Such a fun concept and wild ride! Twisty and fun, You Are Fatally Invited is a treat for fans of Agatha Christie and locked-room mysteries.

I’ve probably said this before but when a book gives off Clue vibes, I’m immediately reaching for it. You Are Fatally Invited played with the isolation trope so well 👏

I ended up binging this one during Thanksgiving weekend because I had to know what was going on. Ande Pliego did a masterful job at the pacing. The chapters are short, we’re switching between different characters with countless reveals or red herrings and set ups and it never felt boring or stretched.

Not only are we hoping to find out who the mysterious J.R. Alastor is, there are multiple sub-plots we’re trying to untangle and I can happily say I was wrong about all of them.

If you’re a fan of the book within a book trope, you’ll love this. We get really up close and personal with J.R. Alastor’s upcoming release while also learning about each author’s work, which I can’t help but wish we could read too. Especially the horror ones 😉

Multiple point of view locked room mystery. Great plot and pacing. This was an impressive debut novel, and I look forward to reading more from this author.

A fun locked-room thriller, six thriller authors are invited to a secluded island for a writing retreat put on by an elusive author. This was pretty interesting. I loved the initial "murder mystery dinner" feel on their first night, and it just amped up from there. Slowly, authors are going missing or coming up dead. So who is the killer? And what motive do they truly have.

I loved the concept of the authors being taken out by their writing M.O. - whether their characters dead by axe, falling, drowning.... it's all up for grabs in this thrilling book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this early release in return for my honest review.

Pub Date: 11 Feb 2025

I am always up for a good locked-room mystery thriller and devoured You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego. You are cordially invited to the island of the coast of Maine by renowned anonymous author J. R. Alasto for a writer’s mystery retreat. Come along with six authors, all successful in their own rights at crafting murder, mischief and mayhem. A word of caution not all of you will make it off the island.

An addictive debut from author Ande Pliego! Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie who love a suspenseful, dark locked-room murder mystery or in this case a group of writers, all with secrets trapped on an island.

The tale begins with six authors arriving at the docks to board a yacht. Each has received an invitation for an exclusive mystery retreat from the famous author J. R. Alasto. They are met at the boat by Mila, the host of this week’s event. Alasto is a recluse who has never even been photographed but all agree his works are outstanding. Each hopes to glean some inspiration.

The tale that unfolds is deliciously suspenseful as the authors find themselves in a deadly game. It all begins on the first evening at dinner. Alasto doesn’t make an appearance, but gives them a game to play. When the first body appears, things turn deadly. Is Mila involved? What secrets do each of these authors possess? Is this a game of revenge?

Pliego blended mystery, thrills, games and clues with horror in this deadly tale. The set up was perfection and added to the tension. Mila communicates with Alasto through her smartphone. Hidden cameras are set up all over the island and manor. The authors invited are Fletcher, Rodrigo and Olivia (a writing duo), Violet, Ashton and Cassandra (rumors say she is a black widow). Each is a successful author in the mystery genre and we learn their backstories, including Mila’s. As I’ve stated, each has a secret and those are slowly revealed as the suspense and danger increase.

Twists, turns, and horrifying moments will have you reading past your bedtime. The author kept us guessing, and the players terrified. The pacing was well done, but I am not sure if there was perhaps a smoother way to share the back-history of each of our guests. While important, it slogged up the beginning with information dumps. Once we got past that, I could not set this one down. I cannot wait to see what this author brings us next.

Clue board game + writer's retreat on a remote island turned murder scene = one heck of a mystery thriller. And I'm a hard one to win over in this genre.

This story expertly weaves together multiple points of view to drip clues and you quickly realize the pasts are muddied and rife with possible suspects. Every time I thought I might have an idea of who-done-it, I wasn't so much proven wrong as given another reason it might be someone else.

A famous author curates a guest list of writers to his remote island for a writers retreat. Through Mila, the event coordinator, we quickly learn that the host has ulterior motives for his choice of attendants and the planned reveals of nightly murder mystery games. However, things quickly veer from the itinerary when one of the writers is found dead, causing the retreat theme to begin to feel a little too real.

