I Hope You're Listening is a YA thriller that is coming out at the perfect time! It has enough spookiness and mystery to make it perfect for October. When Dee Skinner was 6, she was playing in the woods with her BFF Sibby, when Sibby is captured by strange men and never seen again. Fast forward 10 years, Dee is still dealing with the guilt of being left behind. She started a podcast called Radio Silent, bent on solving some missing persons cases - when her case can't be. She's had major success with it. When another young girl goes missing from the same house Dee lived in when Sibby went missing - it brings the original case back up. A Radio Silent listener sends Dee a clue to Sibby's whereabouts, and Dee is thrust back into the past. Can Dee figure out the two cases?

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I stayed up until 1am reading it (which only upped the thriller ante), and gobbled it up whole. Were there some problems, sure, but overall this book was so well written and interesting that it's easy to overlook them. Starting with the plot, I loved the podcast element. The fact that a young woman an create such a successful enterprise & actually help find missing people (with the help of the Laptop Detectives) is so cool to read. I also just love missing person mysteries, they are the hardest for me to predict! And I could NOT predict where this book was going at all. Every revelation was a shock.

In terms of characters, Dee had some issues. She wasn't exactly the nicest, and she was pretty self-absorbed at times. I think she made decent growth over the span of the book, but she also wasn't held responsible for any of her mistakes or actions. And a lot of what she does is somewhat unrealistic for a 16 year old. BUT, in her own way, she made for the perfect character in this story. Also, there was a touch of LGBTQ romance, which is always a plus!

**Thank you to Albert Whitman & Company and Netgalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

Okay. So I just finished this book. I started it earlier today and it’s now 12:15 am. I couldn’t stop reading it. Thoroughly enjoyed devouring this one and now I’ve gotta watch something funny before I go to sleep with nightmares.

I Hope You’re Listening was provided to me via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This book was a ride. I totally thought I had everything figured about what was going on, but boy was I wrong. This story follows Dee ten years after she witnessed her best friend, Sibby, get kidnapped. She was just a child, and powerless to stop her best friend being taken away. In an attempt to try to make a difference in the world (after being unable to help save or find Sibby) she creates a podcast, Radio Silent, that talks about missing persons cases and utilizes the public to help try and solve them. I loved the concept of this podcast. A real life, true crime podcast. I thought it was a fascinating idea. I just liked Dee. She never really got over what happened with Sibby. She goes to school and tries to keep a low profile. She has her best friend, Burke, and that’s about it. I liked Burke. He seemed like a good friend to her even though Dee wasn’t always the best to him in this book. I’m happy with how they worked things out toward the end of the book. Now, the romance in the story wasn’t totally necessary. That’s not to say that I didn’t like it. I did like Sarah and Dee together. But I feel like we didn’t get to know Sarah as well as we could have. It was also a bit of insta-love which isn’t my favorite.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It took turns that I wasn’t expecting. It had characters that I was interested to know more about. I think this was a great thriller.

Dee still can’t get over the fact her friend Sibby was taken when they were children. Ten years later she lives in a different house with her parents and secretly runs the podcast: Radio Silent. Dee and her peeps across the web, help find missing persons.

Dee’s friend, Burke, helps her with the technical parts of the broadcast. I love him and wished he was in the book more. He made me laugh out loud, as well as Dee’s father. He was a hoot and I loved his 90’s vibe.

I would have given the book more stars but as I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it. For me, there was a bit missing.

I did enjoy the book overall.

Thank you to Netgalley and Albert Whitman & Company for a digital copy of this book.

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

I really enjoyed this! I don't usually read a lot of mysteries, because I'm all about a happy ending, but this was kind of like a best of both worlds and I enjoyed the mystery/thriller aspects without ever getting too anxious. The main character Dee is a WLW and has a girlfriend through this, but she never has to come out nor is it ever made a big deal, which was really nice. It felt like a side romance of any other mainstream YA mystery novel. I love queer books about being queer, but it's great that we've come this far as well!

