The story had lots of twists but ended too abruptly. I did enjoy the mystery that Nina wove.

I reviewed this editorially for RT Book Reviews you can see the review there

Fascinating book! The Burial Society is a secret organization that helps people in abusive relationships establish new identities and lives. Kind of like witness protection.
This book moves fast and you flip from one character to another at breakneck speed. That can be confusing but settle in - the ride is well worth it.
I seriously thought I had it figured out until the author threw a major curve. Great work!
Thank you Netgalley and #Theburialsociety for an Advanced Reader Copy. All opinions are my own.

This was my first book by Nina Sadowsky, I enjoyed this book even though it was hard to follow. Short chapters, different narrations by different characters kept it hard to follow in my opinion. There were lots of lies, twists and turns to keep you from putting it down. This book kept you guessing until the end. If you like Psychological Thriller Mysteries this book is for you. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House/Ballentine Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 15%

I gave up on this book ultimately because there was no depth to the characters. The short chapters did nothing to endear me to the characters. I'm not saying that short chapters in general aren't great, but that the way things were written I was never able to break through to any depth of the characters. Also, it felt like so many narrators and so much going on, when really not much has truly going on-- there was nothing for me to feel rushed about or give me that "all over the place" feeling. I do think it was written this way as a way to make it a "Thriller" but it didn't work for me.

On the topic of writing, the different POVs threw me -- not the different narrators (what I usually call POVs), but some narrators were written in third person and some in first. I really didn't like this.

I also feel like the summary is a bit misleading since in 15% Natalie isn't the narrator very long. The Burial Society organization was way more interesting, albeit confusing... do these people not know they are being 'saved'?

In the end, I think this is a book some people might like and the short chapters make it a faster read. I just prefer a deeper connection with characters.

tw: self harm, disordered eating, gruesome murder details, child abuse, marital discord/abuse

Remember to be grateful, Natalie thinks, for every single day.


I will be honest, friends. I have no idea where to begin with this book. All I know is that I loved every single minute of it and I didn't want it to end. I sat on the couch for 2(two) hours without looking up from my Kindle because I was that absorbed into this book and could not put it down. That hasn't happened to me in a long time. I could have easily read 200 more pages. Yeah, friends, is was that good.

There were 5 (four) POVs total with one surprise POV (that I won't reveal). Catherine's POV was in first person, while Natalie's, Jake's and Frank's were in second. The addition of using second person made this book extra special and added a more sinister twist. The POVs would move to the next person when they found out something, which caused me anguish and forced me to continue to read to find out what happened. And I loved every minute of that.

I honestly don't even know what I can tell you guys about this book because I don't want to spoil anything. Honestly, just go in completely blind. Don't even read the synopsis. But, please make sure your mental health is in a good spot. Natalie is very sick and talks in depth of her illness, which includes self harm and disordered eating. And also be prepared for some gruesome descriptions. I can handle a lot but with these descriptions, it made me feel kind of sick.

I think I will end the review on that note. I don't want to spoil anything at all and if I continue to talk about it, I will spoil it. All I know is that I love this book and it has made its way into my top 10 of 2018 without a shred of doubt. I will be on the lookout for more work by this author. Her writing is absolutely breathtaking and oh so haunting. You will not be disappointed when you read this book.

The only people who think there is a time limit for grief have never lost a piece of their heart.

Reading the synopsis of this novel, I was thoroughly intrigued. I was unsure if Nina would deliver on the promise of such an interesting plot line. She absolutely nailed it.
The characters in this story were well developed and likeable. I found myself wanting to hear more about Catherine and why she chose this life. Although we learned tidbits of her previous life and it was enough for me to get by, I would love to hear more about her life before she began her life of hiding people. I felt so close to the Burrows family as the story continued and appreciated the detail that went into their journey- the places they went, the investigation, how it all wrapped up.
I could relate to Catherine with her strong drive and compassion towards her client’s family. Her curiousity often got the best of her, but she was always two steps ahead. I admired her and wanted to be like her.
The plot was full of twists that kept me on the edge of my seat. At one point, I slammed my kindle closed in disbelief, wondering where I would be taken next. The ending was surprising, but fitting. The entire novel plays like a puzzle waiting to be put together- it’s so addicting, you can’t stop reading until you fit the last piece in place. I could see this as a perfect segue into another novel based on Catherine and her next client.
My recommendation—> go buy it! You won’t regret it!

