This suspense follows a group of women as they travel from the UK to Greece for Lexi's bachelorette party weekend. They're expecting sun, sand, and relaxation but what starts out as a dream vacation is soon too good to be true. Undercurrents of jealousy, secrets, and ulterior motives hide in the crystal clear waters. But by the time everything finally comes out, someone won't be leaving the island alive.
TW/CW: domestic abuse, death of a loved one, infidelity, alcohol use, alcohol abuse, pregnancy, sexual assault, medical mistake leading to death
The characters in this were perfection. Messy friend groups are one of my favorite tropes in suspense/thrillers and this group was no exception. We get a great mix of characters and relationships tied to the bride-to-be: friends since childhood, a more recent friendship, girlfriend of a friend, and her soon to be sister in law. There's a fantastic layering to these relationships as these different versions of Lexi come out. For an example: her old friends remember her as a party animal back in her early 20s but her new friend knows her to be the calm yoga instructor who watches what she eats. Clarke does a great job of quickly characterizing each of the women so the reader can be grounded in their different personalities. I didn't have a hard time telling the women apart at all which was great because they're so often together due to the nature of the trip. I really enjoyed the way the different aspects of each woman's personality came out based on who they were interacting with. These characters really felt well developed and it made me so much more invested in the story.
The story is told in multi-POV so we get the inner thoughts of all of the women which was the cherry on top of this messy group. On the surface, everyone is there to celebrate Lexi, but there are some really great interpersonal conflicts that are going on at the same time. I loved how we frequently get to see both sides of a situation - often back to back. One non-spoilery example would be that the group had to split up into 2 cars to drive from the ferry to the house and we get the POV of the maid of honor who casually mentions to the reader that the other car is taking a detour to get groceries because she knows she would only buy alcohol if she was shopping. Then, when we change POVs, we see a character from that other group who is grumbing about being assigned grocery duty because she feels it is a way to further isolate her from the core friend group. I just loved all the different dynamics we get between these women - some of who know each other well and others who don't. I also found that since the individual characters were so well developed, I didn't have a hard time following the narrative when it was switching between so many POVs. the chapters are long enough that it doesn't feel like we're changing perspectives too often. There are also some really great moments that Clarke chooses the exact right moment to change POV in order to build tension and suspense.
The setting was fantastic. It was very atmospheric with a perfect amount of sinister right under the surface. One of our characters had family on this island and they have some not great memories from growing up and these memories end up being a catalyst for some larger plot points. There's a great mix of danger in the beauty of the island, exemplified by the beautiful house they're staying at being located on a cliff - complete with a long drop onto jagged rocks at the bottom. This type of push/pull between the beautiful and the dangerous is one of my favorite things about these more beachy/vacation settings in books. Clarke does a good job showing us that these are more than just 'potential' dangers by having characters have some near misses and close calls early on in the book. I really enjoyed that the group get out and interact with other people pretty frequently instead of being isolated for the whole book. These moments out and about give the reader a little break from some of the interpersonal tension building while also allowing Clarke to insert some more external conflicts as well. I think the cover of this book helps immediately set the reader up with an image of the setting in mind and then Clarke's descriptions just solidifies it.
The pacing was spot on for me, but I could see it maybe being slow for some readers. This is close to 400 pages and most of the action culminates in the last day of their trip. There's a lot of set up with the characters throughout the long weekend where they're going about doing usual vacation-y things (sight seeing, swimming, having lazy lunches on the patio, etc). There are character development moments and some little passive aggressive moments in these build-ups, but nothing overtly threatening or suspenseful is actually happening. However, Clarke inserts these flashforwards where a character (it isn't clear who) is speaking and telling the reader vaguely ominous things like "if we only knew then what we know now" or "everything changed the night of the bonfire". These breaks are only a paragraph or two long each time but they inject the perfect amount of suspense into this otherwise more mundane build-up. There were a number of times where there would be something specific mentioned in these mysterious paragraphs that would then come up later with one of the characters. This was a really interesting way to keep suspicion building in the reader and it was giving me something to try and piece together, see if I could guess what was going to happen before we actually see it on page. Once we get to the bonfire night, the reader is well aware that this is where everything goes down and I was guessing to the last second what, specifically, would happen.
Overall, this was a fantastic read and I highly recommend. It was a really great suspense read with fantastic characters and excellent POV choices that really elevated the story to the next level. The pacing might throw some readers off, but I think Clarke does a great job earning the reader's attention.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC
Expected publication date is June 28, 2022
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