The golden girl of a small town is murdered, and the shockwaves of her death ripple out in rings to its furthest reaches.

That is the plot of Greta, a crime drama from Welsh novelist Manon Steffan Ros. This story of dark secrets and murder in a small town is billed as a thriller, but readers should know that the slow pacing of this title lands is squarely in the "crime drama" genre instead.

Greta's atmosphere is very well done. Every day in this town feels like the cover looks - dark, drab, and gloomy. You can practically feel the mist on your skin as you're reading. I liked the feel of the small town where everyone knows each other and the obvious class divide there.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel the same about the characters. Greta herself is the only character that feels fleshed out in any way. Even our main character, Shane, (who gives off major incel energy, by the way) really only exists to give us a lens into her. Every other character only exists in periphery of Greta, and very little of their own lives and backstories is discussed.

The ending of the book was interesting, and I see what the author was trying to do with the messaging. However, it felt a bit heavy-handed and since the pacing was so very, very slow, it wasn't a good enough twist for me to really feel like all the pages that came before the last two chapters were really worth it.

Overall, this was an okay book with some strong writing that just left me feeling a bit bummed and a lot disappointed in the trajectory of the book. Crime Drama fans may enjoy the gritty murder mystery, but regular Thriller readers will likely find this slow for their taste.

Greta is a quick, suspense novel.
Greta is found brutally murdered, dead in a quarry.

I definitely wasn't expecting the twists. I would say this is definitely more of a "why" case vs a whodunit mystery.

Worth the read.

Thank you to NetGalley and AmazonCrossing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Manon Steffan Ros undoubtedly knows how to write convincing teen characters, which is not surprising given that she has written 20 children's books. Greta has the feel of a young adult novel, with its characters, school setting, and inclusion of common issues that teenagers face today. We also have a likeable, young male narrator, Shane, who offers an interesting perspective on the events leading up to Greta's death and the nature of their relationship.

Although the novel is short and deceptively straightforward, its characters feel like real people grappling with real problems they are unable to resolve and for which they have little to no support. Young readers may find Greta's dark, melancholy tone and one particularly violent scene distressing. Despite the fact that Shane and Greta come from very different backgrounds, it is impossible not feeling sympathy for both of their circumstances.

Other readers have mentioned the ending, and while it felt anticlimactic and possibly unbelievable, it did fit in with the overall tone of the novel. It's still shocking even though the clues in the preceding pages fill the reader with dread for what will be revealed.

Greta by Manon Steffan Ros was an engrossing and well written small town story.
This was an entertaining, well-written book. It was fast-paced, held interest and I didn't want to put it down.

Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Manon Steffan Ros for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Greta coming out October 22, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I love the setting in Wales. I was in Wales for a day, so I definitely want to learn more about the country. It was a short book. I liked the writing. I thought it started out really suspenseful and mysterious. I feel like some of the characters weren’t as fleshed out. The ending wasn’t my favorite. I would check out other books by this author!

The details of this book were nice; I enjoyed reading about the community and the scene-building. My overall rating is low due to how the story was told and the POV. There were points I was confused if it was present or past. I listened to the audiobook along with the Kindle copy.
The ending seemed a bit odd, but overall, it was a nice short mystery with an unlikely ending.
The Narrator for the audio portion was good at conveying emotion and I enjoyed the accent.

Thank you to the Author and Amazon Crossing and Brilliance Audio for the chance to read/listen to this book and leave my review!

Set in small, sleepy town in Northwest Wales, Manon Steffan Ros’s Greta centers around a high school girl’s recent death, her body discovered in the nearby abandoned slate quarry shortly before the book opens. One thing is certain: this is not a teen suicide. Greta Pugh’s head was bashed in by a large sheet of slate. A beautiful girl has died, a good student from an affluent family. The press loves a tragic story. Detectives have arrived to interview students, teachers, and anyone else who might have known this once perfect, but now dead, girl. The school’s administrator, Mr. Lloyd, has told students that Greta would want them to remain strong.

Shane, one of these students, narrates the story and introduces readers to Greta’s friends and teachers, to their reactions to Greta’s death, to the idea that as soon as Greta died, everyone seemed to forget the type of person she was, “misremembering her, as people always seem to when someone dies.” Greta has “become sacred, every memory of her a treasure.” Shane is invisible—one of the poorer kids in town nobody notices. Shane’s mom was—still is—Greta’s family’s cleaner. She knows the kind of people they are.

As the days pass, Shane slowly reveals what he knows about Greta and how he knows it. Suspects emerge. Manon Steffan Ros keeps readers guessing.

Thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Crossing for a suspenseful mystery and a rare look at Northwest Wales, a place I am lucky to have visited many years ago. I will watch for future novels from Manon Steffan Ros.

