It’s fun! It’s extravagant! It’s ironic! It’s too on the nose! It’s camp!!

Even though this is a murder mystery, I’ll be honest that I personally enjoyed this book a lot more in analyzing the main character and his character development throughout the book. The mystery was still so fun to follow, and it genuinely had me creating conspiracy theories like I was putting clues and names on a murder board, but something about an insufferable character that may turn out to be just misunderstood just does it for me.

Mikey starts off as the obnoxious, spoiled, “I’m rich so I can do whatever I want” type of character, and even though for a while he does come across as annoying, once I started to understand him and his past better I felt so much empathy for him. He grew up surrounded by people that only liked him for his money, surrounded by people that only cared about money, so inevitably he equates his worth with his wealth. He was never taught to embrace his emotional side and instead to suppress it with jokes, that he had to hide how he really felt because otherwise people wouldn’t want to be with him.

There’s so many little moments with the way he interacts with other people or the way he thinks about himself that show this belief of his and there was never anyone to contradict that. It’s only when he gets to the summer camp and his money is stripped away from him that he has to find himself all over again. Yes, it was kinda giving with the power of love and friendship, but it really was real love and friendship that made him understand what was important in his life.

The mystery plot was so fun to follow, and while a part of it was kinda predictable, the way it got there was innovative, going through so many clues and finding different evidences that makes you feel dizzy with theories and suspect everyone, even characters you thought were clear. I kept changing my mind not only with who was the true suspect, but also with what had actually happened with the victim and I love when mystery books leave me feeling like this.

There were a lot of pop culture and movie references through the book, and I can totally understand how it can get too much at some point, but I honestly found it kinda fun. It makes the tone of the story a little less serious, more modern, like you’re reading a friend’s story instead of a random character you’ve just met a few pages ago. Mikey has a passion for films and filmmaking, which makes these references make so much sense to his character, this being his way of showing his knowledge and the fact that he sees movie references in so much of his daily life.

The writing is very Gen Z/modern type of writing which does make sense with the characters and their age and personalities, though I did find it a bit tiring at times, and like it was trying a little too hard to be light and funny.

I kinda wish there had been more from the romance. It felt a little rushed, not really insta-love but still with not that much time for the characters to actually get to know each other and most of the romance felt like it happened off page when I would’ve loved to read about more moments between them.

Was this the best mystery book I’ve ever read and that has ever been written? Well no, but I still had so much fun following both the mystery and the characters trying to solve it.