I listened to all of Limetown Season 1 in a day and was immediately devastated to be finished with it, so when this popped up on NetGalley, I was thrilled! The book follows Lia Haddock and her uncle, Emile Haddock, on their alternate journeys to discovering Limetown.

Unfortunately, I think the book is not nearly as good as the podcast. Each podcast episode ends on a slight cliffhanger, where the listener (or the reporter) is just discovering something deeply unsettling. The book tries to replicate this, but instead of making the story more compelling, it just becomes more and more frustrating as new mysteries appear without resolution. It was definitely compelling - I read it in two days - but it wasn't nearly as good as listening to the podcast.

(An aside: can we all agree that not every story needs to be told in *every* medium? Podcasts are being adapted to television shows, FFS. This is getting nonsensical.)

"From the creators of the #1 podcast Limetown, an explosive prequel about a teenager who learns of a mysterious research facility where over three hundred people have disappeared - including her uncle - with clues that become the key to discovering the secrets of this strange town.

On a seemingly ordinary day, seventeen-year-old Lia Haddock hears news that will change her life forever: three hundred men, women, and children living at a research facility in Limetown, Tennessee, have disappeared without a trace. Among the missing is Emile Haddock, Lia’s uncle.

What happened to the people of Limetown? It’s all anyone can talk about. Except Lia’s parents, who refuse to discuss what might have happened there. They refuse, even, to discuss anything to do with Emile.

As a student journalist, Lia begins an investigation that will take her far from her home, discovering clues about Emile’s past that lead to a shocking secret - one with unimaginable implications not only for the people of Limetown, but for Lia and her family. The only problem is...she’s not the only one looking for answers.

Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie are first-rate storytellers, in every medium. Critics called their podcast Limetown “creepy and otherworldly” (The New York Times) and “endlessly fun” (Vox), and their novel goes back to where it all began. Working with Cote Smith, a PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize Finalist, they’ve crafted an exhilarating mystery that asks big questions about what we owe to our families and what we owe to ourselves, about loss, discovery, and growth. Threaded throughout is Emile’s story—told in these pages for the first time ever."

I love that podcasts are now becoming more tangible through books.

As I am a big fan of chronological order, when I heard this book was available, I decided to read it before listening to the podcast. This way, I am reviewing the book on its own merits. However, I felt like the book relied too much on the reader already having listened to the podcast. It seemed like there were some serious gaps in information where I had to make bigger assumptions and take greater leaps of faith than I would expect. I assume these gaps will be filled in once I start listening to the podcast (which I will) but I would have felt better about the book had many of the events felt less detached and random. Emilie and Lia's story lines are interesting; though sometimes it was hard to gauge where they were in time in relation to each other. But maybe this book should be advertised as a supplement instead of a prequel? Overall I found it an interesting read and I am looking forward to listening to the podcast on my runs.

One of the most frustrating books I can remember ever reading. Every chapter raised more questions than it answered, and even when I thought I'd finally gotten an answer it slipped away. Kind of like a literary game of Whack a Mole you're never going to win. If this sort of thing sounds like fun to you, enjoy. It just drove me crazy.

*ARC via netgalley*

To set this up for you, Limetown is a successful podcast that is both weird and creepy. This would be the prequel to what is on now.

Lia Haddock is a student when the entire population of Limetown disappears off the face of the earth. Every one is just gone. One of those is Lia's Uncle Emile.

There is a lot of speculation about what is going on at what was really a research facility and people are talking. Well, except for Lia's parents. They are not saying a word.

Lia's investigation into what happened to her uncle leads her all over the map and puts her in danger. The good twisty part is she isn't the only one looking. And these are some seriously disturbed individuals I would not want to meet up with.

Before this book I had only listened to a few podcasts, but not I'm hooked!

Well Done!

Netgalley/Simon and Schuster  November 13, 2018

Right up front- I'd not even HEARD of the podcast before reading this intriguing and at times frustrating novel (?). Told in dual voices and time lines, it's the story of Emile, who vanished, and his niece Lia who is searching for information about him. Is this horror or sci-fi? Not clear but it was a good read. Thanks to net galley for the ARC.

I am really bad at listening for detail over extended periods of time. Whether it’s a podcast or an audiobook, I get easily distracted and find myself constantly trying to rewind to see what I missed. Loved ones have given me plenty of suggestions for supposedly gripping options, but nothing’s really clicked. And then I got my hands on a copy of Cote Smith’s Limetown.

