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getbrekked's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Child death, Death of parent, Death, and Dementia
Moderate: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Minor: Suicide and Racism
emileereadsbooks's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Thank you for the gifted book Macmillan Audio, Minotaur Books and Netgalley.
This book hooks you from chapter one and although it is billed as something for true crime fans, I think it's just generally for mystery fans. There is a bit of a true crime aspect, but it doesn't have that same feel because it's obviously fiction. I think this book is well written and certainly a page turner. The ending makes sense and wasn't rushed, but also didn't shock me. Overall I say this was a solid mystery book that will make for a great summer read. I could easily see a sequel or a spin-off book with the FBI character.
Other reviewers have pointed out how it is problematic how the Mexican authorities are spoken of in this book. They are called "The Mexicans" and the failings of some people are lumped into an overall negative stereotype that should have been edited out. This could have easily been altered with some word changes to not have a negative association of an entire heritage.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Death
Moderate: Suicide attempt
Minor: Dementia
meltingpages's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Dementia and Adult/minor relationship
mjwilliamson's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Although there were times near the middle of the book where I felt unmotivated by the story, it was worth reading until the end. The characters were most certainly flawed and rough around the edges, but I think that is what makes them so compelling — they’re incredibly human. I liked the tendency to insert transcripts from the “docuseries” as I found it enchanted characters and message of that particular chapter. The overall stylistic intention of the book mimicking the documentary format was a nice touch too. I found that the parallel storylines of the ‘before’ and ‘after’ were the right narrative choice for Finlay to make as it not only provided non-info-dumped insight into characters and the details of Danny’s case, but it also kept the story rolling, unfurling each snippet when the explanations were required. Similarly, the switching narrators/perspectives added a nice holistic view of the case, its affect on various parties and the main plot as a whole.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Child death, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Dementia
biancabuysbooks's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
5.0
WOW, what a thriller! Right away from the description, I knew I wanted to read Every Last Fear, the debut thriller novel from Alex Finlay.
Every Last Fear starts with NYU student Matt Pine getting devastating news: his parents and two younger siblings have been found dead in Mexico while on a spring break trip. Their deaths make the national news, and unfortunately, this isn't the first time the Pine family has been in the spotlight. Matt's older brother, Danny, is spending life in prison for the murder of his high school girlfriend and a recent Netflix documentary brought national attention to the case.
With the deaths abroad and some suspicious circumstances, the FBI gets involved, and Alex Finlay takes us on a hunt to find the truth. The story follows several different characters, alternates between past and present, and has short chapters (my favorite)! I was a little overwhelmed at first with all the characters, but the audiobook narrators, Cady McClain and Jon Lindstrom, did a great job, and I quickly caught up with all of them. Once I had the characters straight, I could not stop listening! I was hooked on this page-turner from the beginning and it never slowed. I thought it wrapped up well and was a solid debut thriller, I'm looking forward to more from this author!
Every Last Fear starts with NYU student Matt Pine getting devastating news: his parents and two younger siblings have been found dead in Mexico while on a spring break trip. Their deaths make the national news, and unfortunately, this isn't the first time the Pine family has been in the spotlight. Matt's older brother, Danny, is spending life in prison for the murder of his high school girlfriend and a recent Netflix documentary brought national attention to the case.
With the deaths abroad and some suspicious circumstances, the FBI gets involved, and Alex Finlay takes us on a hunt to find the truth. The story follows several different characters, alternates between past and present, and has short chapters (my favorite)! I was a little overwhelmed at first with all the characters, but the audiobook narrators, Cady McClain and Jon Lindstrom, did a great job, and I quickly caught up with all of them. Once I had the characters straight, I could not stop listening! I was hooked on this page-turner from the beginning and it never slowed. I thought it wrapped up well and was a solid debut thriller, I'm looking forward to more from this author!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Death
sfbookgirl's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
If you’re looking for something quick to read, this is it! I was a big fan of the short chapters and the easy-to-follow storyline. I didn’t even predict the ending! Every Last Fear begins with NYU student, Matt Pine, learning that his family has been murdered in Mexico. The local police claim that the murder was an accident, but the FBI is skeptical. This isn’t the first time that the family has been in the spotlight. The scandal with Matt’s older brother (tldr: in prison for allegedly killing a girl) and a true-crime Netflix series is what first created headlines.
