Book Details
Date Read: September 18, 2022
Publication Date: January 10, 2023
Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Format: Digital Book
Page Count: 336
Listening Time:
Print Publisher: Minotaur Books
Audio Publisher: Macmillan Audio
All the Dangerous Things Book Review
All the Dangerous Things is Stacy Willingham’s second thriller, and it came in as a strong follow-up, with a grim storyline. In it we meet Isabelle, whose son, Mason, was kidnapped from his bedroom a year prior. She has devoted her life to finding him and is grappling with insomnia.
The timeline flips between Isabelle’s childhood, which was filled with trauma, and her current day. The experiences of her childhood are causing her to question her reality in the present. Further complicating the matter, her ex-husband has a history of loved ones dying. It makes for a mystery surrounding her child’s disappearance with multiple leads.
Overall, this was a solid read and I didn’t want to put it down. The first 10-15% of the book felt oddly familiar to another book I read, but once it took a differentiating turn, the pace accelerated. There were several plot points that I didn’t see coming and kept me intrigued, however I would strongly encourage checking content warnings. One caught me off guard and I felt so sad that I had to take a break and clear my mind.
I am usually hesitant with novels that are rooted in sleep disorders to create unreliable narrators, but this one didn’t rely on it exclusively for the mystery. I have one minor plot gripe with the ending that kept it from being 5 stars for me (shout out to Kelly for chatting through it yesterday), but I recommend this to thriller lovers who don’t have sensitivities to the CW topics.
Content warnings: Postpartum psychosis, Postpartum depression, Child death, Infidelity, Death, Mental illness
Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the advanced copy of this novel, in exchange for my review. I appreciate you!