A prequel to the hit podcast created by Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie, Limetown follows two different narratives, separated by roughly two decades: the first is of the young woman who will eventually become an investigative reporter looking into the bizarre story of the title location, while the other is of her brilliant but troubled Uncle Emile. Lia Haddock is in her senior year of high school at the beginning of the novel, and is just beginning to notice her mother’s suddenly erratic behavior, forgetting important dates and disappearing for days at a time with no explanation. But then the Panic At Limetown, as it’s known, becomes national news: the population of an entire private community in Tennessee disappears after frantic 911 calls, leaving only the smoldering remains of a single corpse. Back in Kansas, Lia doesn’t think much of the incident, until her mother reveals that Emile is somehow involved.

Twenty-five years earlier, Emile had been a student at the same high school Lia attends. His closest friend is his older brother Jacob, in large part because Emile just doesn’t fit in. Maybe it’s his strange upbringing, or his uncanny ability to say what other people are thinking, but no one else really likes him. He can look out for himself, but when life throws the brothers more questions than they have answers for, they find themselves on the run, in search of a mother they’d once fled and an explanation for the inexplicable things Emile can do.

A large part of the story of Limetown is the struggle over how to deal with Emile’s capabilities. Everyone seems to have an opinion or, worse, an ulterior motive, but Emile finds that he learns best from seemingly mundane situations, as here, where one of his guardians shows him how she fixes a beloved but constantly malfunctioning cuckoo clock:

QUOTE
One time, and only one time, she waved Emile closer as she worked and showed him what was inside. She named each part she tinkered with: the pipes and weights, the pendulum and chains. All were part of an impossible machine, [she] said. Such a grand design. The key was to not let it overwhelm you. Don’t look at all the moving parts at the same time. Start with one. Figure out its function, and then, when you’re ready, move on to the next. But never forget the parts that came before, the role they play, and how they all come together to make the bird sing.
END QUOTE

In the present, Lia is trying to come to grips not only with what might have happened to her uncle but also with her own burgeoning sense of self. It’s a fascinating look into the developing personality of the girl who will become the podcast’s heroine, as she tries to reconcile her desire for the truth with her sense of detachment from other people:

QUOTE
The fall semester of junior year, she had to take a strengths assessment, this boring exam that asked a hundred questions designed to determine with kind of person you really were, so you could plan your looming career accordingly. At the end, it gave your top five strengths, and the bottom three. Your weaknesses. Lia’s number one strength was intellection, which meant she was an introspective person who liked to be mentally challenged, and who liked to be alone.

At the bottom was sympathy. This came as a shock. She’d always thought of herself as a nice person, someone who could sense how others were feeling, when they were happy or sad. And maybe that was true. But her number-two strength was empathy, which meant, yes, she was very perceptive about the emotions of others, but that didn’t mean she cared. She simply understood and, in her case, moved on.
END QUOTE

After reading this novel, I found myself driven to try the podcast, and oh wow. It helped a lot that there are only six longer episodes of about thirty minutes each in the first season, interspersed with much shorter announcement-type snippets, but still: the experience felt much less like being told a story and much more like being entertained by a wildly immersive, wonderfully acted radio drama. I nearly jumped out of my seat at the end of the fifth episode! The first episode of the new season has just come online, and the podcast is now being developed as a live-action show (by Jessica Biel, whom I will always admire for having the guts to adapt Petra Hammesfahr’s The Sinner for American television.)

This Limetown prequel novel fills in a lot regarding the personalities and backgrounds of Lia and Emile Haddock, and is a must-have for any fan of the series. Personally, I found it a compelling gateway to my very first favorite podcast, and consider it part of a series I’m excited to see keep developing.

If you're starting the second season of the podcast Limetown, chances are you have a ton of questions. Author Cote Smith has taken the popular podcast, created by Zack Ackers and Skip Bronkie, and given us the prequel book that explains where the main characters were just before reporter Lia Haddock stepped into her coverage of the Limetown disappearances.  It is entitled Limetown.

