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A review by themermaddie
One of Us Is Dead by Jeneva Rose
4.0
4.5 stars
this book is like if desperate housewives and the L word season 6 had a baby with a whodunnit murder mystery!
told in retrospect from the inside of an interrogation room, we flash back and forth between the present day and the past as we slowly get to know all the players on the board. jenny is the salon owner in the interrogation room with a detective trying to figure out the sequence of events, but from the start we don't know who was murdered or why. it's a multiple pov book from all the housewives + jenny, and from there you become intimately familiar with the intricacies of each of the characters attitudes and relationships. shannon, recently divorced queen bee, who is struggling to get accustomed to her sudden fall from high society. crystal, the young new wife replacing shannon, who's new in town and has some secrets of her own. olivia, vengeful housewife extraordinaire, who seems to be taking way too much pleasure in shannon's downfall. karen, real estate mogul, torn between her loyalty to shannon and the rest of the housewives. jenny, owner of their favourite salon, who hears all the gossip. and of course, all of their husbands. so many catty fights, and so many possible reasons to murder each other.
i absolutely LOVED the way this unfolded slowly. fans of messy reality tv would probably like this for how dramatic and petty it gets, except then of course, you're aware the whole time that it will eventually devolve into a murder mystery. the pacing is excellent, every new chapter/pov reveals a new piece of the puzzle and a new motive for one character to want another character dead. it's hard to believe that in a setting as claustrophobically insular as buckhead with women as shallow as these housewives that it could somehow convince me to care for these characters in the end, but it did! a job well done. can't say more bc i don't want to spoil it, but i promise the way it all works out is CATHARTIC.
if you want a kinda reality tv-esque trashy murder mystery that's quick and easy to tear through, would recommend!!
this book is like if desperate housewives and the L word season 6 had a baby with a whodunnit murder mystery!
told in retrospect from the inside of an interrogation room, we flash back and forth between the present day and the past as we slowly get to know all the players on the board. jenny is the salon owner in the interrogation room with a detective trying to figure out the sequence of events, but from the start we don't know who was murdered or why. it's a multiple pov book from all the housewives + jenny, and from there you become intimately familiar with the intricacies of each of the characters attitudes and relationships. shannon, recently divorced queen bee, who is struggling to get accustomed to her sudden fall from high society. crystal, the young new wife replacing shannon, who's new in town and has some secrets of her own. olivia, vengeful housewife extraordinaire, who seems to be taking way too much pleasure in shannon's downfall. karen, real estate mogul, torn between her loyalty to shannon and the rest of the housewives. jenny, owner of their favourite salon, who hears all the gossip. and of course, all of their husbands. so many catty fights, and so many possible reasons to murder each other.
i absolutely LOVED the way this unfolded slowly. fans of messy reality tv would probably like this for how dramatic and petty it gets, except then of course, you're aware the whole time that it will eventually devolve into a murder mystery. the pacing is excellent, every new chapter/pov reveals a new piece of the puzzle and a new motive for one character to want another character dead. it's hard to believe that in a setting as claustrophobically insular as buckhead with women as shallow as these housewives that it could somehow convince me to care for these characters in the end, but it did! a job well done. can't say more bc i don't want to spoil it, but i promise the way it all works out is CATHARTIC.
if you want a kinda reality tv-esque trashy murder mystery that's quick and easy to tear through, would recommend!!