e-ALC, 07:39:04
Narrated by: Ari Fliakos & Brittany Pressley
Release Date: May 12, 2026
Published by: Macmillan Audio
Read from: May 13-14, 2026
Stand-Alone
Source: Netgalley (I received this ALC free from the publisher and Netgalley. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Kidnapping, Murder, Death of a Parent, Rape, Sexual Assault, Sexual Violence, Vomit, War, Cursing, Drug Abuse
For Readers of: Adult, Audio, Dual Narrators, Dual POV, Realistic Fiction, Thrillers, MysteryEvery Year He Comes For Them.
On one fateful night in 1992, the lives of two seventeen-year-olds are changed and intertwined forever. Quinn Riley, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, is arrested after he innocently tries to break up a fight but ends up nearly killing someone. Jules Delaney, high school royalty, survives an attack by the elusive and terrifying May Day Killer—a serial predator who strikes every May 1st in midwestern small towns.
A year later, Jules is struggling with trauma and guilt, tormented by one question: Why was I spared? Quinn is newly released from juvenile detention and returns home to fresh the unsolved murder of his mother.
Over the next decade, their lives are revisited on a single day each year—May 1st. As secrets unravel and the paths of Quinn and Jules collide, two mysteries edge closer to the truth. All the while, the May Day Killer is still out there—and the clock is racing toward another May 1st.
The Anniversary is an utterly compelling story of the hunt for a serial killer. But it’s also a heartfelt—and heartrending—novel about fate, innocence lost, and two souls who find that sometimes being broken is the only way for the light to get in.
*MY THOUGHTS*
If you know me, you know this isn’t my usual type of book. I mean yeah it’s a thriller, but the drug use and all that is usually something I would have DNFed. But I was told it wasn’t a lot. And it wasn’t, but I know to check the content warnings first next time. And Netgalley, please, I’m begging you, add somewhere that the publishers can put the content warning pages BEFORE you request it.
Ok so the characters in this? I felt so bad for all of them. They all were terrible but also they didn’t deserve any of that. It was sad, but I definitely understood the reasoning for them reacting the way they did. It was sad. But even still, a lot of it wasn’t my cup of tea.
The mystery was good tho. I love a book about a cold case. And this one isn’t exactly a cold case since it’s still re-occurring, but it still made the premise really intriguing. Because I mean, what a hell of a way to describe a day where there is someone who is either snatched away or die? An Anniversary is something to celebrate, but what happened in this book was no celebration at all. The ending was terrible tho. Because the info that they just randomly remembered? It seemed like it dropped out of nowhere and they solved the entire thing. It just felt too convenient.
I’m not sure this was for me. I didn’t hate it but I also didn’t love it. I won’t say that I won’t read this author again, but I do know that I need to make sure I check the CWs. But if y’all don’t mind certain things, just go for it!
Overall, I give this
