The Wayside is a gripping psychological thriller, follows Kate Cleary's journey to uncover the truth behind her son Jake's death at his elite liberal arts college. Refusing to believe it was suicide, Kate delves into Jake's final days, encountering unknown forces and a dangerous mystery that leads her closer to a terrifying truth Jake wanted hidden. The story combines elements of dark academia, domestic fiction, and modern suspense, exploring themes of devotion and the secrets we keep from loved ones.

I ;sitened to the audio arc from NetGalley. It was a really good listen and the narrator did a great job. We follow a grieving mother as she pieces together the last months of her son's life. When another student (who may or may not have a connection to her son Jake) dies, she finds herself digging up things about the college these students attended.

I loved the angle of a college secret society, I felt that it gave the story so much depth. I found myself getting immersed every time I listened. TThe twists and turns this book takes you on are so worth the listen! I would definitely recommend this book.

This psychological thriller did keep my interest and as a mother of sons myself, I appreciated the MFC and her quest to find out what happened to her only child. She was portrayed to definitely be passionate that her son did not die pass by his own choice, albeit also somewhat naive in her actions and internal thoughts. There as a particular twist at the end was unexpected and sho of to me-and helped conclude the story to be a memorable one. The solo female narrator did bring the MFC to life, there was much passion, inflections and emotion in her narration that made for a captivating experience. 3.75 stars Many thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the audio copy.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

Overall enjoyable read. I was not expecting the twist at all. Was a little slow paced at times but not horribly so. The narrator did a good job.

The premise of this book had me hooked right off the bat. I found the mystery to be intruiging...until it fell flat. I wanted more about the wayside and less about the family drama. The last 25% of the book was off.

So slow, the plot needs more and the twists were what you would have expected. Also, for a woman grieving her son…she is rather horny 👀👀

Ultimately, I DNF'd this book at 20%. I did not connect with the main character or plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The following review was published or updated in several Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia newspapers and magazines in November and December 2024:

Booking a full year of reading

Review by Tom Mayer

If only us readers could just spend our days … reading. What would a year look like? Here, the editors of Home for the Holidays present their yearlong list of books, culled from the past 12 months of reading and reviewing. A few of the titles you’ll immediately recognize, and you’ll likely have more than few in your own library. But just in case you missed a title or two, we’re showcasing the whole year’s worth of books that we’ve read and reviewed, month by month.

Except for the first title, the list is simply a list. To find the reviews of many of these titles, visit our newspaper parent, The (Athens) News Courier at enewscourier.com — with a slight caveat. Our newspaper webmasters are currently working overtime to improve our content management system, the foundation of any website, and while many of our archives are now found there, it may be a few weeks before everything is fully re-uploaded — including the most recent editions of Limestone Life and Home for the Holidays. For now, though, enjoy our literary stroll through 2024.

And about that first title: Not every college professor can make statistical analysis approachable, let along interesting to their students and the general population, but Athens State University emeritus professor of psychology Mark Durm is not every college professor. After spending nearly five decades teaching thousands of students, the “ol’ psychology professor” decided that he’d best get around to writing the one book out of his nearly 100 published pieces that’s he always wanted to write. Call it a legacy piece, but what it really is is a “best of” Durm’s peer-reviewed, book reviews, non-peer reviewed and magazine articles from his 47 years in higher education.

The result is “Professional Publications of an Ol’ Psychology Professor” (Dorrance) with full previously published articles ranging from studies on the effects of glasses on a child’s self-esteem to his ever-popular parapsychology pieces, Durm presents his internationally recognized efforts with a twist.

“It’s a different kind of book because it doesn’t talk about the research, it presents the research,” the professor says from his second-career office at Durm Properties in Athens, about a half-mile from where he first presented that research in person. “I’ve spent hours on all of these articles, especially in the peer-reviewed journal articles.”

And so, articles on divorce, sex, religion and other topics now populate the pages of Durm’s most recent book in an effort to both continue his teaching and satisfy what has been a lifelong wonderment.

“You know, most people don’t understand statistics, so it’s all in there,” Durm said. “What I’m trying to do is a more critical approach to ‘just don’t believe everything you’re told.’ … It’s things that were in my life that I wanted to see if they were so, by using a psychological analysis.”

And like any good professor, Durm didn’t do that research on his own — or take all of the credit. Among the co-authors of many of his articles in the book were students — many of who he’s lost touch with, but all of whom who he credits by name in his acknowledgements and for each of who, if they look up their ol’ mentor, he has a signed book ready to hand over. For the rest of us, you can find the book at any online bookseller — just as you can with the remainder of our list, presented by the month in which the book was published, read and reviewed.

