i know you book review

I Know You Know

Gilly macmillan.

384 pages, ebook

First published September 18, 2018

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Book Review: I Know You Know by Gilly Macmillan

 i know you know, by gilly macmillan, harpercollins | amazon | b & n.

Paperback: 384 pages  Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (September 18, 2018)

From New York Times bestselling author Gilly Macmillan comes this original, chilling and twisty mystery about two shocking murder cases twenty years apart, and the threads that bind them.

Twenty years ago, eleven-year-olds Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby were murdered in the city of Bristol, their bodies dumped near a dog racing track. A man was convicted of the brutal crime, but decades later, questions still linger.

For his whole life, filmmaker Cody Swift has been haunted by the deaths of his childhood best friends. The loose ends of the police investigation consume him so much that he decides to return to Bristol in search of answers. Hoping to uncover new evidence, and to encourage those who may be keeping long-buried secrets to speak up, Cody starts a podcast to record his findings. But there are many people who don’t want the case—along with old wounds—reopened so many years after the tragedy, especially Charlie’s mother, Jess, who decides to take matters into her own hands.

When a long-dead body is found in the same location the boys were left decades before, the disturbing discovery launches another murder investigation. Now Detective John Fletcher, the investigator on the original case, must reopen his dusty files and decide if the two murders are linked. With his career at risk, the clock is ticking and lives are in jeopardy…

Favorite Quotes:

If you can control where an interview takes place, you are part of the way to controlling the interview itself. Location matters. Fletcher’s wife announced she was leaving him when they were in the Costco car park. He didn’t see it coming. He remembers acutely the humiliation of loading bags into the boot of the car while she explained across the laden shopping trolley that their marriage was over. “Well, why are we buying in bulk then?” was all he could think to ask.

It’s a resting place for cold cases, and Fletcher thinks of it as an archive of failure. For every high-profile solve, there’s an unsolved crime shelved here. In each tidily filed box, Fletcher thinks, there are not just papers, photographs, and other case materials, but other things, invisible things. There are traces of the open emotional wounds an unsolved crime leaves on the families and detectives affected by it. There is also the shadow of something more rotten: the person who got away with it.

Like a nodding dog ornament on a dashboard, she moves her head laboriously to look at Danny. Everything she does is so slow it makes Fletcher’s joints feel as if they’re liquefying under the strain of being patient.

I said you’re a prat, John Fletcher. Always have been, always will be. I’m fed up of you strutting about like you own the place when you passed your sell-by date years ago. The only time I’ll look forward to seeing you will be at your retirement party.

I did a bit of unscientific research on the subject—by which I mean to say that I looked it up on the internet…

I was unprepared for the twists and turns of the diabolically clever Gilly Macmillan. Her fascinating yet despicable characters were as compelling as the well-crafted storylines they inhabited. They squeezed then broke my heart while holding me captive to my Kindle as I hissed and huffed my distress. No one was innocent, except for the condemned patsy, and no one was as they had initially appeared, it was brilliant.

Gilly Macmillan has strong word voodoo. Cunningly woven into this adroitly written book were the gut-churning savagery of children, blackmail, police coercion, nefarious manipulations, greed, ambition, corruption, and desperation. The writing was exquisitely nuanced, the wily characters were deeply damaged and irreparably flawed yet keenly described and depicted in a cleverly magnetizing manner. It was riveting, yet tragic and heartbreaking. I was enthralled and even though she turned me inside out, I covet her mad skills and greedily want all her words.

New additions to my Brit Vocab list include tearaways which Mr. Google tells me is a wild or reckless person; bung which is a bribe or payoff; and cobblers which apparently has two meanings as it is nonsense to some, and testicles to the Cockneys – although those two things are pretty much the same thing to me 😉

I was provided with a review copy of this stunningly well-crafted book by  HarperCollins  and  TLC Book Tours .

About Gilly Macmillan

Gilly Macmillan is the Edgar Nominated and New York Times bestselling author of What She Knew. She grew up in Swindon, Wiltshire and lived in Northern California in her late teens. She worked at The Burlington Magazine and the Hayward Gallery before starting a family. Since then she’s worked as a part-time lecturer in photography, and now writes full-time. She resides in Bristol, England.

Find out more about Gilly at her website , and connect with her on Facebook , Instagram , and Twitter .

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25 replies to “book review: i know you know by gilly macmillan”.

I’ve got the audiobook for review and am excited now after reading your review. Loved it.

Wow.. That was a super review… Hahaha I didn’t know what bung meant. Cobbler would be one who repairs shoes, and a sweet dish peach cobbler, it means nonsense (new to me – would I say you are talking cobbler? 🤔🤔) and it means nuts?? The real ones?? Hahaha this was the best part. You have outdone yourself!!!! 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣

You are correct – talking cobbler is one of my specialties 😉

You are cobbling? 😂😂🤣🤣

And I was a bit of a tearaway in my youth, although I’ve never taken a bung 😉

Girl, you are killing me… We need more of these words

Get to your next review for the next session of Brit words

Wow, you are driving my TBR list insane. Stop with the five star reviews 🙂 Lovely review BTW

love twisty books!

I like your term, “strong word voodoo.” It’s a perfect description of what the best authors do. Thanks for a great review — I added the book to my Goodreads to-read shelf!

Umm you had me at “unprepared for the twists and turns”

I love that about a suspense read!

Another one I need to read. Love how your Brit vocab is coming along 😊

This is exactly my kind of book, and with a 5 star review, there’s no way I’m passing this one up! Thanks for the rec!

I’ve been enjoying suspenseful books lately, I want this one. My poor TBR isn’t going to be happy with me.

Hah, I love that last quote! Great review 🙂

need to read some suspense novels – been a while since i did read them, and this sounds very intriguing indeed.. and love those new words you learned 🙂

I want this book. Bung also means to put something somewhere eg: ‘where do you want this?’ ‘Just bung it in the cupboard.’ 🙂

I’ll add that to my notes, thanx!

Amazing review my friend, now I really want to check this book out it looks and sounds absolutely fantastic and right my alley to boot. Plus I absolutely love and enjoy mystery thriller books as well. Thank you so much for sharing your awesome post DJ.

This sounds interesting! I’ll have to check it out!

This sounds really good.

All suspense thrillers are highly attractive to me. And since you have written such a smashing review…..have to get this. No other option!

Thanks for being on the tour!

I love when characters aren’t how they initially seem!

• Pingback: Gilly Macmillan, author of I Know You Know, on tour September/October 2018 | TLC Book Tours

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How did that book end? Book spoilers to jog your memory.

Gilly Macmillan | I Know You Know | Ten-Second Spoilers

Twenty years ago, eleven-year-olds Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby were murdered in the city of Bristol, their bodies dumped near a dog racing track. A man was convicted of the brutal crime, but decades later, questions still linger.

For his whole life, filmmaker Cody Swift has been haunted by the deaths of his childhood best friends. The loose ends of the police investigation consume him so much that he decides to return to Bristol in search of answers. Hoping to uncover new evidence, and to encourage those who may be keeping long-buried secrets to speak up, Cody starts a podcast to record his findings. But there are many people who don’t want the case—along with old wounds—reopened so many years after the tragedy, especially Charlie’s mother, Jess, who decides to take matters into her own hands.

When a long-dead body is found in the same location the boys were left decades before, the disturbing discovery launches another murder investigation. Now Detective John Fletcher, the investigator on the original case, must reopen his dusty files and decide if the two murders are linked. With his career at risk, the clock is ticking and lives are in jeopardy…

Sidney obviously didn’t kill the boys. The podcast helps the case get reopened, and the police uncover that the boys must have witnessed another murder and been killed to cover it up. The ending confused me and I had to go read Goodreads spoilers to find out I wasn’t alone, but the whole reason Jessy was a character was to uncover that she saw Cody the night the boys were killed. He knew what happened all along and let Sidney take the fall. The podcast was just a publicity stunt to help his business.

Love spoilers? Check out my full list of ten-second spoilers here.

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I KNOW YOU KNOW

Twenty years ago, eleven-year-olds Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby were murdered in the city of Bristol, their bodies dumped near a dog racing track. A man was convicted of the brutal crime, but decades later, questions still linger.

For his whole life, filmmaker Cody Swift has been haunted by the deaths of his childhood best friends. The loose ends of the police investigation consume him so much that he decides to return to Bristol in search of answers. Hoping to uncover new evidence, and to encourage those who may be keeping long-buried secrets to speak up, Cody starts a podcast to record his findings. But there are many people who don’t want the case—along with old wounds—reopened so many years after the tragedy, especially Charlie’s mother, Jess, who decides to take matters into her own hands.

