I really enjoyed this book! The lives of Jess, Teddy, and Clara, was intriguing and drew me in! I will be looking for more books by Sara Sligar! Thanks again to @netgalley for this ARC! Definitely put this in your "to be read" list now!

Well, this is a unique and captivating tech thriller that focuses on deepfake technology and holograms, intertwined with a famous family curse that keeps your attention intact!

The story revolves around Clara Wieland and her best friend, who is also her sister-in-law, Jess. Clara and her brother Teddy grew up on a small island in Maine, part of a wealthy family with a tragic history. Each family member has died accidentally in April, a phenomenon known as the “Wieland Curse.”

The two siblings witnessed their parents’ deaths, growing up with guilt and trauma. Clara, in particular, suffers from an eating disorder and self-sabotaging behaviors. Thankfully, her best friend Jess, who is also Teddy’s wife, helps her gather the pieces of her shattered life. Clara even lands a leadership position in their family company, while her brother runs for the Senate, supported by his beautiful wife Jess, who is still adjusting to her new wealthy lifestyle after a past filled with abuse and poverty.

However, Clara's life is turned upside down when a sex video of her goes viral on the internet. Clara has no idea where the video came from or who is in it, leading to the suspicion of deepfake and hologram technology. Someone is targeting the family's reputation, but who? As they delve into the family's skeletons, what they uncover could ruin their entire lives.

The Wikipedia-style entries detailing the Wieland family curse and the creative ways the author describes the deaths of family members are absolutely mind-blowing. If these entries were published separately, I would give that book five stars!

There are many layers to this book beyond deepfakes and cyberbullying. It addresses slut-shaming, body shaming, political manipulation, and realistically approaches themes of traumatic loss, guilt, grief, self-sabotage, self-deprecation, eating disorders, and sociopathic tendencies.

The flashback scenes showing the blossoming friendship between Jess and Clara over the years are another highlight. These two polar opposite characters build a relationship on shaky ground, yet tragedy keeps them bonded. Their mutual envy for different reasons adds a love-hate-obsession dynamic to their friendship, making it even more intriguing.

The author skillfully juggles various topics without dropping any balls until the end. The characterization is strong, though one character's sudden turn into a villain felt exaggerated to me. It's noted that this character hid their true nature perfectly, but it's hard to believe they left no clues behind throughout their life.

The ending was questionable and disturbing, but if you ask whether I enjoyed the book, my answer is a resounding yes. It’s a well-executed premise!

Overall, the writing style is gripping, the characterization is well-developed, and the concept is unique. Despite some questions about drastic changes and far-fetched revelations, I enjoyed this intelligent mystery, earning it four tech thriller stars. I look forward to reading more works by Sara Sligar in the near future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux / MCD for sharing this gripping tech mystery’s digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

This is a very intriguing story. It is narrated by the 2 main female characters, Clara and Jess. There are other characters, of course. You learn about them from the narrators.
The plot revolves around deepfakes, videos and holograms. It shows how the most innocent comment or occurrence can be turned into a disaster.
I'm still not sure if I loved or hated the ending. I will say it was reasonably satisfying and most appropriate for the plot.
I would recommend this book to other readers.
TW: Eating Disorder
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of Vantage Point
#NetGalley#FarrarStrausAndGiroux#MCD#VantagePoint#SaraSligar

Vantage Point was a wild ride. I loved the way it played with genre. The writing itself was beautiful.

This book was well written, but I feel like there was just too many subplots going on. Why was it so easy to find the bad guy? Why did the husband all of a sudden flip out? Everything just seemed to be sprinkled in without reason.

Did I like this book? Yes,
Was the plot interesting? Yes
The curse/wikipedia entries were excellent, as were the throwbacks into Jess and Clara’s pasts.
The technology described in the book seemed a bit reaching- I have never heard of perfectly opaque hologram projections…
Also, it’s definitely a case of unreliable narration which, if you somehow missed it on your own, the author spells it out for you in the final chapter. I found that unnecessary. Lots going on here - cool free ARC from NetGalley

This book was ok. I expected a bit more than was delivered. But, overall I would recommend giving it a try.

This book had me hooked from the first page! The whole idea of deepfakes, AI, cancel culture and technology fooling us is so timely and was executed very well in this book. I found myself feeling bad and rooting for every character, you could resonate with how they were each feeling. The biggest issue I have with it though was the ending, it just didn’t quite stick the landing for me. Without giving anything away it just felt rushed and unfulfilling. I was waiting for the big reveal to be something more than what it was. The ending fell flat for me, but otherwise I throughly enjoyed the book!

