e-ALC, 10:38:12
Narrated by: Keylor Leigh
Release Date: November 4, 2025
Published by: Simon & Schuster Audio
Read from: November 5-9, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: LibroFM (I received this ALC free from the publisher and LibroFM. I also had a physical ARC from ALA which I read in tandem with the audio. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Murder, Bullying, Child Abuse, Death, Toxic Friendship, Panic Attacks/Disorders, Homophobia, Transphobia
For Readers Interested In: Audio, Sparkly Cover, Most Anticipated, Mystery, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Realistic Fiction, Family Diversity (Parents Divorced- Lives with Dad), YATwo siblings investigate the murder of a friend only to unearth even more deadly mysteries in their small town in this page-turning young adult thriller from the acclaimed author of Their Vicious Games.
When Mikky Graves left his small, stifling hometown of Prophets Lake to live with his estranged mother, he thought nothing could ever make him return for good.
Until his sister Kyla’s best friend, Erin, is murdered.
Mikky never worried about leaving Kyla behind at their family-owned funeral home so long as she had Erin. But when Mikky heads home, determined to help Kyla grieve, the sister he encounters barely resembles the one he remembers. Mikky decides, then and there, to do the one thing that seems even more impossible than stay.
As Kyla spirals further into her rage and secrets, Mikky realizes the only thing that can help his sister is finding the truth about who killed Erin. But the more he investigates, the further he’s pulled into other ugly mysteries of Prophets Lake and the beauty brand that is its lifeblood. The town’s rot runs deep, and everyone has something to hide. Perhaps no one more than Kyla herself.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This is one of the only times I’m going to be “happy” about being behind on my reviews because I needed to sit on this one for a while. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. I was a bit disappointed actually. It was called a thriller, but there was nothing thrilling? I would have appreciated it if it was just called a mystery.
Ok so I said that because I think of thrillers as something where I’m biting my nails or hiding my face because the things happening in the book have me on pins and needles. And that just wasn’t here in this one. It was like she was sherlock and trying to find out who did it, but everyone else in this book was only worried about why she was acting the way she was. I think if I had been told it was just a mystery I would have been ok. But I was told this was a thriller, so I kept waiting for it to start being thrilling, and it just wasn’t there for me.
The characters were terrible. I’m talking from the girl who had passed, to the friend she left behind. I get that people grieve in their own ways, but what she was doing to those people was cruel. The girl at dance? And then got the nerve to like fall apart later. idk why that annoyed me so much lol Her brother was also mean, but he wasn’t nearly as bad as she was. And the way he had to keep defending her when he had no idea what was going on either. It was maddening.
The thing that annoyed me the most tho was the plot. We aren’t told anything at all about it. We’re stuck doing guess work with the Brother. And then all of a sudden at the end she has this break through and knows exactly what happened. It was because she was just as mean as her friend was and they were celebrating that and it felt a lot like bullying.
This was a really weird book. I can’t say I liked it, but I didn’t hate it either. I will say publishers and people need to make sure they are describing books right because there’s been far too many instances when I could have liked something, but it was labeled wrong and now I’m mad and don’t want to talk about it.
Overall I give this
