BOOK REVIEW
You Are Fatally Invited - Ande Pliego
*this review contains afilliate links - see my profile for more info
This book is set to be released on the 13th of February 2025. I was delighted to be able to read a copy in advance of release, in exchange for an honest review. I really do appreciate NetGalley, Random House UK, and Transworld publishers for putting their trust in me to review this book. Believe me, I was beyond excited to be among some of the first people EVER to read it. What a thrill :)
This book is so new that it doesn't have a finalised/released cover design yet, and you will be pleased to know that I did, in fact, read the blurb. I wanted to ensure that I connected with the genre and the story before going ahead and reviewing it!
BLURB
Six thriller authors. One writing retreat. You'd die to be on the guest list...
For decades, bestselling author J.R. Alastor, king of the murder mystery, has hidden in the shadows. His novels adorn countless bookshelves across the world, but no one knows his real name.
One day, event coordinator, Mila del Angel gets a message: Alastor wants her help to host a murder mystery retreat on his private island. The guest list? Six crime and thriller writers, all masters of the genre. He plans to give them the thrill of their lives: a week of party games, trope-fueled riddles and maybe a jump-scare or two.
It's the perfect cover for Mila to finally carry out her long-held plans for revenge on one of the authors, a ghost from her past. But when a different guest turns up dead, she finds herself in a lethal game she didn't plan for. With a storm cutting off the island and the body count rising, Mila has no idea who to trust. How do you escape a faceless killer who wrote the book on murder?
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
SPICE: 🆒 (while there is a small romance element, there is no "spice" other than kissing)
What a book! This is Ande Pliego's debut novel and it's an absolute cracker.
As a millennial, I remember very vividly when Scream was released in cinemas. It's now considered an absolute classic slasher horror, even though it is clearly a parody. Art imitating life, imitating art. Filled with intentional tropes, poking fun at the obvious, yet nailing each one and proving why the tropes work so well.
This book does that but with thriller books/locked room mysteries rather than horror movies.
The book centres around a group of successful, bestselling, thriller writers after they are invited to a themed retreat by the reclusive and anonymous J.R. Alastor. They are promised a week of themes, games, and riddles, and they are all tempted by the thought of meeting the elusive author.
To throw a spanner in the works, the event coordinator, Mila, has her own plans for one of the guests. Plans that take advantage of the theme of the weekend.
Nothing goes to plan and authors are dropping like flies, it's up to the remaining people to decide whether to play the game or not, to survive.
I enjoy locked room mysteries, but can often find myself figuring them out before the "big reveal" which can dampen the moment for me. Not this time, I had no idea what was coming, and the big reveal was exactly that!
The storytelling was complex, with multiple points of view (which worked really well for this story) each peeling back another small layer, revealing tidbits of information to progress the story. It was fast-paced while maintaining a good sense of intensity, with a sense of anticipation throughout.
Mila's story, was a great addition to the plot, adding an extra layer of complexity. There were a lot of moving parts here, which could have made for a messy story, but everything was finely tuned, working in tandem toward a shared goal without getting too jumbled.
The trope references throughout were delightful for me as a thriller reader. The book excerpts also did a great job of moving things forward clearly and concisely, avoiding unnecessary dialogue or explanations.
I connected with the characters' love of reading, writing, literature, and the thriller genre. Some of the lines resonated with me exceptionally.
"Sometimes the art of fiction isn't in how intellectual it is, but how well it makes you actually forget the world around you. Sometimes, binge reading to escape reality can save a person's life."
That line could have been surgically removed from my own brain, it's a perfect description of how reading makes me feel and I ADORED it!
As the story had multiple points of view in short bursts, I initially found it hard to match the names with the characters, which caused a few moments of confusion. It was naturally easier in the latter stages of the book because:
1) There were fewer characters due to unaliving!!
2) I'd had more chance to get to know them, which made it easier to slip back into their perspective :)
This was a really well-thought-out thriller brimming with twists, turns, backstabbing, unaliving, and tongue-in-cheek tropes that, while at risk of becoming comical, found the ideal balance that came together to create a solid, engaging story.
This book is available to pre-order now, so if you love a locked room mystery with a twist, I suspect you'll love this!
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