TW/CW: prescription drug abuse, self harm
I really loved the premise and set up of this story. Willingham quickly introduced us to this world and these characters and then pulled the rug out a bit when we find out about Chloe's childhood. The trope of 'is the new killer a copycat or did we miss something back then' is well-loved for a reason and it does a great job of creating tension in the characters as well as the reader. I thought the balance between the events in Chloe's childhood and the current day plot was really well done and there were some great back and forth moments. I thought the flashbacks to the past were well done and, even though we know the outcome from the beginning, they were still written in a very tense way and were connected to the current day crimes. So, as an example, Chloe wonders if someone was watching or following one of the current victims and then she remembers seeing her dad watching some of the girls in the past. I really liked the choice to have Chloe be old enough in the past to distinctly remember the events. I think a lot of time with these copy-cat serial killer plots, the protagonist in the past was younger and maybe didn't remember things correctly or didn't realize something they saw was so important until they're an adult. In this case, Chloe was old enough back then and we see right from the opening few chapters just how much of an impact that summer had on her life decades later.
I thought the characters were really well done. Chloe is a really interesting character to follow for this story because we see the direct impact her father's crimes have on her even 20 years later. Then, when the current girls are missing, we see her start to unravel a bit. As much as I like multi-POV thrillers, I think the choice to only follow Chloe was a good one and really helped solidify that she is somehow connected to these new crimes. I think it makes for an interesting conflict when Chloe and the people around her start to question her motives or her thought process which made me wonder a few times if Chloe is an unreliable narrator. We also get a good mix of side characters and I would have liked more from them. We get a good amount of Chloe's interactions with her fiance, which makes sense, but I would have liked to see more interactions with the receptionist at her office, for example. I think there were some missed opportunities to see how other people felt about Chloe's reactions to the crimes and maybe using that for some additional tension. The interactions we do get on page were used very effectively, I just would have liked more sort of lenses for us to see Chloe through. I think Willingham does a great job at writing characters who really felt authentic and natural. None of the conversations, even the brief ones, felt stiff or robotic which I sometimes find in these single POV thrillers.
There were a couple moments in the last 25% or so where the narrative structure was a little odd for me. We'd end a chapter with two characters about to have a discussion (where a big plot point would most likely be revealed) and I would expect the next chapter to start with that conversation. However, the next chapter would have skipped the whole conversation and fast forward to a few hours later when then we'd get the aftermath/Chloe's reaction to that information. So, for a non-book example it would be along the lines of "mom sat me down to tell me something important. Chapter 2. Driving to school the next day, I kept replaying the conversation of mom telling me I was adopted". The majority of the book was not written like this so when it happened a few times it was a bit jarring. The present day story-line takes place over only a couple of weeks so there isn't that much time-jumping that needs to happen. Since this tactic wasn't used during the more mundane times in the story, when it did happen during the high-tension points it did come across as a little gimmick-y and I would be a bit confused when the new chapter started. I do think if it was done earlier in the story it wouldn't be so jarring because by the time I got to the last time this was used in the end reveal/twist I was used to it and actually thought it was used very effectively.
The twist/reveal at the end got me in the best way possible. At about the 10% mark, I had a certain character pegged as the bad guy. There were so many great lines that could either be read 100% innocently or could come across as menacing. I think this was a great way to start leading the reader in one direction while making sure the breadcrumbs weren't super obvious and heavy-handed. I really liked how the twist/reveal at the end did include these little hints but just not in the way the reader was expecting. Through 80% of the book, I was convinced Character X was bad and normally I would feel a little tricked or cheated when that character turns out to not be the big bad of the story. However, I think the fact that all those hints we were getting did lead to a revelation about that character softened the blow. I had the thought when I got to the end of "well, I was right that X was shady because of A, B, and C" which almost felt as good as if I would have guessed the twist ahead of time. When I was reading, I was so incredibly sure of myself and of what the reveal would be that when it was flipped around I said aloud "ah, she got me! I fell for it!" There was also a good amount of groundwork laid for the real bad guy's reveal but I was so focused on my main suspect that I sort of ignored these other points which just made the reveal at the end even better. I've never been so wrong when guessing an ending yet so satisfied by the actual reveal.
Overall, I really enjoyed this read. Great premise, interesting and flawed characters, well-crafted tension, and a good payoff at the end. This is Willingham's debut novel so I'd be very interested to read more from her in the future.
Thanks NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC
Expected publication date is January 11, 2022
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