When a long-dead body is found in the same location the boys were left decades before, the disturbing discovery launches another murder investigation. Now Detective John Fletcher, the investigator on the original case, must reopen his dusty files and decide if the two murders are linked. With his career in jeopardy, the clock is ticking and lives are at risk…

Exceptional thriller...Ms Macmillan is one heck of a good writer. Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

A brilliantly clever ending caps this riveting thriller. Macmillan remains a writer to watch. Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Gilly Macmillan digs in deep and gets right to the heart of her characters in this rich and engrossing novel. Vivid, smart, and propulsive, I KNOW YOU KNOW [is a] thoroughly immersive thriller of the first order. Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author

Very highly recommended...the writing and presentation is pitch perfect in this complicated, gripping mystery. LibraryThing

Fletcher’s down-to-earth policing, combined with his strong sleuthing smarts, creates a compelling flashback-and-present-day mystery, but equally engaging is a secondary character, Charlie's mother, Jess. She wasn’t there for her son, but her self-recrimination and eventual redemption over the course of the case make for compelling drama. Fans of British mysteries or of cold-case procedurals are the natural audience for this strongly written outing by the author of What She Knew (2016), but it may also appeal to devotees of the many true-crime podcasts out there today, including West Cork. Booklist

[An] original, chilling and twisty mystery. Criminal Element

A captivating read. The Sun Times (Owen Sound)

The Well-Caffeinated Mom

By Wining Wife®

Book Review: I Know You Know by Gilly Macmillan

Two crimes, 20 years apart, in the same location plague a community. Gilly Macmillan’s  I Know You Know keeps readers involved from the moment they pick up the novel. 

I’ve been on a bit of a quick and easy reads kick lately, namely because I’ve been sick, training for a half marathon, and, well, I have 3 very young children at home. While it took me a minute to get used to Gilly Macmillan’s style in the novel, once I got into it, I had to continue until the end. 

About I Know You Know

• Paperback: 384 pages • Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (September 18, 2018)

From New York Times bestselling author Gilly Macmillan comes this original, chilling and twisty mystery about two shocking murder cases twenty years apart, and the threads that bind them.

Twenty years ago, eleven-year-olds Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby were murdered in the city of Bristol, their bodies dumped near a dog racing track. A man was convicted of the brutal crime, but decades later, questions still linger.

For his whole life, filmmaker Cody Swift has been haunted by the deaths of his childhood best friends. The loose ends of the police investigation consume him so much that he decides to return to Bristol in search of answers. Hoping to uncover new evidence, and to encourage those who may be keeping long-buried secrets to speak up, Cody starts a podcast to record his findings. But there are many people who don’t want the case—along with old wounds—reopened so many years after the tragedy, especially Charlie’s mother, Jess, who decides to take matters into her own hands.

When a long-dead body is found in the same location the boys were left decades before, the disturbing discovery launches another murder investigation. Now Detective John Fletcher, the investigator on the original case, must reopen his dusty files and decide if the two murders are linked. With his career at risk, the clock is ticking and lives are in jeopardy…

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Harpercollins | amazon | barnes & noble, about gilly macmillan.

Gilly Macmillan is the Edgar Nominated and New York Times bestselling author of What She Knew. She grew up in Swindon, Wiltshire and lived in Northern California in her late teens. She worked at The Burlington Magazine and the Hayward Gallery before starting a family. Since then she’s worked as a part-time lecturer in photography, and now writes full-time. She resides in Bristol, England.

Find out more about Gilly at her website , and connect with her on Facebook , Instagram , and Twitter .

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Ronda Bowen

Ronda Bowen is a writer, editor, and independent scholar. She has a Master of Arts in Philosophy from Northern Illinois University and a B.A. in Philosophy, Pre-Graduate Option, Honors in the Major from California State University, Chico. When she is not working on client projects from her editorial consulting business, she is writing a novel. In her free time, she enjoys gourmet cooking, wine, martinis, copious amounts of coffee, reading, watching movies, sewing, crocheting, crafts, hanging out with her husband, and spending time with their teenage son and infant daughter.

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wellcaffeinatedmom

Mom of 5, homeschooling family, coffee fanatic, Girl Scouts troop leader, blogger, author, editor

I Know You Know by Gilly Macmillan (Review by Kathy Travis)

I’ll admit it – I’m a sucker for a good crime/suspense novel. If you can keep me guessing until the end and keep the gore to a minimum, I’m hooked. I Know You Know had me from start to finish.

In 1996, two 11 year-old boys are murdered, and another young boy is convicted of the crime. When a third body is discovered twenty years later in the same place, the original detective is assigned to the case. This book is a little bit ‘whodunit’, but mostly an observation of how human decisions and choices ultimately have a price.

The narration alternates between the three main characters. Detective Fletcher, now divorced and alone, unable to maintain relationships with even his own sons; Jess, mother of one of the victims, filled with self-loathing about her failings as a mother; and Cody, a childhood friend of the boys, who is now grown and convinced the wrong person was convicted for his friends’ murder. While I often find narrator changes interrupt my concentration and story flow, Macmillan’s narration moves smoothly, each chapter leading into the voice of the next narrator. The flashbacks to the original investigation illustrate the characters as they were 20 years prior, and how their lives have been changed for better and worse by the choices they made before, during, and after the boys’ deaths.

As the facts surrounding the two murders become more intertwined, tension builds as each person’s objectives become more at odds with the others. Jess valiantly wants to maintain the new life she has built with her husband and teenage daughter; Cody is hopeful his podcast will unearth new clues that will clear the name of an innocent man; and Detective Fletcher is determined to validate his original investigation and conviction. All three are at odds – for one to succeed, another must fail.

I Know You Know is a thrilling page-turner with an intriguing cast of characters that made this book a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Check it out on Amazon

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I Know You Paperback – October 19, 2021

Purchase options and add-ons.

In this tense thriller from the bestselling author of What You Did and The Other Wife , a woman finds a dead body. Will she make the same mistake as last time?

Rachel lives a quiet life in the peaceful countryside, content with her perfect man and her lovely dog. But when she stumbles upon a body in the woods one day, all that shatters. She knows what she has to do: run. Don’t get accused of murder. But when this victim is identified as her boyfriend’s estranged wife, Rachel realises she’s already the prime suspect.

With mounting evidence against her, Rachel’s only hope is to keep her past well hidden. Because before she was Rachel, she was Casey, a young nanny trying to make it as an actress in Los Angeles―and when the family she worked for were brutally murdered, she narrowly escaped the death penalty. Now, she’ll do anything to save the life she’s spent years piecing back together.

But the police are closing in, and Rachel can’t help wondering: Was her discovery in the woods really just an awful coincidence, or is someone framing her for murder? Someone who knows who she is, and wants revenge…

• Print length 365 pages
• Language English
• Publication date October 19, 2021
• Dimensions 5.08 x 1 x 7.8 inches
• ISBN-10 1542019974
• ISBN-13 978-1542019972
• See all details

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About the author.

Claire McGowan was born in 1981 in a small Irish village where the most exciting thing that ever happened was some cows getting loose on the road. She is the author of The Fall , What You Did , The Other Wife , The Push and the acclaimed Paula Maguire crime series. She also writes women’s fiction under the name Eva Woods.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Thomas & Mercer (October 19, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 365 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1542019974
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1542019972
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 1 x 7.8 inches
• #6,777 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
• #14,330 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
• #40,685 in Suspense Thrillers

About the author

Claire mcgowan.

Claire McGowan grew up in a small village in Northern Ireland, and now lives in London. She has sold over a million copies of her thrillers and several times been a number-1 bestseller on Kindle as well as a Washington Post bestseller. She also writes women's fiction under the name Eva Woods, as well as radio and TV scripts.

You can find out more about Claire and her books at https://www.clairemcgowan.co.uk/

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I Know You Know by Gilly MacMillan | Review

Posted October 11, 2018 by Asheley in review / 1 Comment

From New York Times bestselling author Gilly Macmillan comes this original, chilling and twisty mystery about two shocking murder cases twenty years apart, and the threads that bind them. Twenty years ago, eleven-year-olds Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby were murdered in the city of Bristol, their bodies dumped near a dog racing track. A man was convicted of the brutal crime, but decades later, questions still linger. For his whole life, filmmaker Cody Swift has been haunted by the deaths of his childhood best friends. The loose ends of the police investigation consume him so much that he decides to return to Bristol in search of answers. Hoping to uncover new evidence, and to encourage those who may be keeping long-buried secrets to speak up, Cody starts a podcast to record his findings. But there are many people who don’t want the case—along with old wounds—reopened so many years after the tragedy, especially Charlie’s mother, Jess, who decides to take matters into her own hands. When a long-dead body is found in the same location the boys were left decades before, the disturbing discovery launches another murder investigation. Now Detective John Fletcher, the investigator on the original case, must reopen his dusty files and decide if the two murders are linked. With his career at risk, the clock is ticking and lives are in jeopardy…

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Over the past few years, I’ve learned that a new Gilly Macmillan book is going to be a good time. It is so easy for me to get lost in her stories because of the multiple points of view that eventually converge. I also love the way she incorporates different forms of media (print, etc) into the story. I Know You Know is another example of how this author pulled me in and kept me turning pages with a NEED to figure out who really did it and how everything would eventually come together.

