A review by onemorepagecrew
What Have We Done by Alex Finlay

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 
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