Matt, along with Agent Keller from the FBI, go on an adventurous chase to solve the murder of Matt’s family. Written from alternating perspectives, the reader won’t be able to guess the killer until the very end. And while though I didn’t predict the ending, the story didn’t give me that shocked "omg" reaction. The stereotypes presented about people in Mexico had no place in the book and some of the side storylines weren’t complete, but the book is a solid thriller for a reader looking for a quick thrill.
Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy!
Matt, along with Agent Keller from the FBI, go on an adventurous chase to solve the murder of Matt’s family. Written from alternating perspectives, the reader won’t be able to guess the killer until the very end. And while though I didn’t predict the ending, the story didn’t give me that shocked "omg" reaction. The stereotypes presented about people in Mexico had no place in the book and some of the side storylines weren’t complete, but the book is a solid thriller for a reader looking for a quick thrill.
Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Murder, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
fictionmajorette's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Full thoughts: https://fictionmajorette.blogspot.com/2021/02/every-last-fear-alex-finlay.html
The first thing I want to address is the language used in this book when describing Mexico/Mexican people. I did read an ARC so there's a chance that some things may change in the finished copy but in the copy I read, I found the language negative, condescending, and judgemental. The town is Tulum, Mexico and is first described as a destination for celebrities because it isn't as crowded as the usual tourist spots. That description lead me to expect that when our protagonist, Matt, goes to Tulum that the beauty of the area would be in direct contrast with his grief. However, the descriptions that Matt gives to the reader are very negative to the point where I didn't understand how celebrities would be going to this place and the different images the book was giving the reader about Tulum didn't really make sense to me. Again, I was expecting Matt to not like it there because of the reason for his visit, but I didn't expect so many descriptions about how run down and corrupt everything was. As a white reader, these descriptions made me take pause so I looked at other reviews and there were a number of readers of color who explicitly called out the language in these scenes as problematic and offensive.
This book had a lot of potential to be a new favorite but there were a few pieces that fell flat for me and overall this ended up just being an okay read. My main issue is that this book is being marketed as a psychological thriller but I found it to be a pretty even 50% detective 50% domestic thriller. I kept hoping the narrative would take a twist to being more psychological but it never did. I think it did a good job at being a detective/domestic thriller but I was overall disappointed that this wasn't the type of story I was expecting.
This story was told in multi-POVs and dual timelines which I usually am a sucker for. In this case, however, I didn't absolutely love it. There were a number of chapters that just felt like filler. It wasn't as if a whole POV was unnecessary, but just the occasional chapter here and there that I didn't think was necessary. I can stand back and look at the chapters from a structural or plot standpoint and say "that chapter established X relationship" or "that chapter showed how Y changed" so I think all the chapters were technically needed for the plot, but I sure didn't care when I was reading some of them.
I thought the dual timeline was very well done and it was really interesting for the reader to know one thing from timeline A but then see the characters find out about it in timeline B a few chapters down the line. I also think showing the lead up of the family before they died made their on-page deaths really emotional because we've gotten to know them over the past 300 pages and we're hoping for a different outcome even though we know exactly how this is going to end.
Detective thrillers are one of my favorite types and I think the FBI investigation portions of this book were really well done. Looking back, I would have preferred if this same plot was handled as a pure detective story since I didn't really enjoy the domestic side of the story as much with Matt grieving and going back to his hometown. My favorite character was FBI Agent Keller and I would read more books following her specifically. I found her to have the most well-rounded characterization in the book. Everyone else I felt like we know one or two main aspects of their personality and that's it. For example, we know Matt likes movies. He's going to NYU to study film and he is constantly making movie references and his friends make comments about how he is constantly making movie references.
This story did finish really strongly which I think is one of the most important parts of any thriller. The last 20% or so was really great and when the puzzle pieces started falling into place, I couldn't read fast enough to figure out all the different connections. From a plot perspective, the big reveals were pretty standard for a domestic thriller but it was still a satisfying conclusion. The ending was a little bittersweet for reasons I can't go into because of spoilers but the chapters in this last section were very short and we were jumping in between POVs very quickly which really ramped up the tension as well.