Emile Haddock is a brilliant, but troubled teenager who has discovered his ability to read into the thoughts of others. This gets him into a wealth of trouble, which his older brother Jacob is perpetually trying to pull him from. Decades later, his niece Lia Haddock is starting her high school career as a part-time reporter. Though Lia is not familiar with her uncle, the tragedy of Limetown will tie both of their futures together.  Limetown is a modern day "utopian" society that has seemingly disappeared overnight, with Emile included. Lia's mother soon begins acting strangely, and Lia finds herself fascinated with the mystery. The question that begins to plague readers is, who is the one orchestrating the information Lia receives.

If you were a teenager during the 9/11 attacks, you are going to understand Lia's initial fascination with Limetown. The description of her hearing about it is very similar to many of our experiences hearing about initial terrorist attacks. The news stations have too much to say, but too little information. Lia's uncle Emile was in the town, but he is just as missing as everyone else.

Cote Smith puts together a compelling story, but it can be easy to find your mind wandering in the book. If you're looking for the boiled down details of an hour long podcast, you may be disappointed. Like life, the prequel includes far more details about Lia's life, past, and persuasions.  It was fun to find out more about Lia Haddock, but also there were times where it felt like it was more information than I really wanted to know, but no super big answers to the big questions.

Season two of Limetown is now available. Limetown: The Prequel to the 1st Podcast is available November 13, 2018 from Simon and Schuster.

LIMETOWN, by Cote Smith, follows Lia and her Uncle Emile as the both search for the truth and the purpose of Limetown. A facility clouded in mystery as to it's true purpose, Limetown is where Emile, whose has psychic gifts, ends up as a young man, and Lia stumbles upon it through some cryptic messages and some not so coincidental clues. Their unique bond becomes clear and their purposes become intertwined, but the real question is, to what end?
Lia and Emile's struggles to find themselves mirrors how many us struggle with who we are and who we want to be. As far as the plot, Smith slowly doles out morsels of knowledge, creating a near constant yearning for the reader to wonder what else they don't know. The progression of the story needlessly slowed down at times, but never did I find myself losing my desire to find out what was really going on at Limetown and what did happend to Emile and what will happen to Lia. Also, there we several minor characters I wished were either better deveoped or just left out completely; it was like a tease to meet them but not get to know them. Once finished with the novel, I was left pondering what will happen to Lia, Emile, and those around them and hoping their story continues.
Entertaining and thought-provoking from beginning to end, I found LIMETOWN to be a book not just about these characters, but it said something about family, sacrifice, and love.

Having never heard the podcast (deafness makes things difficult) I was lured by the premise of the X Files mixed with stranger things, two of my favourite shows, so this book had big shoes to fill. It's starts with a girl's mother going missing and the girls uncle Emile slowly emerging into the narrative. Lia, the main character in question immediately jarred with me. Her personality traits were conflicting and made no sense. She is almost robotic in her opinion of things, she seems to dislike people or has a throwaway attitude towards them, using them as pawns to glean information. I'm not sure if I as a reader was meant to like her. Her uncle Emile is an illusive character at the beginning but as the book progresses we learn more about her uncle as her mother reappears after her two week absense with a cryptic sentence about her warning Emile not to go back to Limetown. The town that has disappeared with three hundred occupants her uncle included. The book alternates back and forth between Lia and Emile, starting when both Lia and Emile are young then progressing. We learn of Emile's special abilities and slowly start to peice together the mystery of the town and how this impacts Lia and those around her. The mystery kept me reading, the characters not so much. I warmed slightly more to Emile but I was never pulled into the book. If I put the book down it took time to pick it back up. The book did have twist and turns but the book also seemed confusing in parts. I don't know if this would have been easier to understand if I had listened to the podcast but I did struggle I parts to understand. Overall the book was interesting concept and the mystery of Limetown drew me in to continue reading however it was a struggle to finish. I think to enjoy the book fully listening would be best as the confusion may be better understood.

This book was not for me. It is well written and started out grabbing my attention, but about midway, I stopped reading as it became too weird for me. I think that this will be part of the attraction for those readers who enjoy paranormal, other-worldly fiction. Please give it a go and see what you think. Thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC.

When I found out that Limetown was finally coming back after a three year hiatus with a new book, I was pretty excited. I started really getting into podcasts last year, and listened to season one earlier this year.

I honestly had to go back and research the story to make sure it was fiction, and that I hadn't missed out on a major news story when I was thirteen. So, needless to say, Limetown had become important to me.

