At first I thought this book was elegant and suspenseful. However, the more I kept reading, it failed to hold my interest. It was marketed as "gothic" and I'm not sure that's accurate. The character development for Clara and Jess is great. The many childhood flashbacks work fairly well. The artificial intelligence and holograms? Well, that pushed it past the point of credibility for me. This simply doesn't read like a gothic mystery. Maybe if it were marketed differently, that might help.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-galley; all opinions in this review are 100% my own.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and Sara Sligar for the ARC. I had high hopes for this book, but I had to DNF it by 20%. I did not like the way the story was heading with the revenge porn and the way her family reacted to the trauma. I knew there would be more sexual assault and more victim shaming, and I can't read that. Anyone who has been through these types of traumas is going to struggle with this. It felt shame-y to me.
A strong trigger warning stating; rape, victim shaming, revenge porn is needed/required.

There was just way too much going on. So much that I was bored and struggling to get through. I like my thrillers to be fast paced and keeping me hooked. This just wasn't it for me.

Thank you to NetGally and Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux for this ARC copy to read and review.
Vantage Point is to be published on January 14, 2025.

Situated on a small island in Maine, Clara and her brother, Teddy, live in the shadow of a family curse. The story starts on April 1st which is the beginning of the month that the curse tends to strike down family members dating back through generations. Teddy is running for the US Senate with his wife, Jess, by his side (she also is Clara's best friend). When the campaign starts being targeted by incriminating videos, Clara goes on the hunt to find who is behind the videos. The story alternates between the 3 characters perspectives of events while giving the backstory to their complicated relationships. It really had me guessing right until the end with a plot twist I didn't expect. This book is a definite page turner.

I liked the idea of this book and the gothic vibes with the family curse, but it moved very slowly in the middle and the deepfakes and holograms took away from the gothic vibes. I feel like it would have held my interest more if the events that happened to these characters were natural.

Likes-
•Wikipedia articles detailing the deaths of ancestors, all in the cursed month of April
•Character development for Clara and Jess
•Flashbacks of their childhood friendship leading up to Jess marrying Clara’s brother
•Mysterious elements surrounding the videos and rattling their brains over whether they were real

Dislikes-
•Teddy. What a grade-a asshole.
•Deepfakes and holograms- I just didn’t feel like they fit. As the story played out and the reason behind them became known, I got it. But they took away from the gothic vibes of the story. I felt like I was reading two different stories.
•The ending statements. Why would the sister and the wife switch places and make people believe they’re the other? It was just weird.

Maybe it’s because I requested this ARC because I wanted a solid, gothic mystery and it just didn’t hit like I hoped it would.

Thank you, NetGalley for allowing me to provide an honest review.

Pretty bad.

I picked this book because I loved that it was set on an island in Maine and seemed to have an interesting plot. What a snooze. Spoiler alert: the big plot twist was holograms. So far fetched to believe and even if it was believable still not interesting enough to hold my attention.

a captivating thriller with ai technology at the heart of it. unsettling as it is completely believable, machine learning and deepfakes are the perfect weapon for a contemporary suspense. the lore and misfortune of a wealthy family a worthy accomplice. i have a lifelong love affair with midcoast maine and the way Sara Sligar has made the setting its own character does it justice in a way i have rarely experienced in fiction.

This book had a really solid start with great changes in characters over each chapter! I appreciated the relationship between Clara and Jess specifically, but the middle seemed a bit muddy. I felt like it was dragged out more than necessary, and the ending felt rushed. That said, I really never knew where the story was going to go, and I really appreciate that!

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of Vantage Point by Sara Sligar.

Teddy and Clara Weinland are come from old money and live in a house called Vantage Point. There is a family curse that happens in the month of April which is a few days away.

The story is told by the 2 main female characters Jess and Clara, Teddy’s wife and sister. Teddy is ready for senator while the 3 are trying to figure out if videos that are being released are deepfakes or real.

This book was just ok for me. I liked the back and forth narrative and the Wikipedia articles about the family curse at the end of some chapters.

"Vantage Point" is an engaging thriller that masterfully intertwines themes of family curses, political intrigue, and modern technology. The story of siblings Teddy and Clara Wieland, along with Teddy's wife Jess, unfolds with a gripping narrative that keeps you guessing. While the characters can be challenging to like, their complex dynamics and the high-stakes drama surrounding a Senate campaign make for a compelling read. Despite a slow start, the novel picks up momentum and delivers a satisfying blend of suspense and psychological tension.

