I’m sharing another instalment of my Mini Review Mondays, the most recent of which was last week. In case you haven’t seen any of my previous posts, I do ‘mini’ reviews of books that I’ve previously read and am now ready to share my full thoughts about.
First up, I’d like to talk about Bad Tourists by Caro Carver. Thank you to Chloë Rose at Transworld Publishers for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Best friends Darcy, Camilla and Kate have just landed in to the Maldives for a luxury holiday at the exclusive Sapphire Island Resort.
They can’t wait for ten days of scorching sun, crystal-clear waters, white-sand beaches – and the chance to put a traumatic shared past behind them.
But what awaits them is a murderous revenge plot that none of them saw coming.
Or did they?
Publication Date: 4th July
TW: murder, death, violence, blood, grooming, manipulation, animal death, coercive control, gaslighting, physical abuse, domestic abuse
My Thoughts:
Bad Tourists is delectably dark reading filled with sunshine and secrets. In short, it is the perfect holiday mystery – though a sudden chill may come over you despite the tropical climates.
Carver is not messing around. We open into a bloody nightmare with an opening chapter that lures you in and then ensnares you in its jaws. It is a deeply traumatic event and one that will shape every page that follows afterwards. I loved that dynamic between the cold case and the present – particularly how it teased out unexpected dynamics and revelations. It is a bold opening and one that definitely sticks in your mind. However it is also one that sits very differently in your mind by the time you turn the final page. I loved how Carver returned to it, as a traumatic reverberation constantly echoing for our characters. It speaks to the portrayal of grief and loss immensely.
Darcy, Camilla and Kate are our central trio of characters – with a swanky trip to celebrate a drawn out, hard fought divorce. Each of their voices sparkles with a snidey kind of sarcasm that I adore. They come from very different backgrounds and there is the kind of unsaid tension that lingers between them. It is all about appearances, which can of course be deceiving. You also get some other voices coming into the narration, which added some interesting new elements and dynamics into the story. There are so many facets of suspense and dread that come into play throughout the narrative. You can feel the oncoming storm coming but are powerless to stop it. I also think the exploration of coercive control, manipulation and domestic abuse are poignant and show a menacing portrait of that slow build-up of abuse.
Bad Tourists is a spine-tingling sizzler of a summer mystery. It builds dread superbly, moving towards an explosive conclusion that blows everything out of the water.
Next up, I’d like to talk about It’s Only a Game by Kelsea Yu. Thank you to Bloomsbury YA US for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
When Marina Chan ran from her old life, she brought nothing with her-not even her real name. Now she lives in fear of her past being discovered. But when her online gaming team is offered a tour of their favorite game company, Marina can’t resist accepting, even though she knows it might put her fake identity at risk.
Then the creator of the game is murdered during their tour. Whoever killed him plans to frame Marina and her friends for the murder unless they win four rounds of a dangerous game. A game that requires them to lie, trespass, and steal. A game that could destroy everything Marina’s worked so hard to build….
A game that she might not survive.
Publication Date: 9th July
TW: murder, death, violence, blackmail, manipulation, emotional abuse, threat of violence to animals, fire
My Thoughts:
It’s Only a Game was a fantastic and fast-paced YA debut thriller that has great characters and a plot that keeps you guessing throughout.
Marina was a brilliant protagonist – smart, driven and determined to survive. She’s been dealt an awful hand in life and escapes into the world of gaming, creating a community around her. This core friendship group comes offline as they get involved in a high stakes mystery that is unnerving and starts to blur the lines between game and reality and past and present. I really enjoyed this group and how distinctive their personalities were – it was fun seeing how they matched up with their gaming style and preferred characters. It creates this cosy little group that only contrasts further with the death and destruction around them. There is also a joyous relationship that forms (remaining secondary to the primary plot and character developement) that made my heart sing, even as I willed for these emotional idiots to just realise their feelings already. Throughout this, Marina feels a heavy sense of dread as she has to deceive her friends to keep her past out of bounds and her current secrets from catching up with her. In particular, Marina is homeless and isolated from her family – relying on the kindness of two adorable restaurant owners. Her scenes with them for me were the beating heart of the book. It delves a lot into the family we can make for ourselves, which can be a tough journey and so there are some necessary sparks of light woven into the narrative.
