I really liked this book. The author did a good job of getting straight to the point and not using too many words in her descriptions. Like we had enough fluff to keep it fun but it was still pretty straight to the point which I appreciate. This story is SO sad and sheds light on big problems that still exist, It is hard to read at times. How can you not even try to look for your own child? While I'm glad there was some happy endings I didn't particularly like the way it all went down at the end.

Congratulations to Kristen L. Berry for a magnificent debut novel We Don't Talk About Carol.

This heart-pounding story follows former crime reporter Sydney Singleton as she uncovers an old photograph and diary of her long-lost aunt, one of the six Black girls who vanished in the 1960s in North Carolina. As determined as ever, Sydney moves forward in the gruesome, intense investigation that unearths racial injustice, family trauma, and decades old secrets.

Harsh reality: Cases of missing people of color are less likely to be solved than cases of missing white people.

Sydney did not think she was qualified to solve a series of interconnected cases that had gone cold 60 years ago but thank goodness she decided to jump in head first to find out the truth. It is a common saying that "what happens in this house stays in this house" and this brilliant novel is the perfect example where that should not be the case. Some things do not to be swept and buried under the rug.

A few words to describe this book: profound, emotional, deep, raw

I recommend EVERYONE to read this exceptional book. This is a story that will stay with you because of how raw and real it is.

Truer words have never been written: "We can't wait until someone's gone to tell them how much we love them."

Sydney Singleton’s grandmother has just passed, and in the process of cleaning her Raleigh home she discovers the picture of a girl. A girl that looks a lot like Sydney herself. She soon discovers that this woman is her aunt, Carol, and one of six local North Carolina Black girls who went missing in the 1960s.

Sydney used to be a crime journalist and her senses are tingling, but last time this happened she ended up in a hospital. But cmon, a secret Aunt? Missing girls?! Let’s go.

This book encapsulated so much more than I expected going into it! But in a great way. I kept turning the pages. This book almost felt like reading a true crime story. I could vividly picture the NC landscape and locals that Sydney visited with. I loved learning more about Sydney and her life even as she investigates this frozen cold case.

The focus of this story is to shine a bright light on the fact that there is a huge discrepancy of investigation, resources and attention where missing Black persons are concerned. The author shows this with great power yet great care.

I really enjoyed this novel and the many storylines and themes woven together. I do want to note that as the story goes, we also follow Sydney‘s journey with infertility and IVF and I know that’s a hard topic for a lot of readers!

Highly recommended! And can’t wait to see what this author does next!

I put off reading this one for a bit, because I didn't know if it would be the "thriller" I was looking for. And it wasn't. This isn't a thriller, but a search for understanding, justice, and healing intermingled with an uncovering of long buried secrets (literally) and family deception. It's a criticism of society's lack of empathy and protection of people of color. It's a mystery yes, but it is so much more than that.

I do feel the end was a bit too nicely wrapped up to mirror real life completely, but I also think that people of color deserve to read happy endings about people like them. And while I wouldn't denote this ending as "happy," because girls died and women were lied to and families were torn apart, I do think justice being served is better than what so often happens in real life.

I think everyone should read this book.

We Don’t Talk About Carol by Kristen L. Berry is a haunting, emotionally layered debut that grips you from the first page and refuses to let go. This isn’t just a mystery—it’s a reckoning.

When Sydney Singleton finds a photo of a girl who looks eerily like her, she unearths a decades-old family secret: her aunt Carol, one of six Black girls who vanished in 1960s North Carolina, has been erased from family memory. What follows is a chilling, deeply personal investigation that forces Sydney to confront not only the silence surrounding Carol’s disappearance, but also her own unraveling—past and present.

Berry masterfully weaves together themes of generational trauma, motherhood, and the systemic neglect of missing Black girls. Sydney’s voice is raw and compelling, her descent into obsession both heartbreaking and terrifyingly real. The dual timelines and psychological tension make this a standout.

In the wake of her grandmother's passing, Sydney Singleton finds a hidden photograph of a little girl who looks more like Sydney than her own sister or mother. She soon discovers the mystery girl in the photograph is her aunt, Carol, who was one of six North Carolina Black girls to go missing in the 1960s. For the last several decades, not a soul has talked about Carol or what really happened to her. But now, with her grandmother gone and Sydney looking to start a family of her own, she is determined to unravel the truth behind her long-lost aunt’s disappearance, and the sinister silence that surrounds her.

