The Block Party: A Novel

This was an interesting one! I got big ‘desperate housewives’ vibes which is honestly such an intriguing concept - The wealthy, “perfect” neighborhood is not quite what it seems. I ultimately really enjoyed this storyline and I was thoroughly shocked for so many of the outcomes we end up with. The thing that bothered me the most is the point of view switch. going back and forth from a primarily third person perspective to first person chapters was just not my favorite. It was just a lot of bouncing around that I didn’t really love trying to keep up with. What I did like about it though was getting Lettie’s side of the story. Alex is obviously our main character so getting her daughter’s perspective added an additional side to all the mysteries. There’s a lot of twists and turns but seeing them come together was really cool. Overall, a fun read!

Plot is slow and characters are not very memorable.

The Block Party" is a debut novel by Jamie Day. On first look it is overwhelmingly positive as it currently has a goodreads rating of 3.87 with close to 1000 ratings. I was very lucky to be one of the 1000s who received a ARC of this one. Lol. I love the “flood the network” with as many copies as possible strategy.

First thought: Beach Read! Turn off your brain and just enjoy it. This might be neighborhood domestic suspense at it’s finest. Or it may just be a long, drawn out story. I have about ten minutes to decide because this review is “go time”.

This book starts at a block party at a well to do neighborhood on memorial day and it's a total shit show. We have our main protaganisht Alex who is the main organizer. She also happens to be, luckilly, shit-faced drunk enough to fall into a pool. As her husband whisks her out of sight she learns there has been a murder. And then we flashback to the same block party a year ago and go through the whole year leading up to this murder. We have multiple POVs of course, with one being Alex’s teenage girl: Lettie.

Obviously this is standard fair but I'm going to try argue how this one stands a little tall above similiar domestic suspense books. Mainly the writing and prose is very sharp and crisp. It really flows and you can just read and not think to yourself, “Who talks like that?” Or “WTF, this scene doesn’t make any sense at all”. It is beautifully written and edited. Also I thought Lettie would be the most annoying character, of course, being a teenage girl but she was the actually the most entertaining and level headed of this bunch. We go through the entire year between two block parties to slow burn our way into who dies at the second one.

The bad. It’s too long. For some reason people think these books have to be over 300 pages. They really don’t. If I’m on the beach it’s happy hour time. I don’t have time to finish this book. And it was really brought home way too much that Alex was developing a drinking problem. “Well, I’ll just have one more glass of wine.” “One more won’t hurt”.

Ok, this book is recommended but maybe speed read?

I really appreciate St. Martin’s press for giving me the opportunity to review this book for a honest review and it has a publication date of July 18, 2023.

The Block Party By Jamie Day was nice! The plot twists kept us engaged. Just when we thought we had figured something out, we would soon realize that we were far from the truth!

A neighborhood full of secrets can only lead to trouble. When one resident turns up dead, we are taken through the lives of the residents to learn what lead up to the death. Told from multiple viewpoints, we are given a view into 2 generations of residents and their drama. This book read like a movie, with building suspense, strong characters and a satisfying resolution!