How much do I love Andrea Bartz's books? Let me count the ways...
Bartz takes an ethnographic approach to storytelling. It's as though she infiltrates a space or community and lets the space guide what we see. In The Herd, what we see is commercial feminism, untrustworthy characters, a murder mystery, and two sisters at the heart of it all. This is such a fun read featuring strong, complicated female friendships.

A highly entertaining thriller that kept me turning pages. The female friendships were complex and compelling, and this book did a great job exploring the various, sometimes competing aspects of feminism.

This hit the spot. LOVE rich girls behaving badly, and the secrets behind the doors of the elite... plus complicated women, complicated friendships, complicated family dynamics. The Herd was a fun ride with some good twists. By far, the best aspect for me was the specificity of the world, and the depth to the characters.

The Herd of the book--the all-female identifying (with appropriate nods to nonbinary folk)--feels like such a real space, I'm lowkey shocked it doesn't really exist. I loved the touches with Eleanor, the enigmatic founder, with her having founded a Glossier-ish makeup line then transitioned into Herd--it's a progression from a wunderkind Harvard grad that makes sense. The contrasts between Kate and Hana as narrators--and the interesting tension between them as adopted siblings--made for a compelling back & forth, and the eventual blow up scene was SO INTENSE I was practically shaking.

And there are a lot of rich layers of social commentary that I appreciated. They elevate the book from just a frothy thriller to something with some weight. The commentary about competition among women and keeping up with the Jones', and then more broadly about gender (the Eve/Steve article is especially good) leave you to think without overpowering the narrative.

This one is ideal for readers who love "rich bullshit in New York" thrillers, with a side of "complicated women with secrets." The writing was especially vivid and enjoyable--I'll definitely be picking up more of the author's books.

Amazing read! Unique and unputdownable, I really enjoyed The Herd and look forward to more from this author.

*I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own*

I wanted to like this one, and based on the description, I thought I was going to. It just.... fell flat for me. For one thing, I can tell you that working in an all female workspace isn't that great. I'm all for female empowerment, but women can be catty and ridiculous. I guess that was the point The Herd was trying to prove as well.

The writing was decent, and the framework of the story was good. But reading it felt like a kid telling a story for attention: there was a dragon, and a candy fountain, and a witch", like she just kept adding things to the story because they were "cool" and not because they actually drove the story line any further. It took me a few days to finish because I just didn't care about any of the characters. Even the missing one. Not bad, not good, just "meh".

“𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘒𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘻𝘰𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘰𝘳” -𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘥 ⁣
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I would like to think since I live 5 minutes from Kalamazoo Michigan, that I have a great sense of humor. 😂😂I fell in love with this book within 4 pages especially with the reference of my hometown. The Herd is women only co-working space. They pride themselves in empowerment and mentorship. When the Herd creator Eleanor disappears, so many secrets were revealed. I loved every page of The Herd, it kept me on my toes. ⁣
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Brilliantly written, and very original with a fast paced storyline. What happened to Eleanor?
Many thanks to Ballantine Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion

The Herd is a female-only shared workspace run by Eleanor. There is waiting list a mile long but Katie cuts the line. Katie’s sister, Hana is the company’s freelance publicist—and Eleanor’s confidante. On Katie’s first day, the company has a break-in overnight with nothing stolen—but an anti-women slogan is found scrawled on a single wall. The Antiherd, an online hate group, is suspected. Later, on the threshold of a big business announcement, Eleanor goes missing. The two sisters and another of Eleanor’s besties decide to investigate.

This sounds like such a great thriller based on the synopsis. Unfortunately, it is not and I struggled to get through it. Every character is unlikeable. I didn’t care what happened to them. The fact that all the “twists” were secrets that were foreshadowed excessively did not add to my enjoyment. I kept putting this book down and picking up another to read. However, I vowed today that I would finish it no matter what. Maybe the ending was great and would increase my enjoyment of the book? It didn’t. It seemed rushed like the author realized she had the exact number of words for which she was contracted to write so she just phoned the ending in. Overall, The Herd was very disappointing. 2 stars.

