Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Release Date: March 7th, 2023
Pages: 368
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Minotaur Books
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Publisher’s Synopsis:
“In this “top-notch mystery thriller” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) from Alex Finlay, What Have We Done is a tale about the lives we leave behind and the secrets we carry with us forever.
A stay-at-home mom with a past.
A has-been rock star with a habit.
A reality TV producer with a debt.
Three disparate lives.
One deadly secret.
Twenty five years ago, Jenna, Donnie, and Nico were the best of friends, having forged a bond through the abuse and neglect they endured as residents of Savior House, a group home for parentless teens. When the home was shut down―after the disappearance of several kids―the three were split up.
Though the trauma of their childhood has never left them, each went on to live accomplished―if troubled―lives. They haven’t seen one another since they were teens but now are reunited for a single haunting reason: someone is trying to kill them.
To survive, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their shared past―a past that holds the secret to why someone wants them dead.
It’s a reunion none of them asked for . . . or wanted. But it may be the only way to save all their lives.
What Have We Done is both an edge-of-your-seat thriller and a gut-wrenching coming-of-age story. And it cements Alex Finlay as one of the new leading voices in thrillers today.”
My Review:
I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate it. I just failed to connect with this one like I did with another book by this author that I read recently. I really wanted to get into it but, for some reason, I just couldn’t. I mean, it was a very unique and interesting concept with some high-stakes suspense but I just didn’t truly feel it. The story just didn’t pull me into it or take me away on an experience.
I also didn’t connect with any of the characters very much. Although their past is very sad and I did feel for the horrible things they have all been through, I just didn’t feel any kind of partnership with them, or quite care enough about what happens to them. I think part of this might be the lack of character development in the first half of the book. We never got fully in-depth with any one plotline in particular and that caused some disconnect.
I found the plot to be something you really had to suspend belief for and I’m not sure that I really liked that. It was a wild ride but not one I was fully present for. I think it could have been improved with a few more rounds of editing to fully saturate the plot in a way that makes it feel more real, and the characters in a way that would make them more endearing to readers.
I have loved this author’s writing in previous books and I will definitely still be reading whatever he publishes next. But for me, this one just missed the mark a little. Again, it wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t wow me or excite me. It was just ok.
Disclaimers:
Huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me an early copy of this book. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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