Many years ago, two young boys were murdered and a mentally challenged adult male was charged and convicted for the crime, but many people believe him to be innocent for various reasons. So now, in present day, the boys’ best friend has decided to re-investigate the crime and release a true crime podcast with his findings as he investigates. His investigation brings forth new information for consideration, but it also reopens old wounds for many of the people involved. Several people are unhappy with what he is doing and want him to stop. The new interest in this case also causes problems for Detective John Fletcher, the investigator that worked on the murder case years ago. Detective Fletcher like he prosecuted the correct man for the murder and is, frankly, annoyed at this new investigation. But there are some out there that think that maybe Fletcher didn’t give the case (and the accused) the full investigation that it deserved.

In addition to the old murder case, Detective Fletcher also has his hands full with a new body that has turned up near the site where the boys were found all of those years ago. It isn’t a new body so much as a body that has been there for many years, but only just discovered now. He has to figure out if this body is connected to the boys’ murder, and solve the case too.

One of the things I love most about this book is that we are given several perspectives and alternating past/present narratives. We hear from Detective Fletcher, Jess Paige (one of the young boys’ mother), and Cody Swift (the podcaster conducting his own investigation). I love the way this moves the story along; the pacing felt good to me and the story felt more robust. It made me want to find out what really happened as quickly as possible. I wanted justice for everyone involved.

I also love the way the podcasts are singled out. They have their own chapters. They’re sort of in transcript form, although they read more like narrative than “real” transcript, which I think is great because it doesn’t break up the flow of the story. (I admit to never having listened to true crime podcasts, but I found the addition of these examples fascinating and it makes me curious to seek one out and take a listen.)

I mentioned that there are two cases being worked on simultaneously, and I have to say that by far the older case involving the children was the most interesting to me. I couldn’t get enough of those chapters and scenes. Every time I got to the chapters involving the other case, I really just wanted to get on to the next part about the re-opened investigation.

Of all of the characters, I think the most compelling is Jess, the mother of Charlie Paige who was murdered at age 11. In the parts of the story from the past, she is one type of character, but in the parts of the story set in the present, she has undergone a huge change and is living an entirely different life. This could have been clunky and unbelievable with a different author, but Gilly Macmillan’s characterization is masterful, and I thought she did a great job with Jess. I thought her story was very emotional and it was easy to get into her head. That isn’t to say that I am anything like her, but I was fascinated with reading all of her scenes.

I always get so doggone excited with a new Gilly Macmillan book, then I devour it, then I dread the super-long wait until I get the next one. I love the complexity of the cases in her thrillers, the nuance of her characterization, the way all of her characters have secrets, and I love the twists that she throws in (even at the end!). She is truly a favorite of mine in this genre. Whatever she writes, I will read.

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About gilly macmillan.

Gilly Macmillan is the Edgar Nominated and New York Times bestselling author of What She Knew . She grew up in Swindon, Wiltshire and lived in Northern California in her late teens. She worked at The Burlington Magazine and the Hayward Gallery before starting a family. Since then she’s worked as a part-time lecturer in photography, and now writes full-time. She resides in Bristol, England.

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About Asheley

Asheley is a Southern girl. She loves Carolina blue skies, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and NC craft beer. She loves all things history but prefers books over everything.

You can find her somewhere in North Carolina, daydreaming about the ocean.

Find Asheley on Litsy @intothehallofbooks!

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Book Review: I Know You Know

This is my book review of “I Know You Know” by Gilly MacMillan, an author I’ve always admired.

Book Summary:

Twenty years ago two eleven year old boys, Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby, disappeared in the city of Bristol. Their bodies were later found near a dog racing track.

A man was convicted of killing them, and years later he hung himself while in prison.

But there were always questions about Sidney Noyce’s guilt. He had a man’s body and a boy’s mind. Thus he was suggestible when the detective, Detective John Fletcher, interviewed him.

These two boys were Cody Swift’s two best friends. He had been playing with them earlier in the day. But he got in trouble for tearing his shirt and his mother grounded him. Or he would have been with his friends.

Cody is haunted by the deaths of his friends and hopes to uncover new evidence about who might have killed them, as he does not think it was Sidney Noyce. He thinks Sidney Noyce was encouraged to confess to the crime under duress.

Now that Cody is a filmmaker, he returns to Bristol and starts a podcast called “It’s Time To Tell.” In the podcast he goes over the crime and interviews everyone he can locate who had anything to do with it, trying to encourage the public to come to him with clues they might have forgotten.

Then a long dead body is found in the same location where the boys were found decades before. Another murder investigation is opened that just might lead to why the boys were murdered. And it might lead to who killed them.

I don’t recall ever reading a book by Gilly McMillan that I did not enjoy. She has a way of telling a story that compels me to keep reading.

Her books are mysteries and she drops clues in her chapters that lure you to keep turning the pages to try and figure out who, what, where and why.

About The Author:

Gilly Macmillan is the New York Times bestselling author of  What She Knew  and  The Perfect Girl .

She trained as an art historian and worked at T he Burlington Magazine and the Hayward Gallery before starting a family.

Since then she’s worked as a lecturer in photography, and now writes full-time.

She resides in Bristol, England.

I'm Brenda, creator of Cozy Little House. I live with my cat, Ivy, who keeps me laughing. I graduated from journalism school with a degree in professional writing and won awards for feature writing. I practice gratitude and enjoy my solitude. The glass is always half-full.

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Review: I Know You Know by Gilly Macmillan

By haven bassett.

I Know You Know

Gilly macmillan.

September 18, 2018

I Know You Know by Gilly Macmillan is an original, chilling and twisty mystery about two shocking murder cases 20 years apart and the threads that bind them.

I Know You Know begins like any murder mystery: a dead body is found in a construction pit. We quickly realize, however, that this will not be your typical story. The recently uncovered body was buried in the same spot where Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby, two 11-year-old boys, were brutally assaulted and left for dead 20 years ago.

The case of Charlie and Scott was solved, the perpetrator sentenced, and the file stored away. Now, John Fletcher—the detective on the original case as well as the present-day investigation—must once again face the horrors of that case: the memory of finding Scott dead and watching Charlie take his last breath all those years ago.

The story is told through multiple first-person points of view. Our narrators—the detective, a grieving best friend, and a troubled, regretful mother, Jessica (or Jessy or Jess depending on who is talking)—each give slightly different accounts of that night 20 years ago and all that follows. Gilly Macmillan does a great job piecing the story together this way; so much so that I can honestly say that I did not see the full picture until the very last page.

While Detective Fletcher works on the new case, Cody Swift, best friend of Charlie and Scott, returns home. Cody is disturbed by the recent suicide of the accused, Sidney Noyce, and the fact that he was narrowly victim number three. Despite vowing that he would never return to Bristol, Cody is determined to reinvestigate the case as a tribute to his lost friends.

After the violence of my best friends’ murders, my house never felt the same again. Not the estate, not our community, not the families we knew, not the flat, not anything. The violence of the crime ripped everything apart. It was home, but not home.

Cody vows to uncover new evidence, but as you learn more about the community, you start to question whether the truth would fix this shattered town or stir up emotions buried by time.

Life shuffled in past any event, however traumatic, and you need to try to hold on to its coattails and keep moving with it.

In his search for answers, Cody launches a podcast. Each chapter (episode) of his podcast, It’s Time to Tell , tackles another question or person of interest. These were some of the most compelling parts of the book for me. During his podcasts, he would narrate personal recollections as well as interview others close to the case. As a podcast listener myself, I was thrilled to read the story in this format. I could almost hear the chimes at the beginning and static during the quoted phone conversations. “What follows is a recording of our conversation.”

Despite setbacks with production and violent threats, Cody keeps publishing because—once you start to question the guilt of the accused, you begin to wonder, who is guilty? As we well know, if Sidney is innocent, then someone else must be guilty.

When a kid gets murdered, it’s never about one life. It’s about everybody. It hits people at their core. It makes every aspect of life feel unsafe. Until I catch who did this, it’s going to feel as if the bogeyman has moved in with every family on that estate, and probably in the rest of the city, too.

While Cody’s podcast is growing, Jessica, Charlie’s mother, lives in fear that secrets from her past will be aired. We begin to wonder about the unaccounted-for 72 minutes of her life around the time the boys went missing as well as the mysterious man she calls to help end the podcast.

Each chapter, I began to question more and more the guilt of Sidney and the innocence of others. With the murder once again on everyone’s mind, some people are asking “What’s the harm in trying [to find the truth]?” or “Do I really want to know?” Which side are you on?

