TL;DR: Winstead returns with a dark and emotional thriller in the vein of DON'T F*CK WITH CATS, about a group of amateur sleuths investigating a string of murders on a college campus. I especially liked the emotional father/daughter thruline in this one, gave the book some depth. Ending is pretty dark.

My opinion of “This Book Will Bury Me” is my opinion and Readers should read this and not base it on the opinion of others. I found this story difficult to rate. There were parts which were enjoyable. I can appreciate short chapters and it was fairly easy to get into it. Then on the other hand, feeling some parts were lacking.

I will not go into detail. I strongly advise others to read it for themselves.

I have been struggling with how I wanted to rate this book or if I wanted to continue it. I blind requested after a friend wanted to buddy read. I didn't realize that the book is imagining a TRUE murder story from another perspective. While creative and while the book was well-written, it just feels yucky for the author to profit off the stories of real people who died in such a grisly way. There was no disclaimer or anything, in fact, there was the presence of the frequent blurb that it's a work of fiction and any resemblance to real people was not intentional blah blah blah. I don't really feel that that's true and it left a sour taste in my mouth.

✨ARC Review✨

“What do you do when you’re alone in the dark, with enemies closing in on every side? When your back is to the wall and there are no rescue ships—even worse, when you’ve realized there are no rules whatsoever, no promises or waiting heaven, just you and the things you hold dear against the bleakness of death?”

I am just going to go ahead and say straight out that I was not impressed with this. Yes, it was a page turner, and I liked the footnotes within the book. However, the “twist” and the ending were very lackluster. The book ultimately details a group of amateur sleuths who hunt a serial killer.
Jane is processing the death of her father and as part of her grieving process, she becomes obsessed with true crime. She joins hands with other internet sleuths, and their small group puts themselves in danger while attempting to solve a group of interconnected cases. It seems as though they are walking into a trap. The book is split into three parts, and at the end I just felt like I was missing something perhaps, questioning that was it?

I know that those who love her books will pick this one up, and maybe they will love it. However, I felt this one just wasn’t for me.

What’s On The Pages:
-amateur sleuths
-a serial killer on the loose
-true crime junkies
-a twisty thriller

✨Rating✨
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

A special thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this eARC! This Book Will Bury Me is out March 25th!

For me, I found this story to be creepy, emotional, and full of twists I didn’t see coming.

The story follows Jane, a 24-year-old still reeling from her dad’s sudden death. She finds comfort in true crime communities online and ends up joining a small group of amateur sleuths. When college students in Idaho are killed, they decide to investigate themselves, and things get messy fast.

As a true crime junkie, I loved all the Reddit threads, TikTok theories, and podcast vibes—it just felt…. real. Jane’s grief and connection with the group really hit hard. That said, the fictional murders were eerily similar to a real case, which threw me off a little.

It starts a bit slow, but once it gets going, it’s wild. If you’re into true crime and thrillers, you’ll love this one.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for letting me read early!

Really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. I was iffy with starting such a long book, but I really loved it so much that I just flew through it. Love the authors writing in that it’s so easy to follow, even through such a long list of characters. Add this to the list of books from Ashley Winstead that I’ve loved! Thank you so much for the ARC!

This Book Will Bury Me follows a group of mismatched internet sleuths that help solve crimes. Janeway Sharp has just lost her father and has dropped out of college to some how cope with her loss. Jane stumbles across an online chat for amature sleuths. Jane along with a few others solve a murder that takes place near Jane lives. Now five of them Mistress, Goku, Citizen, Lightly, and Searcher (their handles) are diving into the crime of the century wehn 3 college girls are brutily murdered. The police are dumbfounded by the events and when the 5 sleuths start to hack into the police's computer system to get copies of the case file it all goes down hill fast. The ex boyfriend of one of the murdered girls is now being harrassed, a prfessor loses his job and his family all because of what has been leaked online. Now the 5 are going to Delphine, Idaho when another 3 girls gets murdered a week later. Will they find the killer in time? This was a fast read and I have to say one of Ashley Winstead's best book yet (I still love and recommendIn My Dreams I Hold a Knife) . I was hooked from the very first page and had a hard time putting this one down. I would like to thank both NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for letting me read an advanced copy of this book.

