First Born
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Genre: Thriller
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 7/5/22
Author: Will Dean
Publisher: Atria Books
Pages: 368
Goodreads Rating: 4.08

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing a digital copy of the book for me to read in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: Molly Raven lives a quiet, structured life in London, finding comfort in security and routine. Her identical twin Katie, living in New York, is the exact opposite: outgoing, spontaneous, and adventurous. But when Molly hears that Katie has died, possibly murdered, she is thrown into unfamiliar territory. As terrifying as it is, she knows she must travel across the ocean and find out what happened. But as she tracks her twin’s final movements, cracks begin to emerge, and she slowly realizes her sister was not who she thought she was and there’s a dangerous web of deceit surrounding the two of them.

My Thoughts: The story is narrated by Molly, from her perspective, including things in her mind, she is an unreliable narrator. The first third to half is a little bit of a slow burn while it is building the backstory and scenery with a few twists. The last half was twist after twist, I did not know what was happening. Molly’s character is unique to say the least, she is unconventionally careful (example: she will not touch a cellphone while it is charging for the slim risk, less than 0.03% that you will be electrocuted), quirky, paranoid, and absolutely stays in her head. The author does a phenomenal job of curating a large list of possible suspects. The author’s writing is just brilliant, full of twists, engaging, complex, and creative. This book is everything you could want in a thriller, character development, complex, captivating, keeps the reader engaged, and of course, has twist after twist. The end was like WHOA WOW!! I highly recommend that you stop what your doing right now and preorder this book that releases in July!!!!

This book is unique and I recommend it to anyone who loves psychological thrillers. Nothing is as it seems and there is no way to predict what will happen next. The writing, plotting and pacing is perfection. There was this one moment when everything changed - and I said to myself - Wait - what? What just happened there?

Two sisters are identical twins. Katie is the adventurous one, who has gone to New York to attend college, while Molly is phobic about safety and likes her routines. Her parents have gone to New York to visit Katie when the unthinkable happens. Katie is dead, and the parents call Molly to come out and be with them.

My thanks to the publisher Atria Books and NetGalley for a pre-publication copy of this book. It was a pleasure to read and review.

This was an absolutely stunning psychological thriller. You don’t want to know much about this book, other than the fact that Molly has to travel from London to New York after the shocking death of her twin Katie. She and her distraught parents struggle to make sense of this unexpected death, and Molly dives head first into trying to get answers. Right when you think you know what’s going on, the script is entirely flipped. If you love suspenseful thrillers that explore the deepest parts of a character’s psyche, add this to your TBR RIGHT NOW.

New York, London, twins, a murder, and many questions.

Molly and Katie Raven were identical twins but couldn't be more different.

They lived on two different sides of the ocean and had two very different personalities.

Molly was paranoid and an introvert, and Katie was outgoing and not afraid to do anything.

When Molly gets the call from her parents who are visiting Katie in New York that her sister is dead, her life falls apart.

Along with being paranoid and an introvert, Molly is deathly afraid of everything, worries about everything, and is especially afraid of flying.

How can she fly to New York when she hates flying and knows nothing about the city except what Katie told her? She has to go, though. Her parents need her.

We follow the investigation and learn of financial problems Molly's parents have.

Will that have an impact on the investigation, and will the NYC police continue with their investigation once the Ravens go back to London?

Molly isn’t sure they will and wants to remain in NYC to investigate too, but she does more than investigate.

FIRST BORN is twisty, so good, and a read you won’t be able to put down.

There is an undertone of mistrust with each character, and that includes Katie's parents and her sister, Molly.

There was a zinger at the end of one of the chapters that will have you saying what and have you rethinking who you think killed Katie.

You will keep changing your mind about who the murderer is.

A very clever story line with some bizarre and unbelievable happenings but a story line that will keep you turning the pages.

The ending is another surprise. 5/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

Buckle up and strap yourself in for this bumpy ride!

The beginning was an intriguing slow burn that sets up the plot. I was never bored, just wanted more. Things do speed up and start to snowball, so just wait for it!

Molly is living a quiet life in London when she learns of her twin sister, Katie's death. The police are investigating the suspicious circumstances. Molly prepares to go to NY and be with her parents, be together as they learn more about what happened.

Molly never takes unnecessary risks. She researches everything and tries her very best to avoid danger. Things like not touching a charging phone (3 percent chance of electrocution risk), she researches the safest airline, how to survive turbulence, all her food must be properly prepared, statistical death traps such as helicopters and motorbikes. She is obsessively careful.

