This one was just not very good, I really hated all of the characters. They felt 2 dimensional and unrealistic. It didn’t read as a satire to me to be honest

I don’t really know where to start. I didn’t like any of the characters and the jumps were rough. There were a lot of characters to keep track of because they were all narrating. The twist was good but I’m not sure the journey there was worth it. All in all, just not a fan, and all these characters needed therapy.

This book had such a fun premise. I love a locked room mystery, normally but this fell flat for me. It was a bit of a slog to get through, but I did somewhat enjoy the twist at the end.

The Other People by C. B. Everett puts a different twist on a familiar story.

"Ten strangers wake up in a strange house, not knowing where they are or how they got there. A killer is picking them off one-by-one. A missing girl is running out of time. And then there was one."

You will recognize the alleged plot right away, especially with all of the And Then There Were None references. Everett puts his own spin on it. I can appreciate an author trying to update a story or try something new. But this twist (it's a familiar trope) always feels like a shortcut to me - I am not a fan.
As you go through the story there is a level of surrealism - you're asking yourself "Can that happen? What's really going on"

Good pick if you like to see variations of the And Then There Were None story.

Thank you Atria for my gifted copy!

I am a sucker for ANY And Then There Were None. This held promise, the suspense for a unique twist at the end thick. But if I didn’t pay attention to whose chapter I was reading, I was lost, because all the characters sounded the same. It made it hard to read this book, to truly fall into it, which is such a bummer because it was one of my most anticipated thrillers.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this book. I thought it had a great storyline and character development. I would definitely recommend this book.

I have so many conflicting feelings about this novel.
I applaud C.B. Everett's thought process and the unique way the story was written.
There are many characters to follow, all giving their own point of view and they are all unreliable. As it turns out, the character I most trusted ended up being the craziest one of the bunch. HA!
While original , the writing felt like two different authors. There were two or three chapters that I recall completely enjoying and the rest felt too contrived/convenient. I picked up on a strong anti-Christian view - whether projection from the author or simply a character written with strong feelings I could not accurately pinpoint.
I did like the big reveal /explanation but I also felt everything that happened prior was a huge stretch. However, it did make me ponder the mindset of those who may identify with Charles Boyd and the way his mind works.
In the end, I was left wondering if the mind can truly deceive to such a remarkable degree.

3 1/2 rounding up to 4
Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster UK for the ARC!

The Other People by CB Everett ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Woah buddy, did I have an up and down journey reading this one. The premise was everything I wanted - locked room trope, creepy house, strangers (and their different POVs). And I thought they were well done. The characters themselves were distinct and wholly unlikable (in the best way).

Somewhere along the middle the pacing slowed down for me. And I’m not sure when it happened, but I became lost with what was happening. Like genuinely had no clue - I lost all the threads.

Once things started heading toward the ending, I had a whole time with it. At first I was disappointed, but then I settled into it and felt like it might be ok, and then the actual very end had me clapping with the full circle moment.

Fans of locked room mysteries, gory reads, and unlikable characters will enjoy this one.

Closed door mystery where the guests keep getting killed and they need to find a missing girl before time runs out. I enjoyed the premise of this book and was intrigued to start it. It was a decent story with some good twists definitely different from the books I usually read would recommend to give this one a try. I want to thank NetGalley and Atria Books for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was one of my more anticipated reads of 2025. A locked room mystery that is inspired by the likes of Agatha Christie? Sign me up!

Ultimately, "The Other People" fell flat for me. I had difficulty connecting with the characters and the writing style was not for me. I think this is an interesting premise, however, the book really took until the last 10% to pull me in. I have seen multiple other reviewers reference a popular movie that seemed to have heavily inspired this book (not going to say what the movie is because that is definitely a spoiler) and I have to agree. I think the movie did it better....

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

If you combine Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None with Shutter Island and a dash of ‘The Upside Down World’ then you have an apt description of The Other People. C.B Everett creates a highly entertaining and dark modern retelling of Christie’s celebrated novel. Although at times it comes across as wordy and the characters are highly reprehensible, the ending makes it all worth it.

Read this if you like:
-multiple POVs
-unreliable narrators and unlikeable characters
-high concept take of And Then There Were None
-locked room mysteries
-a gothic mansion setting complete with never ending rooms, secret passages and almost tv studio/stage set/funhouse house of horrors vibe
-twists and turns and a strong stomach for the nature of some deaths
-a sprinkle of dark humour with the narrator The Beast
-highly satisfying WOW ending

My rating 4.25 out of 5

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this eARC that will be published March 25 2025.

As much as I wanted to love this book I just didn't. I love a multiple POV but this one had characters I just could not like. It was overall wordy and somethings weren't important to the plot or events. It was a struggle to complete it.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this arc.

"I escaped from that house, came straight here, and...and all the others...all the others are dead."

Ten strangers wake up inside an old house. They have no recollection of how they got there, but are told they have twelve hours to find a missing girl in order to flee the house. Not only is it a race against the clock, but there's also a killer on the loose that seems to want them all dead.

THE OTHER PEOPLE by C.B. Everett is definitely a story that should be gone into as blind as possible (the above synopsis is all you need!).