I really liked how the docu-series was integrated into the story. There would be some chapters where we would read the script from a scene from the documentary. We also got different character's perspectives on the documentary and it was interesting to see the after effects especially since true-crime documentaries/podcasts/etc are very popular. The documentary scenes served as nice little breaks in the narrative so I could get a moment before jumping back into the investigation.
Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC.
Expected publication date: March 2, 2021.
The first thing I want to address is the language used in this book when describing Mexico/Mexican people. I did read an ARC so there's a chance that some things may change in the finished copy but in the copy I read, I found the language negative, condescending, and judgemental. The town is Tulum, Mexico and is first described as a destination for celebrities because it isn't as crowded as the usual tourist spots. That description lead me to expect that when our protagonist, Matt, goes to Tulum that the beauty of the area would be in direct contrast with his grief. However, the descriptions that Matt gives to the reader are very negative to the point where I didn't understand how celebrities would be going to this place and the different images the book was giving the reader about Tulum didn't really make sense to me. Again, I was expecting Matt to not like it there because of the reason for his visit, but I didn't expect so many descriptions about how run down and corrupt everything was. As a white reader, these descriptions made me take pause so I looked at other reviews and there were a number of readers of color who explicitly called out the language in these scenes as problematic and offensive.
This book had a lot of potential to be a new favorite but there were a few pieces that fell flat for me and overall this ended up just being an okay read. My main issue is that this book is being marketed as a psychological thriller but I found it to be a pretty even 50% detective 50% domestic thriller. I kept hoping the narrative would take a twist to being more psychological but it never did. I think it did a good job at being a detective/domestic thriller but I was overall disappointed that this wasn't the type of story I was expecting.
This story was told in multi-POVs and dual timelines which I usually am a sucker for. In this case, however, I didn't absolutely love it. There were a number of chapters that just felt like filler. It wasn't as if a whole POV was unnecessary, but just the occasional chapter here and there that I didn't think was necessary. I can stand back and look at the chapters from a structural or plot standpoint and say "that chapter established X relationship" or "that chapter showed how Y changed" so I think all the chapters were technically needed for the plot, but I sure didn't care when I was reading some of them.
I thought the dual timeline was very well done and it was really interesting for the reader to know one thing from timeline A but then see the characters find out about it in timeline B a few chapters down the line. I also think showing the lead up of the family before they died made their on-page deaths really emotional because we've gotten to know them over the past 300 pages and we're hoping for a different outcome even though we know exactly how this is going to end.
Detective thrillers are one of my favorite types and I think the FBI investigation portions of this book were really well done. Looking back, I would have preferred if this same plot was handled as a pure detective story since I didn't really enjoy the domestic side of the story as much with Matt grieving and going back to his hometown. My favorite character was FBI Agent Keller and I would read more books following her specifically. I found her to have the most well-rounded characterization in the book. Everyone else I felt like we know one or two main aspects of their personality and that's it. For example, we know Matt likes movies. He's going to NYU to study film and he is constantly making movie references and his friends make comments about how he is constantly making movie references.
This story did finish really strongly which I think is one of the most important parts of any thriller. The last 20% or so was really great and when the puzzle pieces started falling into place, I couldn't read fast enough to figure out all the different connections. From a plot perspective, the big reveals were pretty standard for a domestic thriller but it was still a satisfying conclusion. The ending was a little bittersweet for reasons I can't go into because of spoilers but the chapters in this last section were very short and we were jumping in between POVs very quickly which really ramped up the tension as well.
I really liked how the docu-series was integrated into the story. There would be some chapters where we would read the script from a scene from the documentary. We also got different character's perspectives on the documentary and it was interesting to see the after effects especially since true-crime documentaries/podcasts/etc are very popular. The documentary scenes served as nice little breaks in the narrative so I could get a moment before jumping back into the investigation.
Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC.
Expected publication date: March 2, 2021.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Minor: Sexual assault
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