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reading_under_covers's review against another edition
4.0
25 years ago, Savior House, a group home for teens, was closed after several girls disappeared. Now, Jenna, Nico, and Donnie are faced with their past and the secrets buried there when someone sets out to kill each of them.
I’ve read all of Alex Finlay’s work and WHAT HAVE WE DONE is easily my favorite!
This book is packed with all of the things I love: multiple timelines, alternating POVs, short chapters, and a creepy home for orphans?! SIGN ME UP.
This one gets a bit outlandish, so brace yourself, but the craziness made this book hard to put down.
Jenna was hands down my favorite character - a true badass lead you’d want in your corner - and I looked forward to her name popping up in the chapter headings!
Huge thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Publication Date: March 7, 2023
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Child death, Pedophilia, Child abuse, and Sexual assault
amobrien's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This is a fast-paced multi-POV thriller and while it is certainly entertaining, I found the characters to be a little hard to believe. They all seemed to have interesting individual lives and I feel like they had so much potential, but they were written one-dimensionally. My favorite perspective to read from was Jenna as we were able to see a bit more from her than the other characters, next was Donnie and last was Nico. If you love a good action story with some mystery, you might really enjoy this, but I prefer more character development in my stories so I found this to be lacking at times.
Thank you Netgalley for providing a digital ARC.
Thank you Netgalley for providing a digital ARC.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Gun violence, and Addiction
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual violence
goatsrsexy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This book was a wild ride! It's definitely the type of story that keeps you up all night reading because you just have to see what happens next. It has multiple POVS and short chapters which is a combination I really like specifically for this genre (thriller) The juxtaposition in this book between some very dark and serious subjects and almost cartoon like villains/ action Scenes shouldn't work and yet it does. There were a few scenes where thought to myself "okay this is too much this is silly" but I was still extremely riveted so guess it wasn't too much. The ending of this book is so sad and melancholy in a brilliant way. I definitely recommend this for a quick read. There's nothing super graphic but l'd still look up trigger warnings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Gun violence
Moderate: Child abuse and Child death
Minor: Sexual violence
onemorepagecrew's review against another edition
3.5
What Have We Done by Alex Finlay was a decent, fast-paced mystery with multiple POVs that kept my attention, but ultimately landed in ‘liked not loved’ territory. The story centers on a group of friends who met in a group home during their childhood and are now living a wide variety of adult lives. They come back together when they realize someone is trying to unalive each one of them.
The timeline jumps between their childhoods and their adulthoods, but not in the conventional way with clean chapter breaks. There were times when it would jump and I wouldn’t realize it for a few paragraphs. Not a negative, just something that took some getting used to. My favorite character was Jenna – I loved her dual-life of contract unaliver and low-key mom/wife. I wish there had been more about her early adulthood and how she got into that business, or even just more chapters that centered on her character. The others were just okay, and I was less invested in them.
It's worth noting that the childhood timeline is heavy. It sets a grim scene with abuse, abandonment, and generally awful experiences. I don’t know if I would call this a thriller, it felt like a time crunch mystery with a bit of tension and physical combat. If you like a dual-timeline mystery where both timelines have puzzles to solve, this is worth a read. I’d recommend physical or digital editions to keep track of the characters and timelines unless that’s easy for you to do on audio.
Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing an advanced digital copy of this book, I appreciate you!
Content warnings: Child abuse, Child death, Bullying, Addiction, Violence
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Addiction, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, and Gun violence
booksbytheglass's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
ugh I wanted to love this so much more than I actually did!! I absolutely adored THE NIGHT SHIFT by alex finlay last year, so I screamed out of my mind when I got the ARC for his latest, WHAT HAVE WE DONE.
sadly, it did not live up to my high expectations 🥲
alex finlay’s writing is so unmatched!! the amount of detail in characterization as well as the timeline of the story itself is well done, and the entirety of the plot was easy to follow! I could read finlay’s books all day long for that tension as you frantically flip through the pages to see if you were right 🫠
however, what didn’t work for me this time was the plot itself. it was comprehensive and quick paced, but I found myself guessing the plot twists miles before they even happened…
and don’t even get me started on the characters 🥴 MCs jenny, donnie, and nico are probably the three most unlikable people you’d ever read about
for a foster family trying to make good memories out a bad situation, they sure like to stab each other in the back (literally and figuratively) 🫠🫠🫠
I think the worst part for me was the fact that I simply did not care about what was happening in the story. I didn’t care about the characters’ backstories, the resolution, or even if the “villain” prevailed or not.
so to recap, the writing itself was excellent, but I just couldn’t get into the story at all 😅 but a HUGE thank you to minotaur books and netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!!!
rating: 2.5 stars
wine pairing: veneto pinot grigio
sadly, it did not live up to my high expectations 🥲
alex finlay’s writing is so unmatched!! the amount of detail in characterization as well as the timeline of the story itself is well done, and the entirety of the plot was easy to follow! I could read finlay’s books all day long for that tension as you frantically flip through the pages to see if you were right 🫠
however, what didn’t work for me this time was the plot itself. it was comprehensive and quick paced, but I found myself guessing the plot twists miles before they even happened…
and don’t even get me started on the characters 🥴 MCs jenny, donnie, and nico are probably the three most unlikable people you’d ever read about
for a foster family trying to make good memories out a bad situation, they sure like to stab each other in the back (literally and figuratively) 🫠🫠🫠
I think the worst part for me was the fact that I simply did not care about what was happening in the story. I didn’t care about the characters’ backstories, the resolution, or even if the “villain” prevailed or not.
so to recap, the writing itself was excellent, but I just couldn’t get into the story at all 😅 but a HUGE thank you to minotaur books and netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!!!
rating: 2.5 stars
wine pairing: veneto pinot grigio
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Child death
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