This is now the second book in a row that I have not liked or DNF’d from Ms. Winstead, which is a shame because I loved In My Dreams I Hold a Knife. Let me start off by saying that her writing style is easy to get into. There is a multimedia aspect to this, as there are forum posts. I enjoyed those, and it made my book go by rather quickly (or, the parts I read). The chapters are also short.

Now for the negatives. *sigh* I do sometimes like a narrator who talks directly to the audience, but the way it was done in the book was over the top. It was so annoying how the narrator kept referring to the case that made her famous and The Person Who Shall Not Be Named or something like that. It was fine the first few times but got old real quick. Something else the main character did a lot that bugged me was analyze herself. I personally hate when characters do that because it leaves no room for the reader to do the analysis and therefore insults the reader’s intelligence. This was one of the aspects of the book that made it feel less serious and gave it a bit more of a juvenile tone.

In terms of plot, this book seems like it’s way too long. It’s over 400 pages, and I felt that I had read quite a bit, but really I had barely made a dent. Another thing that kind of irked me was that the author apparently used an ongoing true crime case in this book, and used other cases as inspiration. Maybe this book is trying to comment on people’s obsession with true crime, but there are other books that do it better and don’t exploit ongoing cases for entertainment. Seems kind of contradictory if you ask me.

This Book Will Bury Me comes out on March 25, 2025. Thank you so much to Ashley Winstead (who was so sweet to DM me on instagram to thank me for reading), Sourcebooks, and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

GENRE: thriller/mystery/true crime
VERDICT: it’s complicated
MOOD: 🫣😐🫠😵‍💫

Oh man, this is so hard to review. On one hand I enjoyed the online crime sleuth storyline (think Reddit) and thought the format of a tell-all book by one of the amateur true crime junkies was unique and engaging. I liked the cast of characters, their chemistry and the found family aspect reminded me a bit of Only Murders in the Building. The portrayal of grief and loss experienced by our MC Jane, and how she ended up obsessed with the online crime forums was probably my favorite aspect and most believable.

However, I had real issue with the major storyline being inspired by the Idaho college murders from 2022. I think it’s semi problematic because so many details were exactly the same from this real life crime and I feel this is the opposite message the book is trying to convey! There’s a lot of discussion/commentary on the dangerous fascination with true crime & shows the consequences that come from this obsession. But then at the same time it uses a real murder case as inspiration? And mirrors the details almost perfectly? I felt this could’ve been an amazing book had it not actually been inspired by true events/was more loosely inspired by real events. It just didn’t sit right with me considering this case is still ongoing, the suspect still hasn’t been on trial and the families haven’t received justice or closure yet.

I have read many books by Ashley Winstead and was excited to read this one early. The characters were likeable so that's a plus and I really enjoyed the true crime forum convos and online chats, but I found this story to be predictable. I still enjoyed it but at times it seemed extremely too long and could have been told in much fewer pages I will continue to read her books because I love her writing style. I just wish I wouldn't have figured out the twist so early on. Thanks again NetGalley for allowing the chance to read for my honest review.

After the death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with a true crime forum, befriending armchair detectives who try to solve crimes from afar. Soon their investigation takes them from behind the computer to IRL.

If you're a true crime fan you will love this. I recommend reading the authors note first as Ashley Winstead talks about pulling inspo from the Idaho murders.

As with most thrillers you have to suspend disbelief a little bit but this kept me engaged thru out. When i got to the last 75 pages I couldn't put it down.

I really love reading her books but I really couldn’t get into this one or the characters. I did not finish this one

After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp is longing for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with the world of true crime, befriending armchair detectives who show her the ropes on how to hunt killers from afar. In this dark, internet underground, Jane finds friendship, purpose and even glory...

I was immediately pulled into this amazing book and kept at the edge of my seat for the whole wild ride. The story is told to use by Jane, a year after the events have taken place.

I love a good book with footnotes because in my opinion, it just adds that little something special to an already good book, so obviously I loved the use of the footnotes and I liked that the online conversations were separated out clearly from the text.

This was just one really good book and I highly enjoyed it. I'd never read anything by this author before but I will definitely be looking into her backlog now. Great story that kept me hooked from the beginning to the very end.

