DNF @ 44% 😔

I was really looking forward to Alafair Burke’s newest thriller. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me at all. The characters are completely insufferable and the connection between past and present was loose at best. It seemed like a little of everything was stuffed into this book and none of it went together. The “incident” referenced in the blurb ended up being a totally innocuous event and there wasn’t much effort put into making it seem like something the reader should care about. Sadly, I have no interest in learning more about these awful characters or what happens to them.

The Note by Alafair Burke
🌟🌟🌟
Three long time friends decide to take a vacation in the Hamptons, but it definitely doesn’t go as planned.
This story has secrets, lies and a prank that went terribly wrong. The book contains suspense, twists and murder!
I enjoyed the premise of the book, but was a bit underwhelmed by it all. I was hoping for more excitement and entertainment.

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc of this book!
*It comes out January 7th!*

this was a good book! I like how there were flashes to the past incident which was kept secret and then in the present there is a big issue going on. The themes of girlhood, growing up, and deceit are prevalent here in this book. I liked the eeriness and suspense of it all. It was well written!!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

I'm here to tell you I have beef with this book.

First off - it's a goofy premise. Three friends all come together because they've all been "canceled" in one way or another and they need to commiserate. They have a group text even! 😒

Then they go out for a night together, one of them leaves a lil note on a car - suddenly dude from the car is missing and nonsense ensues.

Whatever. These three women are in their thirties and they act like children. As the book progresses, none of the responses to anything make sense. It's all off the wall and goofy.

And don't even get me started on that off the wall ending.

This review was unhelpful. And could have been better written. But I am grouchy. 🤣

This one was just ok for me. It was pretty slow to start, but then gained traction as the book went on. I felt like parts of it were jumpy. Some of the dialogue also didn’t seem to flow well. I just couldn’t hear their emotions (sadness, anger and shock) throughout the book, which is a problem for sure. I also had trouble rooting for or liking any of the main characters. Josh is super annoying as well. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for my free copy to read and review!

I have been a fan of Alafair Burke from the beginning and this may be her best work yet. Three friends each carrying their own secrets meet up for a weekend in the Hamptons where a prank goes horribly awry. Stevie Nicks, a $12,000 handbag and NYT spelling bee game references. This book was everything I didn’t know I needed. Thank you Alafair Burke and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy of ‘The Note.’ And a special shout out to publicist and my favorite Bookstagrammer Abby Endler, @crimebythebook

The Note by Alafair Burke is a tense and deeply engaging psychological thriller that will have you hooked from the very first page. At the center of the story is May, a "good girl" who gets caught up in a mess after a prank with old friends spirals into a police investigation. The friendship between May, Lauren, and Kelsey is complicated and fraught with secrets, and as the story unfolds, you're never quite sure who to trust.

Burke masterfully builds suspense and tension, layering twists and secrets that will keep you on edge. The complex dynamics between the three women add depth to the plot, and you'll find yourself questioning loyalty, guilt, and betrayal right alongside May. It's a story about friendship, the weight of past mistakes, and the consequences of hiding the truth.

I couldn’t put this one down! If you’re a fan of twisty thrillers with rich character development and emotional complexity, The Note is a must-read. Perfect for fans of authors like Gillian Flynn and Lisa Jewell, this book is sure to leave you thinking long after you turn the last page. A solid 4.5 stars!

I just finished reading The Note by Alafair Burke. It was my first book by her and I enjoyed it. It was a quick read, it wasn’t slow, and I enjoyed the twists. I had my suspicions about who did what about 2/3’s of the way thru, but I didn’t have it figured out until right before it came out in the book.

The story is about three friends who had known each other since they were in high school, May, Lauren, and Kelsey. May and Kelsey had kind of lost touch with each other after some traumatic events happened in their lives. But they reconnected and all three of them decided to go on a girls trip to the Hamptons.

While they’re on their trip some seemingly silly events happen that lead to very serious problems and accusations. Not everyone is being honest about things in the present nor in the past.

This book will keep you guessing until the end.

I would give this book 3.5 stars, but I rounded it up to 4 stars because it is better than 3 stars, in my opinion.

Thank you Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage & Anchor for the ARC.

May is our protagonist. She and her two friends (Kelsey & Lauren) have been really close since childhood. In the present timeline, they take a girls’ trip to the Hamptons. We get glimpses of their past dynamics and how their friendship has evolved over time. We learn they had drifted apart for a while, but reconnected after each having their own experiences of “getting cancelled.” As the goody-goody of the group (not to mention a law professor), May most definitely did NOT expect to get involved in a prank-linked-to-a-crime during the trip. We see the mystery of who-done-it unfold, complete with all of the messiness of each character’s story.

The book was a bit slow to start but then hooked me in the last half or so. I enjoyed the suspense, and being swept back and forth in who I thought was responsible for the crime. The characters were hard to like though. They were messy, untrustworthy, and at times had some serious mean-girl energy. On the plus side, that helped feed the trust-none-of-the-characters vibes.

Overall, 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. I recommend it to those who enjoy suspense with crime-junkie vibes.

Thanks to the publisher (Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, & Anchor), via NetGalley, for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Pub date: January 7, 2025

When three longtime friends, May, Kelsey, and Lauren, got together for a long-anticipated reunion weekend in the Hamptons, little did they know their fun in the sun would be short-lived.
After an evening of dinner and drinks, the inebriated ladies engaged in a mischievous act directed toward a young couple who had stolen their parking space earlier in the evening. Little did they know the joke would be on them when they became involved in a police investigation. After the investigation revealed shocking events in Lauren and Kelsey’s past lives that May knew nothing about, she knew they were not the friends she thought they were.
As the investigation proceeded, May feared that she would become an innocent victim because Lauren and Kelsey’s involvement was more profound than an innocent act.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. The characters were all wildly unlikeable, the plot was overly focused on the pandemic, cancel culture and other social issues, and the use of slang terminology just felt very juvenile to me. I simply did not enjoy the writing style and honestly did not care one bit about the story or the characters.