JANUARY

Unbound (Blackstone) by Christy Healy NG/F

The Devil’s Daughter by Gordon Greisman NG/ARC

FEBRUARY

Almost Surely Dead (Mindy’s Book Studio) by Amina Akhtar NG

The Chaos Agent (Gray Man 13) (Berkley) by Mark Greaney NG

The Lady in Glass and Other Stories (Ace) by Anne Bishop ARC

A Haunting in the Arctic (Berkley paperback) by C.J. Cooke NG

Ghost Island (Berkley) by Max Seeck

MARCH

Hello, Alabama (Arcadia) by Martha Day Zschock

The Unquiet Bones (Montlake) by Loreth Anne White

I am Rome: A novel of Julius Caesar (Ballantine Books by Santiago PosteguilloMarch 5: Murder Road (Berkley) by Simone St. James

The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry (Holiday House) by Anna Rose Johnson

Ferris (Candlewick) by Kate DiCamillo

After Annie (Random House, Feb. 27) by Anna Quindlen

Crocodile Tears Didn't Cause the Flood (Montag Press) by Bradley Sides The #1 Lawyer (Little, Brown and Company) by James Patterson, Nancy Allen

Lilith (Blackstone) by Eric Rickstad

Life: My Story Through History (Harper One) by Pope Francis

APRIL

Matterhorn (Thomas & Mercer) by Christopher Reich

Friends in Napa (Mindy’s Book Studio) by Sheila Yasmin Marikar

City in Ruins (William Morrow) by Don Winslow

The House on Biscayne Bay (Berkley) by Chanel Cleeton

Two Friends, One Dog, and a Very Unusual Week (Peachtree) by Sarah L. Thomson

For Worse (Blackstone) by L.K. Bowen

A Killing on the Hill (Thomas & Mercer) by Robert Dugoini

The Clock Struck Murder (Poisoned Pen Press) by Betty Webb

The Book That Broke the World (Ace) by Mark Lawrence

The Forgetters (Heyday Books) by Greg Sarris

Lost to Dune Road (Thomas & Mercer) by Kara Thomas

Warrior on the Mound (Holiday House/Peachtree) by Sandra Headed

Pictures of Time (Silver Street Media) by David AlexanderBare Knuckle (Blackstone Publishing) by Stayton Bonner

Murder on Demand (Blackstone Publishing) by Al Roker

Home is Where the Bodies Are (Blackstone) by Jeneva Rose

MAY

Matterhorn by Christopher Reich

The Hunter's Daughter (Berkley) by Nicola Solvinic

The House That Horror Built (Berkley) by Christina Henry

In our stars (Berkley) by Jack Campbell

Freeset (book 2) (Blackstone) by Sarina Dahlan

Southern Man (William Morrow) by Greg Iles

Camino Ghosts (Doubleday) by John Grisham

JUNE

Specter of Betrayal by Rick DeStefanis

Lake County (Thomas & Mercer) by Lori Roy

Serendipity (Dutton) by Becky Chalsen

Shelterwood (Ballantine) by Lisa Wingate

The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra’s Needle (Holiday House) by Dan Gutman

Jackpot (Penguin) by Elysa Friedland

The Helper (Blackstone) by M.M. Dewil

Winter Lost (Ace) by Patricia Briggs

Shadow Heart (Blackstone) by Meg Gardiner

Lake Country (Thomas & Mercer) by Lori Roy

The Out-of-Town Lawyer (Blackstone) by Robert Rotten

Love Letter to a Serial Killer (Berkley) by Tasha Coryell

Sentinel Berkley) by Mark Greaney

JULY

Three Kings: Race, Class, and the Barrier-Breaking Rivals Who Redefined Sports and Launched the Modern Olympic Age (Blackstone) by Todd Balf

The Night Ends with Fire (Berkley) by K.X. Song

Echo Road (Montlake) by Melinda Leigh

It’s Elementary (Berkley) by Elise Bryant

You Shouldn’t Be Here (Thomas & Mercer) by Lauren Thoman

Back In Black (Blackstone) edited by Don Bruns

The Recruiter (Blackstone) by Gregg Podolski

AUGUST

You Shouldn’t Be Here (Thomas & Mercer) by Lauren Thoman ARC

Not What She Seems (Thomas & Mercer) by Yasmin Angoe NG

Fatal Intrusion by Jeff Deaver/Isabella Maldonado

Death at Morning House (HARPERTeen) by Maureen Johnson

Fire and Bones (Scribner) by Kathy Reichs

Some Nightmares Are Real (University of Alabama Press) by Kelly Kazoo

The Brothers Kenny (Blackstone) by Adam Mitzner

Blind to Midnight (Blackstone) by Reed Farrel Coleman

The Wayside (Blackstone) by Carolina Wolff

Enemy of the State (Blackstone) by Robert Smartwood

You Will Never Be Me (Berkley) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice (W.W. Norton) by Adam Kirsch

