Decent story, I appreciated all the backstory for each character, not just the crime and aftermath.
I didn't like any of the characters and found no one really redeeming. Marie was the best.

Thank you Netgalley for this audio edition of Ocean State by Stewart O'Nan.

First off, good and steady narration. The voice actor did a great job.

Hmmm, I don't know how I feel about this one. It was oooookay? A bit messy, not super consistent? I had a hard time pinning down what the actual premise of the story was. Was it about the murder? Was it about the mother/daughter relationships? I'm sure that the answer is yes to both, but there wasn't enough heart to really invest in either. It kind of reminded me of Euphoria without the deep angst.

This book starts with a bang, letting the reader know a young woman has died and exactly who is responsible. From this opening revelation we walk through the lives of four women as the love triangle of Birdy, Angela and Miles plays out to its deadly conclusion. Given that three of the four women narrators are women I would have expected this book to be YA, but it is not. I found the teenagers voices to be far more interesting than the mother, Carol. The book is a simple telling of a tragic love story, told by very realistic characters that readers will most likely find themselves identifying with. I enjoyed the story, but I never felt any big feelings or ups and downs when it was finally revealed how the young woman died.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audiobook version in exchange for my honest opinion. The narrator did a fantastic job bringing all of the characters to life.

Ocean State caught my attention by the opening lines: "When I was in eighth grade my sister helped hill another girl." Right from the jump we learn that a high school student was murdered, and we know who did it. The story that unfolds gives us the why.

As a URI college grad, this book was nostalgic for me. I got excited when they mentioned places I was familiar with and was then able to really visualize and paint a picture of the time and place. I liked the story - it was a typical high school drama just taken to the extreme.

I did not enjoy the narrator in this audiobook. She was fine for the parts where she was simply narrating, however when she needed to do different character voices it irked me. Not to say this took away from my enjoyment of the book, but it did take my attention off what was going on at times.

The "murder" itself isn't ever really explained, nor is what happened afterwards. I would have liked a bit more details of what really went down and how they attempted to cover it up.

Overall, an easy listen and an enjoyable book. Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy of this audio!

Right away it starts that there's been a murder and you're hearing from the perspective of Marie, who is the killer's younger sister. From the beginning, the story unfolds of what happened and what exactly lead up to Angel killing Birdy. It's told from the perspectives of Carol (Angel & Marie's Mother), Angel (the killer), Birdy (the victim), and Marie (Angel's little sister).
What happens is that Angel and Birdy both love the same guy. They both have intense and strong feelings for him. Angel and Myles are together in a relationship when Myles starts cheating on her with Birdy and Birdy is also cheating on a guy she's kind of boyfriend/girlfriend with too. So there's cheating by more than one party happening in the story and Marie is having issues with her self-confidence, self-image, and wanting to be cooler like her big sister and feeling neglected too. Angel and Marie's mother, Carol, has issues, which cause her to not be the best or most present with her daughters and their father is absent as their parents have been divorced for a while.
Angel has a temper and anger issues and she gets very upset when she finds out about Myles and Birdy and that he's been cheating on her. She threatens Birdy and Birdy is confused because she thought Myles was going to be with her. There's a lot of emotional upheaval, drama, and stress for all of them though Myles is the one who doesn't seem to be very assertive or active but more someone who's sitting and letting things happen as they will to him or around him and letting Angel boss him around quite a bit too.
At any rate, there's a point in the story where Angel threatens Birdy and beats her up - that's where I thought the murder was going to happen when I was listening, but it didn't. Then as I continued listening, the story and the situations just get worse, and then there's a bit of a surprise twist when it finally comes to when, where, and how the murder happens. That's what really got to me is when the murder happens and then how they just keep going on about their lives like nothing happened until the police show up with a search warrant to check Angel's things and arrest her.
In the end, the punishments were not what I would've felt was enough for the taking of a life, and oh this story really got to me and got me going. The narrator made this story that much more interesting, drew me in, and kept me on the edge of my seat listening intently. She did an amazing job performing each of the characters' voices so that it was easy to tell them apart and get a good feel for each character, their role, and personality. It was an awesome and immersive experience listening to this audiobook that was so well done. It sucked me in and had me feeling like I was in this other world where the story was happening.
I highly recommend getting and checking this audiobook out if you're looking for a great listening experience with a fantastic narrator and an intense story. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for letting me listen and review this ALC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Interesting story. There is a murder. Right from the beginning you know who committed the murder. Then time goes back, and you work your way up to seeing how the murderer became the way they did and how they committed the murder. The story is told by Angel, her little sister, Marie, her mother, Carol and Birdie. There are no twists or turns in this one as from the beginning you know what happened. Angel has been dating her boyfriend, Myles for three years. She is loyal to him and obsessed. She finds out that Birdie and Myles have been together, and things then take a turn for the worse. I loved the family dynamics and dysfunction throughout. Marie’s POV was very believable being the younger sister that idolized her big sister, Angel. The writing was good, the characters well developed, however, the whole thing just never really took off for me. It was OK but nothing great.

