I think I'm an outlier here, but I didn't really enjoy this as much as I'd hoped. I thought it was a really interesting premise but I found the writing to be clunky. This definitely reads as more of a middle-grade book, so perhaps this would have worked better if at least Lizzie was younger.

This was so dark. Every character is horrible, the only difference between them is that some know it and some don't. As a horror lover, I really liked how atmospheric it was. I think I would have liked to see a bit more character development in Laure before she makes her deal. That made it hard to root for her, or to even believe she deserved the success she was taking. But other than that, this was a fun horror novel!

Points for creativity, but ultimately I didn't really enjoy the experience of reading this book. There was a lot going on, and I felt lost almost the whole time, and when you finally learn what's going on it just wasn't worth the lead up. It felt long and at times it was repetitive, going over the same basic suspects over and over again. But then at times it would skip ahead several hours and I would be totally lost.

This was a slow-burn mystery, more character-driven and atmospheric than action packed. I thought the pacing was great, and I couldn't read the last 50 or so pages fast enough. It's also so creepy, and has a ton of depth for a murder mystery, with great characters and realistic complex relationships. My only issue is that I knew who the killer was IMMEDIATELY. hat said, this was so much more than a whodunnit, so that really didn't matter.

This was a fun, quick thriller that I enjoyed reading! I did predict one twist early but another caught me completely off guard and was surprising enough to make me want to go back and re-read the beginning. The ending felt a bit rushed, and I'm not quite clear on why it happened the way it did, but I definitely enjoyed!

This was a really interesting memoir, at the most basic level about Susan's desire to uncover what happened to her mother, who died from complications from plastic surgery when Susan was 11. As with any good memoir, there was so much more to it than that though! This brings up a lot to think about regarding health care, immigration, families, and self-discovery.

I loved this! It involves a lot of typical murder mystery tropes but it's done in a way that felt completely unique. I loved the voice of the narrator, how he's very up front about his own role in the drama. It gave me Othello vibes, with the multiple twists and attempts to manipulate. The same scene is told from a couple different perspectives, which shows just how many layers there are to the plot. I had such a great time reading this!

This had a great setup but even with my expectations lowered for a YA, I was still sadly let down by this. It tried way too hard to set up a red herring with the prologue. And when the secret is finally revealed and we get the explanation for Izzy's behavior...it's just really illogical and clumsy. The plot also felt somewhat lazy, in the way it set up for Izzy to learn about the entire investigation.

This was so good! I loved how every character had their (in some cases very significant) issues, and how real the interactions between them felt. It was easy to root for each of them but also dislike each of them in turn. I ended up just a hair shy of 5 stars because some parts came together slightly too perfectly and I was just so frustrated by some stupid decisions, but this was still such a good read!

Oh my gosh, this so completely charming and fun to read, I loved it!
Ok yes, this requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief, but what an amazing premise, and I have not rooted for a character as much as I have for Mrs Plansky in a really long time. I'm not usually one for cozy mysteries (and this isn't that either, but a somewhat similar feel), but I absolutely loved this and couldn't wait to see how it all unfolded.

This is thorough for sure. On the one hand, that means it felt slow for the first half or so. But it also meant that Clytemnestra, and everyone around her, was very well developed as a character. This was a much more complex portrayal of her than I've ever seen, and I really enjoyed seeing her in all the different roles she took on.