e-ALC, 11:04:51
Narrated by: Daniel Hanning
Release Date: January 20, 2026
Published by: HarperCollins Audio
Read from: January 6-7, 2026
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received this ALC free from the publisher and Netgalley. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Violence, Murder, Homophobia, Child Death, Drug Use, Grief, Animal Cruelty, Animal Death, Blood
For Readers Interested In: 2sLGBTQ+, Action, Audio, Holy Crap, Most Anticipated, Realistic Fiction, Thrillers, TW/CW, YAA harrowing, edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller about a queer homeless teen who, in a bid for safety, assumes the identity of a boy who went missing ten years ago…only to find that his new home is anything but a safe haven—from All That’s Left in the World author Erik J. Brown!
Perfect for fans of Karen McManus, Holly Jackson, and Ryan La Sala.
When a runaway teen is arrested for shoplifting, he’s desperate not to be sent back to the hyper-religious parents he knows will never accept him. While at the police station, he notices a resemblance to the aged-up photos of Nate Beaumont, a child who went missing ten years ago—and, in a moment of desperation, he takes Nate’s identity in hopes that it will help him make a quick getaway.
Before he can run again, Nate’s family arrives and welcomes him home to a life he never had. As “Nate” watches and waits for his chance to run, he finds that the Beaumonts are nurturing and loving, very different from his own parents.
But soon unsettling things start to happen—vandalism, alarms going off in the middle of the night—and it becomes clear that someone knows “Nate” isn’t who he says he is…and that the real Nate wasn’t kidnapped, but murdered.
As he starts to unravel the mystery, he gets ever closer to the devil he may know—and learns he might be their next victim.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This entire book had me on edge. This is the kind of thriller that made me immediately want another one lol And I haven’t gotten the same feeling yet. Definitely a good book to start the year off with.
Ok so the number one thing about this was the plot. I have never in my life thought I’d read a book about someone who took over someone else’s identity lol I keep laughing because I felt so uncomfortable cheering him on and hoping he stayed safe and unfound. I felt so guilty. Because I knew if the mom found out it was going to crush her. And she didn’t deserve that. But he had such a hard life and his parents were shit and and and lol I know that was Brown’s intention, but man does he know how to write. I felt so many emotions in this thriller. I was mad, I was sad, my heart was thudding in my chest, and so much more. I wasn’t expecting that from a thriller.
BUT even with that being said, I wanted so much more for the mystery part. I knew who it was almost immediately. And yes I might be an adult and this is a YA book, but this was actually really easy. There aren’t many red herrings and they’re not actually really that deep. It was easy to figure out if you read enough thrillers. But I will say, the level of crazy in this was NUTS. If you think you know, you probably do, but you don’t know the depth. This book was legit crazy. Even I had to hit pause every so often because I was like WTF lol
That ending was crazy. I hadn’t been expecting it to go that way. I want to say so much more but I can’t because spoilers. Ugh it was so much that I had to talk with my husband about it. He was also like wtf so I felt validated. I need more people to read this so we can discuss. Because everything was just all over the place but it still made so much sense lol
I wish I could upload my notes I wrote as I read this, but spoilers. I’m just waiting on more people to read it so I can mention some of the crazy that’s in here. Because some of this shit was really bad. Until then, I’m just going to keep telling y’all to go read it!
Overall, I give this