Hauntingly Beautiful!

Stewart O'Nan's latest OCEAN STATE is more of a "whydunit" and "how" versus a "whodunit" story of a family being tested. Readers are made aware in the opening chapter —the name of the murderer. How will they choose to move on from the tragedy? The layers are peeled back.

A teenage girl is murdered, the ripples of the crime, and its aftermath— both for the family and the town. Set in the moody Rhode Island, near the coast in a mill town, a slow-burning noir crime and at its heart is about love. The things we do for love often make us do horrific things—from greed, jealousy, and the extreme emotions of love.

Could be ripped from today's headlines. Set in a small working-class small town with no place to escape where everyone knows your business, from gossip, social media, family rivals, and of course, the small high school.

It's 2009, and the Oliviera family of three has moved to Ashaway, R.I., across from the Line & Twine, the town's mill.

Angel, the murderer, Carol, her mother, and Birdy, the victim. Told through the alternating perspectives of the four women. Marie, the younger sister, is the watcher. She idolizes her older sister, Angel.

Watching over it all is the retrospective testimony of Angel's younger sister Marie, who reflects on that doomed autumn of 2009 with all the wisdom of hindsight.

"When I was in eighth grade my sister helped kill another girl."

Carol is a hardworking divorced mother, barely scraping by with dead-end boyfriends and constantly moving. How will she handle the fallout?

Angel thinks her life will be better with someone from a different class. A first love. Myles is her rich boyfriend and not so smart. Not sure why these girls are so obsessed with him. Myles will be headed to college soon and Angel is getting worried he will slip from her. She is desperate. Does she really think this is a means to escape this town?

Needless to say, Birdy a high school senior has her eyes set on Myles even though she has a boyfriend. Angel, of course, does not like this. A kiss. She needs Birdy out of the way, now!

A novel of sisters, mothers, and daughters, and the terrible things love makes us do.

The author is a brilliant writer, with 20 novels under his belt. OCEAN STATE may very depressing for some with mixed reviews. However, this is America the ugliness. Teens, kids, and adults killing others over basically nothing. Our world is evil. In most other books, you would discover the murderer at the end of the novel. Here, he chooses the beginning.

O'Nan does a great job in exploring the lives of before and after and where each winds up. My word of advice would be to know this before going into the book. It is the fallout. How a family handles a child or sister, a friend that commits murder, and events leading up to the murder.

I have read other books by the author and enjoy his writing style. However, this one was not one of my favorites. I am not a huge fan of teen drama and was not convinced she was sorry for her actions. There are consequences. However, this is fiction.

I also listened to the audiobook and the narrator, Sara Young never changed her voice as most do, so it was a little difficult to follow who was speaking. It's always difficult to know if the reading experience would be the same as the listening experience.

No doubt the author is highly talented and will continue to read his books. I am a big fan of literary fiction. The author does a good job of exploring the evils of humanity, and the whys of a working-class family. As always his writing is lyrical and beautiful.

My recommendation would be to read the book versus the audio format and go into it not looking for a suspense page-turner thriller, but more as a noir and the different contrasts of social and economic climates. From poor/rich, popular/unpopular, with much peer pressure.

The cover and the author drew me in. This book reminds me a little of Heather Gudenkauf's Before She Was Found. Also, fans of authors Randall Silvis and Elizabeth Strout will enjoy this one (big fan of both).

A special thank you to #NetGalley and #DreamscapeMedia for an audio ARC.