I enjoyed this terrifying romp through technology and our worst impulses. Almost as much fun as Sligar’s debut.

The vantage point :

Thank you to Netgalley, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux and the author for providing me the eARC of The vantage point.

Modern technology - a BOON or BAN??

A Vantage point is a position or place that allows one a wide or favourable overall view of a scene or situation which is ironically quite contrary to the circumstances the characters are currently facing.

Clara and Jess are bestfriend's since middle school despite their vastly different upbringings. This is their story over the years, detailing the doubts and setbacks they have faced both individually and together, and the looming family curse that threatens to disrupt their seemingly perfect lives.

Starting with the premise, it had everything I wanted: multiple POVs, mystery creating tension, a story set on a small island, a generational curse, and a fresh take on modern technology. The writing was good and immersive, but that's where the positives end. Despite these promising elements, the execution fell short. I had heard a lot about the author's previous book and was genuinely excited after getting the eARC, but my expectations were not met at all.

The mystery was well-crafted and kept me suspecting everyone, but the final reveal and the motive disrupted everything. The ending felt abrupt and off-putting to the point where it simply didn't make any sense.

The one two aspects I appreciated were the portrayal of human complexity woven throughout the story, prompting reflection. It highlighted how people are rarely content with what they have, often envying others who, in turn, envy them, believing everyone else leads a better life. And the portrayal of eating disorder.

CW: Death of a loved one, description of several accidents, social media harrassment, eating disorder and grief.

3.5 stars - Clara and Teddy Wieland were orphaned as teenagers and inherited their infamous family estate, "Vantage Point". The story mostly follows them as adults, but ping-pongs back to their childhoods and late-teen years to further explain the caveats of the sibling relationship. Over the course of the first few chapters, you learn (via "Wikipedia" entries) about the Wieland Curse and those who have fallen to it, which adds to the plotline and builds the story nicely and provides some dark humor.

While there are overarching themes about privacy, slut-shaming, classism, political optics, and deepfakes, the author stays very surface-level and doesn't delve too much into detail. The references make it feel current but glossed over, as if they're only being introduced to check off a buzzword.

As much as I enjoyed the writing, I had a very hard time completing this book. This is one of those instances where the first chapter of the book tells you the entire storyline, and then you spend the whole time looking for other ways it could end differently.

Thank you to NetGalley, and Farrar, Strauss & Giroux for the advance copy!

Thank you to #netgalley and #sarasligar for the ARC of #vantagepoint book. With the ARC, the cover art wasn't available. I did see the cover on #netgalley and until I started composing my review, didn't see that the house called #vantagepoint was there. The green borders distracted from that. I think the house should be the main focus point since it is part of the story.

This book was a quick read with well developed characters and a plot point that reminded me of the Kennedy's because of the "curse". The story was given from different points of view, a sister and her bestie who married the sister's brother. The brother I really didn't care for complete dbag. But the whole deep fake, AI, nonsense was a lot to keep up with and . I did overall enjoy the story and what I really, really enjoyed was the wiki snippets of how different family members died as a result of the "curse" . Overall a good story but a bit of tweaking would make it amazing.

This author is an exceptional descriptive writer, and I found the vivid imagery a lot of fun to read. Although I found the reveal to be a bit obvious, it was a fun journey getting to it all the same. The tension is excellent -- I had so much sympathy for Clara, but the fact that everyone else found her an unreliable source felt entirely believable. I found Teddy's abrupt shift in demeanor a little frustrating. Even though we know he was a selfish individual, it felt like a flip of a switch when he went from being a caring brother and husband to complete sociopath with little explanation.

Thanks to Net galley and the publisher for this arc. I did enjoy the story of the fall of a prominent family but did not find any of the characters very likeable. The political aspect was a nice touch. It did have a dark setting which also went well with the overall theme of the story. The ending left me satisfied.

This was a great thriller! I enjoyed it so much! I can’t wait until publication day when I can recommend it to all my bookish friends!!

This book is crafted as something between a thriller and contemporary fiction with a gothic element. I appreciate the mystery and character development weaved together. This book had a great premise of a family curse and I enjoyed that throughout the story I was trying to understand if the mystery and curse was real or some form of a ghost story. While figuring this out the author had a great way of truly diving into the characters personal journeys and the way they are all connected. Especially as you read chapters from their childhood and now adulthood. The way it ended was also very interesting and made me really reflect on how the characters were each involved with one another and what they meant to eachother.

