Having loved What Remains of Me I was really looking forward to this and it was one of those books I devoured – although it has a mystery at the heart of it and it’ll get tagged as a psychological thriller, this was much more family drama with a small town vibe, digging deep into themes of parental responsibility, sibling relationships, school and community hierarchy and the dark depths of humanity.

A boy dies – run over during a carjacking, a town mourns and focuses in on Wade – a loner of sorts, who is struggling with things he can’t describe. His mother no longer knows who he is, his brother doubts him and the beauty of this one came in the depth of the characters, the layered relationships and the obfuscated and twisted motivations of a community seeking answers and closure.

My heart ached for them all in a way – A L Gaylin brings a strong emotive edge to her descriptive tone and dialogue – shining a spotlight on those we meet, peeling away their realities in a tense and atmospheric read that promises no salvation but might give you some anyway. The opening salvo drops you straight into the emotion of it and doesn’t let up from there on in.

The ultimate resolution when it comes is beautifully embedded into the previous narrative, it is both heart wrenching, traumatic and in some ways unexpected – there are scenes throughout that will have you gritting your teeth and others that will make you catch your breath.

Really beautifully done. In all the white noise of this genre at the moment, its a true thing to say that clever, talented and beautiful writing tells – If I Die Tonight has all three, making you feel every moment and live it right along with this fractured town.

Definitely recommended.

I was not too sure about this book from the start but I persevered until the end. It is about a young boy who is killed in a road traffic hit and run and the search for the killer. The concept was good but, for me, it failed to deliver. I would have liked a little bit more character development and more tension. The author is talented and I would read a second book. Thank you Net Galley for my copy. I reviewed on Goodreads.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
This was a very unusual novel and was gripping throughout. A young boy, Liam, has been killed by a hit and run driver after a car jacking incident. The victim of the car jacking is a washed up pop star seeking a return to the stage. With a history of substance abuse, her description of the nights events are called into question.
Then we have Wade, a high school ousider who was missing at the time of the hit and run and is unable to explain his whereabouts or the reason why he felt the need to dispose of some items in a dumpster the follwing morning.
As the story unravels we piece together what happened that night and who actually killed Liam.
I would have like to see the characters developed at bit more but overall I absolutely loved this book. The concept was great and it was very neatly ended.

This book is about a young boy who is killed in a hit and run and the story goes into who is the culprit! The story is told from a few different points of view. I really enjoyed it although I did have the ending guessed right from the start. But I like to be right too! Only thing that I didn't like was some of the names of the characters, I have no idea why I just wasn't keen. I did however like the character Pearl and I'm hoping there might be more to come from her? Great read and would recommend to anyone! Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy!

I came to this on the back of What Remains of Me which I enjoyed hugely, but this book is very different in tone and I found it hard to engage emotionally with any of the characters. The narrative feels jumpy, too much plot almost - sorry, this book and I just didn't gel.