The mystery was, in my opinion, really well crafted and was one of those that sets up the clues and paths throughout the whole thing so the reader can connect the dots and look back at the end to realize that the answers were there all along, instead of one of those plots that relies on plot twists and cares more about shock value than wrapping up nicely. I do wish we'd seen more of Dee's girlfriend (it feels like she's mostly there to move along the plot with her car most of the time) and the reactions of people around her reacting to her massive podcast secret,

Still, overall, I enjoyed this! I think it'll be really popular with the teen crowd when it comes out in October

Keeping this review "non-spoiler," the only things I'll say are the following: SUSPENSE WILL GET YOU WITH EVERY PAGE, AND YOU WILL NOT WANT TO PUT DOWN THIS BOOK! I was pleasantly surprised with this novel. I say that because this isn't my normal genre even though I love movies in the genre. The suspense really built upon each passing page. My attention was held the entire time that I read the book in a day and a half. I highly recommend it. The plot was so well written and thought-out. Every character was relatable which made the story even better.

4/5

For any mystery/murder podcast lovers this book speak volumes. Dee has some serious baggage in the form of a friend who was snatched in the forest while they were out playing in a tree house. In her real life she is somewhat recluse, shy and unwilling to delve into her past. But 'seeker' her online podcast persona is anything but- she's solving mysteries with her listeners weekly- just not her own.

Tom Ryan is a true tour de force thriller author who has sunk his teeth into this story with writing that keeps you on the edge of your seat in true anticipation. The weaving of seeker and Dee is realistic and all too true in this world of social media. Let me also point out- a lesbian romance is weaved into this novel which is handled appropriately, albeit a little too quick and easy.

I highly recommend you purchase a copy of this (but maybe read it somewhere other then the forest..)



Net Galley has provided a copy of the novel to me in exchange for an honest review.

My actual rating is probably between 3&1/2 and 4 stars. Overall, I really loved this book. Mystery thrillers are not usually my thing, but I was surprised by this. The plot is solid, the story compelling and fresh. My only issue is with how flat some side characters fall.

IHYL is a great mystery novel with a refreshing concept and a very well developed narrator. Dee is a great character and I believed her desires to help those who need helped. She was fleshed out and complicated with an interesting past and reason for her story to be told.

The book starts out really strong. I loved the idea of Dee and her podcast, and the love grew stronger the more I learned about Dee and her story. I was compelled by the writing and the story so much that I flew through the first 60% of the book in a few hours. From around the 70%-85% mark I did find it lull a bit and be a little predictable, but it kicked back up and finished very strong.

I think the plotting is great and the mysteries of the missing girls is great. It kept me motivated to see what happens.

***some spoilers below***

My only real issue with the book is that I feel like the side characters are a bit flat and just there to be there. Dee's parents might as well not even been mentioned. One of my biggest gripes in YA is parents who are just set pieces. And Dee's parents felt like set pieces.

I really liked Burke and I felt like something was building for a character arc for him but it just vanished. I would have loved to seen him be more developed and well rounded. It felt like a missed opportunity. He seemed to be going in this downward spiral and needed to be dragged out, but Dee never got the chance. I wanted more of their relationship because it did feel special to me. At the end it just seemed the author didn't have time to finalize Burke's arc.

And Sarah and Dee's relationships seemed forced, or maybe it happened too fast. I liked Sarah, but much like Burke, she seems to just be filler space and fell flat. I appreciate this is a queer novel with a queer protagonist, but it didn't feel the romance between Dee and Sarah added anything. Sarah could have just been a friend who wanted to help.

I really liked the majority of this book. I liked the characters and the story and I especially enjoyed the lgbt+ romance and the podcast aspects but the second half of the book was really lacking for me.
While I felt the first 50% was well paced the second half felt rushed. This felt true both in terms of the romance: they went from cute flirting, to kissing, to girlfriends, to love really quite fast, and the conclusion to the mystery which, while kind of cool, didn't leave me as satisfied as I would have liked.

4 STARS ★★ ★★✩
This book is for you if… you are, like me, smitten with the genre of young adult (mystery) thrillers. There's a bit of romance, but it's not really at the forefront of the plot. Homophobes stay away please, this is a safe and inclusive space, no room for you here.

⤐ Overall.
The synopsis gave me distinct Sadie vibes and had me helplessly flapping on the floor of my flat.

Of course, I knew that such expectations were almost impossible to fulfil. Nonetheless, I Hope You're Listening is a fantastic YA thriller that beautifully captures the importance of one's own role in making this world a better place for oneself. Being traumatised by childhood experiences sure is a thing for most of us, but I suppose few can say they watched their childhood friend being abducted.