I was pretty pumped to finally learn more about Emile, Lia's mysterious uncle with psychic abilities (that's not really a spoiler, even if you haven't listened to the podcast). And honestly, his parts are the only reason I kept reading.

There are a lot of issues with this book. Namely, there's a lot going on that doesn't match up with Lia's "current" timeline (current meaning the first season of the podcast). Like there are things she definitely does not know when she starts her investigation, but she already knows these things according to the book.

Another major issue I have is there is a lot of queerbaiting in the story, for both Emile and Lia. It's perfectly fine for either or both of these characters to be gay or bi or somewhere in between. My issue lies in several scenes where it's very, very clear that Cote Smith was trying to set something up, but pulled back at the last minute.

Some chapters dragged on and on, with nothing really happening, while others seemed far too short and left me wanting more of that particular time.

With the second season of Limetown premiering today, I'd say if you're truly interested in the story, listen to just the podcast. If you want more about Emile's story, just...check the book out from your local library. I give it 2 out of 5 apples.

Limetown Tennessee has been put on the map when 300 people residing at the research facility vanished. WOW! Talk about a wild ride.

I've never listened to a pod cast, although, they sound like something I would enjoy. I picked up this book hoping to find a connection and explore a whole new opportunity for me. I have to say that this book started off really slow for me. There was a lot of back story and lead up that by the time the actual good stuff came around I was burnt out. The end of the story was good and kept me involved, but getting there was a chore.

Maybe this book wasn’t for me, but it took me a while to read it. I just couldn’t get into it and when I finally do, it ended and I had more questions.

Two POVs and two timeframes. Some chapters got a bit confusing, but relatively easy to read through.

Give this book a try, you may like it much better than I did. Maybe because I’d never heard or heard of the Limetown podcast.

In this prequel to a podcast, seventeen year old Lia, a journalism student, is drawn into the mystery of what happened to Limetown when she learns that her uncle Emile has vanished along with all of the residents of that town. The story tells about her uncle, father and mother's pasts and Lia's investigation into the mystery.

Definitely one of my favorite mystery reads so far this fall! The mystery of the 300 missing people from Limetown is sure to capture any mystery fan's interest and the writing was icing on the cake. BRB while I binge-read #1 Podcast now!

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and the authors for allowing me to read a copy of this book pre-publication.
This book was a really fun read, especially for October. It's the perfect thriller mystery for a cozy night curled up on your couch with a nice drink.
I first listened to season one of Limetown, a fiction podcast told in an investigative journalism format. It features reporter Lia Haddock as she attempts to figure out how over 300 people living in Limetown disappeared into thin air — not a hair or fingerprint left over to prove they'd ever been there at all. Her uncle, Emile Haddock, was among them. It was very, very well done, and I highly recommend listening. It was creepy (but not in a horror way, which isn't my style) and exciting and leaves you wanting more immediately. It'll only take you three-ish hours, and season two will be out on Halloween.
The book (out November 13) is a prequel to the podcast and follows Lia as she first hears about Limetown, graduates high school, begins her interest in journalism, and starts to search for answers. The prequel unveils so many more connections and mysteries than I ever would have imagined. It also ended on a cliffhanger, which was very unexpected, because season one of the podcast offers no answers about how the prequel ended. I can't wait to listen to season two and hopefully get some answers!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of Five the Dark My Love (from NetGalley). All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This one definitely had me hanging on the edge of my seat for a while! The end seemed a bit abrupt though. I am hoping for a sequel.
Otherwise, the resolution just wasn't a satisfying one for me. I hate spoilers, so I don't want to disclose my actual thoughts on the exact confusion of the last page or so... I will just say that I think it is referring back to the dream of another character and the reader just has to connect the dots--which, if this is the case--was very clever!!! Thank you to NetGalley and Cote Smith for the ARC.

I didn't know anything about the podcast when I requested this book from Netgalley so I went into it with fresh eyes. It was a bit confusing so perhaps someone familiar with the story might have an easier time with it.

Lia was a fascinating character: independent, intelligent, and curious but also a tad bit unlikeable and I appreciate that the author allowed her to be three-dimensional like that.

There were a lot of unusual activities, unusual events that had no explanation. I don't require being spoon fed answers but I did feel like I was constantly flipping back to earlier pages to refresh my memory or re-read. But I'm sure that must have been just my fault.

Thanks to Netgalley for the book to review.