by Megan Collins
Publisher: Atria Books
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Buy the Book: Amazon
Goodreads: At twenty-six, Dahlia Lighthouse has a lot to learn when it comes to the real world. Raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, she has spent the last several years living on her own, but unable to move beyond her past—especially the disappearance of her twin brother Andy when they were sixteen.
With her father’s death, Dahlia returns to the house she has avoided for years. But as the rest of the Lighthouse family arrives for the memorial, a gruesome discovery is made: buried in the reserved plot is another body—Andy’s, his skull split open with an ax.
Each member of the family handles the revelation in unusual ways. Her brother Charlie pours his energy into creating a family memorial museum, highlighting their research into the lives of famous murder victims; her sister Tate forges ahead with her popular dioramas portraying crime scenes; and their mother affects a cheerfully domestic façade, becoming unrecognizable as the woman who performed murder reenactments for her children. As Dahlia grapples with her own grief and horror, she realizes that her eccentric family, and the mansion itself, may hold the answers to what happened to her twin.
Kritters Thoughts: Dahlia is the baby of the family and one half of a set of twins raised in a family who has an obsession about true crime, enough that they named each of their kids after someone famous who was murdered. Conveniently they live on an island where there is a serial killer and whispers have been circulating for long! While the patriarch of the family has recently passed and as they are about to go bury him, they find the remains of Dahlia's twin who went missing ten years ago, so now there are a few mysteries to solve.
I am a fan of true crime myself, but definitely not to the level of this family! While it was fun to read about characters who follow and get invested in true crime like I do, it did remind me there is a place where interest can go into obsession and everything in moderation! The characters in this family were interesting case studies as the three remaining siblings reacted very differently to their upbringing and the things that were going in their household during their childhoods.
The book took a hard turn and for me when this turn happened and all the things started unfolding for me it went a little depressing. I do not want to spoil to allow for readers to experience it for themselves, but I sure wanted to hug these kids and wish I could have prevented a few things, so that maybe their lives could have ended up in different spots. For me it made me feel awkward feeling these feelings for these characters and it made my reading experience dip a bit.
I still love Megan Collins and the way she weaves character, plot and the unfolding of it all is great, but the awkward feels during this book may have made me cringe a bit.
Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more
Ebook 2021 Challenge: 98 out of 100
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of this book free of charge from Atria books. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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