We Love the Nightlife (Berkley) by Rachel Koller Croft

Talking To Strangers (Berkley) by Fiona Barton

An Honorable Assassin (Blackstone) by Steve Hamilton possible interview see email

Dungeon Crawler Carl (1 of 6 but see next two months) (Ace) by Matt Dinniman

SEPTEMBER

Fatal Intrusion (Thomas & Mercer) by Jeffrey Deaver and Isabella Maldonado

When They Last Saw Her (Penguin) by Marcie Rendon

American Ghoul (Blackstone) by Michelle McGill-Vargas

First Do No Harm (Blackstone) by Steve Hamilton

A Quiet Life: A Novel (Arcade) by William Cooper and Michael McKinley

One More From the Top (Mariner) by Emily Layden

No Address (Forefront Books) by Ken Abraham.

Tiger’s Tale (Blackstone) by Colleen Houck

An Academy for Liars (Ace) by Alexis Henderson

Rewitched (Berkley) by Lucy Jane Wood

Gaslight (Blackstone) by Sara Shepard and Miles Joris-Peyrafitte

Counting Miracles (Random House) by Nicholas Sparks

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society (Ace) by C.M. Waggoner

The Hitchcock Hotel (Berkley) by Stephanie Wrobel

In the Garden of Monsters by Crystal King

Carl’s Doomsday Scenario (2 of 6 see next month also) (Ace) by Matt Dinniman

OCTOBER

The Hushed (Blackstone) by K.R. Blair NG

A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer (Berkley) by Maxie Dara

On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice (Norton) by WSJ Weekend review editor Adam Kirsch

Framed (Doubleday) by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey

This Cursed House (Penguin) by Del Sandeen

The Puzzle Box (Random House) by Danielle Trussoni

Two Good Men (Blackstone) by S.E. Redfearn

Dark Space (Blackstone) by Rob Hart and Alex Segura

This Cursed House (Berkley’s open submission)by Del Sandeen

Vindicating Trump (Regnery) by Dinesh D’Souza

The Book of Witching (Berkley) by C.J. Cooke

The World Walk (Skyhorse) by Tom Turcich

The Waiting Game by Michael Connelly  ARC, possible interview see email

Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Thomas & Mercer) by Robert Dugoni

Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook (3 of 6, with bonus material) (Ace) by Matt Dinniman

Frozen Lives (Blackstone) by Jennifer Graeser Fronbush NG

Vincent, Starry Starry Night (Meteor 17 Books) intro by Don McLean

Paris in Winter: An Illustrated Memoir (PowerHouse Books) by David Coggins

NOVEMBER

The Waiting (Little, Brown) by Michael Connelly

The Teller of Small Fortunes (Penguin) by Julie Long

Shadow Lab (Blackstone) by Brendan Deneen

Trial by Ambush (Thomas & Mercer) by Marcia Clark

Devil Take It (Heresy Press) by Daniel Debs Nossiter

SerVant of Earth (Ace) by Sarah Hawley

All the other me (Blackstone) by Jody Holford

The Perfect Marriage (Blackstone reissue re-edit) by Jenny Rose

DECEMBER

Trial By Ambush (Thomas & Mercer) by Marcia Clark

The Close-Up (Gallery Books) by Pip Drysdale

The Silent Watcher (Thomas & Mercer) by Victor Methos

Leviathan (Lividian Trade HC) by Robert McCammon

The Silent Watcher (Thomas & Mercer) by Victor Method

Assume Nothing (Thomas & Mercer) by Joshua Corin

One example link:
https://enewscourier.com/2024/11/29/in-review-booking-a-full-year-of-reading/

The story flowed well and the characters were well developed. I recommend this book and look forward to more from this author.


****Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review****

Dark and absolutely heart-wrenching. This one is worth the read in all the right ways. I felt as if I were on the journey with them and could barely wait to see what secret would be uncovered next.

The Wayside is a book about Kate Cleary, a mother on a mission to find out what really happened to her son, Jake. When Kate’s son dies at school, it is ruled suicide, Kate moves into her son’s college apartment to try and put together the last days of her sons life to find the truth and uncovers more secrets than she was expecting. I really enjoyed this book in audiobook form, as well as the narrator voice. This book may contain triggers for some readers.

