I made it 35% into this, and I loved the concept and the beginning but it started to slow down quite a bit and almost lag a bit? With my ADHD it was hard to keep focused, so I am putting this one down for now but I do want to come back to it when I have a bit more attention to troop through.

The first 80% of this book is unputdownable. I didn’t enjoy the ending, but enjoyed the reading experience enough to recommend. 3.5/5 stars, rounded up.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for letting me read an ARC of this book.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!

WOW!!! What a great book!! This one had me hooked from page 1! This was a first for me from this author and I will not be my last! This one was a win for me!

Good morning Netgalley. First of all thank you so much for accepting me request. Second this book was pretty good. I liked it enough and I'd give it 3 stars.

Thank you @atriabooks for the eARC!
This book is my new hyper fixation. I am utterly obsessed. I was so enthralled that I was reading this on my kindle app on break at work. I had to find out what was going to happen! At no point did I ever expect the twist that caused me to nearly throw my kindle across the room - I was so shocked - but it made SO much sense.
This had me hooked like no other thriller has in ages. It tethered that line between thriller/mystery/horror and I absolutely loved it. The Other People releases March 2025 and I won't be done yapping about it until long after.

I really enjoyed this book, although I believe it may be one of those where people love it or hate it because of the ending. If that's the case, I'm definitely in the love category. A house that's locked from the inside with a group of strangers that begin dying one by one. Yes, it's an homage to Agatha Christie, but it's so much more than that. Each person has a distinct personality to help you keep them straight as you read about them and also from their point of view. There's also a narrative by another person involved in the story that is sprinkled throughout. They act as a sort of omnipotent being who ties it together, provides feedback on what you've read so far, and disperses hints throughout. That narrative is by far the funniest and quite clever if you're paying attention.

What kicks off the action is when they're informed that a girl is missing and they need to find and free her, leading to their own freedom. But they only have one night to do so. They're left confused and frightened with no idea how they got there and why they are tasked with this mission. And how will locating her automatically free them? Are they being watched as they move about the house? Are there other people and/or traps to hinder their success? Is the killer one of them or the person behind them all? So many questions and no time for answers.

I raced through the story, reading it in one sitting because I just had to see how it would end. Things happen throughout that make you feel there's no way to adequately explain all that you've read. You keep thinking it doesn't make sense and will never make sense, but just keep going. I urge you not to give up on the story and wait until the end to give it a fair chance.

I loved the style of the book, and I wish there were more stories this engaging and thought-provoking. It's so much more than you expect and well worth the journey.

Dang, if this author doesn’t have big issues with God and Christianity.

This is fine, you don’t have to be a Christian if you don’t want to, but why was it necessary to constantly bring it up? It didn’t add anything to the plot, in my opinion. I do see why the characters would feel that way, but it just seemed a little extreme to the point it felt like the author's opinion and not the character's opinion.

Anyways!! It started off promising. I thought it was a quirky kind of murder mystery. Kind of like Knives Out. Not super serious, but still a murder mystery. The Beast chapters were fun to read for the most part.

There were a lot of different characters. I worried it would be hard to keep up with them, but it wasn’t that bad once it got started.

But then as you went on, it got a little repetitive. I did enjoy that we got to go inside each of the minds of the characters and see what they were each feeling and thinking.

I thought the way/reason they died was a nice idea. I don’t want to explain that part so to not spoil anything.

I can honestly say I didn’t really see the twist coming. Everything wrapped up well enough.

So, I give it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC.

(2.5 rounded down to 2) If a book is described as having both Scream and Agatha Christie vibes, then I am going to read that book. A bunch of people are locked in a mansion with no clue how they got there, and tasked with a mission to find a kidnapped woman within the house in 24 hours. I could absolutely be in the minority because I watch a lot of scary movies, but the plot twist is taken nearly wholesale from two movies, which was a real disappointment. I did like the writing - I found the dialogue to be overwritten and cringey at times, but there’s a reason for that, and I liked those choices. Even though I was frustrated with the twists and blurb and similarity to prior pop culture I’ve enjoyed, I sped through this. it’s fast-paced, there’s a good balance between interior monologues and dialogues, and I really liked the fact that we spend time in each of the trapped guests’ heads, along with someone referred to as “the beast in the cellar” who is basically used to inform the reader about the characters and provide interstitial beats. I think I was overall a bit disappointed, but I did have a good time while reading.

I really, really wanted to love this. Based off the description/ blurb, it felt like this was exactly the type of book I needed this October. It started off super interesting but about 1/2 through I felt it was just static. No progression of the story or mystery.
The Beast parts were fun though. After the mystery "reveal" there is another mystery that was better but also a bit drawn out and underwhelming. I dunno. I just really wanted more from the ending but less from the redundancy, I hope that makes sense.
Anyway, 2.5 stars rounded up. Solid enough for me to finish.

This ARC was provided by Atria Books via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.