Being in Molly's head made me exhausted at times. All her inner thoughts, research, and helping the police investigate. She was a mess!

I was ready for something to happen when suddenly...... things got boomerangy, sinister forces were in play, my head was already spinning when I was hit with another wild turn!

Right when I thought I had things figured out, BOOM! I'm left scratching my head and picking my jaw up!

There are few, if any, authors in the game better than Will Dean at crafting an unassuming psychological thriller that manages to pull on your heart strings and instill a deep sense of fear in your mind.

His writing style is almost melodic, distracting you with it's even pacing and the teasing out of small clues. The story builds up like fresh powder, inch by inch... until he drops the big reveal and the story hurdled towards the end like an avalanche and what you see what you should have known from the beginning.

First Born is a great mashup of a series of subgenres of psychological thrillers and fans are going to love this one.

Thanks to Atria Books, I was provided an ARC of First Born by Will Dean via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

*****Publishing July 5, 2022****

Do you like reading a book where it keeps you guessing?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Katie and Molly are identical twins. Katie is the carefree one living life in NYC gong to school, while Molly is the cautious over thinker, safety nerd who thinks about everything and plans everything out living in London. Everything changes when Molly gets the call from her parents in NYC that her sister has been found dead. Molly travels to NYC to be with her parents to figure out what happened. Will they be able to figure out who killed her? Is it what it seems? What will be discovered?

A page turner that slowly unfolds the truth. The twists and turns will keep you guessing until the end. An ending that will leave you feeling shocked. I didn’t see it coming!

A perfect book to keep you entertained on a vacation, at the pool or beach!

This was a slow burn at the first half but wow, does the second half pick up and make up for it! This was a really enjoyable novel that had me guessing. I could not have figured out the unexpected twists.

This thriller was certainly different. It's about two identical twins Katie and Molly, and one twin's sudden death. But how did she die? Was it an accident? Or was it murder? The surviving twin Molly is determined to find out. The book began rather slowly but I think that was to give us the background story of these characters lives. Then it has so many twists and turns it was kind of hard to keep up. The surprising climax blew me away I did not see that coming. I highly recommend this thriller as a great read! Thank you to the author Will Dean, Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to read it as an early read.

This was my first Will Dean book and I really enjoyed it. The first quarter was a little bit slow, but nonetheless it kept my interest and I ended up reading the full book in half a day. I definitely recommend it and look forward to reading more of this author in the future.

Holy twisty wild ride! I read this book in a day. I forgot a virtual doctor appointment, did no housework and ate a frozen dimmer because I literally couldn’t stop reading this. From the first chapter you are drawn in to Molly’s world. Go along with her as she tried to discovers what really happened in the death of her twin sister as she travels from London to NYC. Polar opposites they are, with an unreliable narrator or maybe one with just mental illness? It’s hard to know but you will want to find out all the secrets. Don’t miss this b00k!

Molly is traveling to London after the death of her twin. Molly knows her twin was murdered and she intends to help solve the case. She soon discovers all is not as it seems. The book starts out slow but once it picks up it is a page turner. Plenty of suspense and twists to keep you guessing. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

My sisters are twins, so I'm always intrigued by stories with twins. This started kind of slow but then several twists happen and it was a quick read from there! I had to know what happened.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

What a wild, unpredictable journey. I couldn't guess where First Born might go, Will Dean had me on the edge of my seat, scratching my head, and gasping in shock with every reveal. With a descriptive, slow start, First Born follows Molly as she travels to New York from London after her twin sister's death. Katie was the wild, fun, unpredictable one, while Molly struggles from severe anxiety. Molly would do anything for Katie though, including travel on a dreaded airplane and face a city where anything could happen. Molly knows that Katie's death is a murder and she knows the cops won't be able to solve it without her, no one knows Katie as well as she. As Molly gets deeper into the life Katie left behind, she discovers that not all is as it seemed and there was something very wrong going on.

I'm letting you know now, this is the kind of book you will read wherever you go until you get to the last page. It's a subway ride, couch sitting, take to the loo kind of book. Molly is more than just an anxiety-ridden introvert, she's co-dependent and delusional, with family members that have normalized her actions. The anxiety she feels literally leaps out of the page and into your chest, leaving your heart racing and your brain overthinking. It's scenarios we don't think about in our daily life, that she takes 10,000 steps too far, leaving you wondering if you're the one in the wrong. She's unpredictable, but intriguing, the kind of narrator you know is wholly unreliable and yet you trust her to tell you this story. Then there's Katie and their parents. Katie is, only as we know from the voice of Molly and those she meets in New York, the fun one, the free spirit, the one who got out of London and is making something of herself. She's also the one who left Molly behind. Their parents are made up of their soft-spoken mother and their fairly controlling, but loving father who has made a series of poor business decisions. They are tight on money and the loss of Katie only heightens the worry about what they will do now.