The Burial Society is a fast-paced, edge of your seat type of psychological thriller. I loved everything about this story right from the start. However, it left me wanting more - in a good way!! I would love to know more about Catherine, the main character and also the burial society itself.

4.5 stars! I found this book exciting and full of suspense. I really had to pay attention as it does jump around quiet a bit but I didn't find that it took away from the story at all. Just when I thought I had things all figured out the author threw in another twist. I was kept guessing right up until the end. I totally didn't see that coming!!

This book was given to me at my request via NetGalley and I provided this review voluntarily

This novel was mysterious and addictive. I enjoyed the dark, mysterious tone throughout most of the story. Nina has succeeded in writing a novel that contains as many secrets as its description says it does. Catherine's job is important. She runs the Burial Society where she helps women escape and reinvent themselves with new identities. Catherine herself can take on a new identity at any time. Catherine’s life is at times dangerous and at other times just as glamorous and exciting as the city of Paris where she is living. Catherine finds herself involved with the Burrows family who she has a long ago secret connection with. Natalie Burrows and her brother are living in Paris with their father. Natalie discovers her father dead in his room one day. This brings up their past and the fact that Natalie’s mother went missing one day from their hometown in Connecticut and was never found. This novel is about the dark world of the Burial Society. It is also about grief and mental health. Everyone has secrets. Everyone has a past they would like to bury. What happens in this novel will stay with you for a long time!

I've never read a psychological thriller before, but I was caught by the blurb's mention of a dark web. I had recently encountered it in a book, you see, and thought I might learn more about how it works and what it is really.

Sadly, it wasn't to be.

The Burial Society is an organization that helps women escape their abusers, and it has a presence on the dark web, by which women ask for help. That's it. The leader and agent for it is Catherine, who is one of the points of view of the story.

The story is about this woman--Mallory--who asked Catherine for help, but whose case ended in tragedy. Now, three years later, Catherine saw Mallory's family--husband and two kids--in Paris and wondered how they were, when the husband was killed, leaving two orphaned kids with only an uncle to help them, an uncle who had his own problems.

Who was the murderer? And what did he want?

I was displeased with the ending, because I thought it shouldn't be left like that. Real life already acts too often like that; I want everything tied neat and tidy with a nail on the coffin in my fiction. Unless there's a sequel?

Suffice it to say though, psychological thrillers don't seem to be my cup of tea, so I'm happy to leave it here. That said, the story was captivating, making you want to find out what actually did happen and who the perpetrator was. Depending on your experience with such books, you may be pleasantly surprised or find it predictable.

So proud to be part of the promotion team for this novel, “The Burial Society” by Nina Sadowsky. Thanks to the author and her team for the chance to read and promote!
Catherine is head of “The Burial Society”, a covert, clandestine, group who aim to help abused women escape desperate situations. For the most part, she is effective, but she can’t seem to escape the memory of the one client she couldn’t help. When this client’s husband winds up dead, Catherine takes pity on the misanthropic teenaged children left behind and befriends them, providing them with what information she knows that may help them figure out what happened to their father (and their mother). However, Catherine soon becomes involved in something far more sinister than even she imagined.
This story had a great premise and a catchy name- “The Burial Society”. A covert group designed to help battered women escape, led by Catherine, a secretive and spunky, tough-as-nails woman, whose own secrets lead her to a life where she is drawn to saving other lost souls. Set in Paris, this novel depicts a seedy underbelly of the fantastically idyllic city. This premise is creative, smart and unique and it had a lot of potential.
The novel is told from the perspectives of Catherine (of course) , as well as Jake and Natalie (the teenaged children) and the uncle, Frank. There are a lot of different characters to bond with and understand as the novel goes on, but for the most part the characters themselves aren’t particularly good or likable people. Catherine is the character most likely to earn a reader’s devotion, but not enough about Catherine is revealed throughout the plot. I am hoping that a sequel (or further novels) will delve into Catherine’s past more, as there is a gaping hole in her character development that I wish to see filled.
I found the idea of “The Burial Society” to be a fantastic one and I wanted to know more. I wanted to know more about its founder, its operations, its contributing characters, etc. etc. The storyline of the murder and Catherine’s desperate search for the killer was suspenseful and entertaining, of course, but a concept like “The Burial Society” should not be an afterthought, as it was in this novel.
The ending was complete, but predictable, as I could see it coming from the beginning of the novel. It was intriguing however, to see how everything plays out and the novel definitely drew me in enough to continue reading the story. I loved the short chapters, which made the novel a breeze to read through, and the suspenseful plot had piqued my interest enough to see if my assumptions on how it would end were true (and they were).
I am a new reader of Sadowsky’s work, and she has received some well-deserved praise for much of her other non-writing related work. If Sadowsky wants to write more about Catherine, and bring me more “Burial Society”, I would be all for it! It’s an addicting concept with an intriguing plotline, and I am desperate for more.