The story is about Greta Pugh, a 16-year-old girl who died mysteriously and was found out in some lost quarry. This is a mystery book about how different things could be viewed, but they could also be the same at the same time. When she found our dead, police suspected that it was a murder situation. The people who were in associate with Great were questioned, and everyone felt "poor girl; she was such an angelic girl," but in such a small town like Bethesda, where it was almost considered a village, sometimes not everyday, or everything was alright. And in this book, you see why
The book is from Shane's POV. He was a Greta classmate, and his mother was the Pugh house employee. The book is not how most pov was written; it is most about how Shane observed everyone around him before and after Greta's death. Sure, Greta's death is mostly how the story resolved, but in fact there are some dephs in it. Shane isn't only deducing how Greta died; he also put many things together, like puzzles. There are also great supposed friends, like some group teenagers who spend most of the time together and know many things about each other. The book shows a perfect field of vision that not everything sounds so simple as it shows to you; Greta had friends, but only after her death did it reveal that not all of them were really sympathies as friends; her perfect family wasn't perfect at all. Her inner feeling was so different from what she showed and let people know about her, and the point is not only Greta was like that; Shane, Dion, Gwyn, Mary, and many of the teenagers, who maybe have some specialty in their family or life, have these complicated similarities.
The book is different from other mysteries; you could guess many things by each revelation, but at the same time, you were surprised that every aspect of the book has another deph. Even when everything points to the obvious, you still feel the tension that something is still hidden, and the book won't let the loophole be empty because, in the end, everything makes sense. There is some explanation when Shane has his inner turmoil; he didn't act naive, wasn't even close to it, and he explains every step of how the book progresses, giving the book an edge that and like that.
I rate the book 4 and the mystery 4. It was absolutely worth the journey, and I didn't get bored at all. The book is like a very complicated recipe of adventure when you need to be alert at all the time, and even though it was short compared to other books, it didn't disappoint when it came to filling the loophole. For those who like short mysteries and aren't afraid of a little drama, it's a good recommendation.

Small town drama and thriller books appeal to me. The real grief and pain that small towns go through when people something happens in a small town can be felt through this book. The death of someone important doesn't just hurt the family, but it can rock an entire town. If you liked Home Is Where The Bodies Are, you'll like this one.

Rich In Character..
A sad tale of murder and its effects within a small community. Greta Push is dead and whilst the small community of Bethesda has seen its own tragedy in many forms over time, this death is different. It has a profound effect across the town divides in varying ways - Greta was rich, Greta was popular. People have secrets. A short read yet incredibly rich in characterisation and keenly observed as a direct result of that, characters are fleshed out and credible and deep in detail. The story itself was offset by this and falls a little by the wayside.

Well, this book didn't work with me.
First, I never felt connected with Greta.
Second, I had a hard time picturing in my head the ambience of this novel.
Third, this is too YA for my taste. I don't like YA. Had I seen this book being marketed as young adult, I wouldn't even have picked it up.

It was alright , always love a good mystery book tho.
Was a slow start for me but it nice for a kinda ya book.

A very dark story about keeping appearances, dysfunctional families, loyalty between childhood/teenaged friends, trust in law enforcement, told from the perspective of a teenager named Shane.

I didn't like the mystery-thriller part of the story. It was just everywhere and a bit too dragged out. Instead of the mystery being the focal point of the story, it looked like the raised issued were the main idea. There are scenarios that the story could've done without. I don't also understand why it's necessary to why some of the characters are implied as somewhat mentally unstable. The timeline shifts are a bit confusing, too.

At the beginning, I had a hard time warming up to the story. Then a couple pages in and I was hooked! The vibe was so ominous and intriguing. I need to know the truth! Then it got a bit draggy and you just know but you still want to know what's up. Still, no matter how silly and improbable, nothing prepared me for that disturbing reveal.

In my opinion, a good book.
It started out a bit slowly, but then it recovered so much that I became passionate about it. The story is more focused on a reading for YA but the characters and the story are also appealing to adults.

First off, thanks so much for the opportunity to read this book.
The book started off a bit slow but did pick up and I became quite invested. The story is written a little more like a YA book but I still enjoy the story and the characters

Thank you Netgalley, Amazon Crossing and Mannon Steffan Ros

I have to admit this was a slow start-but such a good read.

This books reads more YA than adult.

This story starts after Greta has been found dead, But this book is more of a journey of why not who.

And the why is worth the wait.

this was a very fast paced, quick little book. 2/5 stars.

this book follows a group of friends who have just lost one of their own- a girl named Greta- to a brutal murder. there is an investigation going on and it seems like the main characters know more than they are letting on, but no one seems to be willing to reveal what they know.

the writing:
i do not have anything specific to say about the writing. nothing about it really stood out to me, bad or good. i will say that i was super engaged throughout the book- i read it in one sitting on a flight. it was a very easily digestible writing style, at least.

the characters:
the characters had shockingly a good amount of depth to them for how short the book was. our MC, Shane, has had a pretty tough life. he is very poor and does not have his father in his life, and you can really see how that impacts how he sees the other characters.

greta was very well done in my opinion also. as the book progresses, you start to really understand that her perfect life is not as glamorous as it seems on the surface, and see how that affects her and her family.

the plot:
the plot was pretty thrilling. i guessed who had killed Greta a little over a quarter of the way through, but that did not make the reveal any less jarring. it was fast-paced and intense, and i felt like i was right there along with the characters as it was unfolding.

the bad:
i’m knocking off stars due to the fact that the reveal of the killer/how Greta really died felt very silly. it did not feel like a real scenario that would happen, and it took me out of the story quite a bit. it kind of soiled a lot of the book for me, as i was just thinking about how it didn’t really track for me.

overall, it was an engaging book, but not one that i think was particularly amazing. 2/5 stars mostly because of the far-fetched ending.

At first I was intrigued by this book because it reminded me of one of my old favorite shows, pretty little liars. A charismatic beloved blonde teen goes missing and secrets are slowly revealed. But, like pretty little liars, the ending completely lost me. I just can’t buy it. Which is like my only requirement in a mystery. I wanted to buy into it, but the last two chapters almost felt cringey.
I did like the writing though, even if it was a little ‘teen angsty’ at times.

This definitely felt more like a young adult book than an adult book. The storyline and characters were very juvenile.