If you love locked room mysteries and clever tropes, this one is a must-read! The story follows a group of bestselling thriller authors who are lured to a private island for a writing retreat, only to find themselves caught in a deadly game. The mix of mystery, dark humor, and meta-commentary on the genre was fantastic. The switching between narrators wasn’t confusing, and the tension built perfectly as secrets were revealed. While there were a couple of over-the-top moments, the creative plot and eerie setting kept me hooked. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie!

I love a good thriller, and I was absolutely in the mood for one. The title drew me in and made me think of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.

The idea that thriller, horror, and mystery writers were lured to a remote island for a writing retreat was so exciting. The theme of revenge and justice had me guessing the whole time about who to trust. The plot twists were fantastic and completely out of nowhere.

The story started a bit slowly for me, but once it took off, I couldn’t stop reading. I really enjoyed the ending and that it was straightforward. I’d definitely recommend this to friends and followers!

My review will appear on Goodreads and my instagram, @rebekahreadsbooks, between the dates of October 28 and November 1.

A fairly strong debut. I enjoyed this book overall. I just had a few hang ups with it, but nothing major.

A private manor house. An isolated island. A group of authors each hiding a secret. This book had all the promise of what I love in a stellar locked room mystery. But sadly it did not reach that promise for me.
At the beginning, the Clue like atmosphere had me hooked. But it quickly became full of so many clichés that nothing felt original. The big reveal that we wait the entire book for is only possible because of an overused trope, that cheapens the entire story. I do think it was quite clever how all the plot points were intertwined by the end but it just wasn't enough to save this book for me.

Thank you to the publisher for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.

The idea of reading a book that was like a more grown up version of Clue really caught my attention. Six mystery/thriller/horror writers are invited to a super mysterious retreat that is hosted by a fellow mystifying author. Things definitely go sideways and there is a lot to figure out.

The pacing was erratic. It was so slow for a while and then some action would start happening and it would be moving too fast, but then it slowed right down again and seemed to get stuck there. It was hard to push through at times. That's not to say it wasn't entertaining. There were multiple POV's and unreliable narrators which I'm always a fan of. I enjoyed trying to piece together who was who and challenged myself to figure out the hosts endgame.

The authors in this book talk about all the different mystery and thriller tropes which felt very meta because this story falls prey to several of those tropes itself. Some of the content was far-fetched. Some of it just didn't make sense or wasn't fully wrapped up. It was nice to see a tiny bit of character growth from a few people. I did find myself rooting for them a little even though they were all of questionable nature.

Overall, despite it not always being easy to follow, this is an enjoyable whodunnit with plenty of tropes and a lot of puzzle pieces to put together.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

At first I would want to go to this retreat but then will all the "problems" i think i would need to pass that one up. Very solid writing I loved the characters even the problem filled ones. I tried guessing the ending and I kept being surprised each time bravo

I just love an unreliable narrator with so many mysteries that you're not sure who to trust and what to think. Recommending!

This is one of the best locked room murder mysteries I have ever read!! I love that it takes place during a writers retreat and on an island. I would definitely recommend!

Saw the synopsis of this one and had to snag it on NetGalley! Everyone knows I’m a mystery/thriller girlie, so having all the tropes in one place is a dream come true for me. It kept me guessing until the very end, and then I continued to guess after that. Some parts seemed to be too cluttered or slow, but overall, a great debut!!!

Big thanks to NetGalley for this ARC! What a ride!!! This book was great and I couldn’t put it down. I read it all I. One weekend. Go ahead and add this to your TBR pile lol

I really enjoyed this one! I loved the setting and the characters. It was very atmospheric and I could picture myself in the setting. It was chilling and made me think about it long after it was done. I will be recommending this one for sure! Thank you for letting me read it early!

One of the better murder mysteries I’ve read! A good locked room murder mystery is a hard sell for me, there’s often some aspect that takes me out of it. There was one plot point that felt a little silly, and the token unlikable character felt overly obnoxious, but I still quite liked this! The main character’s personal stakes elevated the story for me.

