Thank you Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book is very much not what it's advertised as. It is meta in a way, it breaks the 4th wall and brings the reader into the story, but you do not solve it. The book starts out like was advertised, a decently cool way to handle a murder mystery. Around 25% in though the twist happens - while this might constitute a spoiler, I feel like it needs to be said at least vaguely as it is not what the book is advertised as - where the detective character is revealed and you, the reader, are just pretty much now a reader of a mostly standard but weird thriller detective novel. There is still some narrator parts, a handful of things directed at you, and the ending sorta goes back to what was advertised, but also not really...

The characters are, to put it lightly, quite a mess. Both as characters and how it's all structured around them. At the start I was mostly getting there with working out who was who, but then it all crumbled and I completely lost track of who was who except for like 4 of the main characters which was a massive detriment to the ending. Enygma (the detective) is honestly quite a prick and very unlikeable, and I just do not care about him. There's a part in the book where the narrators mention that no one reads murder mystery books for the murder mystery, and that it's only all about the detective... Honestly that kinda felt like a slap to the face. I picked up this book because of the mystery and because of the fact there was no detective lmao.

The story also felt like it didn't pay off. It felt like an incredibly generic kinda mystery. The ending was mostly predictable but also felt very cheap and like it had written itself into a corner a little. And on the writing, that was really, really bad. The book could easily be like 150 pages or so once you cut out the chapters of just repeating the same information over and over. It really makes sure to hammer the information into your head constantly so you know what's going on, and makes sure you can't miss anything. This is why the reveal feels so cheap and like it's written itself into a corner, because it cannot be anything other than the incredibly obvious as the book essentially completely spells it out for you.

Also goddamn that ending monologue just dragged on and on and on.......

I think the main good thing of this book was the first part before the twist, and while I hated what the twist made.. It was actually a very good twist 😅 But yeah, I would love to see more esoteric lit, but whoever came up for the marketing of this book really needs to rethink wtf they did.