Kirby Cornell is trying to outrun her past when she gets a text from her dead roommate: “Everyone in the group chat dies.” Then someone leaves the chat. Turns out people are actually dying, so Kirby heads back to the sleepy English village she fled a year ago to figure out who’s picking off her former housemates. For someone who’s supposed to be dead and missing, Esme has a massive role in this story.
The dual timeline structure actually works here instead of feeling like a gimmick. You quickly piece together that Kirby has been surviving, not thriving, since Esme’s death – just running from everything that happened. Meanwhile, the village has also gone downhill in the past year. The Show Me app (think TikTok but more invasive) drives the plot and shows how some of these characters live almost entirely online, which feels depressingly accurate.
What kept me hooked was Kirby digging into both Esme’s disappearance and the 90s spree killer that Esme claimed never actually died. The ending throws multiple twists that’ll make you rethink everything. Plus the British humor lands without being forced.
Fair warning: if you hate dual timelines or books where the “dead” character is alive and central for most of the story, skip this. Also, there are literal body parts in a claw machine, which sounds ridiculous but actually shows how unhinged the killer is.
My biggest complaint? For someone being actively stalked by a murderer, Kirby sure seems allergic to calling the cops. Still, if you loved “Julie Chan is Dead” for its chronically online dead girl energy, this scratches a similar itch.
The mystery stumped me, which doesn’t happen often, and that hay maze escape scene was genuinely tense. Solid thriller that understands how social media warps everything.
Leave a Reply