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Other economists estimated the UK might see some growth following the government’s decision to limit the rise in gas and electricity prices, as well as new Prime Minister Liz Truss’s pledge to reverse a 1.25% rise in National Insurance.

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Book Review | I Know You by Claire McGowan

We’re delighted to be sharing Laura’s thoughts about I Know You by Claire McGowan.

Jera’s Jamboree receives payments for affiliate advertising. This is at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. As a Cratejoy affiliate I earn if you click on a link and shop from my link. Please see my  disclosure policy  for more information.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎  Thomas & Mercer (19 Oct. 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎  English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎  365 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎  1542019974
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎  978-1542019972

When Rachel stumbles upon a body in the woods, she knows what she has to do: run. Get away. Do not be found at the scene. Last time, she didn’t know, and she ended up accused of murder. But when this victim is identified as her boyfriend’s estranged wife, Rachel realises she’s already the prime suspect.

With mounting evidence against her, Rachel’s only hope is to keep the truth about herself well hidden. Because twenty years ago she was someone else―Casey, a young nanny trying to make it as an actress in Los Angeles. When the family she worked for were brutally murdered, all the evidence pointed to her and she went to prison. Back then, she narrowly escaped the death penalty and managed to free herself on appeal. Now she’s fighting to save the life she’s spent years piecing back together.

But with her behaviour raising suspicion and the police closing in, Rachel can’t help wondering: Was her discovery in the woods really just an awful coincidence, or is someone framing her for murder? Someone who knows who she is, and wants revenge…

I Know You Review

I became absorbed quite quickly reading this thriller . It was gripping!

Rachel stumbled upon a body in the woods but fearing her past experiences doesn’t phone the police. Unfortunately she soon discovers she knows the victim and becomes the main suspect.

This story is also set twenty years ago with Rachel as Casey, a young nanny working in Los Angeles. The reader discovers she is out of her depth looking after two young children. Events lead her to become known as ‘The Mary Poppins Murderer’.

I enjoyed reading this book as a dual timeline. It was interesting to read how Rachel changed over two decades. Her determination to survive and investigate whether she had been framed is compelling.

Track of your Book Stats up to 2030 and Beyond

With its easy-to-use layout and user-friendly design, this Google Sheet Template will help you organize and keep track of your reading.

This spreadsheet holds all the information you’ll need in one place for paperbacks, hardbacks, eBooks and audiobooks. As well as the usual stats of Title, Author, Date Published and reading progress, this book review template has data and ratings for the following:

• series title and number
• world building
• grading / star rating

Download your copy today and keep a record to transform your love of books into an organized and enriching experience.

I Know You has an interesting plot, well written characters and twists and turns which kept me thinking about the characters and their possible motives for their actions.

Recommended.

About the Author

Claire McGowan grew up in a small village in Northern Ireland, and now lives in London. She also writes women’s fiction under the name Eva Woods.

You can find out more about Claire and her books at http://www.ink-stains.co.uk

Twitter @inkstaineclaire

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17 book review examples to help you write the perfect review.

It’s an exciting time to be a book reviewer. Once confined to print newspapers and journals, reviews now dot many corridors of the Internet — forever helping others discover their next great read. That said, every book reviewer will face a familiar panic: how can you do justice to a great book in just a thousand words?

As you know, the best way to learn how to do something is by immersing yourself in it. Luckily, the Internet (i.e. Goodreads and other review sites , in particular) has made book reviews more accessible than ever — which means that there are a lot of book reviews examples out there for you to view!

In this post, we compiled 17 prototypical book review examples in multiple genres to help you figure out how to write the perfect review . If you want to jump straight to the examples, you can skip the next section. Otherwise, let’s first check out what makes up a good review.

Are you interested in becoming a book reviewer? We recommend you check out Reedsy Discovery , where you can earn money for writing reviews — and are guaranteed people will read your reviews! To register as a book reviewer, sign up here.

Pro-tip : But wait! How are you sure if you should become a book reviewer in the first place? If you're on the fence, or curious about your match with a book reviewing career, take our quick quiz:

Should you become a book reviewer?

Find out the answer. Takes 30 seconds!

What must a book review contain?

Like all works of art, no two book reviews will be identical. But fear not: there are a few guidelines for any aspiring book reviewer to follow. Most book reviews, for instance, are less than 1,500 words long, with the sweet spot hitting somewhere around the 1,000-word mark. (However, this may vary depending on the platform on which you’re writing, as we’ll see later.)

In addition, all reviews share some universal elements, as shown in our book review templates . These include:

• A review will offer a concise plot summary of the book. 
• A book review will offer an evaluation of the work. 
• A book review will offer a recommendation for the audience. 

If these are the basic ingredients that make up a book review, it’s the tone and style with which the book reviewer writes that brings the extra panache. This will differ from platform to platform, of course. A book review on Goodreads, for instance, will be much more informal and personal than a book review on Kirkus Reviews, as it is catering to a different audience. However, at the end of the day, the goal of all book reviews is to give the audience the tools to determine whether or not they’d like to read the book themselves.

Keeping that in mind, let’s proceed to some book review examples to put all of this in action.

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Book review examples for fiction books

Since story is king in the world of fiction, it probably won’t come as any surprise to learn that a book review for a novel will concentrate on how well the story was told .

That said, book reviews in all genres follow the same basic formula that we discussed earlier. In these examples, you’ll be able to see how book reviewers on different platforms expertly intertwine the plot summary and their personal opinions of the book to produce a clear, informative, and concise review.

Note: Some of the book review examples run very long. If a book review is truncated in this post, we’ve indicated by including a […] at the end, but you can always read the entire review if you click on the link provided.

Examples of literary fiction book reviews

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man :

An extremely powerful story of a young Southern Negro, from his late high school days through three years of college to his life in Harlem.

His early training prepared him for a life of humility before white men, but through injustices- large and small, he came to realize that he was an "invisible man". People saw in him only a reflection of their preconceived ideas of what he was, denied his individuality, and ultimately did not see him at all. This theme, which has implications far beyond the obvious racial parallel, is skillfully handled. The incidents of the story are wholly absorbing. The boy's dismissal from college because of an innocent mistake, his shocked reaction to the anonymity of the North and to Harlem, his nightmare experiences on a one-day job in a paint factory and in the hospital, his lightning success as the Harlem leader of a communistic organization known as the Brotherhood, his involvement in black versus white and black versus black clashes and his disillusion and understanding of his invisibility- all climax naturally in scenes of violence and riot, followed by a retreat which is both literal and figurative. Parts of this experience may have been told before, but never with such freshness, intensity and power.

This is Ellison's first novel, but he has complete control of his story and his style. Watch it.

Lyndsey reviews George Orwell’s 1984 on Goodreads:

YOU. ARE. THE. DEAD. Oh my God. I got the chills so many times toward the end of this book. It completely blew my mind. It managed to surpass my high expectations AND be nothing at all like I expected. Or in Newspeak "Double Plus Good." Let me preface this with an apology. If I sound stunningly inarticulate at times in this review, I can't help it. My mind is completely fried.

This book is like the dystopian Lord of the Rings, with its richly developed culture and economics, not to mention a fully developed language called Newspeak, or rather more of the anti-language, whose purpose is to limit speech and understanding instead of to enhance and expand it. The world-building is so fully fleshed out and spine-tinglingly terrifying that it's almost as if George travelled to such a place, escaped from it, and then just wrote it all down.

I read Fahrenheit 451 over ten years ago in my early teens. At the time, I remember really wanting to read 1984, although I never managed to get my hands on it. I'm almost glad I didn't. Though I would not have admitted it at the time, it would have gone over my head. Or at the very least, I wouldn't have been able to appreciate it fully. […]

The New York Times reviews Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry :

Three-quarters of the way through Lisa Halliday’s debut novel, “Asymmetry,” a British foreign correspondent named Alistair is spending Christmas on a compound outside of Baghdad. His fellow revelers include cameramen, defense contractors, United Nations employees and aid workers. Someone’s mother has FedExed a HoneyBaked ham from Maine; people are smoking by the swimming pool. It is 2003, just days after Saddam Hussein’s capture, and though the mood is optimistic, Alistair is worrying aloud about the ethics of his chosen profession, wondering if reporting on violence doesn’t indirectly abet violence and questioning why he’d rather be in a combat zone than reading a picture book to his son. But every time he returns to London, he begins to “spin out.” He can’t go home. “You observe what people do with their freedom — what they don’t do — and it’s impossible not to judge them for it,” he says.

The line, embedded unceremoniously in the middle of a page-long paragraph, doubles, like so many others in “Asymmetry,” as literary criticism. Halliday’s novel is so strange and startlingly smart that its mere existence seems like commentary on the state of fiction. One finishes “Asymmetry” for the first or second (or like this reader, third) time and is left wondering what other writers are not doing with their freedom — and, like Alistair, judging them for it.