3.5 Stars

The Burial Society was an enjoyable read full of twists with characters that have you second guessing everything you've been told.

When Natalie returns to her father’s Paris flat she discovers him murdered in his bed. His death resurrects a number of memories Natalie and her brother Jack would rather forget about their mother’s disappearance three years ago. In an unfamiliar city, the Burrows family seeks answers about how and why Brian Burrows died. All the while, a mysterious woman watches and waits from the sidelines holding answers to questions Natalie and her family don’t even know to ask.

The Burial Society is told from multiple characters’ points of view with each chapter following a different character. The story also follows several timelines from three years ago when Mallory Burrows disappeared through present day after Brian Burrows is killed. At times the sudden shift to a different character or timeline was jarring and I definitely got confused several times about what was happening or when we were in the story. Some of the chapters were extremely short while others were quite long which definitely affected the pacing of the book.

Natalie starts out the book seeming like a normal enough girl, but the more we get to know her the more issues we find out she has. Her brother Jake isn’t much better off than her but he is determined to be there for his sister and is quite devoted to her. Their uncle Frank was an interesting character and the one that ended up surprising me the most. We only see Brian and Mallory through flashbacks, but I feel the author did a good job showing who they were in those brief scenes. I did end up being surprised by the reveal of who caused Mallory’s disappearance and who killed Brian.

My favorite character in this book ended up being Catherine, a woman who runs the Burial Society which helps people who feel endangered disappear. Three years ago before Mallory disappeared, she had contacted the Burial Society but ultimately disappeared before she could be helped. Catherine feels a lot of guilt over what she perceives to be her failure to save Mallory. While the plotline with the Burrows is going on, we also see Catherine helping a famous Russian model disappear while taking down her arms dealer husband. We meet a number of characters during that storyline who are all connected to Catherine and her work with the Burial Society in some way.

Overall I enjoyed The Burial Society but the sudden POV or timeline changes definitely threw me off and there are a few plotlines that are never resolved. I would still recommend the book though to readers looking for thriller with messed up characters.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Ballantine Books and Nina Sadowsky for the opportunity to read and review this book - I loved it and couldn't put it down!

Like her first book, Just Fall, this is a finely-crafted psychological thriller but I liked it even better. Constructed with short chapters and alternating points of view, this story is spooled out in a unique and totally satisfying way. I especially loved the little precursors to each section.

I don't want to give too much away because you need to just read this book without knowing much! Catherine is the "narrator" of this book and her portions of the story are told in first person. She is in charge of The Burial Society - a secret organization that takes women out of abuse situations and sets them up with new lives.

The plot centers around the Burrows family - dad Brian, mom Mallory - who had gone missing previously and presumed dead, son Jake, daughter Natalie as well as Uncle Frank, Brian's brother. The rest of the chapters are told in the voices of this family. The family is in Paris for Brian's job when another tragedy befalls.

There is a lot of mystery, secrets, intrigue going on in this book and I raced through it to figure it all out. Enough said - read it!

The Burial Society by Nina Sadowsky is a thrill-a-minute type book in league with works such as Chris Bohjalian’s The Flight Attendant. You will not be able to put it down!