This wasn't overly gory, however there were a few scenes in which got a little graphic, if you're sensitive to that. Pliego expertly teased my 'need to know' inclination, so while I wasn't like on the edge of my seat anxiously consuming the pages because I needed more to ease the tension in my chest, she certainly had me flipping pages because I needed to unravel the mystery and figure it out. I'll definitely be reading more from her because this book was wonderfully written!

Ande Pliego’s debut is a twisty lit-themed locked room mystery. When reclusive anonymous author J.R. Alastor invites six thriller authors to his private Maine estate for a writer’s retreat, they’re sure they’re in for the time of their lives, but something much more sinister awaits them.

This book is a clever riff on Clue and And Then There Were None, serving up an entertaining tangled web of secrets, lies, and death. This engaging story doesn’t take itself too seriously, loaded with classic thriller tropes, all delivered with a bit of a wink as one by one, the authors are unalived in ways that mirror their own books.

This plot kept me guessing the entire time! Who is Alastor? How are the characters connected? What are their motives? Who’s next?!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.

This was soooo good!! I love a good thriller and this was just that! When an author shows up dead on their retreat, it’s a game of cat and mouse to figure out who did it!

A writer's retreat with a twist! I'm a fan of the gripping locked-room mysteries and this one did not disappoint. I could not put this one down! Very suspenseful read!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 rounded up

The mysterious and successful J.R. Alastor has kept their identity a secret for years. When J.R. invites 6 thriller authors to a week long retreat on a private island, the invitees jump at the chance to work and learn with the renowned author. But upon arriving at the private manor and meeting their stand in host, Mila, the authors soon discover something else is going on. Mila has games and riddles lined up and guests soon begin to disappear. When one turns up dead, even Mila is questioning Alastor's identity and motives. With the body count rising, who will make it off the island alive?

I went into it with some pretty high expectations after lot of positive early reviews. However, it did fall a little flat for me. The locked door, Clue vibes storyline was exciting but the story did drag a bit. There are many characters to keep track of and the narrative is told by a few of them, changing POVs with the chapters. I started out reading the physical book and was struggling to keep going. Then I switched to audiobook and enjoyed it more. The audiobook is done with a full cast and what was a slow burn reading, kept me more interested with the audio. It wasn't a bad book at all, just didn't thrill quite like I was expecting it to. Some twists I figured out early on and others were a surprise. This is the debut novel for Pliego and it was a solid one. I will be looking for her future reads as she develops as a writer!

Lively characters and great location description with a powerful lead up to the unexpected conclusion.

You Are Fatally Invited is a twisted story with damaged characters, I would compare to Agatha Christie's, And Then There Was None which will find you racing to the end to figure out all the sordid mysteries and hidden agendas.

As authors arrive on a secluded island, fortunate enough to have been graced with an invitation by the recluse author J.R. Alastor, whom no one has ever met, the feeling is that of the television show in the eighties called Fantasy Island. All six of the famous authors seem to try and one up each other as to their relationship with their host. They are met by the hostess or party planner for the weekend, Mila del Angel, herself a former unpublished want to be writer.

She knows what is expected of her and she too has a hidden agenda, but as she explains what this weekend's writer's retreat will accomplish and the games which will be played the main concern of the guests is when they will finally meet the mysterious Alastor.

Unfortunately, immediately things begin to go wrong when the next morning one of the writer's goes missing. At first, they think perhaps they had gone for a hike, but to everyone's horror that seems to not be the case.

Mila who only communicates with Alastor via her watch gets no response from him. When she decides to look at the camera footage from the previous night, hours seem to be missing.

She soon begins to realize there is something else going on, something sinister. And when she announces the first game to be played by the authors, they too begin to see something is amiss. For all intents and purposes the "clues" to this game hit too close to home for each one of them and is about something they have hidden from their past.

When a second body is discovered they all decide they need to get off this island and Mila who feels she is being set up agrees. But with a storm coming up, that might not be possible.

