Member Reviews

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC to read and review!

Do you have a secret love of trashy reality TV? Especially reality gameshows, and true-crime whodunnit murder mysteries? Maybe it's not so secret and you wear it out there proudly. This is right along those lines. There's a lot happening and it's paced well to keep you turning pages till the end. I love the vibe and the characters in this book - or rather I loved to DISLIKE the characters. They're all flawed, they're all easy to dislike, even the victim.

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I really enjoyed this book (specifically listening to it). It flashes back and forth between current day investigation and the filming of the show. At the start it is hard to track who all of the characters are but once you get a sense of that, it’s easy to follow. Nothing totally shocking but enjoyable.

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Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. The premise of this book sounded great but it fell very flat. The characters were just awful people and the story was confusing. I struggled to even finish

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Sadly, the low Goodreads rating was right on this one. I had high hopes but it was tedious with really unlikeable characters and (at least in the advance copy) confusing formatting that made it hard to tell if I was reading the part that took before the murder or after. Were the italics confessionals or something else??? I slogged through to find out who did it but do not think it was worth the slog.

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Thanks to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Interesting premise but I never felt immersed in my reading experience. Once again, I find myself on an outlier island- treading water, waiting to be rescued by another book.

The story- Six contestants on a desert island in the latest reality show and then one of them ends up dead. Which of their fellow castmates had the most desire to see them dead? As the police scramble to find the killer before the show finale is televised and suspects are questioned, each chapter takes readers through one of the episodes.

Listen, I don't consider myself a violent person. But when the deceased gets under my skin from the beginning, I cannot help but place my empathy with all those who know them.

In summary, it wasn't my cup of tea but don't allow my review to deter you.

Publication Date 27/08/24
Goodreads review 15/09/24

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Six celebrities land on an island off of Portugal with camera capturing the entire thing. The book goes into how everyone comes with hopes but ends up miserable. The book goes back and forth with the island days and intertwined after it is all over. I enjoyed the whodunit aspect of the book and really did find myself wanting tomknow what happened and why.

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This one just wasn't for me. I struggled to finish it and almost dnf. The premise was enticing but the execution was lacking.

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OMG the ending ruined this story for me!

Six semi-celebrities compete on a remote island in a new reality series to win a half million dollars and a renewed celebrity status. Each contestant is harboring dark secrets, and past relationships. Tension rise, and a player dies after a fall from the cliff. Producers and detectives are forced to review footage from the show to understand how the bad-boy of the island ended up dead.

Every character in this book is despicable. The alternating narrative told from the police interviews to contestant day-off interactions that were "live' for viewers brings this story to its conclusion. The storytelling was a bit long, and the ending was anti-climatic.

Thank you Sourcebooks

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I love a good reality tv show slash trapped on a desert island with a murderer thriller and this one was loads of fun. Contestants compete on live tv to win a reality show only to find themselves stuck with a killer and at the end of the show there is no winner among the survivors, only a handful of suspects. Perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and good on audio. This was entertaining, suspenseful and twisty - a perfect summer beach read by a new to me author. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

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Six people (who are iconic in their own ways) are gathered together on a desert island where they will be competing on a reality tv show all with the hopes of being seen. Three weeks later, five of the six contestants are being investigated for a possible murder.

THEN THINGS WENT DARK by Bea Fitzgerald was a drama-filled story for anyone who loves reality tv!

I really enjoyed the drama and tension within the first half of the book and also had a strong love to hate feeling for most of the characters (aside from the ones that really seemed to have no redeeming qualities lol).

Bea sets up the story in a way where the suspense is felt almost immediately and you get to slowly see where things start to unravel. I also really enjoyed the inclusion of fans reacting to the “episodes” at the end of each chapter - it really added to the world.

I do think this one was on the longer side and, beyond the halfway point, the pace really started to drag for me.

This was a fine end of summer read!

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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Bland writing and boring characters. The scenario sounded like a good one. Unfortunately the execution didn't come together effectively. I've started and stopped this book 3 times. The last read, I made myself finish the book, with hope that it would get better. It didn't. The experience turned me off so much, I don't think I'll be interested in reading anything else by this author.

#THENTHINGSWENTDARK. #NETGALLEY. #BEAFITZGERALD

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This book was dark and suspenseful. You had all your usual suspects you expect to see in a reality show.

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The synopsis drew me in right away, one of my favorite reads reads this year also revolved around a game show and murder so I was excited to see a new take on it. The story jumps between before and after the murder of Rhys, the most hated contestant. The characters weren't very likable. It does get a bit confusing at times trying to remember all the people and timelines.

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This one kept me on the edge of the seat and turning the pages. I recommend for a good autumn vibes read!

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Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

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Six people arrive on a desert island to participatein a reality show. . The contestants are all glamorous and dramatic. The stakes are high, and with millions of viewers watching, losing is not an option. Three weeks later five of the contestants are at the police station being questioned about the death of one of their cast mates.
Twelve million people were watching livenwhen Rhys Sutton died on camera. Was it an accident or murder. No one is talking. Everyone has their secrets. The only thing known for sure is that before his death Rhys was the most hated man on TV.

The story alternates between the police investigation and flashbacks from the show. It reads like you're watching a reality show. This means reading between the lines and figuring out what's real or just for TV.

The characters are all unlikeable. Due to the format we don't get much of an idea of who they are before everything begins taking place. This makes it hard to care about what happens to any of them.

I think fans of reality TV shows like the one portrayed here might enjoy this more.

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Thanks to Netgalley and Source Books for this EARC in exchange for an honest review.

Six strangers come together on a tropical island to challenge one another on a reality TV show to win cash money!!However, the book opens on one of the contestants dying on live TV, was this an accident or a murder captured in real time?? And if so, who did it?

This was a lot of fun, it was an easy to consume thriller, that I found hard to put down sometimes. It was nonstop in the drama, the audience added on to it, the contestants were almost goading each other on, and the challenges set them up for fights and other drama to unfold.

I surprisingly loved the reality tv aspect, mainly because I found the challenges really kept the plot moving forward. It was fun to see every chapter what challenge would unfold next and who would be on the chopping block.

I found the characters very annoying and everyone of them was very hypocritical, which is to be expected from reality tv stars lol. But I wasn't really rooting for everyone and there wasn't much room for character development or nuance. I didn't find the detectives scenes all too compelling, I feel like those could have been more flushed out, it would have made for a more exciting ending possibly.

Overall a fun summer thriller I think lots of people would enjoy!

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I love reality tv thrillers!
And this one was definitely full of drama.
Six contestants are competing on a reality tv show on a secluded island. When one of them turns up dead, the others are now suspects.
Each chapter is an episode of the show which is flashbacks leading up to the murder. There is also a now POV with the investigation.
For me it was hard to keep up with all of the POVs and jumping around with different characters. It’s definitely a full cast of unlikeable characters!
Drama, murder and secrets!! What happened to Rhys and who killed him?!

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the copy. Unfortunately I was not able to finish Then Things Went Dark. I found myself with no interest in the storyline. I do believe that I will try again in the future.

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This story was catty and drama-filled and I loved every bit! I'm not generally a big fan of reality shows in which they put horrible people against one another, scheming and untrustworthy but, in fiction? I'm here for it. I normally pride myself with having my suspicions on whodunnit figured out pretty quickly but, I was about 50-60% in before I had a solid idea of who was to blame. The story was fast-paced and intriguing. My only pause was the history of the detectives, I didn't really understand how that fit into the story. 4.5 stars rounded up.

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