Fitzgerald is a gripping and twisty mystery that delves into the dark side of reality TV. With a cast of glamorous and volatile characters, the novel weaves a tale of rivalry, secrets, and betrayal. The mystery unravels at a fast pace, keeping readers hooked as the remaining contestants grapple with the aftermath of Rhys’s death, all while trying to conceal their own involvement. Fitzgerald’s exploration of how fame and pressure can distort truth and morality is both chilling and thought-provoking. With plenty of unexpected twists, "Then Things Went Dark" is a perfect read for fans of dark, character-driven mysteries with a mix of reality TV.

This review has been posted to Goodreads and Storygraph on September 5th, 2024. Links provided.

Six reality show contestants land on a remote island, eager to prove themselves in front of millions of viewers on the newly created reality tv show, “Iconic.” Glamorous and competitive, each “player” is determined not to lose out on the money prize and fame. But after three weeks and eighteen episodes, five of the contestants find themselves being interrogated in a police station and none of them can claim victory. The world watched as contestant Rhys Sutton died on live TV, and now the remaining contestants are all suspects. With everyone hiding secrets while under the microscope of the public eye, the truth behind Rhys’s death becomes harder to keep under wraps - especially since he was the most hated man on television before his untimely death.

While the premise of this book intrigued me, I quickly realized I was going to struggle with actually enjoying it because I could not stand a single main character in the story. This book clearly aims to call out fame culture and the superficial nature of those chasing. The author wrote the characters well in this light, which is probably exactly why I didn’t like any of them. Sadly, even though Bea Fitzgerald succeeded in what she intended to do by writing unlikable characters, it unfortunately led me to not really care about any of their fates. While I was still interested in discovering what really happened, I found the ending to not be very original and didn’t have much of an opinion one way or another once I knew the truth. In the end, Then Things Went Dark was a fairly fun read as a general whodunnit, but I would have enjoyed it much more if I actually cared about the characters. In my personal opinion, it is hard to care about what happens in a story when you don’t care about the characters.

Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and NetGalley for the opportunity to read to an ARC of Then Things Went Dark in return for my honest review.

Six contestants competing on a reality show on an island secluded from the rest of the world. One ends up dead, and the other five are being investigated as suspects in his murder.

As a fan of reality competition shows and thrillers, I was very excited to read this book. Each chapter is framed as one of the episodes of the show as sort of a flashback, followed by the "current" timeline of the police investigation.

From the beginning, I found it hard to keep all of the characters straight. You are given a lot of names and information, and then there was a lot of jumping around on how the characters were being referred to (by their first/last name, nicknames, etc). There was also a lot of jumping around with POVs, which felt a little disjointed because there wouldn't really be a break or shift in the story and all of a sudden there would be a new scene taking place.

This could have been really good but ultimately it fell flat for me. There wasn't much to the "competition" of the reality show, more so just six people that couldn't get along and were overly dramatic about everything. I would have liked getting more of a behind the scenes look at production and information on what the show was trying to accomplish instead of the ridiculous drama between the contestants. The "big reveal" at the end of what actually happened leading to the death wasn't worth the build up to me.

Thank you to NetGalley and SourceBooks for sending me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This reality TV thriller is a concept I will hoover up like a silly little vacuum every time I come across it. This was no exception. I thought this was good--the characters were all unlikeable but in a reality TV kind of way where you hate everyone but keep watching, the murder mystery aspect was well done and I had a good time overall. This was a really solid mystery thriller with a fun and well-executed concept! Looking forward to more from this author and hopefully more reality TV thrillers to satiate my endless craving.

I liked the plot idea of Then Things Went Dark bt Bea Fitzgerald, but it was just too liberal for my taste. When an author brings up Presidential candidates, it just turns me off. I just feel that the story fell a little short of my expectations.

Oh man, what a cast of unlikeable characters. As much as I did not like the characters, I think the deeper message of this book is super important. It shows how people become so obsessed with their image that they will do anything to either change it or maintain it. I also loved how at the end, they all played in a part in Rhys' death. This book was a little all over the place but I could totally see it being a reality show in real life. There was so much chaos and messiness and it really makes you think about the rich and famous people and how at the end of the day they are human and not above everyone and everything else. Overall, I liked this book, I just wish there was at least one redeemable character for me.

A bunch of celebrities get a tv spot on a new reality show and they are isolated on an island doing challenges to see who can win the grand prize. If you like Big Brother or any of those kind of shows, this book is for you. One of them dies during a live stream, was it murder? It was different POV's that had me guessing until the end. It's my first book by this author, looking forward to many more.

Bea Fitzgerald’s “Then Things Went Dark” had an interesting premise. Six contestants arrive on an island for a new reality show, entitled “Iconic.” They are well-known individuals who have their own reasons for agreeing to be on the show.

The reader knows at the beginning one of the contestants, Rhys Sutton, is dead, but what is not known is whether it was an accident or if he was murdered. The storyline alternated between present day, which involved the police investigation, and the events leading up to Rhys’s death.

The format of the chapters was confusing for me to understand at the beginning. The author would be writing about what had happened on the island and then would switch to present day. After a few chapters, I got used to the writing style, but it was a change from most books I’ve read.

Overall, this book did not quite work for me. While the ending does explain what happened to Rhys and why, it felt a little abrupt. Also, none of the contestants were all that likable, but maybe that was what the author meant to convey.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC.

This is a great novel about a reality show gone 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

Then Things Went Dark ~ a standalone

By ~ Bea Fitzgerald ~ new to me author

Genre ~ Adult Fic, Mystery, Suspense/Thriller

Setting ~ Portugal (deserted island)

Publication date ~ August 27, 2024, Read~ August 31, 2024

Est Page Count ~ 432

POV ~multiple, 1st person

Tropes ~ rivals, celebrity romance, closed door, cheating, competition, forced proximity, secrets, LGBTQIA+ rep, love triangle, wealthy

⚠️TW ~ physical abuse, pedophilia (mentioned, no details), suicide, murder, alcohol and drug abuse, mental illness

Six people on a desert island playing on a reality TV show competition "Iconic." Who will win half a million dollars and be remembered in pop culture forever?

Araminta seemed to be the focal point and everyone else lived in her orbit. She was the disinherited, sex pot claiming to be an artist/sculptor. Kalpana was a lesbian activist, Isko was a bisexual, celebrity chef, Jerome was the tech entrepreneur, Theo a handsome rockstar, and Rhys Sutton- the actor. They all had secrets about their pasts, careers, or finances. When Araminta and Rhys started a "showmance" things became more volatile and desperate to win the money and fame. There's plenty of backstabbing, cheating, and a murder mystery that ends too abruptly.

I enjoyed the POVs from each character and discovering what they hid from the world. They wanted to be immortalized instead of doing the right thing when no one was watching.

🙏🏽Thanks to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for this ARC 💚! I voluntarily give my honest review, and all opinions expressed are mine alone.

Rating ~ 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