Also, I have to talk about how amazing the gaming aspect of the book was. The mystery unfolds both in and out of game – meaning Yu has to create some imaginative gameplay sequences that keep the tension up, develop characters and provide some shocking surprises. These sequences were magnificent, feeling so fleshed out and vividly imagined. I would play these games in a heartbeat and you could see why they’d capture the imaginations of so many. Within the gaming theme, Yu also tackles the rampant bigotry that can be a part of some gaming cultures and how invasive this is. We also see this cross over into the real world, with exploration of phenomenon like swatting and doxxing explored as the dangerous and potentially deadly moves they are.
It’s Only a Game is a fast-paced and utterly thrilling YA debut thriller. Yu has got some real shocks up her sleeve in this clever, gaming infused tale.
Finally, I’d like to delve into The Dead Friend Project by Joanna Wallace. Thank you to Viper for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Things haven’t been going well for Beth. Her husband has left her for one of her friends. Her fellow school mums judge her for swearing too much and not shifting the baby weight. And now she’s stuck in A&E after her son fell off the climbing wall on the first day of school.
In fact, things haven’t been going well for Beth since Charlotte died – her best friend, a favourite at the school pick-ups and the only person to ever run an interesting PTA meeting.
But after being hit by a car while on an ill-timed evening jog, Charlotte is no longer there to help Beth pick up the pieces of her increasingly difficult life.
That is, until Beth discovers that Charlotte left her toddler alone in the house during that fatal run. The Charlotte she knew would never do something so irresponsible, and suddenly Beth is questioning whether Charlotte’s death was really an accident.
With a newfound purpose and a glass of wine in hand, it’s time for Beth to uncover what really happened to her best friend. And what better place to start than the circle of chatty school mums, who can’t be as perfect as they pretend. But which of them is hiding something? Beth’s determined to find out. Once she’s put the kids to bed, of course…
Publication Date: 11th July
TW: death, murder, accident, alcoholism, cheating, infidelity
My Thoughts:
The Dead Friend Project was pitched to me as Motherland with murder and that feels pretty spot on upon reflection. It has that biting familiarity we’ve all seen in drawing on types of people that get under our skin a little, but also a hidden warmth amidst the mystery and potential murder.
Joanna Wallace has my full attention. I thoroughly enjoyed the deadly and darkly comic You’d Look Better as a Ghost and how surpassingly poignant it was in its exploration of grief, as well as its complex female protagonist. These prove to be celebrated hallmarks of Wallace’s work as similar themes emerge in The Dead Friend Project. The humour was fantastic – it is often bleakly comic, but also observationally. In particular Wallace takes aim at the different mum archetypes you may see at the school gates or in a PTA committee. I loved how it looks at this as both vacuous posturing in an unspoken competition and a genuine attempt at creating community and friendship. It allows for nuance.
Beth is a fractured and deeply flawed protagonist. She’s a bit snarky, a bit grumpy and fairly bitter at the world, but she’s also deeply kind, loyal and determined to try and do her best where she can. You get a sense of just how deeply Charlotte’s loss has hit here and also the loss of her marriage – it sets her off on a downward spiral aided by addiction, shown through alcoholism. There’s that thin line that Wallace explores so well. It adds a dramatic layer in terms of missed memories and blackouts that feed into the wider picture, but also an emotional layer of how deeply it has transformed her and her personality. It was executed so well in my opinion.
The central mystery is always fixated around the question of if there even is a mystery here to solve. There’s odd clues and prickling of suspicion at things that seem a little too coincidental, but then you remember you’re in the headspace of a deeply unreliable character. Wallace plays with this tension perfectly, keeping you guessing throughout. Some of the revelations that come in the final third of this book were jaw-dropping and utterly brilliant.
The Dead Friend Project cements Wallace as a must read author for me. This is an incredibly and emotionally fraught mystery that invests so much heart and humanity into its protagonist. It’ll make you laugh and make you cry.
A Short Book Lover 
Ohh thank you! Ive added the dead friend project & its only a game to my list
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