I received a copy of this early release in exchange for my honest review. Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the opportunity.

Vantage Point, releasing in January 2025, is a modern thriller centered on one wealthy family in Maine, and the curse that seems to follow them through the generations. This a very modern plotline, centered on AI and deepfakes, but shot through with gothic elements. Much of the action, for example, takes place at their aptly named estate, Vantage Point. It was this setup that really appealed to me, and the story delivered on much of that promise.

I enjoyed that we got two POVs: Clara (daughter in the family and strong believer in the curse) and Jess (Clara’s lifelong best friend and wife to Clara’s brother Teddy, who effectively runs the family business). And the backstory of the curse is explained in a very smart way -- through newspaper clippings interspersed throughout the novel.

We watch these characters wrestle with major challenges and setbacks, dealt to them often using these technologies. What interested me most was seeing their trust in what they saw and heard on a screen over believing what they were told from family and longtime friends. Trust, in so many ways, was the overall theme.

The ending didn't do it for me, so I knocked off a 1/2 star for that. But I have been thinking about the story and the themes since I finished reading, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in exploring these topics within a well-paced thriller. 3.5 stars, rounded up.

CONTENT WARNING: Deep discussion of eating disorders

Have been super delayed writing this review because of covid so my thoughts aren’t as fresh as they could be but this was sooo good. I loved the use of Wikipedia entries here — a great way to do exposition. This is a slightly futuristic, tech-based horror that still feels very much in the realm of possibility. Deep fakes are only going to get more realistic, and the potential consequences of that technology is honestly terrifying.

Anyway, so much to love about this. A creepy and unsettling story about the dark side of technology and the danger of men desperate for power and recognition.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Great read! I think I’d call it a literary thriller because there is suspense, mystery, drama. It’s just packaged in better quality writing and character work than you expect. Light on the mystery, though - there aren’t multiple levels of twists like you typically get in a genre thriller.

This is from the POV of two women, Jess and Clara, longtime friends. Jess is now married to Clara’s brother Teddy. Teddy and Clara’s family are part of the blue uber rich, and the book follows Teddy’s first senatorial campaign. But damaging videos of them start getting posted online, and Clara starts seeing impossible things. What follows is an unraveling of relationships and a lot of reflection on past choices.

I absolutely loved the plot of this book. It was such a good time. I also thought the dialogue was fantastic. It felt authentic and led to some real awful scenes that had me like 😱😱 just over what someone said. It’s also frightening to think what deepfakes and AI mean for our ability to trust our own memories.

It did some things villain-wise I don’t love, but also some things I thought were interesting. The things I didn’t love did affect my rating, but obviously would be spoiler-y to specify here.

I found this to be a very compelling read, and I’ll definitely read more from Sligar!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

(Note to the publisher: “breech” is used where it should be “breach” in chapter 34)

Teddy and Clara Weiland are siblings, rich siblings. When their parents die,Teddy takes responsibility for Clara. As adults, Teddy is married to Clara's best friend Jess, He is also running for a political seat.
In this thriller, it's not who you know, but what they know. It leaves you wondering, do you know???

This is seriously my favorite book so far this year! Incredible storytelling, fast paced, a true contemporary gothic thriller.

I am obsessed with Sara Sligar’s first novel, Take me Apart, so I was super excited to get this ARC from NetGalley! But this one just didn’t do it for me at all 🙃 I could not for the life of me get in to this one. I’m curious to hear everyone else’s thoughts on this 🧐

This will be released on January 14th!

#netgalley #arc #sarasligar #vantagepoint #takemeapart #newrelease

Vantage Point is a tech thriller that explores the theme of deepfake technology (which is so terrifying tbh)

The plot follows Clara Wieland, a woman who’s part of one of the United States’ wealthiest and most powerful families. Oh, and her family is kinda cursed! Every single Wieland for generations has died a strange and tragic death, including her parents. In the middle of her brother Teddy’s political campaign to become senator, a revenge porn video of Clara comes out and becomes extremely viral. The thing is… she’s not completely sure that the girl in the video is actually her.

Throughout the story we follow Clara’s POV and we also follow her best friend and Teddy’s wife, Jess, as the deepfake videos keep coming out and creating tension between the three of them. I wouldn’t categorize this as a mystery thriller because the main characters (and we as the reader) sort of suspect what’s happening and who’s behind it pretty much the whole time. I would categorize this as a very suspenseful, very eerie family drama with tech elements that would be fun for John Marrs fans.

One thing I really loved about Vantage Point was the eating disorder representation, and how Clara felt so disconnected from her body due to her illness that she truly doesn’t know what she looks like (so real for that), and how that plays into the deepfake debacle. I thought that was so smart!

Definitely keep this one on your radar, it comes out January 2025!

Vantage Point is the kind of psychological thriller that made me feel truly anxious while reading it because the concept is so bizarre and disturbing, yet something that could plausibly actually happen at some point given advances in AI technology. I also felt incredibly anxious reading each characters' chapters as the events slowly unfolded and they confronted what they thought was reality. In addition I appreciated the chapters that provided backstory to who these characters are and what led to their current undoing.

The Wielands are an extremely wealthy family in Maine with a "curse" upon them, clearly inspired by the so-called "Kennedy Curse." Clara and Teddy are the sole survivors of their immediate family after their parents died in a tragic curse related accident 16 years prior (at least Clara believes in the curse, other characters dismiss it as coincidence) and Teddy is Clara's legal guardian despite them both being adults now. Without going into too much detail as it relates to the plot, Clara is in a conservatorship due to mental health issues. Teddy is also married to Clara's best friend Jess which puts strain on their friendship for reasons that are more than just platonic.