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

There are very few mysteries that genuinely surprise me so the best I can hope for is one that is satisfying and The Note fitted that bill perfectly.

May, Lauren, and Kelsey are on a girls weekend in The Hamptons. After a couple steal a parking spot from them, they payback with a silly prank. But that opens a whole can of worms that pulls in three deaths and a Russian doll’s worth of secrets.

The three women first met at a summer camp and when they were counselors there, a young women accidentally drowned. (Or did she? I think you know the answer). Years later, the three women call themselves the Cancel Crew as they have all committed offenses that have caused them to be canceled on social media. Their close knit friendship is, however, shadowed by all the secrets they are each carrying.

The women are nicely drawn characters and their relationships with all their stresses and coverups make sense of a neatly jigsawed plot. The supporting male cast does what it needs to do without getting too much in the way.

A highly recommended mystery for those who like a good twist, whether or not you can see it coming, and mostly I didn’t.

Thanks to Knopf and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Three friends reunite to repair a fragile, and at times toxic, friendship during a long weekend getaway in the Hamptons. They have a few drinks, and then a few more, and play a childish prank on an unsuspecting tourist that had offended them earlier in the day. From there, chaos ensues. More secrets come out. Accusations are made. Relationships unravel.

I'm rating this 3.5 stars and rounding up. I enjoyed it. It was a slower burn, but held my interest. I loved the idea of a prank gone wrong and all of the consequence that followed. I struggled with not liking many of the characters, but not hating them either. I felt sort of indifferent to all of them. Overall, it's still a book I would recommend.

Publication date: January 7, 2025

*Many thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley for providing an advanced reader's copy.

Thank you for the e-arc NetGalley.

Three best friends get themselves into trouble after leaving a snarky note on a car during their trip.
Turns out the guy who owns the car goes missing.
Great characters and loved the strength of the women who moved past mistakes they had made.

thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review!

oh this book was a mess. but it was kind of a FUN mess with a lot of spirit! like I'm not going to lie. when the original motivation for the original event that sets everything off in this story was revealed, I burst out laughing, and not in a good way. it was just so stupid. I almost stopped reading right there, tbh. but I kept reading and I feel like this silliness actually worked in the book's favor in the end? like things just kept spiraling and spiraling and so much was revealed and to see it all started with like the world's stupidest impetus was kind of impressive, actually.

what I think was less impressive was how this book tried to incorporate like, Every Issue. I feel like I bring this up so much in books, but this one was so unfocused. like so many issues and buzzwords were thrown on the page; there is a multi-paragraph explanation of milkshake ducking ffs. I feel like it fit the book's vibe overall - there are a bunch of plot things that just kind of get thrown out there and don't really get the attention they deserve in any meaningful way. I think the biggest one was that at the end of the book, I don't feel like many of the flaws in the main characters were actually addressed, especially May as she's basically the main character and the one where we spend the most time in her POV so I felt like I knew the most about her. brought up a bunch yes, but not addressed.

all this said, the book had a sort of... weird energy to it that I loved. I feel like the author just needed to like take a break and edit some stuff down. maybe a bunch of stuff.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher and PRH Audio for the ARC and ALC.

I really enjoyed this fast paced thriller. This was my first book by Alafair Burke and I don't believe it will be my last. This book kept me guessing and the ending left me in chills. This book may very well be one of the best thrillers of 2025 (and yes I know it is early to say this).

I thought the audiobook version of this book was also amazing and I thought that Catherine Ho was the perfect person to narrate this book. Therefore, I highly recommend the audiobook.


Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher and PRH Audio for the audiobook and ALC.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for my review.

I’m a huge fan of Burke’s writing and this novel was no exception for me. Three old friends get together for some lighthearted fun and an innocent prank goes terribly wrong. But was it really an innocent prank? The story gets deeper the more you dig. Who is telling the truth and what actually is the truth? Everyone has secrets and half lies An excellent story that unravels piece by piece.

My thanks to Net Galley, Knoff, Pantheon, etc for allowing me to review this arc.

3.5 stars!! 3 childhood friends gather for a trip.. An issue over a parking spot leads to a prank note on the car. When a person from the car goes missing and was found dead, the 3 friends find themselves in some deep water.

The first part of the book was very slow establishing May, Lauren, and Kelsie. I found the characters very immature and not likeable. Once the person goes missing from the car it starts to pick up till the final twist.

An ok read

A great mystery read! Three friends with a history of scandalous pasts reunite for a weekend in the Hamptons. A little prank takes a wrong turn, pushing the women into the middle of a murder investigation. With lots of little twists and turns, the woman get quickly pulled into the center of the police investigation.
Burke does a great job keeping the reading guessing, forcing the whodunit question on the reader until the very end. I knew it was a character introduced throughout the book, but I was not expecting the final twist until almost the very end!
This book provided a good mix on the importance of female friendships, as well as a good mystery read.
Thanks to NetGalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, & Anchor for the early read!

Three friends are looking forward to a weekend together after years apart. Having first connect as children and young adults at a music camp, they bonded even more after a shared tragedy and then various scandals pushed them unwillingly into public criticism.

More recently, they have come together over a shared love of solving the NYT game “spelling bee” together each day to earn the title of “Queen Bee”.

The trip was supposed to be a relaxing way to reconnect, but as it goes on, more tragedy seems to find them and secrets are revealed that make everyone question what the truth is and who to trust.

This story pulled me in pretty quickly, and I was trying to figure out some of the connections up until the very end when all was revealed!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.