Dee is a very private character, both inside and outside the pages. Meaning, it is sometimes hard to see what's going on inside her head. Together with the fact that I didn't always feel the rise of suspense, this is the reason I cannot give a five-star-review. Apart from that, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this while in Vienna, Austria's capital. I had multiple theories going on at one point and am pleased to say that I only guessed half of the mystery.

⤐ What’s happening.
‘Is there something you can do to help?
Listen up.
Let's try.’

These are the words Dee speaks almost daily, disguised as the Seeker, host of the internationally known podcast RADIO SILENT.
These are the words that make Dee feel like she has power in a reality that loses track of children, sisters, friends, neighbours daily.
These are the words that keep her from spiralling into the case that got her to start a podcast in the first place - her childhood best friend's abduction.
The abduction she witnessed.

When, 10 years later, another young girl in the same neighbourhood goes missing, it seems like Dee has no choice but to revisit the events she tries to stay clear of.

Con:
⇢ desire to keep identiy as Seeker secret
⇢ mean reporter on her tracks
⇢ triggers everywhere
Pro:
⇢ cute new neighbour
⇢ thousands of laptop detectives at her disposal
⇢ them brains

_____________________
4 STARS. Would stay up beyond my typical hours to finish it. I found some minor details I didn't like, agree with or lacked in some kind but overall, this was enjoyable and extraordinary.

While this book starts off VERY strong--great hook, great voice, engaging characters and a twisty mystery--it lags a little as it goes on. The romantic subplot left a lot to be desired in terms of emotional resonance, and while the mystery keeps you guessing, some of the clues feel very coincidental, and (without spoiling) the resolution of some elements felt... cheap rather than clever.

All in all, though, it's a fast-paced book, sucks you right in, I read it in one day! If you're a fan of mysteries and don't mind a very light romantic subplot (lighter than usual in YA at least), give this one a read!

When I read the blurb about this book, I knew I had to read it. I love podcasts, mysteries and YA books, so this seems to be right in my wheel house. I really enjoyed the book overall. Normally a mystery hooks me and doesn't let go until I finish it, but this one was more of a smolder until towards the end. The romance feels a bit forced in there and sort of out of nowhere, but I wasn't bothered by it. The conclusion of the first case was really predictable. The conclusion of the second case seems a bit out of left field, but not so much that it is offensive.

Overall, it was a quick (less than 200 pages) and fun read.

I Hope You’re Listening is a fast paced, tense mystery novel that follows Dee, ten years ago the witness to the abduction of her best friend, when another child is abducted.

Dee has spent ten years with the knowledge that she is the sole witness to an abduction, but unable to recall much about it. To cope, she started a podcast, where she takes an unsolved case and, with the help of her followers, starts to dig up potential leads. When another child is abducted, she is forced to confront the possibility of her identity, and her link to Sibby’s abduction, being exposed.

I will admit that, going into this, I was expecting probably more of a mystery story than I got. That’s not to say I didn’t like what I got, but if you’re expecting something a bit more like Keep This to Yourself, you may be a little disappointed. Because, really, it’s more of a character-driven novel with mystery aspects. Dee doesn’t start investigating herself until about halfway in. But that’s great. I mean, I love mysteries, but I also love mysteries that are used as a vehicle to explore character development and that’s exactly what’s happening here.

But when the mystery does get going, it gets going so well. The tension of the last quarter of the book was exquisite. I never knew quite what was going to happen with it. I mean, I had my guesses, but it still managed to completely blow them out of the water.

So, if you’re looking for a solid YA mystery, that’s more character-driven, and builds up to an excellent ending, this is for you.

Thanks to Netgalley and Albert Whitman and Company for the ARC for a honest review.

I don't know if the copy I had was wonky, but layout of this novel looked off through the Kindle app. I tried not to let that hinder me, but there was some parts where sentences would just stop in the middle, and these sentences were kind of important to the story. I know this was an unedited version, so I'm hoping in the final product, it'll be a little easier to read. That being said, the layout didn't detract for the overall story. The pacing and character development did that well on its own.

I found the pacing of this book to be skewed from the very beginning. For the first couple of chapters, nothing really happens. Even when Dee is remembering what happened to her and Sibby, it just felt lackluster. Then the second half of the book vamps up and then it's done. All this stuff happens in the last few chapters of the book that it was hard to keep up. I also found the romance between Sarah and Dee to be highly unrealistic, and it's one of those things that authors tend to do with YA and that's the whole insta-love. These girl barely knew each other minus Dee's secret, and Dee is yelling out 'I love you' when they are in trouble. Like, girl, no you don't. There was no build up either. One minute they meet then they're kissing in Sarah's car then they're dating. It just happened SO fast that it didn't feel believable.