Teddy feels a calling to run for Senator representing Maine and their lives begin to unravel starting with a sex tape of Clara appearing online and Clara seeing disturbing and hyperrealistic visions. Then they all begin to question their reality as a variety of videos drop online exposing the Wielands as rich, out of touch assholes, and they see each other in real life doing a variety of out of character and cruel things which they don't actually remember doing.

This book has some cliches around class issues and the trope of a "poor woman" being rescued and given a "good life" by a rich man, however it isn't laid on too heavy, and despite their wealth, Clara and also Jess, are shown to be self aware about it enough to not be completely insufferable, especially Clara who was born rich as a Wieland. Some of Clara's choices were frustrating to read, but I understood that she was coming from a place of being treated like a child her entire life due to mental illness. I appreciated also how the book depicts that a man's "care" can also be a form of coercive control and that conservatorships are abusive no matter what anyone's intentions (this should be clear anyway for anyone who followed the Britney Spears case). This also applies to the institution of marriage and the power dynamics in a marriage with a man who is from a much wealthier social/economic class than the woman he marries.

Vantage Point is also fascinating in how it explores how AI and other forms of virtual reality can be used to psychologically torment people. This is magnified when a person being tormented is already regarded as unreliable and unstable. In real life AI is being used as a way to psychologically terrorize people with the rise of fake pornographic images being made of both celebrities and every day women who are targeted. Plenty of people believe AI images of anything are real despite various ways we currently have to know if something isn't an actual photograph. Even the keenest eye can be fooled no matter what and it's terrifying to think of what consequences there could be. Reading this book was horrifying in that it really laid bare how lives can be destroyed by deceptions like this.

I absolutely love thrillers that are slow burning, scary, and at times made me cringe (in a good way! I'd recommend this for fans of Yellowface by R.F. Kuang). This was a mystery that I absolutely did not want to put down. I also loved reading a mystery that wasn't a murder mystery. I definitely want to read Sara Sligar's first book, Take Me Apart, after reading this.

Many thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and to NetGalley for this ARC to review. This review is my honest opinion.

Thanks to Netgalley for a sneak peek at this book.
I am loathe to review it because I can't give it any better than 3 stars and that's even stretching it. There wasn't one person in this book who had any redeeming character traits or anything positive I could say about them.
The "mystery" aspect wasn't believable to me and I found bored more than anything.
I'm sure there are many who have a totally opposite opinion from me, but I won't be posting this review anyplace but here. Not on GoodReads, bookbub or amazon because I don't want the author's ratings to suffer.

Taking place on an island off Maine out story is centered around best friends, Jess and Clara. Jess marries Clara’s brother Teddy, and thus is thrown into the world of the wealthy and cursed Wieland family. Every Wieland has died a bizarre death in the month of April. While Teddy is running for senate, Clara’s sex tape is released online. Presumed to be deepfakes or a forgotten memory of Clara’s past, who is trying to destroy the Wieland family?

Fast paced, tech thriller that leaves you constantly wondering… what’s real? The characters are all very complex as we get narratives from both Clara and Jess. I really enjoyed this novel! I felt the end was a bit jumbled and predictable, however I still thought it was a great read.

I was not a fan of this book! I found the plot to be very confusing and I didn’t really love the direction that the storyline went. The characters were not likable and I did not have a great time reading unfortunately.

Interesting storyline. Holograms, cursed family, deepfake videos. A page - turning thriller with a lot going on.

Clara has struggled with an eating disorder and mental illness all her life. She is part of the Wieland family, an extremely wealthy and prominent name. Everyone knows the Wieland curse - many, many Wieland's have died in the month of April from tragic, sometimes freak accidents. Her brother, Teddy, is running for a political office. Embarrassing deepfake videos emerge of Clara, Teddy, and Teddy's wife Jess, causing Teddy's political career to be in turmoil. Not only that, but Clara is starting to see things. Clara swears she is seeing her dead parents and even caught them on videotape. No one believes her due to her mental illness, but is she right about everything?

It was an interesting concept for a book. I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. I felt like the story was lacking and I needed more disturbing events. It was a bit slow for me. I felt like the characters were unlikeable and I couldn't relate to them. The story just didn't grab me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed 90% of this book. The Kennedy-esque curse, location, and characters were all extremely interesting and kept me reading for 4 days straight.

However, the last 10% of the novel had me rolling my eyes and sighing as the pages turned. The narrator breaking the fourth wall was extremely cringe as there was little sense that the narrator COULD be unreliable.

I found this enjoyable, but it didn't quite stick the landing for me.

Thank you, NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the opportunity to ready this book ahead of its release.

I enjoyed this very much. It's a very timely look at things coming up in the world as far as AI, deep fakes and social media. It's actually rather scary and complicated when you think of it. Anyone could put stuff out there that is not the truth, but the tools and processes they use make it look almost incontrovertible. You could give yourself an alibi when committing a crime - or you could make it look like someone else is guilty of a crime. It's definitely a story that makes you think!! And it sure makes one uncomfortable about the advances in technology. A perfect example of "just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

Many thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC of this book! I thought that this was a really interesting read. The characters were mostly realistic, I liked the different perspectives/focus areas and found myself intrigued by the plot. It was a slow burn at the start but once I was in, I really enjoyed it!

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.