Despite its title, “Asymmetry” comprises two seemingly unrelated sections of equal length, appended by a slim and quietly shocking coda. Halliday’s prose is clean and lean, almost reportorial in the style of W. G. Sebald, and like the murmurings of a shy person at a cocktail party, often comic only in single clauses. It’s a first novel that reads like the work of an author who has published many books over many years. […]

Emily W. Thompson reviews Michael Doane's The Crossing on Reedsy Discovery :

In Doane’s debut novel, a young man embarks on a journey of self-discovery with surprising results.

An unnamed protagonist (The Narrator) is dealing with heartbreak. His love, determined to see the world, sets out for Portland, Oregon. But he’s a small-town boy who hasn’t traveled much. So, the Narrator mourns her loss and hides from life, throwing himself into rehabbing an old motorcycle. Until one day, he takes a leap; he packs his bike and a few belongings and heads out to find the Girl.

Following in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and William Least Heat-Moon, Doane offers a coming of age story about a man finding himself on the backroads of America. Doane’s a gifted writer with fluid prose and insightful observations, using The Narrator’s personal interactions to illuminate the diversity of the United States.

The Narrator initially sticks to the highways, trying to make it to the West Coast as quickly as possible. But a hitchhiker named Duke convinces him to get off the beaten path and enjoy the ride. “There’s not a place that’s like any other,” [39] Dukes contends, and The Narrator realizes he’s right. Suddenly, the trip is about the journey, not just the destination. The Narrator ditches his truck and traverses the deserts and mountains on his bike. He destroys his phone, cutting off ties with his past and living only in the moment.

As he crosses the country, The Narrator connects with several unique personalities whose experiences and views deeply impact his own. Duke, the complicated cowboy and drifter, who opens The Narrator’s eyes to a larger world. Zooey, the waitress in Colorado who opens his heart and reminds him that love can be found in this big world. And Rosie, The Narrator’s sweet landlady in Portland, who helps piece him back together both physically and emotionally.

This supporting cast of characters is excellent. Duke, in particular, is wonderfully nuanced and complicated. He’s a throwback to another time, a man without a cell phone who reads Sartre and sleeps under the stars. Yet he’s also a grifter with a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” attitude that harms those around him. It’s fascinating to watch The Narrator wrestle with Duke’s behavior, trying to determine which to model and which to discard.

Doane creates a relatable protagonist in The Narrator, whose personal growth doesn’t erase his faults. His willingness to hit the road with few resources is admirable, and he’s prescient enough to recognize the jealousy of those who cannot or will not take the leap. His encounters with new foods, places, and people broaden his horizons. Yet his immaturity and selfishness persist. He tells Rosie she’s been a good mother to him but chooses to ignore the continuing concern from his own parents as he effectively disappears from his old life.

Despite his flaws, it’s a pleasure to accompany The Narrator on his physical and emotional journey. The unexpected ending is a fitting denouement to an epic and memorable road trip.

The Book Smugglers review Anissa Gray’s The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls :

I am still dipping my toes into the literally fiction pool, finding what works for me and what doesn’t. Books like The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray are definitely my cup of tea.

Althea and Proctor Cochran had been pillars of their economically disadvantaged community for years – with their local restaurant/small market and their charity drives. Until they are found guilty of fraud for stealing and keeping most of the money they raised and sent to jail. Now disgraced, their entire family is suffering the consequences, specially their twin teenage daughters Baby Vi and Kim.  To complicate matters even more: Kim was actually the one to call the police on her parents after yet another fight with her mother. […]

Examples of children’s and YA fiction book reviews

The Book Hookup reviews Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give :

♥ Quick Thoughts and Rating: 5 stars! I can’t imagine how challenging it would be to tackle the voice of a movement like Black Lives Matter, but I do know that Thomas did it with a finesse only a talented author like herself possibly could. With an unapologetically realistic delivery packed with emotion, The Hate U Give is a crucially important portrayal of the difficulties minorities face in our country every single day. I have no doubt that this book will be met with resistance by some (possibly many) and slapped with a “controversial” label, but if you’ve ever wondered what it was like to walk in a POC’s shoes, then I feel like this is an unflinchingly honest place to start.

In Angie Thomas’s debut novel, Starr Carter bursts on to the YA scene with both heart-wrecking and heartwarming sincerity. This author is definitely one to watch.

♥ Review: The hype around this book has been unquestionable and, admittedly, that made me both eager to get my hands on it and terrified to read it. I mean, what if I was to be the one person that didn’t love it as much as others? (That seems silly now because of how truly mesmerizing THUG was in the most heartbreakingly realistic way.) However, with the relevancy of its summary in regards to the unjust predicaments POC currently face in the US, I knew this one was a must-read, so I was ready to set my fears aside and dive in. That said, I had an altogether more personal, ulterior motive for wanting to read this book. […]

The New York Times reviews Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood :

Alice Crewe (a last name she’s chosen for herself) is a fairy tale legacy: the granddaughter of Althea Proserpine, author of a collection of dark-as-night fairy tales called “Tales From the Hinterland.” The book has a cult following, and though Alice has never met her grandmother, she’s learned a little about her through internet research. She hasn’t read the stories, because her mother, Ella Proserpine, forbids it.

Alice and Ella have moved from place to place in an attempt to avoid the “bad luck” that seems to follow them. Weird things have happened. As a child, Alice was kidnapped by a man who took her on a road trip to find her grandmother; he was stopped by the police before they did so. When at 17 she sees that man again, unchanged despite the years, Alice panics. Then Ella goes missing, and Alice turns to Ellery Finch, a schoolmate who’s an Althea Proserpine superfan, for help in tracking down her mother. Not only has Finch read every fairy tale in the collection, but handily, he remembers them, sharing them with Alice as they journey to the mysterious Hazel Wood, the estate of her now-dead grandmother, where they hope to find Ella.

“The Hazel Wood” starts out strange and gets stranger, in the best way possible. (The fairy stories Finch relays, which Albert includes as their own chapters, are as creepy and evocative as you’d hope.) Albert seamlessly combines contemporary realism with fantasy, blurring the edges in a way that highlights that place where stories and real life convene, where magic contains truth and the world as it appears is false, where just about anything can happen, particularly in the pages of a very good book. It’s a captivating debut. […]

James reviews Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight, Moon on Goodreads:

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is one of the books that followers of my blog voted as a must-read for our Children's Book August 2018 Readathon. Come check it out and join the next few weeks!

This picture book was such a delight. I hadn't remembered reading it when I was a child, but it might have been read to me... either way, it was like a whole new experience! It's always so difficult to convince a child to fall asleep at night. I don't have kids, but I do have a 5-month-old puppy who whines for 5 minutes every night when he goes in his cage/crate (hopefully he'll be fully housebroken soon so he can roam around when he wants). I can only imagine! I babysat a lot as a teenager and I have tons of younger cousins, nieces, and nephews, so I've been through it before, too. This was a believable experience, and it really helps show kids how to relax and just let go when it's time to sleep.

The bunny's are adorable. The rhymes are exquisite. I found it pretty fun, but possibly a little dated given many of those things aren't normal routines anymore. But the lessons to take from it are still powerful. Loved it! I want to sample some more books by this fine author and her illustrators.

Publishers Weekly reviews Elizabeth Lilly’s Geraldine :

This funny, thoroughly accomplished debut opens with two words: “I’m moving.” They’re spoken by the title character while she swoons across her family’s ottoman, and because Geraldine is a giraffe, her full-on melancholy mode is quite a spectacle. But while Geraldine may be a drama queen (even her mother says so), it won’t take readers long to warm up to her. The move takes Geraldine from Giraffe City, where everyone is like her, to a new school, where everyone else is human. Suddenly, the former extrovert becomes “That Giraffe Girl,” and all she wants to do is hide, which is pretty much impossible. “Even my voice tries to hide,” she says, in the book’s most poignant moment. “It’s gotten quiet and whispery.” Then she meets Cassie, who, though human, is also an outlier (“I’m that girl who wears glasses and likes MATH and always organizes her food”), and things begin to look up.

Lilly’s watercolor-and-ink drawings are as vividly comic and emotionally astute as her writing; just when readers think there are no more ways for Geraldine to contort her long neck, this highly promising talent comes up with something new.

Examples of genre fiction book reviews

Karlyn P reviews Nora Roberts’ Dark Witch , a paranormal romance novel , on Goodreads:

4 stars. Great world-building, weak romance, but still worth the read.

I hesitate to describe this book as a 'romance' novel simply because the book spent little time actually exploring the romance between Iona and Boyle. Sure, there IS a romance in this novel. Sprinkled throughout the book are a few scenes where Iona and Boyle meet, chat, wink at each, flirt some more, sleep together, have a misunderstanding, make up, and then profess their undying love. Very formulaic stuff, and all woven around the more important parts of this book.