Due to the slow pacing in the beginning, I had to really struggle to keep interested in this book. It wasn't too bad, but it was slow and it wasn't due to character development either. I believe it may have been about 72% of the book where I was finally invested in the story and wanted to see what happened. I will say that the plot twist at the end should have been more jaw dropping, but I felt that with the rest of the book, it kind of fit. I'm just glad that unlike Sadie, which this book continuously gets compared to, this had a happy ending.

How do I even start this review? I loved Ryan’s first book -- it was out of this world amazing. I wondered if this second book would live up to my expectations of the first. I honestly worried that it wouldn’t. I am so pleased to report that it did! This book was everything I could have wanted in a book featuring a mystery and a podcast. I really enjoyed the whole book all the way through. There was something about the book that worked for me, and I find it incredibly hard to put into words what that something was.

The writing in this book is excellent. Ryan is a talented writer and his writing style is easy to read and get caught up in. He makes it so you get lost in the book and are unable to put down the book. He evokes atmospheric chilliness, and confusion. You want to know more, and his writing leads you towards the answers, only dishing out things slowly over the course of the entire book. I also liked the dialogue and how the podcast was interspersed among the chapters. It all melded well to me. The writing also worked well with the plot of the book.

The plot of this book was serviced well by the writing. As mentioned, the writing kept you on your toes. The pace is slow, but not uninteresting. The plot of the mystery and what happened on that day draws you in. Little by little the answers are exposed through the book and the other characters. You're curious about how it all ties together. My only comment would be I wish that the podcast had tied a bit more tightly into the actual mystery of Sibby than it did. It's a small thing, but in the end, it doesn’t matter because I think it was a well thought out plot.

The characters – Dee, Burke, Sarah for the most part all played cool roles. We have some nice relationships here, both romantic and friendship, and I liked it. I think it was nuanced enough to give some interest to the characters. Sometimes characters can land flat, but that wasn’t the case here. I was really invested in Dee’s story and I wanted to know more. I wanted to find out what happened. I also really loved the concept of the podcast and how she uses that to help herself.

Overall, I think this book was a fantastic read. I highly recommend it as if you like books with mystery, podcasts, good relationships and YA, I think this will fit those needs nicely. I will say that it is a slower paced book. Don't expect a lot of action, but do expect a lot of slow plot reveals and surprise moments. It is definitely worth a read, and I think it will be enjoyable for a lot of people who like crime books or are looking for a nice YA mystery. As I said at the beginning, it is very hard to put into words why I fell in love with this book, and what I connected to...but there is just something so alluring about this book.

I received a copy of I hope you're listening from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a honest review.

I really wanted to read this one because I saw a few reviews where people said it reminded them a lot of Sadie by Courtney Summers, and that was one of my favorite books last year it completely devastated me so I knew I definitely wanted to check this one out.

I really enjoyed the whole story and it hooked me in from the very beginning and didn't let me go till the very end. I loved the whole podcast section to the story and I can imagine that the audiobook for this book will be great and definitely wouldn't mind listening to it in the future.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. It had an intriguing story line with the two parallel stories of missing girls, and the MC’s connection to them. I thought the blending of the stories of the original abduction 10 years ago with current events felt very real to how someone with PTSD might experience things. And I loved the relationship between Dee and Sarah, I thought they were super cute together.

I loved the true crime podcast element of the story. And I thought it was a great touch to show that “armchair detectives” or in this book they’re called “laptop detectives” can actually do a lot of good in this world. Anytime, aside from true crime podcasts, when the idea of at home detectives gets brought up it’s as a joke. And I loved that this book treats them with care and seriousness. And shows how sometimes a motivated group of individuals can do a lot of good.

What fell apart for me was the ending. I don’t want to spoil it, but it felt a little rushed when so much care was given to setting up the story at the beginning. I felt like a lot of the main mystery was just explained in a second hand way that was kind of disappointing after everything else had been shown to us so well. But I really liked how Dee’s story wrapped up and I feel hopeful about her future.