Vantage Point is a great novel exploring the many different ways to distort perspective -- from long-standing aspects like class and mental health to newfound technologies like deepfake videos and projections.
Adapted from an older novel about a very wealthy but cursed family, the book centers on Teddy and Clara Wieland, middle-aged siblings plagued by their parents death while children. The novel alternates perspective between Clara and Jess, her childhood best friend and now sister-in-law.
This is just the beginning in the complications of their relationships and loyalties, as Teddy is running for Congress, consuming his and Jess' lives. Clara has been dependent on one or both of them her whole life, having near constant battles with drug use, eating disorders, and haunted by the trauma of her presence at and inability to stop her parents' death.
When a sex tape of Clara and an unknown man goes viral, it disrupts both the campaign and their relationships, and that is only the beginning.
The novel unravels and escalates in a highly entertaining way, as their family compound on a small Maine Island becomes increasingly confining and bewildering.

wow - i want to read more like this. thriller meets suspense, but with a modern twist that you do not expect. loved this quick read and was hooked until the very end.

truly though, it was unlike any thrillers I've read recently, and I appreciate that. the introduction of deepfakes and warped reality really gave it the "modern twist" I was talking about above... and it was not overdone or overwritten.

It’s books like this one that make me want to read thrillers more often. Vantage Point was excellent.

Having a family curse is tough, and no one is more aware of that fact than the Weiland Family. Each April, they walk on eggshells trying to keep the curse at bay. Siblings Teddy and Clara Weiland lost their parents in a freak accident 16 years before the events of the story. Along with Clara’s childhood best friend and wife of Teddy, Jess, the Weilands start blaming the curse for a series of personal attacks ranging from leaked videos to hallucinations. Will it ruin Teddy’s senate campaign? Will it send Clara back over the edge? Where does it leave Jess, the outsider?

The mystery of this thriller took a while to unravel, but when it did, boy did I fly through the rest of the story. The pacing was a little slow for me at the beginning, but it eventually picked up about 60% in. Then I was hooked and couldn’t stop reading.

The characters were unlikable, but I think that was the point. Spoiled little rich kids always get what they want right? WRONG. But I couldn’t help but root for Clara. She was so fierce, even when everyone seemed against her. She took care of business.

I’d absolutely recommend Vantage Point. It might be more fitting for people used to reading thrillers, so thriller newbies might want to ease themselves in.

This book is really swinging for the fences in a bunch of different ways, and most of the time only hitting doubles.

Vantage Point focuses on the remains of a rich Maine family with a tragic history. They are thought to be cursed because they can’t stop creatively dying in April. Now combine this curse with a Senate campaign, a love triangle, and completely unbelievable technology. AI, deepfakes and social media are all very real concerns in today’s world but I felt like this book went far beyond what I think will be possible even 20 years from now. I couldn’t overlook it.

We get to know two of the main characters very well as we switch perspective, but this leaves the third coming across as very flat and unpredictable.

Unfortunately a rather boring experience. There was something about the writing that never truly grabbed me. The characters were up to some interesting stuff, but I didn't like them in the end. I hope other readers like it more.

"Vantage Point" by Sara Sligar is a captivating Gothic suspense novel that delves into the lives of the wealthy and cursed Wieland family. Set on a small island in Maine, the story follows siblings Clara and Teddy as they grapple with their parents' tragic deaths and the weight of their family's dark history. When Teddy's Senate campaign is threatened by the release of intimate videos of Clara, she must determine whether they are real or deepfakes.

Sligar masterfully blends family drama, political intrigue, and psychological tension, creating a narrative that keeps you guessing until the very end. The complex characters and the eerie atmosphere make this a thrilling read.

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review-
The Wieland family is wealthy but cursed. Clara and
Teddy grew up alone when their parents died at a young age. Teddy marries Clara’s friend Jess. When Teddy decides to run for senate things begin to tumble- photos and videos are leaked. Are they real or fake? Who is doing this and why? Can Teddy overcome the media and win the senate race?

“Vantage Point” is the latest Gothic thriller by Sara Sliger. Dysfunctional brother sister, Teddy and Clara, live in their multimillion dollar mansion on a tiny island in Maine along with Teddys wife Jess.
Teddy begins a senate campaign that is hit with scandalous deep fakes of the sibling engaging in bad behavior. They are also plagued by a multigenerational curse.
The book was suspenseful, but ended in a somewhat cheesy way. Overall, entertaining read…

Hmm going to be honest here this wasn’t one of my favorites. I found myself bored easily with it. The story just kept going but like more of a drag way. I love thrillers but this one was meh.

4.5 stars

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book. The family drama, the thrill, the different POV’s and timelines. This all made for quite an unputdownable read.