The meat of this book is far more focused on the story of the Dark witch and her magically-gifted descendants living in Ireland. Despite being weak on the romance, I really enjoyed it. I think the book is probably better for it, because the romance itself was pretty lackluster stuff.

I absolutely plan to stick with this series as I enjoyed the world building, loved the Ireland setting, and was intrigued by all of the secondary characters. However, If you read Nora Roberts strictly for the romance scenes, this one might disappoint. But if you enjoy a solid background story with some dark magic and prophesies, you might enjoy it as much as I did.

I listened to this one on audio, and felt the narration was excellent.

Emily May reviews R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy Wars , an epic fantasy novel , on Goodreads:

“But I warn you, little warrior. The price of power is pain.”

Holy hell, what did I just read??

➽ A fantasy military school

➽ A rich world based on modern Chinese history

➽ Shamans and gods

➽ Detailed characterization leading to unforgettable characters

➽ Adorable, opium-smoking mentors

That's a basic list, but this book is all of that and SO MUCH MORE. I know 100% that The Poppy War will be one of my best reads of 2018.

Isn't it just so great when you find one of those books that completely drags you in, makes you fall in love with the characters, and demands that you sit on the edge of your seat for every horrific, nail-biting moment of it? This is one of those books for me. And I must issue a serious content warning: this book explores some very dark themes. Proceed with caution (or not at all) if you are particularly sensitive to scenes of war, drug use and addiction, genocide, racism, sexism, ableism, self-harm, torture, and rape (off-page but extremely horrific).

Because, despite the fairly innocuous first 200 pages, the title speaks the truth: this is a book about war. All of its horrors and atrocities. It is not sugar-coated, and it is often graphic. The "poppy" aspect refers to opium, which is a big part of this book. It is a fantasy, but the book draws inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanking.

Crime Fiction Lover reviews Jessica Barry’s Freefall , a crime novel:

In some crime novels, the wrongdoing hits you between the eyes from page one. With others it’s a more subtle process, and that’s OK too. So where does Freefall fit into the sliding scale?

In truth, it’s not clear. This is a novel with a thrilling concept at its core. A woman survives plane crash, then runs for her life. However, it is the subtleties at play that will draw you in like a spider beckoning to an unwitting fly.

Like the heroine in Sharon Bolton’s Dead Woman Walking, Allison is lucky to be alive. She was the only passenger in a private plane, belonging to her fiancé, Ben, who was piloting the expensive aircraft, when it came down in woodlands in the Colorado Rockies. Ally is also the only survivor, but rather than sitting back and waiting for rescue, she is soon pulling together items that may help her survive a little longer – first aid kit, energy bars, warm clothes, trainers – before fleeing the scene. If you’re hearing the faint sound of alarm bells ringing, get used to it. There’s much, much more to learn about Ally before this tale is over.

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One , a science-fiction novel :

Video-game players embrace the quest of a lifetime in a virtual world; screenwriter Cline’s first novel is old wine in new bottles.

The real world, in 2045, is the usual dystopian horror story. So who can blame Wade, our narrator, if he spends most of his time in a virtual world? The 18-year-old, orphaned at 11, has no friends in his vertical trailer park in Oklahoma City, while the OASIS has captivating bells and whistles, and it’s free. Its creator, the legendary billionaire James Halliday, left a curious will. He had devised an elaborate online game, a hunt for a hidden Easter egg. The finder would inherit his estate. Old-fashioned riddles lead to three keys and three gates. Wade, or rather his avatar Parzival, is the first gunter (egg-hunter) to win the Copper Key, first of three.

Halliday was obsessed with the pop culture of the 1980s, primarily the arcade games, so the novel is as much retro as futurist. Parzival’s great strength is that he has absorbed all Halliday’s obsessions; he knows by heart three essential movies, crossing the line from geek to freak. His most formidable competitors are the Sixers, contract gunters working for the evil conglomerate IOI, whose goal is to acquire the OASIS. Cline’s narrative is straightforward but loaded with exposition. It takes a while to reach a scene that crackles with excitement: the meeting between Parzival (now world famous as the lead contender) and Sorrento, the head of IOI. The latter tries to recruit Parzival; when he fails, he issues and executes a death threat. Wade’s trailer is demolished, his relatives killed; luckily Wade was not at home. Too bad this is the dramatic high point. Parzival threads his way between more ’80s games and movies to gain the other keys; it’s clever but not exciting. Even a romance with another avatar and the ultimate “epic throwdown” fail to stir the blood.

Too much puzzle-solving, not enough suspense.

Book review examples for non-fiction books

Nonfiction books are generally written to inform readers about a certain topic. As such, the focus of a nonfiction book review will be on the clarity and effectiveness of this communication . In carrying this out, a book review may analyze the author’s source materials and assess the thesis in order to determine whether or not the book meets expectations.

Again, we’ve included abbreviated versions of long reviews here, so feel free to click on the link to read the entire piece!

The Washington Post reviews David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon :

The arc of David Grann’s career reminds one of a software whiz-kid or a latest-thing talk-show host — certainly not an investigative reporter, even if he is one of the best in the business. The newly released movie of his first book, “The Lost City of Z,” is generating all kinds of Oscar talk, and now comes the release of his second book, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” the film rights to which have already been sold for $5 million in what one industry journal called the “biggest and wildest book rights auction in memory.”

Grann deserves the attention. He’s canny about the stories he chases, he’s willing to go anywhere to chase them, and he’s a maestro in his ability to parcel out information at just the right clip: a hint here, a shading of meaning there, a smartly paced buildup of multiple possibilities followed by an inevitable reversal of readerly expectations or, in some cases, by a thrilling and dislocating pull of the entire narrative rug.

All of these strengths are on display in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Around the turn of the 20th century, oil was discovered underneath Osage lands in the Oklahoma Territory, lands that were soon to become part of the state of Oklahoma. Through foresight and legal maneuvering, the Osage found a way to permanently attach that oil to themselves and shield it from the prying hands of white interlopers; this mechanism was known as “headrights,” which forbade the outright sale of oil rights and granted each full member of the tribe — and, supposedly, no one else — a share in the proceeds from any lease arrangement. For a while, the fail-safes did their job, and the Osage got rich — diamond-ring and chauffeured-car and imported-French-fashion rich — following which quite a large group of white men started to work like devils to separate the Osage from their money. And soon enough, and predictably enough, this work involved murder. Here in Jazz Age America’s most isolated of locales, dozens or even hundreds of Osage in possession of great fortunes — and of the potential for even greater fortunes in the future — were dispatched by poison, by gunshot and by dynamite. […]

Stacked Books reviews Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers :

I’ve heard a lot of great things about Malcolm Gladwell’s writing. Friends and co-workers tell me that his subjects are interesting and his writing style is easy to follow without talking down to the reader. I wasn’t disappointed with Outliers. In it, Gladwell tackles the subject of success – how people obtain it and what contributes to extraordinary success as opposed to everyday success.

The thesis – that our success depends much more on circumstances out of our control than any effort we put forth – isn’t exactly revolutionary. Most of us know it to be true. However, I don’t think I’m lying when I say that most of us also believe that we if we just try that much harder and develop our talent that much further, it will be enough to become wildly successful, despite bad or just mediocre beginnings. Not so, says Gladwell.

Most of the evidence Gladwell gives us is anecdotal, which is my favorite kind to read. I can’t really speak to how scientifically valid it is, but it sure makes for engrossing listening. For example, did you know that successful hockey players are almost all born in January, February, or March? Kids born during these months are older than the others kids when they start playing in the youth leagues, which means they’re already better at the game (because they’re bigger). Thus, they get more play time, which means their skill increases at a faster rate, and it compounds as time goes by. Within a few years, they’re much, much better than the kids born just a few months later in the year. Basically, these kids’ birthdates are a huge factor in their success as adults – and it’s nothing they can do anything about. If anyone could make hockey interesting to a Texan who only grudgingly admits the sport even exists, it’s Gladwell. […]

Quill and Quire reviews Rick Prashaw’s Soar, Adam, Soar :

Ten years ago, I read a book called Almost Perfect. The young-adult novel by Brian Katcher won some awards and was held up as a powerful, nuanced portrayal of a young trans person. But the reality did not live up to the book’s billing. Instead, it turned out to be a one-dimensional and highly fetishized portrait of a trans person’s life, one that was nevertheless repeatedly dubbed “realistic” and “affecting” by non-transgender readers possessing only a vague, mass-market understanding of trans experiences.

In the intervening decade, trans narratives have emerged further into the literary spotlight, but those authored by trans people ourselves – and by trans men in particular – have seemed to fall under the shadow of cisgender sensationalized imaginings. Two current Canadian releases – Soar, Adam, Soar and This One Looks Like a Boy – provide a pointed object lesson into why trans-authored work about transgender experiences remains critical.