Of course, this wouldn't be a gripping thriller if we were just reading about the loss of a sister and a daughter. No, First Born is a thriller, because things were not at all what they seemed in Katie's life. The stories she told everyone else were not the reality. Her supposed best-friend is overly clingy, her boyfriend seems to be moving on too fast, there's a suspicious male neighbor, and a teacher with too much of an interest in Katie's success. As Molly dives into who Katie really was, she discovers the truth and the darkness that comes with that truth soon seeps into her own life.

First Born is a fantastic read; I loved the feeling of being uncertain of just what would happen next. I am often surprised while I read, though I love being able to guess the who in books, but this is the first read in a while where I could not predict anything. The characters in this book are calculated, smart, and totally outside of the realm of anyone I know in real life. Will Dean has, once again, created a thriller that is unique, with a plot that is gripping and characters that you'll want to shake off upon completion. Pick this one up, for sure.

I first happened upon Will Dean when his book "The Last Thing To Burn" was released. It was a page turner but at times, hard to read because of its graphic nature. "The Last Thing To Burn" felt like it was a very contained book - small number of characters, locations, etc - and I was excited to see him expand his worlds a bit more with this new outing. I loved the way he introduced red herrings and just when you thought you understood where the book was going, Dean would flip the entire story on its head to make you question everything you've just read. It got a little absurd towards the end, but if you want to escape for a few hours and enjoy a really good thriller, this book is for you.

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This book was genius!

I seriously enjoyed it so much. It was my first book from @netgalley and I was so happy to read it! It was so fun to be chosen to read this book. It will be out July 5 of this year so make sure you get your hands on it then!

There were so many twists and turns and in the end I out loud said “no fucking way” (sorry for the language). I was completely shocked at the ending and didn’t see it coming at all, which is my favorite kind of book! @willdean did so good at keeping me hooked and surprising me with new twists.

The beginning was kind of slow for me but there were lots of twists throughout the book and the ending was a real shocker to me!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Ahhhhhhh I’m so on the fence with this book I’ll start with saying that I love Will Dean’s Tuva series and The Last Thing to Burn was a pretty damn good read. So I will always read his books but First Born just didn’t fully work for me.

Molly lives a quiet and routine life in London. She tends to look at everything as a potential threat or looming disaster and takes precautions for just about everything. KT lives in New York, she’s always been adventurous and outgoing. Popular and the life of the party. Molly and KT are identical twins, but they couldn’t be more different. When Molly receives a phone call from her parents telling her that KT has died under mysterious circumstances, she puts aside her fears and flies to New York to meet them. Soon Molly finds herself immersed into her sisters life as she tries to find out who killed her.
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The first half was very much a slow burn, which is fine as the author did a great job at piquing your curiosity and keep you reading. Molly was a pretty interesting character with all of her neurosis and I did really like the mystery aspect, although there was a bit of repetition. The second half of the book, for me, ended up being a bit too unbelievable and over the top. I think I just wanted it to go in another direction and I found myself losing a bit of interest. Overall entertaining but not one that will stick with me.
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I have just read First Born by Will Dean.

WOW! That was a great book!

This is the second book that I have read by the Author and have thoroughly enjoyed both.

This Psychological Thriller mainly takes place in New York, when a twin sister is found dead in her bed, and it is suspected that it was a murder.

Her twin sister Molly and her parents are in New York trying to come to terms with the tragedy.

It is a book that is fast paced, especially at the halfway point and then has some real twists, and turns, and well as surprises that I honestly did not see coming.

I will be looking for more from this author in the future. One of my new favourites.

Thank You to NetGally, Author Will Dean, and Atria Books for my advanced copy to read and review.


#NetGalley

Just finished First Born by Will Dean and I need a minute to collect myself. Whew! What a story. 4⭐️
I want to start by saying that if you haven’t read, The Last Thing to Burn by this author then you need to add it to your list right now.
This story was about twins (which I happened to be, fraternal) and it’s crazy right from the start. It had suspense, mystery and crazy twists and turns. I highly recommend it if you like mystery suspense.
And when I read WD acknowledgments and was blown away by his talent and determination to write great books. And I want to personally thank his mother for providing him a way to read books.
I can’t wait to read this authors next one.
Thanks Atria/Emily Bestler Books via NetGalley.