Catherine is a multifaceted character who founded and runs a society that helps women escape from abusive situations. For the most part, she is disciplined, cold, and calculated, but in the course of her work, she became acquainted with the Burrows family, and cannot seem to let them go.

The family is abroad for the summer when Natalie Burrows discovers that her father has been brutally murdered. She and her brother enlist the help of their Uncle Frank in order to navigate foreign legal waters. The reader soon discovers that none of the characters is who they seem. Sadowsky does a fantastic job of creating characters the reader first loves, then doubts. Clues from the past disappearance of Natalie’s mother intertwine with events of the present, sending the reader on a fast-paced enterprise to discover the truth.

If you love mystery, intrigue, and psychological thrillers, this book is for you!

Short chapters and multiple viewpoints made this a real page turner. Oh, and the plot too! What's really going on with the Burrows family? What happened to Mallory? Who murdered Frank? Poor Natalie- her family has fallen apart and while she's not the most appealing character, you'll be sympathetic. Catherine is an avenging angel of sorts who rescues abused women. Mallory was her one failure so she's especially concerned. Catherine is enigmatic- you won't get a lot of back story or feeling from her. This is all about secrets and lies. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

THE BURIAL SOCIETY by Nina Sadowsky is an edgy psychological thriller based on family secrets, lies and betrayals. The Burial Society is a secret organization that helps people living in dangerous and abusive situations to put their past behind them and find a safe haven far from their former existence. Catherine is the leader of the organization. She orchestrates the “disappearances” and provides new identities for her clients. Each short chapter is told from a different character’s point of view. The story takes place mostly in the present where Catherine has by chance been drawn back into the lives of the husband and children of Mallory Burrows, a woman who reached out for help from The Burial Society three years prior, but never actually received it. Still, Mallory went missing at that time and is presumed dead. Another tragedy befalls the family while they are vacationing in Paris, where Catherine is based, and because of her guilt about Mallory, she feels compelled to investigate behind the scenes even though it could compromise her own cover. What follows is a fast-paced drama with many twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat right up to the dramatic and unexpected ending. Even at the end, there are a few questions left unanswered that keep the reader rethinking the clues along the way. This was an action-packed and intriguing book and I am grateful to have received an early reader copy from the author and publisher through NetGalley.

The Burial Society by Nina Sadowsky is a psychological thriller that to be honest I struggled with my feelings on the entire book. The synopsis is a tad misleading on this one as it mainly promotes Catherine and the Burial Society that has been set up to help out victims but in one such case Catherine feels she failed.

The story however with this one has many different characters that are given a voice as the point of view switches with each chapter. The chapters are also fairly short so especially in the beginning of this one it was a bit of whip lash trying to figure out who was who with it switching rather quickly.

As the book starts a young girl is returning home and finds her father murdered. We find that Natalie along with her brother and father had already lost their mother a few years back. Their mother was the woman that Catherine had failed to help and now with this new murder Catherine feels the need to step in and unbury the truth.

First I should give a trigger warning with this one as it did contain self harm in the story which wasn’t surprising given the situation. As for whether I liked this one or not I was still debating that all the way through. It wasn’t bad really but I’m not sure if it was the style in which it’s done or what but I also didn’t fall in love with it either thus the mid-range rating, in the end it was just one of those OK reads for me.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I DNF this book. The author's use of "more about him later" or "that's a story for another time" irritated me to no end. I had high hopes. I'm sorry that I just didn't care for the writing style at all. The premise of this book is amazing, yet the execution didn't work.

Nina Sadowsky’s vividly descriptive writing will have you lurking around the corners of dark and seedy Parisian streets. Her intense characters keep the pages turning late into the night. A true “who done it” until the end... is it really the end of the story. At first I was a bit confused as all the characters were introduced. I feel like a little more backstory might have grabbed me better in the beginning but Nina Sadowsky tells her tale present to past and it only took a couple chapters to feel engaged and the fast paced continual switch of plot kept me wanting to turn page after page! Thank you Nina Sadowsky for allowing me to be part of the launch team for this amazingly gripping novel! #theburialsociety #ninasadosky