Thanks to Ballantine Books, Random House and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars...

I read Andrea Bartz's first novel, <i>The Lost Night</i>, earlier this year and enjoyed it, so I was excited to see what she would do with her followup. While I wouldn't consider either of her books to be thrillers (as soon as this one started to get the most exciting, it was over and wrapped up with a bow), she can write a fairly captivating mystery.

<i>The Herd</i> goes back and forth between the perspectives of two sisters, both part of the same friend group when one of their friends goes missing. In the beginning of the book I thought Bartz did a great job of giving each sister her own unique voice, but a quarter into it I felt the distinctions fizzled and I found it hard to remember which sister I was reading numerous times throughout the book.

My biggest issue with this book is that each sister has a big secret that isn't revealed until the final quarter of the book. One of them definitely made sense to the story and in its timing, but the other wasn't all that important to the outcome of the main plot and it annoyed me that we had so much buildup throughout the book. I thought it would have made more sense for that one to be revealed earlier on to propel that character's storyline.

That being said, I really liked how relevant the storyline was to today: the co-working aspect, problems facing career-focused women, and especially the faux blog post on imposter syndrome. I thought she really nailed it. She also dove into the topic of violence that sometimes comes with fame - when people become obsessed with public figures and want to hurt them, especially successful women.

In both of her books, Bartz tackles the complicated natures of friendships, and how we often think we know people better than we really do, because everyone has secrets. I think she really nailed female friendships in <i>The Herd</i>, and the roles success and power play in those relationships. This was an enjoyable read, but not one that I'll be jumping to recommend to most people.

This thriller had me hooked from the first page! Full of action and twists amidst the setting of a female-only, coworking space, The Herd had me feeling some "The Devil Wears Prada' vibes, which I loved. Andrea Bartz's writing style was captivating and I loved where the story was going, but in the end, there were a lot of things I felt were left unreconciled. While I think Bartz may have been using some of these details to throw the reader off of what was ultimately happening, I wish there had been more to those details and in some cases, more explanation.

Overall, this was a really fun thriller that I enjoyed reading! I'm excited to read more of Bartz's writing in the future!

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for granting my wish to read this book. This is the first book by Andrea Bartz I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed it! What a ride! I could not put this down. I will eagerly await her next novel and cannot wait to recommend this one to everyone!

The Wing + Murder is the basic pitch for this book, which surprisingly doesn't have the kind of super-instagrammable millennial pink cover I would have expected. Instead they've gone for more of a disturbing-girl-murder-y vibe which is fine, but I still think it's a lost opportunity to be In This Moment.

Because this is a very In This Moment book, which is not the worst thing for a thriller to be. It captures the Young Women Entrepreneurial Chic vibe, the one where you have to be a hashtag-girlboss who makes her own decisions but also the one where you have to look great doing it. You have to get to yoga regularly because you have to keep that toned body and your skincare routine has at least six steps. You have big goals, you have a side hustle, you cowork, you network. All of those things are The Herd, a women's (and marginalized genders, the characters occasionally remember to recite) coworking space and membership club founded by tv-ready Eleanor.

Our protagonists are sisters Katie and Hana. Hana is part of Eleanor's inner circle along with Mikki, the two of them acting as PR and Design consultants for The Herd. Katie has just returned from home in the Midwest where she was caring for her ailing mother and working on a book that she has quietly shelved. The book moves so seamlessly between their points of view that I occasionally forgot which one I was with, but the back and forth is well structured and keeps the plot moving quickly as each sister slowly reveals her own secrets.

The book is more focused on being a thriller than it is being a takedown of this picture-perfect culture that Eleanor and The Herd cultivate. I'm the kind of reader who would have liked less thrills and a sharper wit, but I'm probably in the minority. And I certainly read it fast enough that I can't really complain. The mysteries aren't all that mysterious, but it's character-driven enough that you are content keeping the focus on the two sisters.

A good readalike for I'LL EAT WHEN I'M DEAD.