I received this book as an ARC in exchange for my honest review. I love me a good murder mystery. This book takes the cake on that theme! The author gives you all of the people and it’s almost like a game of clue. You need to figure out who is connected to which crime by reading about each character. Then juuuuuust when you think you figured out who it was, a twist arrives! Then you are back to square one. This went on for chapter after chapter where I thought could there really be any more twists? And oh my god, there was! I sat here and wrote out names and professions and who I thought did what, and who I thought was the murderer! And I was still shocked in the end! This was an extremely well written book and I honestly muttered to myself “WTF” way too many times! I cannot wait for this to come out so I can snag me a copy of it!

This was incredible!!! It was everything I could want in a thriller, and the fact that this is a story about writers and the joy and pain that comes with that is just an added bonus. Ande Pliego understands this genre well, and the fact that’s it’s a little meta just makes it all the more entertaining. I love when a fun cast of characters is thrown together in an enclosed place and are forced to work together as they are being picked off one by one. Every single person is hiding a secret, and I spent the whole novel trying to figure out each one. There are multiple POVs (and some of them secret POVs) that make this story a wonderful little puzzle box. I can’t wait to reread it and find all the clues. It also had a very satisfying ending which I think can sometimes be tricky to do with a story like this. Preorder now, it’s so good!!!

What did I just read?! I saw this hyped up on IG so I requested it on net galley to read. I went in totally blind, I honestly didn’t even know the genre. This one is a slasher horror story. Not my favorite type of genre but I must say it was done pretty well. I wouldn’t have picked it up had I known it was slasher bc I’m not a fan of all that blood and gore. This book centers around the author Alastor who has invited 8 authors to join on an island for a themed murder mystery writing retreat. We soon find out that each person there is hiding something and the book has the reader trying to guess the clues and match up each character with their crime. I found the characters hard to keep straight, this one might be better in an audio book form so you can tell who is speaking when.

Six authors are invited to anonymous author J.R. Alastor’s private island for a writing retreat but all is not as it seems. Mila, the event coordinator, has plans to murder one of the authors. She and Alastaor have games, trope-fueled riddles and jump scares planned for the guests, which should help Mila commit her murder without any the wiser. But then a plot twist occurs - a guest is dead and it’s not who Mila had planned to kill - and the narrative for the rest of the week has to change. In order to stay alive and make it off the island, Mila and the other authors must survive must make outwit a killer who knows (and has written) every trick in the book.

Good debut that was well written, but it took a little while to get into because there were a lot of characters to remember. But if you’re looking for a whodunit that isn’t obvious, You Are Fatally Invited is the book for you.

Wow! Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this one.
An anonymous author invites six authors to a private island for a writers retreat. Things go sideways fast. This fun, quick whodunit was a great thrill ride of ups and downs and gasps and “what the hell” moments.
I highly recommend this book!

BOOK: Not Nothing
AUTHOR: Gayle Forman
PUB DATE: August 27, 2024, by Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing
PAGES: 288
RATING: 5 STARS
GENRE: Fiction

A H U G E Thank You to @netgalley, @SimonandSchusterChildrensPublishing, and the author for gifting me an advanced digital in exchange for my honest review!

QUICK & SPOILER-FREE REVIEW: Oh, my HEART! This book is so SPECIAL! The friendship between Josey and Alex hits you right in your feels! It teaches the reader how to Rise to the Occasion of Your Life, and it supports the idea of not judging a person based off the worst thing they’ve done, but to support them for what they CAN do! This was so good I want to buy it for all my friends and family. It will stay with me for a long while. Run and read this one!

Thanks for the ARC!! A really fun debut novel. Pliego clearly loves the genre and had fun playing with tropes while subverting them. A "Cabin in the Woods" attitude aimed at a Clue murder mystery, twisting and turning all the way to the end. I don't love first person accounts of events where it turns out the person telling the story doesn't live long enough to have told the story, but that happens in a lot of books, so is probably more of my issue than an issue with the book. At some point it does start to make me feel like I can't trust the narrator though, which lowers the stakes of everything being told for me. A fun read, and great debut. Looking forward to future books from Pliego!

This book was pretty interesting. I haven't read anything from this author before, and I did enjoy it. The only downside was the multiple points of view. I usually do enjoy this but in this case, I had moments where I struggled to understand what was going on. It also was a slow started, but it did get better as you went along. Overall, it was a good book. I will be recommending it to other readers.
Thank you Net Galley ARC!