Author: Stacy Willingham
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Released: January 10, 2023
Received: Own (BOTM)

Book Summary:

Isabella Drake’s life was turned upside down the night her son went missing. A year later, Isabella still has pieces of her life to pick back up, but she can’t let go. She knows that somewhere, someone out there knows what happened to her toddler. She’s going to find them and get those answers. In a recent desperate attempt to find an answer, Isabella agrees to appear on one of those true crime podcasts. Who knows, maybe this will jar some memories lose in her own mind because it still feels like she’s forgetting something important…

My Review:

Whew! I can tell you that All the Dangerous Things is a doozy! Parents of young children will probably find this book particularly disturbing since it talks about a nightmare coming to life. Any novel involving kids will do that.

I’m noticing a trend here – Stacy Willingham likes unreliable narrators. Since this can be a fun plot to play with, I will not complain. Furthermore, she does a really good job with it. It’s always impossible to tell whether we can trust the events as they’re told to us.

There’s another interesting twist in All the Dangerous Things – multiple time periods. We have the present, flashbacks, and moments as recollected by Isabella (I’m distinguishing the two past events because they both read very differently). This added a lot of depth to the mystery and enhanced the concern revolving around the unreliable narrative.

Long story short, Stacy Willingham did not disappoint. I’m officially adding her to my list of authors where I’ll buy anything they write. (Because I clearly needed an excuse for more impulse buys).

Highlights:

• Psychological Thriller
• Unreliable narrator
• Podcast subplot
• Missing person (child)

Trigger Warnings:

• Missing child
• Mental Health

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