This book is expected to be published: March 25th 2025.

You can also find my reviews: www.goodreads.com/brandisbooks.

Thank you to both Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for providing me with this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Was super excited for this book! It was well written, good story line, overall gave four stars because there were some parts that were hard to follow and I didn't feel as satisfied with the ending.

Thank you to Sourcebook and Netgalley for allowing me to read This Book will bury me by Ashley Winstead. Ashley Winstead is an author that I read before and enjoyed. This is a riveting book about a college student who is obsessed with solving crimes with strangers who she meets online that become friends. The group focuses on three college girls who were murdered. I found this book to be fast paced but, I was bothered by the footnotes at the end of the chapters.

“The fact that everyone has turned on us, that they’re calling us villains—well, I had no choice but to write this book. Read the rest, and then tell me who’s the villain.“

Another banger from Ashley Winstead. Save this post as a reminder and/or simply preorder ahead of its release in March—I promise you won’t want to miss this one.👏

While I’m certainly interested in learning about true crime, I don’t read nonfiction; it’s just not for me and that’s okay! So the chance to explore *fictionalized* true crime is exciting (and less depressing), especially when it’s done so well.

In that vein, it’s perfect for fans of The Night Swim, Listen to the Lie, None of This is True, Notes on an Execution, etc etc.

It’s a long book, but it flies by. You honestly won’t want to put it down. 🔥🔥🔥

Thank you#netgalley for the early copy of This Book Will Bury Me. I unfortunately dnf’d this one at about 25% because of the writing style. I couldn’t make myself care about the main character or the victim of the story. The forum parts took me out of the story and were just unrealistically written. I may give this another chance later on but for now this one is not for me.

Let’s be honest, we’ve all fallen down the true crime rabbit hole before-scrolling Reddit and debating theories with friends.

After losing her dad, Jane Sharp, was looking for something to distract her. Cue her new obsession: solving true crime cold cases. After a brutal murder leaves college students dead in a small town, Jane and a few internet sleuths decide to investigate in person. As they get closer to the truth, the more dangerous it becomes.

This one was heavy and in true Ashley Winstead fashion, she lists the trigger warnings (I’m happy to share these with you). Ashley also openly shares that this book was inspired by real-life events (the Idaho massacre). Something to keep in mind before reading this one.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and there is more to it than just the true crime aspect. It’s layered, intense and packed with surprises. If you’re already a fan of Ashley Winstead, you’ll want to add this one to your TBR!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5/5

I’m a big fan of Ashley Winstead! This book was another favorite and one I will recommend to everyone. Read this if you love twists!! I loved the internet chats and the short, quick chapters. The format being a book written by the main character with her added comments as footnotes was interesting.

While Jane was struggling through the loss of her father, she stumbled upon an online group trying to solve the murder of a local woman. She then gets invited to the inner circle of this group and it starts to take over her life.

Thank you NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and Ashley Winstead for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

In this dark and creepy thriller, Jane is struggling with grief after moving home. She stumbles upon a true crime internet community and suddenly regains purpose when she helps solve cold cases and finds she has a talent for it. She not only finds herself, but also newfound friends within the internet community. She and her friends are drawn into a new and gruesome set of murders in a college town but in doing so, she may put herself at risk as well. Told from Jane’s point of view in a book written after the fact, the reader can’t be sure if Jane is giving the true version of events… or not.

I absolutely love Ashley Winstead’s books (both her thrillers and romances) and this one was quite a ride! The style of a book within a book was such a fun and creative twist. She utilized several true crime stories as well as real shows and people to model the book after, and so it really reads like true crime. Jane is a character that is so complex- you can feel sorry for her while also frustrated with the choices she makes. It really adds to the feeling of reading about something that’s actually happened. I had to put the book down while reading alone at night because I was scaring myself, so it definitely has a creepy factor to it. I advise people to check content warnings prior to reading and turn on the lights at night if you scare easily like I do! However, it was an excellent thriller read that captures the dark side of humanity as well as the struggles and complex nature of grief.

Thank you so much to Ashley Winstead and Source books for the arc and opportunity to be an early reader and reviewer.