Oh this one was goooooood... welcome back to my good side Riley Sager, so happy to see you here again!!! There were so many things I enjoyed about this book and let me tell you about them hehe.

So first, this was SPOOKY. Like, couldn't-read-with-the-lights-off, checking-the-closets-for-ghosts spooky. To me, this is such a hard thing to achieve! The setup of the mystery of the island was so well done, and I loved the premise for gathering them all there in an echo of the last gathering of ladies. Once the scary stuff began it was just totally relentless, and I wavered between being unable to put the book down because I was so invested and unable to pick it up because I was so freaked. And the weaving in of the diary was so masterfully done to really dial up the eerie factor. The atmosphere here was just off the charts.

One of the other things this book did so well was inspire me to make guesses and try to puzzle it out. Sometimes in a mystery/thriller we have either too much or too little information, and it can be hard to make a real go at solving it (at least for me, a notorious bad guesser) without going cross-eyed. But this book was the perfect balance of information to form theories on, without there being an obvious (or completely UNGUESSABLE, boo pet peeve) resolution. There were some things I got right, some things I got sort-of right, and some things I got dead wrong. As it should be!!! Or at least as I want it to be.

Want another pro?? We here had a thriller protagonist who was, finally, refreshingly not annoying. Marin wasn't perfect, but she was REASONABLE and for the most part asked so many of the same questions and had the same reactions I think I would've had. She didn't make the dumbest decisions ever for the sake of moving the plot (another pet peeve mmm), and I was grateful that she was someone I could root for without rolling my eyes.

And finally, this was a thriller that stuck the landing. With such an amazing and heart-pounding build-up, I'm always worried a book like this is going to essentially set too high a bar for any realistic explanation. But again, I think Riley Sager fleshed this one out so well and really effectively put the pieces together in a satisfying and sensible way. He may have left a little room for the spooky through the conclusion, but like... it did make sense.

So I started off this review thinking it would be a 4.5 for me rounded down, but I might bump it up to a 5?!?! I just loved the experience of reading this book, and I think all 5 stars just might be warranted. And if you're thinking about reading this and REALLY want it to hit, pick this baby up in October. 👀