*We received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are our own and do not reflect that of the publisher or author.

The Herd follows a group of women part of an all women's organization called HERd. While this book was billed as a thriller it felt more like a slow burn character study in female friendships and loyalties.

I went into this book with high expectations and I am sad to say that I was disappointed. The characters felt flat and superficial, the plot was all over the place and the twists were predictable.

I do think some people will like this book but it was not for me. .

This book started out a little slow for me, but quickly grabbed my interest and carried me on a crazy roller coaster ride until the very end, literally. The four main characters, each different, complex, carrying various baggage and secrets, are like no other. Bartz had me guessing and wondering the entire way through as to what really happened to Eleanor and who was responsible. She threw curve balls in to keep me wondering who exactly was responsible as she had a way of making several characters suspicious. I didn’t guess how it would all wrap up and I love being thrown off. Then, in the epilogue, one more secret tidbit was thrown in to make me gasp as I finished the last words. I greatly enjoyed the creativity of Bartz and her eloquent way of writing. She truly has a way with words, even evident in her acknowledgments. I enjoyed reading as she described her gratefulness to the reader that gave me pause in her insightfulness, then to others and her flowing words together like I haven’t seen in acknowledgements before. Color me impressed by Andrea Bartz. I’m grateful to the author, publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a tough one. The premise of this book sounding promising to me. It is about a group of women, elite in their positions in the workplace, who follow their leader, Eleanor, the founder of The Herd. The idea is for this to be highly respected women to work together as members of The Herd and be supportive of each other. Then one night Eleanor goes missing. The mystery evolves around her disappearance and many who work with her are suspects.
I think my reluctance on this review is that I didn't really enjoy these characters or feel invested in their stories. And then the ending was not the great conclusion that I expected it to be. Overall, it is a good story but could have been even better.
#Netgalley #TheHerd #RandomHousePublishingBallantine #BallantineBooks

A twisty tale of female drama, murder, and doing whatever it takes to climb to the top. The characters are well developed and the story unfolds from different points of view. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from Andrea Bartz!

I was so excited for this novel and am sad to be writing how disappointed I am. It had all the right kind of hype, but never hooked me in. The story was predictable and quite frankly a little annoying with all of the "we can't reveal what happened" foreshadowings.

Ultimately, I fell for the hype and was let down, but I am grateful for the opportunity to read it through NetGalley.

Told from different points of view, like layers of an onion, the story unfolds revealing secrets and twists. An engrossing quick read, I really enjoyed the author’s colorful descriptive metaphors that were original and perfect!!!

s y n o p s i s ||

The HERD is an elite, woman-only cowering space downtown New York. Everyone wants to be a part of this cowering space where woman empower each other and support eachothers business ventures. One of the hopefulls is Katie Bradley who just returned from the Midwest after her book deal blew up in her face. Lucky for her, her sister is already in the HERD and best friends with the founder Eleanor Walsh.

There are always naysayers when woman are successful, and when a series of vandals start happening around the office, there is only one group to blame.

Then, Eleanor goes missing… everyone suspects foul play, but does Eleanor just really need a break from her insane life?

What I liked:

The Setting: I loved the setting at the all woman co-working space. You could picture yourself in the fresh open design and feel the support from the other woman through the book.

The Strong Woman Theme: I love a book with a strong female character and this book is FILLED with them! Eleanor started her own company, Hana was a publicist, Katie coming to terms with her own story of being an author… there were so many examples of female empowerment that I loved in this book.


What I didn’t love:

The peripheral characters: These characters made the story more convoluted. I am sure the point was to add confusion of the “whodunit” to the story, but I felt it made it more confusing rather than adding to the story.

This was good thriller with strong female characters and surprising twists. The main story is about who killed Eleanor, the young, successful CEO of a cosmetics company and a female only workspace called the Herd. But there are a lot of good subplots as well - why did Katie abandon her book and leave Michigan, what are Hana, Mikki and Eleanor hiding and Hana and Katie's relationship. I definitely recommend this is you are looking for a fast paced and interesting thriller.