Reading with teafortiffany

Hello friends!!!

I am back with a new review! I have been in quite the reading slump this month, which is unfortunate because I have purchased MANY a book this month, and I haven’t read any of them. I’ve had a backlog of ARC reviews to do and once I finish those, I will be focusing on the books I already own. I’m starting to feel the fatigue.

Other than that, there’s not a lot of housekeeping to do. I feel like I haven’t been giving this blog as much love and attention as I would like (the same can be said of my booksta), and I’m going to work on a plan for how to fix that without burning myself out. This is meant to be enjoyable for me, not to stress me out.

That being said, lets look into this review shall we?!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for providing me with a copy of this novel in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

One thing you should know about me is that I love a good murder mystery. I am also the type of reader who just enjoys going along for the ride. I might consider theories throughout a novel, but I don’t necessarily try to see if I can figure out the “whodunnit” before the end of the novel. I love going on the ride and figuring everything out along with the characters. I want to be the person in the corner with a bucket of popcorn, gasping when the mystery is revealed. That’s exactly what I got from this novel, and I absolutely loved it.

This novel is set up in a very meta fashion. It’s a murder mystery at a retreat located in the mountains of California for mystery writers. Every part of this novel screams that the author is a murder mystery fan. There is quite literally a book in the novel about the formula for how to write a murder mystery. It’s a large part of the book, with the novel itself being sectioned out into the steps to write a murder mystery that are mentioned in said book. The characters are all involved in murder mysteries or writing in general. They all fit a trope of some kind while also actively trying to resist that trope. There’s even a joke about the fourth wall. It’s that kind of novel but it makes it something entertaining while still keeping me guessing on what is actually going on.

One of my favorite parts of this book is the introduction of the writer. Every so often, the writer interjects themselves into the narrative. In my ARC copy, this was shown with a change in font from your average novel font to an old typewriter-style font. I felt like I was being taunted but also being informed. I never felt like it was too much, and I looked forward to these little interruptions.

I’ll be honest with you guys, I did end up guessing part of the ending, but it literally just jumped into my mind in the last 10% of the book. I tend to feel like that’s an acceptable time for a reader to have that “aha!” moment because then that increases the drive to finish the book and see if you’re right. In case you were wondering, I was right. I also just love that final scene where all the loose ends are tied up, and everything comes together. This novel seemed to do this perfectly. I cannot think of any particular loose end that wasn’t addressed, but once again, I’m along for the ride.

This is one novel where I think it would be fun to make a mystery board with all the red string between clues and character profiles. I thought of this when I was already about 40% of the way through and like I said, I’m not really that sort of reader. That being said, I do love a good craft so I could be tempted to do this someday.

I was reading this book during a reading slump, and it was the only reason I was reading at all. I really enjoyed this book, and I plan on getting a physical copy for my trophy case (aka, one of the places where I store my books). If you love a good murder mystery and don’t mind the narrative getting a little meta, I would definitely give this book a shot. It was fun, the twists were twisty, and I loved figuring out all the little mysteries tucked inside. I was also a fan of the ending. If that doesn’t convince you to give it a shot, I’m not sure what will.

5 ★

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We’re to the end of another review, my friends. I hope you enjoyed it. This month has been a bit of a rough one for reading and reviewing. I’ve felt my creative juices run dry, and my amibition seemed to be non-existent. I’m going to switch gears with my reading, and hopefully, I’ll get that back.

Until next time!

Bye friends!!!