To be fair, Soar, Adam, Soar isn’t just a story about a trans man. It’s also a story about epilepsy, the medical establishment, and coming of age as seen through a grieving father’s eyes. Adam, Prashaw’s trans son, died unexpectedly at age 22. Woven through the elder Prashaw’s narrative are excerpts from Adam’s social media posts, giving us glimpses into the young man’s interior life as he traverses his late teens and early 20s. […]

Book Geeks reviews Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love :

WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5

SUBJECT: 4/5

CANDIDNESS: 4.5/5

RELEVANCE: 3.5/5

ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5

“Eat Pray Love” is so popular that it is almost impossible to not read it. Having felt ashamed many times on my not having read this book, I quietly ordered the book (before I saw the movie) from amazon.in and sat down to read it. I don’t remember what I expected it to be – maybe more like a chick lit thing but it turned out quite different. The book is a real story and is a short journal from the time when its writer went travelling to three different countries in pursuit of three different things – Italy (Pleasure), India (Spirituality), Bali (Balance) and this is what corresponds to the book’s name – EAT (in Italy), PRAY (in India) and LOVE (in Bali, Indonesia). These are also the three Is – ITALY, INDIA, INDONESIA.

Though she had everything a middle-aged American woman can aspire for – MONEY, CAREER, FRIENDS, HUSBAND; Elizabeth was not happy in her life, she wasn’t happy in her marriage. Having suffered a terrible divorce and terrible breakup soon after, Elizabeth was shattered. She didn’t know where to go and what to do – all she knew was that she wanted to run away. So she set out on a weird adventure – she will go to three countries in a year and see if she can find out what she was looking for in life. This book is about that life changing journey that she takes for one whole year. […]

Emily May reviews Michelle Obama’s Becoming on Goodreads:

Look, I'm not a happy crier. I might cry at songs about leaving and missing someone; I might cry at books where things don't work out; I might cry at movies where someone dies. I've just never really understood why people get all choked up over happy, inspirational things. But Michelle Obama's kindness and empathy changed that. This book had me in tears for all the right reasons.

This is not really a book about politics, though political experiences obviously do come into it. It's a shame that some will dismiss this book because of a difference in political opinion, when it is really about a woman's life. About growing up poor and black on the South Side of Chicago; about getting married and struggling to maintain that marriage; about motherhood; about being thrown into an amazing and terrifying position.

I hate words like "inspirational" because they've become so overdone and cheesy, but I just have to say it-- Michelle Obama is an inspiration. I had the privilege of seeing her speak at The Forum in Inglewood, and she is one of the warmest, funniest, smartest, down-to-earth people I have ever seen in this world.

And yes, I know we present what we want the world to see, but I truly do think it's genuine. I think she is someone who really cares about people - especially kids - and wants to give them better lives and opportunities.

She's obviously intelligent, but she also doesn't gussy up her words. She talks straight, with an openness and honesty rarely seen. She's been one of the most powerful women in the world, she's been a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, she's had her own successful career, and yet she has remained throughout that same girl - Michelle Robinson - from a working class family in Chicago.

I don't think there's anyone who wouldn't benefit from reading this book.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better idea of how to write a book review. You might be wondering how to put all of this knowledge into action now! Many book reviewers start out by setting up a book blog. If you don’t have time to research the intricacies of HTML, check out Reedsy Discovery — where you can read indie books for free and review them without going through the hassle of creating a blog. To register as a book reviewer , go here .

And if you’d like to see even more book review examples, simply go to this directory of book review blogs and click on any one of them to see a wealth of good book reviews. Beyond that, it's up to you to pick up a book and pen — and start reviewing!

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HOW WILL I KNOW YOU?

by Jessica Treadway ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 6, 2016

Nuanced, probing, and honest. Well worth a read.

Treadway’s ( Lacy Eye , 2015, etc.) thoughtful mystery explores the aftermath of a young girl’s murder and the effects her absence has on those closest to her.

Joy’s body is found a month after she goes missing and was presumed drowned. Her parents and best friend, already in mourning, are now faced with the additional fact that she was strangled. When the interim police chief arrests one of the few black men in town because of a single witness, the consequences take their toll on everyone: the accused, his lover, the chief’s daughter and her husband, and Joy’s best friend. Told out of chronology and through different characters' voices, with sections titled “Before,” “After,” and, finally, “During,” the novel steadily composes a poignant portrait of Joy fragment by fragment, but despite being the center of the narrative, she is not the central character. The focus is more clearly on her friends and family, exploring how they are able to find redemption and peace as they come to terms with their loss. Though it can be read as a mystery, the book is more truly a set of complex character sketches revealing deep flaws and human weaknesses but also examining how people live with their most devastating mistakes. The secondary theme of society’s casual racism seems timely, and Treadway does a good job gently exposing the divide that still exists in our country, especially at times of high tension. In the end, this is a novel about relationships and the conflicts between friends, parents and children, husbands and wives that we all must navigate every day. The murder is just a catalyst.

Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4555-5411-9

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016

THRILLER | PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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New York Times Bestseller

by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SCIENCE FICTION

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BOOK TO SCREEN

A CONSPIRACY OF BONES

by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection , 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”

Pub Date: March 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | THRILLER | DETECTIVES & PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS | SUSPENSE | GENERAL & DOMESTIC THRILLER

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by Kathy Reichs

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Book Reviews

This collection may be the closest we'll ever come to a dickinson autobiography.

Maureen Corrigan

A new collection of Emily Dickinson's letters has been published by Harvard's Belknap Press, edited by Dickinson scholars Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell. Three Lions/Getty Images hide caption

A new collection of Emily Dickinson's letters has been published by Harvard's Belknap Press, edited by Dickinson scholars Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell.

Among the Great Moments in Literary History I wish I could've witnessed is that day, sometime after May 15, 1886, when Lavinia Dickinson entered the bedroom of her newly deceased older sister and began opening drawers.

Out sprang poems, almost 1,800 of them. Given that Emily Dickinson had only published a handful of poems during her lifetime, this discovery was a shock.

" 'Hope' is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul," begins one of those now-famous poems. Whatever Dickinson hoped for her poems, she could never have envisioned how they'd resonate with readers; nor how curious those readers would be about her life, much of it spent within her father's house in Amherst, Mass., and, in later years, within that bedroom.

Every so often, the reading public's image of Emily Dickinson shifts: For much of the 20th century, she was a fey Stevie Nicks-type figure — check out, for instance, the 1976 film of Julie Harris' lauded one-woman show, The Belle of Amherst .

A feminist Emily Dickinson emerged during the Second Women's Movement, when poems like "I'm 'wife' " were celebrated for their avant garde anger. And, jumping to the present, a new monumental volume of Dickinson's letters — the first in more than 60 years — gives us an engaged Emily Dickinson; a woman in conversation with the world, through gossip, as well as remarks about books, politics and the signal events of her age, particularly the Civil War.

The Letters of Emily Dickinson, by Emily Dickinson, edited by Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell Harvard's Belknap Press hide caption

The Letters of Emily Dickinson, by Emily Dickinson, edited by Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell

This new collection of The Letters of Emily Dickinson is published by Harvard's Belknap Press and edited by two Dickinson scholars, Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell. To accurately date some of Dickinson's letters, they've studied weather reports and seasonal blooming and harvest cycles in 19th century Amherst. They've also added some 300 previously uncollected letters to this volume for a grand total of 1,304 letters.

The result is that The Letters of Emily Dickinson reads like the closest thing we'll probably ever have to an intimate autobiography of the poet. The first letter here is written by an 11-year-old Dickinson to her brother Austin, away at school. It's a breathless, kid-sister-marvel of run-on sentences about yellow hens and a "skonk" and poor "Cousin Zebina [who] had a fit the other day and bit his tongue ..."

The final letter, by an ailing 55-year-old Dickinson — most likely the last she wrote before falling unconscious on May 13, 1886 — was to her cousins Louisa and Frances Norcross. It reads:

Never Mind The White Dress, Turns Out Emily Dickinson Had A Green Thumb

Little Cousins,  "Called back."  Emily. 

In between is a life filled with visitors, chores and recipes for doughnuts and coconut cakes. There's mention of the racist minstrel stereotype Jim Crow, as well as of public figures like Florence Nightingale and Walt Whitman. There are also allusions to the death toll of the ongoing Civil War.

Dickinson's loyal dog Carlo walks with her, and frogs and even flies keep her company. Indeed, in an 1859 letter about one such winged companion, Belle of Amherst charm alternates with cold-blooded callousness. Dickinson writes to her cousin Louisa:

Movie Interviews

Film celebrates emily dickinson's poetry and 'quiet passion'.

I enjoy much with a fly, during sister's absence, not one of your blue monsters, but a timid creature, that hops from pane to pane of her white house, so very cheerfully, and hums and thrums, a sort of speck piano. ...  I'll kill him the day [Lavinia] comes [home], for I shan't need him any more ..."  

