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booktribe's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Liz Rocher returns to the small, predominantly white town she grew up in for her best friend’s wedding. During the reception, her best friend’s daughter goes missing. Black girls get taken every June in that town and, of course, no one does anything. Liz could’ve been one of those girls years ago, but she got lucky. It’s now up to her to find her best friend’s daughter and bring her home safely. But there’s something in the woods taking little Black girls, and it’s been waiting on the one who got away.
This was one of my most anticipated releases this year and it was amazing! The story, the pacing, the character development, it was all perfect! It hooked me from the beginning and never let me go. It kept me guessing throughout the whole story. My favorite thing about this book is that we got pov’s of the other Black girls that have been taken. Those chapters were both heartbreaking and incredibly creepy. The character development in this book is another thing I loved. That does not mean that I liked those characters though, we weren’t supposed to. Liz was a Black woman that craved approval from her white peers and that aspect of her personality really played into the plot. And her white peers, were problematic. But all this was obviously purposeful and I felt like I knew the characters well.
The ending of this book went in a pretty different direction than I thought expected, it wasn’t quite as satisfying as I thought it’d be, but I still really enjoyed it. I can see how the ending may disappoint some, but I thought it fit the book really well.
I really loved this book and I need everyone to go preorder it now! And I will be reading anything and everything that Erin E. Adams writes after this!
P.S. reading this book as a Black woman IN JUNE had me side-eyeing my whole life.
Thank you Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.
TW: kidnapping, child death, murder, racism, racial slurs, animal gore and death, domestic violence, harassment, fatphobia, descriptions of sex, potential alcoholism
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Animal death, and Racism
Moderate: Kidnapping, Child death, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Murder
Minor: Alcoholism and Fatphobia
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