Caroline Wolff's debut novel, The Wayside, is a gripping psychological thriller that delves into the depths of grief and the secrets that can tear families apart. The story follows Kate Cleary, a grieving mother whose son, Jake, mysteriously dies at his prestigious liberal arts college. Refusing to believe it was suicide, Kate embarks on a relentless pursuit of the truth, uncovering a hidden world of secrets and darkness lurking beneath the idyllic facade of the campus.

A taut, fast-paced psychological domestic thriller in which a grieving mother is determined to prove her son didn't commit suicide while attending his prestigious liberal arts college. Written by a new to me author and great on audio this is perfect for fans of authors like Shari Lapena. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

Kate Cleary’s son Jake was away at college when the unthinkable happened. Kate tries to uncover the truth to find out what exactly happened to Jake. Is it as the police say? As Kate immerses herself in Jake’s day to day life, she finds some unexplainable clues, speaks to people Jake had connections to; in turn, discovering something Jake could have been a part of during his time away. Then, the biggest secret of all is overturned, which affects Kate and knocks the air right from her.

I enjoyed the setting of this dark novel, as well as the vivid descriptions Caroline Wolff creates.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing Audio Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this novel. It is on the shelves now! Go get yourself a copy for your fall reading list! 3 1/2 stars
#carolinewolff #netgalley #blackstonepublishingaudiobooks #fallreads #thewayside

This psychological thriller with a hint of dark academia fell short for me. I liked it, but I did not love it. I do not know that I would have finished had it not been for the audiobook. It just felt a little drawn out to me, but this is definitely the first thing I have ever read like this, so it may just not be for me. The ending made the book though!

Thank you Net Galley for my ALC!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC in audiobook format.

The Wayside by Caroline Wolff, narrated by Lauren Fortgang, is a haunting and intricately woven psychological thriller that delves into the depths of grief, obsession, and the dark secrets hidden within an elite liberal arts college.

The story follows Kate Cleary, a mother who refuses to accept the official explanation of her son Jake’s death. Found dead beneath a cliff at his prestigious college, Jake’s death is ruled a suicide, but Kate is convinced something more sinister is at play. Determined to uncover the truth, she retraces Jake’s final days, descending into a spiral of obsession that leads her into a dangerous and mysterious world.

Lauren Fortgang’s narration is a positive addition to this audiobook. Her expressive and nuanced performance brings the characters to life, capturing the emotional intensity of Kate’s journey and the eerie atmosphere of the college. Fortgang’s ability to convey the suspense and tension in the story enhances the listening experience, making it both immersive and gripping.

Wolff’s writing is sharp and evocative, blending elements of dark academia with domestic fiction. The plot is meticulously crafted, with twists and turns that keep the listener guessing. The exploration of themes such as motherhood, mental health, and the lengths one will go to uncover the truth adds depth and complexity to the narrative.

Kate is portrayed as a deeply flawed yet relatable protagonist, driven by guilt and a desperate need for answers. Her interactions with other characters, including a mysterious woman who may hold the key to Jake’s death, are fraught with tension and intrigue. The supporting characters are equally well-developed, each adding their own layer to the unfolding mystery.

The Wayside is a must-listen for fans of psychological thrillers and dark academia. Caroline Wolff’s compelling storytelling, combined with Lauren Fortgang’s captivating narration, makes this audiobook a standout in its genre.

WOW I did not expect that ending whatsoever! This book had me hooked from the get go. There were some things I found a bit strange but I spose it went right along with the story of figuring out why Jake committed suicide. Great narration!

4 Stars!

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reader copy!

Publish date: 08/13/2024

A woman investigates her son’s death and finds out way more than she bargained for. The story was pretty good, definitely gave some Old Boy vibes towards the end but with its own twist. I had trouble feeling anything for any of the characters besides a deep hatred for John. The narrator did a good job I just wasn’t gripped.

With “The Wayside” Caroline Wolff has created a dark academia thriller that captivates with its literary style of writing, the wonderfully portrayed inner workings of the main character, and the slow unfolding of a dark yet inevitable truth that doesn’t seem far from reality.

This story works a lot with the atmosphere it builds and Lauren Fortgang’s narration added a lot to it, making one feel eerily connected with the main character Kate.

It was a gripping story and a perfect read for the fall season.

For the most part, I enjoyed this book. Sometimes there was a lot going on, and it got confusing when it went back-and-forth between the past and the present, because it didn’t specify that at the beginning of the chapter. The ending left me with a few unanswered questions.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. However, it felt like something I had read or seen before. As the story progressed, I knew I had already read it. This book is too similar to a movie I have seen in the past.