I Need You to Read This: A Novel
This “super creepy” (The Washington Post) and “perfectly plotted whodunit” (Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author) follows an advice columnist searching for answers about her predecessor’s murder—from the bestselling author of The Golden Spoon.
Years ago, Alex Marks escaped to New York City for a fresh start. Now, aside from trips to her regular diner for coffee, she keeps to herself, gets her perfectly normal copywriting job done, and doesn’t date. Her quiet world is upended when her childhood hero, Francis Keen, is brutally murdered. Francis was the woman behind the famous advice column, Dear Constance, and her words helped Alex through some of her darkest times.
When Alex sees an advertisement searching for her replacement, she impulsively applies, never expecting to get the job. Against all odds, Alex is given the position but soon, she begins to receive strange, potentially threatening letters at the office. Francis’s murderer was never identified, turning everyone around her into a threat. Including her boss, editor-in-chief Howard Dimitri, who has a habit of staying late at the office and drinking too much.
As Alex is drawn into the details surrounding her predecessor’s murder, her own dark secrets begin to rise to the surface and she suddenly finds herself trapped in a dangerous game of cat and mouse that takes her all the way from the power centers of Manhattan to Francis Keen’s summer house, where her body was found and where the killer may just be waiting for her in this “fresh and fascinating” (Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot) page-turner.
Years ago, Alex Marks escaped to New York City for a fresh start. Now, aside from trips to her regular diner for coffee, she keeps to herself, gets her perfectly normal copywriting job done, and doesn’t date. Her quiet world is upended when her childhood hero, Francis Keen, is brutally murdered. Francis was the woman behind the famous advice column, Dear Constance, and her words helped Alex through some of her darkest times.
When Alex sees an advertisement searching for her replacement, she impulsively applies, never expecting to get the job. Against all odds, Alex is given the position but soon, she begins to receive strange, potentially threatening letters at the office. Francis’s murderer was never identified, turning everyone around her into a threat. Including her boss, editor-in-chief Howard Dimitri, who has a habit of staying late at the office and drinking too much.
As Alex is drawn into the details surrounding her predecessor’s murder, her own dark secrets begin to rise to the surface and she suddenly finds herself trapped in a dangerous game of cat and mouse that takes her all the way from the power centers of Manhattan to Francis Keen’s summer house, where her body was found and where the killer may just be waiting for her in this “fresh and fascinating” (Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot) page-turner.
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Community Reviews
Alex Marks is a lonely copywriter looking for a fresh start in New York. When her childhood hero, a famous advice columnist named Francis Keen, is murdered, Alex unexpectedly lands the job taking over her iconic column. Soon after she starts, she begins receiving unsettling and threatening letters that make her fear the killer was never caught. As Alex investigates, she uncovers dangerous secrets about the case and about her own past, pulling her deeper into a mystery that could cost her everything.
Another Fable bookclub pick and at first I wasn't sure how to feel about it. Did I like it, hate it? Somewhere in between??? Overall, I enjoyed this book but I will say the twist/ending was a biiiiiiit of a stretch- even for a fictional book. Without giving anything away, the book was suspenseful, and had me wondering who was the "stalker" but like honestly, the person it ended up being was not even that believeable lol
With that said, if you want to experience a kinda silly ending, maybe curiosity will pique your interest otherwise I think you won't be missing out if you don't read this one.
Trigger Warnings: Domestic violence, emotional abuse, sexual assault, coercion, stalking, obsessive behavior, manipulation, gaslighting, toxic relationships, self-harm ideation, alcohol abuse, death, grief, psychological trauma
https://cerebralspice.wordpress.com/2024/09/08/i-need-you-to-read-this-by-jessa-maxwe
I found this to be an okay book. It's short so it's quick to read, albeit not necessarily riveting. Interesting premise!
I found this to be an okay book. It's short so it's quick to read, albeit not necessarily riveting. Interesting premise!
I liked this book and it held my attention throughout. The ending is fairly predictable and a bit too easy. That said I loved the writing.
What I liked: This mystery is an edge-of-your-seat page turner with some great twists at the end. A young woman, trying to leave her past behind, takes over a newspaper advice column for a murdered writer.
What I disliked: The quirky side characters, Janice and Raymond, were confusing. The reader must suspend belief for the roll played by these two people, who are supposedly barely acquaintances to Alex.
Some parts of this book pissed me off. How the heck does Alex (who isn’t really Alex) not know that Lucy wasn’t Constance’s assistant. Not only that, but how did “Alex” not know that Lucy was Brian’s sister. Lots of unbelievable story lines. And for Constance, if she’s hired to give people advice, why is she having an affair with a married man? Urgh, the whole book was frustrating lol I liked the story but hated the characters and hated how over stretched the plots were.
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