Thanks to Jess Lourey, Thomas & Mercer, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital advance copy of this novel. As a someone who was in middle school and high school in the 1980s, who also loves mystery novels, I was very excited about the premise of this novel. Lourey does an excellent job narrating from the point of view of a young girl in the 80s, and the pop culture references (which were plentiful) were appreciated. She is also skillful at setting a very unsettling, creepy scene. I was creeped out by the second page!

That said, I did not love this book. As the book wore on, I found that I was skimming. I thought the ending/resolution was quite rushed and left too much hanging. Also, there was something about the overall tone of the novel that didn’t work for me — the fun 80s references and teenage/middle school social issues seemed jarring and almost inappropriate when set against such horrific subject matter. Perhaps that was the author’s intent, but for me, it just didn’t sit right. (This book deals with a laundry list of horrible subjects: incest, rape, murder, among others. Anyone reading this book should be aware of that before getting started.)

Still, there was a lot here that worked. I can’t really recommend this book but I’d be interested in reading more from this author in the future.