Published by Scribner Genres: Fiction, Mystery
Format: ARC, eBook
Ten years ago, two vans carrying high school students crashed into a Tennessee ravine. Nine of the students survived the crash. Since then, one has died, and one has gone missing. The survivors get together every year to commemorate that terrible night.
The book is told both in the past and in the present. As they gather at the beach home in the outer banks, they tend to stick together yet do their own things at the same time. They are bound by their shared experience, but someone wants to write a tell all and everyone is on edge.
This book was on the slower side and slowly – very slowly readers get to learn more about what happened that fateful night. We do get to learn a little about the survivors and their lives but not enough about most of them to really care. The survivors were not close before the accident, some barely knowing each other. I didn’t feel a sense of camaraderie or friendship from them – just a shared experience that they needed to keep in check.
I typically enjoyed Megan Miranda’s books and thought this would be a slam dunk for me. But the slow packing mixed with an ending that was not that shocking failed to wow me. Did I guess whodunit? Nope, not even close. I thought I knew and was wrong but even with the reveal, I wasn’t blown away.
What did work was the setting and the mood. The beach house on the outer banks with the sandy shore, a storm coming in, and mistrust amongst the group really set the stage.
Although I didn’t love this one, I enjoyed it but not as much as I had hoped. I’m still a fan and will gladly read what she writes next.
Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.