CW: kidnapping of children and adults, PTSD, guns, violence
Rep: wlw

I read this book as a free digital eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

How does one deal with the guilt and grief of your best friend's kidnapping? This is was Dee Skinner has been grappling with for the last 10 years. She was there when the kidnapping happened and has never forgiven herself for not doing more, even though she was 7 at the time. She deals with it by creating a podcast, as the Seeker, the anonymous host who helps solve other missing person cases. She's encouraged by her new neighbor and love interest, Sarah, to help with the new case that has arisen in her town. One that is way too similar to what happened to Sibby.

The story was well written, a different take on the aftermath of a horrific event, having Dee deal with everything by becoming a podcaster I liked the use of the flashbacks to the day of the kidnapping. It helped build tension in the story. Dee comes off as selfish, quick to respond, a bit abrasive in how she deals with others. Again, this is due to the emotional trauma she has had to deal with for the last ten years. I would have liked to have had Burke's character fleshed out a little more. He's definitely strong support to Dee and there is more than meets the eye with him. The burgeoning romance between Dee and Sarah came off a little quick, especially with Sarah discovering who Dee was a little too quickly! I would still recommend this to students as a quick, suspenseful read.

This was an interesting little read, to say the least! I was pleasantly surprised about how engrossed I was in it and the variety of factors that made this novel work, even if it wasn’t quite perfect.

I Hope You’re Listening follows Delia “Dee” Skinner, a teenager who is constantly haunted by the violent abduction of her best friend, Sibby, when they were children. Not only does she harbor guilt about not being able to help Sibby when she was taken, but she feels isolated from the world who pities her for being “the girl who was not taken.” So much so that she has established her own secret persona: The Seeker, host of an insane popular True Crime podcast. All is well until another child from Dee’s neighborhood disappears.

This book is an easy one-time-sit-down-and-shut-up read. Though it’s twisty and dark, it’s not deep enough to be called convoluted nor dark enough to be truly unsettling.

Let’s talk about the fabulous:

How it was structured! I adored how the chapters were often broken up by delving into the crime Dee was working on through her podcast. Having parallel cases running through the story really captured my attention and gave us more than just the official plotline to chew on. It actually felt like there were other characters speaking to me through the podcast tape recordings. It also gave a sense of a broader world than just the tiny town where Dee lives. And the flashbacks to when Sibby as abducted-- I loved that. I wish there were more of those spread out in brief snippets of The After.

The entire plot! I might be crazy, but I have always wanted a book from the point of view of someone who witnessed a kidnapping and was left behind. There is so much psychological meatiness to delve into and Tom Ryan did a bang up job attempting to breach that bag of trauma. Dee is scarred. Scarred and scared and full of survivor’s guilt that literally leads her to create a new identity with the hope that she could help other people find closure, the way she was never given it. I loved listening to her thoughts and reasoning, even if I didn’t always agree with them.

Burke laid down the law and made it clear that Sibby’s abductions left the entire town reeling. And it is with the town every day since then. So often we focus only on the reaction of one person for a violent crime. An this book does that as well, but the secondary characters are there to make sure that we, the audience, understand that Dee is not the only one hurting.

What I didn’t love:

Sarah and Dee. I wanted so much to root for them, but we were given so little of Sarah’s characterization aside from “cool chick, cool car, ride or die” that I felt like she was just… there. No motivations or real personality. I almost think the story would have worked better if Sarah was an established girlfriend and Dee was trying to hide her podcast life from even her. Maybe then I’d understand the “i love yous” despite only having like 3 good scenes together.

The believability aspect went a little wonky about midway through. I can ignore the fact that she’s a sixteen year old with school and homework and secretly running an intricate true crime podcast and her best friend is a stoner-hacker. I can ignore her parents not having any clue about any of it. But the idea that Sarah, a scared 18 year old would easily let Dee get in a car with a man they think may have kidnapped another girl, and stay in a seedy motel all night doesn’t sit right. And Dee’s constant sudden realizations that lead to the solving of both cases back to back? Lay out some groundwork for the rest of us! It came out of nowhere.

But as nitpicky as I am, I really did enjoy this novel! I think it is an excellent start for branching into the YA Thriller game for Tom Ryan! The book read like a high stakes episode of Veronica Mars and I was here for it!

3.5/5

**Thank you to NetGalley for proving me and advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Blog Review (live on 7/19): https://www.chill-with-jill.com
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This was such an enjoyable mystery! Dee was such a breath of fresh air main character. The story was creepy and stunning. I loved the romance so much. And the ways the mystery unfolded. Definetly pick this one up.