Unfortunately, this is familiar territory for Sydney: Years earlier, while she worked the crime beat as a journalist, her obsession with the case of another missing girl led to a psychotic break. And now, in the suffocating grip of fertility treatments and a marriage that's beginning to crumble, Sydney’s relentless pursuit for answers might just lead her down the same path of self-destruction. As she delves deeper into Carol's fate, her own troubled past reemerges, clawing its way to the surface with a vengeance. The web of secrets and lies entangling her family leaves Sydney questioning everything—her fixation on the missing girls, her future as a mom, and her trust in those she knows and loves.

Delving into family, community, secrets, and motherhood, We Don’t Talk About Carol is a gripping and deeply emotional story about overcoming the rot at the roots of our family trees—and what we’ll do for those we love.

This was a very good book that brings attention to a serious issue (that missing white woman syndrome overshadows the awareness of missing POC egregiously) while telling a good story.

I enjoyed the sibling dynamics, they can be complicated but are so important and it felt genuine. From having had friends on the IVF journey, it felt like that was realistic, although I don’t know personally. The central mystery was good, I did see some of the ending coming but there were still (good) surprises. I will check out more from this author when she has her sophomore book!

Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in return for my honest opinion. This is the story of Sydney Singleton, who finds a photo hidden in her grandmothers house, while cleaning it out after her grandmother's passing. The picture looks just like Sydney but it's not someone she has ever seen before. The photo is of her aunt who she didn't know existed. Carol disappeared when she was just a teenager, and grandmother had never filed a police report or looked for her. Now, 60 years later, Sydney is determined to find out what happened. It turns out 6 other 16yo black girls also went missing around the same time. People of color who either disappeared or were killed, were not investigated nearly as much as white people. This book focuses on that, as well as other sensitive subjects, such as infertility and parenting.
This was a really well written book, in my opinion. I highly recommend it.

Kristen L. Berry delivers a solid and layered debut that unpacks the complexities of Black womanhood, family, and healing, all while nodding to the cultural obsession with true crime podcasts.
The story doesn’t shy away from heavy themes — including missing Black girls, infertility and IVF, and childhood trauma. I appreciated the care taken in exploring these issues. (TW for readers: these topics are central to the story.)
Syd’s internal conflict between her passion for storytelling and loyalty to her family was particularly captivating. Watching her wrestle with that tension gave something grab on to. It was heartening to see her find a version of a happily ever after . And a happily ever after that's reflected the growth that comes with age and perspective.
The evolving relationship between Syd and her sister added another powerful layer. It echoed familiar eldest daughter dynamics and how trauma can shape sibling roles and connections in quiet but deep ways.
There’s a lot going on in this story, but it never felt overwhelming. Instead, it felt intentional and grounded.

Carol was a 17-year-old who just disappeared one day. Everyone thought she’d either run away or that she’d been a victim of a serial killer that had been preying on young women in Raleigh, NC in the 1960s. Six of them disappeared with no sign of what happened. No one, however, bothered to ever look into her disappearance, not her mother, not even the police. Years later, after Carol’s mother died, her niece, Sydney, is determined to discover what really happened to her. Of course, no one thinks she should get involved, and no one, other than her younger sister Sasha.

Sydney has a lot on her plate. Her husband’s, Malik’s, finance company is keeping him working long hours. They’ve want a child, or at least Sydney thinks she wants a child, and have been going through fertility treatments. Sydney’s work as the PR head of a trendy athletic wear and fitness accessory company keeps her busy. She’s intrigued by what happened to her aunt. She starts researching the murders, determined to learn the fate of those six young women, especially her Aunt Carol.

This was a wonderful mystery/character study. Following Sydney as she delved into old chat rooms, listens to true-crime podcasts, and researches newspaper coverage of the disappearances was intriguing. Sydney will combine forces with Sasha and an interested and helpful police detective to dig further into these cold cases. Sydney was amazing. She never even considered giving up, no matter how many dead ends she hit.

This is a book of family secrets, mental health, cold cases, and marriages. It’s about not fiving up, not forgetting. This book is filled with sympathetic characters. It’s filled with twists, turns, and lots of surprises. It was a quick, easy read, excellently written. While this is a debut novel, it certainly doesn’t read like one. It’s carefully plotted and polished.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and highly recommend it.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley. I thank all involved for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.

Sydney is a former journalist who is now working a job in PR, mainly for the fantastic benefits. She and her husband are going through yet another round of IVF in the hopes of starting a family. Neither had great family dynamics during their youth and want to provide the their future child with the life they wished they had. While Sydney, her sister, and her mother are cleaning out her paternal grandmother's home after her death, they find a photo of a young girl. Sydney remembers finding it previously and her grandmother telling her that they don't talk about Carol. She learns that Carol is one of six black girls that went missing in Raleigh in the 60s. Their stories are not well known and Sydney is maddened by the social injustice and wants to solve the puzzle. Her husband is concerned since she had a psychotic break during her coverage of a missing father and his children during her days as a journalist.