Dickinson's singular voice comes into its own in the letters of the 1860s, which often blur into poems: cryptic, comic and charged with Awe. A simple thank-you note to her soul mate and beloved sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert Dickinson, reads:

Pop Culture Happy Hour

You don't know 'dickinson'.

Dear Sue,   The Supper was delicate and strange. I ate it with compunction as I would eat a Vision.

There are 1,304 letters, and, still, they're not enough. Scholars estimate that we only have about one-tenth of the letters Dickinson ever wrote. And, on that momentous day in 1886, Lavinia entered her sister's bedroom to find and successfully burn all the letters Dickinson herself had received from others during her lifetime. Such was the custom of the day. Which makes this new volume of Dickinson's letters feel like both an intrusion and an outwitting of the silence of death — something I want to believe Dickinson would have relished.

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Barbara Walters Did the Work

In “The Rulebreaker,” Susan Page pays tribute to a pioneering journalist who survived being both a punchline and an icon.

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By Lisa Schwarzbaum

Lisa Schwarzbaum is a former critic for Entertainment Weekly.

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THE RULEBREAKER: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters, by Susan Page

Much of the material in “The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters” has been told before, with persuasive narrative control, by the late television journalist herself in her dishy 2008 memoir, “Audition.” Don’t let that stop the reader of this thorough, compassionate biography by Susan Page: It’s a valuable document, sobering where “Audition” aimed for sassy.

If anything, the 16 long years between autobiography and biography endow the two books, taken together, with a memento mori gravitas for any student of Walters, or of television journalism, or of the past, present and future of women in the TV workplace — or, for that matter, of Monica Lewinsky. More on her in a moment.

Walters called her autobiography “Audition” to emphasize the need she always felt to prove herself, pushing her way to professional success in a world that never made it easy for her. Nearly 80 then and still in the game, she acknowledged that personal contentment — love, marriage, meaningful family connections — lagged far behind. She wrote of being the daughter of an erratic father, who bounced — sometimes suicidally — between flush times and financial failure as a nightclub owner and impresario.

She told of her fearful mother, and of the mentally disabled older sister to whose welfare she felt yoked. She wrote of the three unsatisfying marriages, and of her strained relationship with the daughter she adopted as an infant.

She breezily acknowledged the ease she felt throughout her life with complicated men of elastic ethics like Roy Cohn and Donald Trump. She leaned into her reputation as a “pushy cookie.”

Page, the Washington bureau chief of USA Today, who has also written books about Barbara Bush and Nancy Pelosi, tells many of the same stories. (“Audition” is an outsize presence in the endnotes.) But in placing the emphasis on all the rule-breaking Barbara Jill Walters had to do over her long life — she died in 2022 at 93 — the biographer pays respect to a toughness easy to undervalue today, when the collective memory may see only the well-connected woman with the instantly recognizable (thanks to Gilda Radner’s “SNL” impression) speech impediment.

There was no one like her — not Diane, not Katie, not Judy, not Connie, not Gwen, not Christiane. Not Ellen. Not Oprah. Having created her niche, Walters fought all her life to protect it. Because no one else would. Would that be the case today? Discuss.

“At age 35,” Page writes, “she had finally found her place, a space that bridged journalism and entertainment and promotion. Traditionalists viewed the combination with consternation. She ignored their doubts as she redefined their industry. She saw herself as a journalist, albeit of a new and evolving sort. In some ways, she would make herself a leader in the news business by changing what, exactly, that could include.”

Walters broke rules to save her father from debt and jail. She broke rules to secure on-air status — and pay — equal to that of the often hostile men around her. Walters broke rules to land scoops, gain access and bag interviews.

The account of the driven competition she felt with her fellow TV journalist Diane Sawyer is both fun and silly/sad in its evocation of a catty rumble: Isn’t such competition the everyday reality of the bookers working for the famous men who currently host late-night talk shows? Aren’t those late-night hybrids now the closest thing we have to influential news interviews — except, perhaps, on the women-talking daytime show “The View,” invented in large part by Barbara Walters?

Walters didn’t break rules to get the first on-air interview with Monica Lewinsky — she just worked her tuchis off, from the day the news of an affair broke to the night of March 3, 1999 — watched by 74 million Americans.

Walters was nearly 70 and famous; Lewinsky was a private 25-year-old woman whose affair with her married boss had thrown a country into hypocritical hysterics. The process of establishing trust could not be rushed.

The older woman asked the younger woman a chain of tough questions about sex and intimacy and character and judgment that no human should have to endure on national television. The younger woman answered with a dignity currently out of fashion both in celebrity self-presentation and on the floor of the U.S. Congress.

In the quarter-century since that extraordinary event — the essence of a Barbara Walters Interview — Lewinsky has demonstrated an inspiring power to live on her own terms and not on the assumptions of others. The achievement required rules to be broken, and has come with a price.

Barbara Walters knew what that was like.

THE RULEBREAKER : The Life and Times of Barbara Walters | By Susan Page | Simon & Schuster | 444 pp. | $30.99

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Jamaica Kincaid and Kara Walker unearth botany’s buried history  to figure out how our gardens grow.

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Democrats, political figures dogpile onto Trump VP hopeful after story of animal killings

It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative – a growing number of elected officials and political groups all suddenly want you to know: they love their dogs.

The outpouring of animal love from political social media is all in response to South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) – who is believed to be in the running to be Donald Trump’s running mate – admitting in her forthcoming book that she killed a family dog and goat in a gravel pit with a gun on the same day.

According to an excerpt of the book obtained by the Guardian in advance of its publication next month, Noem, a farmer and rancher, said she shot and killed her 14-month-old wirehair pointer, Cricket, because she was “untrainable” and aggressive.

Noem described how Cricket was overexcited on a hunt and wrote that she attacked another family’s chickens like “a trained assassin.” The governor also said Cricket had tried to bite her during the incident, later writing that she “hated that dog.”

After killing Cricket, Noem wrote that she then decided to kill a family goat that was “nasty and mean” and which “loved to chase” Noem’s children.

Democrats, including President Biden’s reelection campaign, had some fun with it – along with some spirited politicking.

The Democratic National Committee, responding to Noem’s book excerpt, issued a statement on behalf of “the dogs of the DNC, aka the Dogmocratic Party.”

“As DNC’s canine companions, we’ve heard a lot from our owners about just how extreme and dangerous Donald Trump and his far-right MAGA allies are – but nothing could prepare us for the truly disturbing and horrifying passages Kristi L. Noem willingly chose to put in her new book,” the statement said.

“Our message is plain and simple: If you want elected officials who don’t brag about brutally killing their pets as part of their self-promotional book tour, then listen to our owners – and vote Democrat,” the statement added.

After Noem’s excerpt went public, the Biden campaign’s rapid response team shared pictures on X of Vice President Harris holding a puppy and President Biden walking his German shepherd, Commander, at the White House (although Commander was removed from the White House last year after he bit several staffers and Secret Service officers).

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz (Minn.) shared a photo on X of him feeding his dog a treat, writing the caption, “Post a picture with your dog that doesn’t involve shooting them and throwing them in a gravel pit. I’ll start.” The post garnered responses from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) and Gov. Phil Murphy (D-N.J.) with their furry companions.

The Lincoln Project, a political organization founded by moderate conservatives who oppose Trump, published a tongue-in-cheek video that seemed to nod at Sarah McLachlan’s earworm ads for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“You have options,” a narrator says in the video. “Shooting your dog in the face should not be one of them. And if you do happen to shoot your dog in the face, please don’t write about it in your autobiography.”

The organization also subsequently said that Trump and Noem’s “disregard for animals reflects their disregard for everything else. Cruelty is the point.”

Other Republicans who do not support Trump, including former Trump aides Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sarah Matthews, as well as Meghan McCain, similarly expressed shock over Noem’s story.

And Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist and Trump ally, wrote on X, “You can’t shoot your dog and then be VP.”

Noem’s actions have been blasted by animal advocacy organizations. Colleen O’Brien, senior vice president of media relations at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said in a statement that the excerpt reveals the governor “obviously fails to understand the vital political concepts of education, cooperation, compromise, and compassion.”

Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund – the lobbying arm of the Humane Society of the United States – said in a statement that “there is no redeeming takeaway from a story about the ending of these animals’ lives, including a juvenile dog who was the family pet.”

The organization noted that the 86 million American homes “have at least one beloved pet and value our relationship with them. There are so many effective and humane ways to deal with canine behavioral issues that don’t resort to such means.”

Noem appeared to verify the details of the excerpt published by the Guardian, writing on X Friday morning, “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.”

The governor, in her post, then urged her followers to preorder “No Going Back,” her forthcoming book, “if you want more real, honest, and politically INcorrect stories that’ll have the media gasping.”

Amy B Wang contributed to this report.

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