This book rotated POVs, which is always a fave of mine, and really leaned into the murder mystery of it all (heavy heavy on the murder, which I didn't have an issue with).

However, I found this book to be very heavy-handed with the stereotypes, making it hard for me to enjoy most of the characters as they were portrayed in often uncomfortable ways. Also, there was one POV character "The Beast" that basically holds the reader's hand throughout the story and explains everything that's happening - as a reader, I don't enjoy it when the author seems to imply I'm incapable of reading comprehension 😬

The fourth wall breaking in those chapters was fun, though! And the twist really turned it around for me in terms of "wow" factor in the story.

Overall, this book just didn't fully work out for me even if the binge factor was definitely there!

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the copy for review!

I loved this. Just the right amount of suspense, mystery and horror right from the start. The multiple POVs really make the psychological chaos SO intense. Everyone is absolutely insufferable though.

The only reason this wasn't a 5 ☆ for me is because I read too many reviews and descriptions that kind of made the twist at the end predictable.

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a trip that I should have loved but the execution fell flat. It’s a story that’s been played out before a few times and in one of my favorite movies of all time. I’ve been craving books like this.

However, the problem for me lies in the execution. The characters were extremely unlikable, the build up so slow and some of the details seemed irrelevant to the overall story. I knew way too early on where we’re heading but was so curious how we would get there and how the story would be pieced together. The real action didn’t come until almost 90% of the way and it wrapped so abruptly that all it lacked some of the punch it could have provided.

Overall, not bad just disappointing as I’ve loved two very similar movies and a book that just did it better.

This was quite an interesting locked room mystery. I think that the Beast chapters sprinkled throughout were my favorite part of the book. They were fun to read and helped break up some of the heavier topics.

I appreciated how the book was told from the points of view of each of the guests, but it took me a bit to be able to keep them all straight as there were so many.

Read this if you like:
♦️ Locked Room
♦️ Lots of POVs
♦️ Whodunit
♦️ Unreliable narrator

If you are looking for a unique murder mystery type book, try this one when it comes out next year.

I absolutely loved this story UNTIL the end. I usually don't include spoilers in my reviews, but this "trend" that I've seen is something I absolutely despise.

The story itself is great - modern retelling of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None", but a little meta because the characters acknowledge the similarities between their situation and this story. The characters are pretty well-rounded and the writing grabs you. There is an unreliable narrator of sorts, the Beast in the Cellar, who is hilarious.

Again, I loved this story...until the big reveal was that this entire thing is because of dissociative personality disorder, DID. Something that angers me to my bones is when mental illness is used as an excuse or a reasoning for fucked up behavior like this. Not only do I think it's low hanging fruit writing wise, it's also horribly demeaning and perpetuates fear and bad reputations. Not everyone with DID is murderous. Not everyone with DID is a serial killer. True, people with DID are more easily hypnotized. The Beast in the Cellar had some remarkably intelligent commentary and I truly loved the reveals and the twists, but after how great the story was I'm disappointed the author took an easy way out - "it's all fake", "it was the same person all along", etc.

If you want to go on a rollercoaster murder-mystery, and don't care about degrading stigmas about mental illnesses, go off and read this till your heart is content. But I'm upset that such an amazing build-up led to such a letdown.

If you are in the mood for a dark, quirky mystery, The Other People, will be the perfect book to curl up by the fire and enjoy with a hot cup of tea. But be sure to lock the doors.

Ten people, with very different personalities, wake up locked in a house that they cannot escape. The only way to escape, is to solve the mystery of a serial killer who is burying beautiful young girls alive.. One by one, each of the very troubled and annoying houseguests are murdered.

This book was reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s famous mystery, And Then There Were None, but much darker and with a twist. It was an entertaining mystery with characters that were incredibly flawed and just awful people. There were so many details that I had questions over, but that just added to the mystery to make this a great book to discuss with bookish friends.

The way the novel was written, each chapter was told in first person by one of the ten trapped houseguests. There was also a character that served as a sort of narrator or emcee, who was hiding in the cellar of the house. This witty character actually helped to bring to light some clues the reader might have missed.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #NetGalley #TheOtherPeople

This is a very clever, highly entertaining locked-room mystery. I kept flipping through the pages trying to understand what the characters might have in common and what was causing each of them to be killed, one by one, but I had no idea. I couldn’t put the pieces together. The chapters titled “The Beast in the Cellar” were addressed directly to the reader and kept me further in the dark. I did not see the twist coming towards the end and was quite surprised to find out what was happening.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"A group of strangers gathered at a mysterious country house are in a race against time to stop a serial killer in this twisty, high-concept thriller that combines Agatha Christie with Shutter Island.

Ten strangers.

An old dark house.

A killer picking them off one by one.

And a missing girl who's running out of time...

And then there was one.

Ten strangers wake up inside an old, locked house. They have no recollection of how they got there. In order to escape, they have to solve the disappearance of a young woman. But a killer also stalks the halls of the house and soon the body count starts to rise. Who are these strangers? Why were they chosen? Why would someone want to kill them? And who - or what - lurks in the cellar?

Forget what you think you know.

Because while you can trust yourself, can you really trust The Other People?"

Give that cover art I'd say really horrific giant eyes lurk in the cellar.