I do think at times it felt like it weighed heavier on the characters than the psychological thriller mystery curse part. By the end of the book I think there were many good ideas and themes that were not strung together well enough. There was a gothic home of a rich family, a curse, holograms and deep fakes, complicated relationships between siblings and friends. All great things but thrown together without fully flushing each out. I wish there had been more about the curse or not have it at all.

Overall it was a good read, if I had to rate it in comparison to others in the same genres I would give it a 3.25. I would still have read it and would still recommend to my friends who like thrillers.

The cover is great! Very striking and does express the story well while still being captivating. Based on the cover I would pick it up at a bookstore.

A book's ending is paramount to a story's overall quality. Once you reach the end of a 350+ page book, the climax, the pivotal moment you've been waiting for after hours and hours of spending your precious time reading it cannot be a letdown. A bad ending will leave a bad taste in a person's brain-mouth that can tarnish the entire reading experience.

Unfortunately, Vantage Point's ending was so bad, so ridiculous, and so expected that it was actually unexpected, because it had been hinted at, extremely obviously, since the very beginning.

This novel follows the downfall of a fictional wealthy family as the (dickhead) older brother, Teddy, is in the running for a political campaign. His wife is Jess, a total pushover and bore, and Teddy's younger sister Clara is Jess's best friend. Clara is suffering from a raging eating disorder and has been a handful for most of her life, which makes her the perfect target for a scandal where no one will believe her when she claims it's not real. So, when a graphic sex tape of hers is released, and she begins to suspect she may be a victim of deep fakes, neither Jess nor her (I cannot stress this enough, dickhead) brother believes her.

Maybe I should have read the description of this novel a little better, but I was not expecting the entire plot of this book to essentially be about AI and deepfakes. It's not a topic I'm at all interested in reading about, but throughout most of the book, I was surprised by how much I was enjoying it. While the plot wasn't what I typically choose to read ("Gothic"? Gothic where? Why is this book being pitched as gothic!?), I thought the writing was good, the characters were developed and clear, and I was sailing through, ready for the mystery to be solved! But once answers began to unravel, I found myself scoffing and guffawing at the ridiculousness. I cannot say anymore without giving out spoilers, but I couldn't have thought of a more anti-climatic finish than Vantage Point delivered.

This was, sadly, a flop for me! 2 stars.

Thank you Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC.

Set in a beautiful family home on the cliffs of Maine, Teddy and Clara are wealthy children of parents who died tragically when they were young. In fact, the Weigand family is plagued by tragedies that happened in April over hundreds of years. Clara’s best friend Jess married Teddy and the book follows their relationship and its issues while Clara fights an eating disorder, Jess struggles with fitting into a wealthy family, and Teddy runs for office. Throughout, they struggle with the April curse and what it means to them.

Told from both Clara's point of view and Jess', we slowly learn about Jess' marriage to Teddy and Clara's struggles with feeling responsible fo her parents' deaths. All the while, Teddy is a strong protector. However, the book has twisty turns as these relationships unfold throughout the book. A well-told story with a somewhat unbelievable ending. I enjoyed it!

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for sharing “Vantage Point” by Sara Sligar. Vantage Point is the story about best friends Clara Wieland and Jess. Clara and her brother Teddy are from the wealthy and powerful Wieland family. The Wieland kids grew up at Vantage Point a well known estate on an island. There is a belief among the locals that the Wieland family is cursed as family members over the years have died in the month of April. Jess is brought up by a single mom and works for all she has. She and Clara become friends in elementary school. In high school, Clara goes off to Halpern School in New Hampshire and Jess stays at the public high school on the island. As a teen while home on break from private school, Clara witnesses her parents’ death and is haunted by the loss. There is a distance in the friendship that continues from high school through college. After a fight with her mom, Jess visits Clara in NYC. After this visit an incident occurs and they are back in each others lives. Jess marries Teddy who later is running for a Senate seat when things get turned upside down. The three lives will never be the same.
I enjoyed the book and the twist and turns. I would recommend to others who like unexpected twist.

I did feel the later half of story wasn’t as compelling as the first half. Teddy’s changes seemed abrupt without any previous examples or signs. The final chapter ended in my mind abruptly without many details that led to end.

Sligar's writing is sharp and engaging, with a keen eye for detail that brings the characters and setting to life. The plot twists and turns, keeping readers guessing until the very last page. The exploration of themes such as ambition, betrayal, and hidden motives adds depth to the story, making it not just a thrilling read, but a thought-provoking one as well.

Overall, "Vantage Point" is a must-read for fans of suspenseful, character-driven novels. Sara Sligar has crafted a tale that will linger in your mind long after you finish the book.
Thank you for the ARC