Deep and complex, I haven't read a book that touches me this way in a long time. I honestly don't even know how to formulate my thoughts yet, so I may come back and update my review later.

This book had undone some part of me, and I don't know what to think about it yet

Updated 03/05/2026

This book is one that will stick with me for a long time. There are so many layers to this that it feels heavy and sticky at times. One of those books that sort of just sits in your chest and makes you uncomfortable and makes you question WHY you think and feel the way you do about different complex situations in life.

With 1st person POV, it forces you to take an up-close, personal look at a girl whose life has been utterly ravaged by the Satanic Panic. You never really see the chaotic nature of the panic on society as a whole because the lens is solely focused on this one girl and how the actions of other people left her life in shambles, and she had no choice but to figure out how to navigate it. I don't want to go into detail with what all happens because I don't like writing spoilers in my reviews, but this book tackles various serious and complex topics and doesn't shy away from showing the ugliness and pushing you to question your own views without assigning morality to them.

I highly, highly recommend this book, but I do recommend looking up trigger warnings first.

Updated 02/15/2026: 1.5 stars. I read this book as part of a book club, so discussions continue to come up about this book, which prompts me to think about it and disect my issues with it more and more only for me, and I had to lower my review to reflect it.

1. The overall plot, as a concept, is good. HOWEVER the execution is sloppy, disjointed, and poorly thought out. The short and quick chapters aided the pacing of the book, but that's all it did. No real character work was done, leaving all the characters sounding the same or so similar that it takes a moment to re-adjust and identify who it is. Which also leads to disconnection with the characters. I don't give a fuck so strongly about any of them, that they could've been murdered, and I wouldn't have cared.

2. Ethan. He is positioned as the MC. More than anything, your MC needs to be believable. We're told to believe he is an every man, a jack-of-all-trades with variety of skills and a strong moral compass and values. Yet he does not have any believable depth for why he is the way he is other than he left the agency because he could not longer handle seeing crimes against children only to go work in an ER. Abused children and assault victims are still in the ER, so while his reason for leaving is understandable, his chosen field afterward does little to get him away.

3. Ethan continued. We're told he had a 100% solve rate when he was an agent. Yet, instead of him doing any real investigative work, he relies on being spoon-fed information by someone in prison. Instead of following proper procedures, he is following the instructions of someone who is incredibly dangerous. Me and the rest of the book club were actually guessing things before Ethan even got info from the man in prison. If this were real, give the info to 2 women with a podcast, and it'd be solved in a more realistic timeframe and way.

There's more, but I've made this long enough.

Original 02/04/2026: 3 stars because it was fast-paced and quick, and it was decently fun.

I can explain away some of the issues I had with certain characters [mainly Lindsay] as purposeful choices as part of her characterization due to the way things went. I'm still working out how I feel about some of the others though.

There were a lot of characters to keep track of, and the timeline and other moving parts made it feel incredibly chaotic. There were some predictable moments, but again it was fun for what it was.