As the writers begin to turn on each other and new games are added daily, they realize someone is taking great pleasure at scaring and killing them. Unfortunately, Mila looks to be the main suspect. What they don't know is Mila herself has never met Alastor in person. Could one of them be the killer?

You Are Fatally Invited cordially invites YOU, the reader to try and figure out who the killer is and what past secrets for some reason are expected to be exposed. The cost of losing one of the games? Well, perhaps their life! You will be holding your breath to see who makes it to the end and finally discover all those sordid, shocking secrets!

Thank you #NetGalley #BantamBooks #AndePiegro #YouAreFatallyInvited

A remote island.
A famous writer who no one knows the identity of is host.
A group or thriller writers with deep secrets.
A deadly game of clue.
Of course this all adds up as a twisty thriller.
Loved this one!
4.5 stars rounded down

I was really excited for this but, I’m sad to say, it did not live up to the hype.

All of the characters seemed either empty or annoying. I feel like I’m supposed to care about them, but I don’t see why.

I did enjoy the layer of those attempting to organize the game being trapped in it. But then some of the feelings in each POV felt repetitive and gave me the feeling that the book could have been shorter. I did like the order of the POVs with what was happening in the plot, but the writing and characters made it a chore to read.

DNF’d at 50%

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC. I’m sorry I couldn’t bring myself to finish it.

This was a strong closed circle thriller with Agatha Christie vibes and an overall good who-dunnit mystery. I felt like the pacing was pretty even and I really wanted to give it ago due to the different posts I have seen about this book. Overall, it was a good, solid mystery and I look forward to more from Ande Pliego! 3.5 rounded up

Thank you to @netgalley and @andepliegowrites for my ARC of You Are Fatally Invited.

You Are Fatally Invited is about a group of authors invited to a deadly writing retreat with the mysterious J.R. Alastor and event planner, Mila, who holds a grudge against one of the authors. Soon after, one of the guests turns up dead and all the others have to do to survive, is confess to their crimes, but no one is talking.

I read Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None for the first time in sixth grade and have been searching mystery books for that same feeling ever since. I've never found it. Until Now.

This is it. This the one!

You Are Fatally Invited is very much And Then There Were None meets Clue (which I also love!) and it has solidified Ande Pliego as an auto-buy author for me. I seriously cannot recommend this book enough!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion!

This book was absolutely wild, I thought I knew the answer to the mystery like five different times, and was consistently wrong every time. That being said, it was such a suspenseful and fun read! I adored the (mostly) happy ending, more thriller novels like this, please!

First off, who doesn’t love an audiobook with a full cast of narrators, that really helped with know the different voices but there was just way to many characters to keep track of. I had to jump back and forth with the audiobook and the ebook just to try to keep track of the characters and that helped a little with the confusion. While I loved the similarities to Glass Onion: Knives Out and Clue, I just wasn’t blown away like I was expecting based on rave review that I saw prepublication.

****Many thanks to PRHaudio and Random House - Bantam for the #gifted copies!

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have been struggling with reading this book. The story is kind of all over the place. There are a lot of characters POV's and motivations to try to remember and every time one POV starts to get interesting it switches to someone else. I cannot bring myself to keep pushing through it right now because it is so chaotic. I think it was trying to go for Clue and And Then There Were None Vibes but there was just too much going on. I will try to read this again in the future because I am not in the mood right now to parse through all of the chaos to see if there is more to the story itself. Soft DNFing at 18%.

I think this will be a popular one among avid mystery/thriller readers. A writing retreat that plays out like a game of Clue. It was exciting and fast-paced. If you are willing to suspend disbelief and just sit back and enjoy the crazy ride, you're going to love this book. It's wild, twisty, claustrophobic, and multi-POV. Short chapters make for a fast-paced read. I had a really fun time trying to piece the puzzle. It didn't have the emotional depth or thought-provoking themes that would make it a personal five-star favorite, but of course that's not the intention of the story. Definitely recommend if you're looking for an enjoyable thriller read.