This was an amazing debut novel! With Sydney's known paternal family dead (they never knew who her grandfather was), she is left to gather information from the other families and her aunt Carol's found diary. Sydney has many issues to deal with - the mystery surrounding her aunt and the other girls, her IVF troubles, her mental struggle of if she even wants to be a mother, her childhood trauma, and her strained relationships with her mother and sister. On top of this, her husband can be suffocating at times, treating her like a fragile child. The story of what happens to the girls unravels at a good pace and had me hooked!

This book is heart-wrenching and heartwarming, and it highlights the epidemic of missing people of color not receiving nearly the same attention or law enforcement resources as missing white people. Sydney is home in Raleigh to help clean out her grandmother's house after her grandmother has died. While there, she finds a photo of a girl who looks just like her, and she remembers that years ago she had asked her grandmother about the photo and her grandmother had only said: "We don't talk about Carol." But when Sydney realizes that Carol went missing around the same time as five other Black girls in their neighborhood, she decides to investigate, which brings up a lot of family trauma and some really difficult stuff for her.

I thought this was really well done. Sydney is a compelling and interesting character, and I felt like I understood her relatively quickly. The mystery unfolds in unpredictable ways, and the family dynamics kept me hooked. I also appreciated that the book was almost entirely set in Sydney's timeline: I feel like mysteries/thrillers tend to have parallel timelines that don't always work, and so I liked that we only got a few chapters of Carol's diary but otherwise we were on the same rollercoaster as Sydney. I found myself really drawn into this book and was really satisfied by the end :)

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

After discovering that her father had a sister she had never heard about, Sydney launches an investigation into her disappearance and finds that many other young girls disappeared around the same time. This book also covers the complications faced with IVF and the uncertainty some people feel about parenthood. I thought I had everything figured out, but that twist towards the end was something I wasn't expecting.

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for the eARC!

THIS BOOK, YOU GUYS!!

We Don’t Talk About Carol is a dual timeline mystery that I couldn’t put down. Sydney has returned to North Carolina for her grandmother’s funeral, and while clearing out her home discovers a photo of a young woman who looks just like her. She learns she had an aunt Carol, who went missing in the 1960s along with five other black girls who went missing in the same two years.

Previously a journalist, Sydney becomes obsessed with getting the girls the attention they deserve and works to reopen the case. She so badly wants to find out what happened to Carol and needs a distraction from another round of IVF. (If IVF talk triggers you, there’s a lot of it - I went through it six years ago and it doesn’t bother me.)

This is a debut novel!! Kristen L. Berry, I can’t wait to read whatever you decide to write next.

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine for letting me have a digital ARC of this after the pub date for my honest review! I will be telling everyone I know about it, and I requested my library to get a copy because they didn’t have any on order.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The synopsis of this book sounded interesting to me so I requested a copy to read.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during this 2nd attempt, I have decided to stop reading this book
and state that this book just wasn't for me.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

This was a riveting slow-burn debut novel that I'm so glad I picked up! I knew it was going to be about the often unreported or sensationalized missing black girl population, but it was so much more than that. Families are complicated and messy and all come with their own level of dysfunction and drama. This was on full display throughout this story. That was all a focus of the novel in addition to missing girls. Nice character development and realistic tones. Definitely recommend this one!
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this ARC. All opinions are mine.

I fluctuated between a 4 and a 5 star so much that I just decided on a 4.5. This is definitely a literary mystery rather than a thriller. So if you don't typically like those kind of books, you might not like this one. But I loved it. It's mostly about Sydney having trouble getting pregnant and all the issues that go along with that. She also doesn't know if she wants/deserves to have a kid because of the trauma she went through as a kid. This is also about missing black girls and how the cops and community failed them. I liked all the important topics and discussions this book focused on. I think the author did a really good job considering all sides and the way that they dealt with these traumatic events.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. I couldn’t read this book fast enough. I was captivated by Sydney’s determination to find out what happened to Carol. I loved that it’s relevant to a lot of true crime cases today that are discussed in podcasts. There was some really good twists I didn’t see coming in this book. I really admired Sydney’s character trying to navigate her own personal life while trying to get to the bottom of a long ago mystery.

Really enjoyed it!
Would recommend and read another by this author.
Please read my full review on Goodreads!

Family drama meets twisty mystery. We Don’t Talk About Carol kept me engaged the whole time. Whenever I had to put it down I couldn’t wait to pick it back up!
If you like true crime and family secrets, this is for you. Highly recommend!!