Author: Alison Gaylin
Publisher: William Morrow
Released: November 2, 2021
Received: Own (BOTM)
Warnings: Death of a child, death of a loved one, graphic death, suicide, sexual assault, bullying

The Collective, written by Alyson Gaylin, was one of my more recent picks from the Book of the Month Club. Two things immediately brought my attention to this option. First: the color; I love that bright red and black cover! Second, it’s a thriller, and I almost always grab the thriller option each month.

What would you do if you lost the person you loved most? That is a question Camille Gardner has to answer following her daughter’s death. She knows who is to blame for her daughter’s death – the trouble is getting anyone else to listen to her.

That is until Camille finds a support group for grieving mothers like her. Together they are working to change the world – but handling the killers that have been left free to roam the world.

“She deserves that feeling, that lightness, the ability to move, to live again. We deserve it. I raise my glass to karma”

Wow! I went into The Collective expecting an intense thriller, but what I got was – wow! This book did not go at all how I expected. I would argue that this is fantastic news, as I love a thriller that manages to surprise me.

I’m not going to lie, there were parts of Camille’s story that hurt my heart (such as the loss of her daughter), other factors that made me fume (obviously the details regarding a killer on the loose), and then there were parts that made me well, cringe. Camille is a woman going through a lot, and we all know how differently a person can handle grief. It is hard to see. Harder to process.

On that note, it did take me a little while to get invested in this story. By the one-third mark, I was sold and desperate to see how it was all going to pan out. Camille’s story captivated me, at least in part due to the mystery she found herself in the center of.

That support group of mothers was an exciting plot point, and it certainly made the novel. They brought about so many twists that I could never have expected, including a shocking ending! That is a conclusion that is going to stick with me for quite some time.