Blog Review Posted @ www.JudithDCollins
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Pub Date: March 15, 2022

Ocean State by Stewart O'Nan pulled me in from the beginning. The story is told by multiple perspectives and give unique views. Sara Young did a great job bringing the characters to life with her voice. She let me hear who was speaking and I could visualize so many details. Thank you #NetGalley and #Dreamscape Media for allowing me to listen to this pre-release audiobook. I enjoyed it.

Overall, I like the story but teen girls are crazy. I think I wanted a little bit more to happen and the ending just snuck up on me, but I wasn’t really sure how I was supposed to feel or what I was supposed to have learned.

3.25 stars

It was an interesting way to read a story when you already know whodunit to whom. I am not really sure this should be categorized as a mystery or a thriller ~ I was not on the edge of my seat at all. It’s very high school ~ young adult, with a love triangle between 2 girls and a boy.

It’s told in alternating pov’s between Angel ~ the murderer, Marie ~ the sister, Carol ~ the mother and Birdie ~ the victim.
Although I quite enjoyed Sara Young as the narrator, I do wish I read this instead of listened.
At times it was difficult for me to know who was telling their part of the story. Perhaps 4 different narrators would have worked best for this one.
Needless to say this was a quick listen coming in at under 6 hours, (the book is 240 pages) that kept me awake and invested in what was going on, even though I wasn’t overly wowed. I would give this author another shot.

*Thanks to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media LLC and Stewart O’Nan for the advance audiobook. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*

This is a story of a murder, but it is not a mystery because the killer's identity is revealed on the very first line. As the book unravels, there is no suspense nor surprises, so if you are looking for a whodunit type story, this is not it. Ocean State is primarily a story examining the lives of four people: Angel (the murderer), Carol (her mother), Marie (her sister) and Birdie (the victim). As other reviewers said, it's character driven. However, in the end, I did not connect with the characters or premise enough to love the story.

Read if interested in:
-Teenage love triangles
-Family drama
-Multiple perspectives and POVs
-Rhode Island setting
-Flawed, realistic characters

*If you do choose to listen to the audiobook, know going in that it is hard to keep track of each POV as there are no clear breaks or shifts.

Wow…okay, this book is NOT at all what I expected it to be. I can honestly say I’ve never read anything like it. (Swipe for synopsis.)

All through this book, I kept having to remind myself it was NOT true crime. The plot, character development and point of view transitions: FLAWLESS!!

I don’t know how to explain it, but I loved this book while also being left sad and kinda empty at the end.

Let’s just break it down.
The good: Plot. Characters. Diversity. Believability. Flow. Length. Speed. Beginning middle and end. Every page left me wanting to read more. Every chapter left me wanting to go further. I knew what was coming and yet was still nervous in the best way as I read through. Amazing storytelling. 😱

The bad: that empty feeling at the end. I was left wanting more, feeling kinda hollow and sad for everyone involved. I didn’t expect a happy ending but still kinda wanted a few more loose ends tied up…and maybe some more retribution for a specific person. The ONLY person in this book i hated. Won’t say more cuz I don’t wanna spoil anything. 🧐

I loved this book and honestly would read this again just to see if I missed anything. Will definitely read more by this author.

I was predisposed to love this because I love Rhode Island, but the story just didn't keep my attention. I didn't finish the book.

"Ocean State" is wonderfully weaved from start to finish.  It would be a wonderful pick for a book club.  It's both energetic and nuanced in scale, and it focuses on many important themes: toxic family environments, the effect of family background, bad parenting,  and yet nice caring individuals. "Ocean State" is a refined and elegant piece of writing. However, it is worthwhile to pause and re-read sequences — especially transitional moments — to think on, thoroughly study, and enhance our comprehension of each character's psychological state.
The characters are what make this narrative work, and they add to the numerous thought-provoking issues. I identified with the whole experience. - I LOVED IT.

While I did have a little trouble separating the characters at first, this really did keep me intrigued and listening. I finished this book within a day, and enjoyed the back and forth of the siblings view points.

Reviewing
Ocean State
By Stewart O’Nan

Stuart O’Nan gives book clubs a lot to discuss in his most recent publication, Ocean State. This character based full family drama sees a single mother and her two daughter though an unimaginable murder. Told from multiple perspectives, readers uncover new details with each new narrative. While the plot is engaging and the character relatable it feels as though O’Nan has purposefully remover all emotion from the novel, resulting in a report style delivery. It’s a bold move but it leaves the field wide open for interpretation. I’m sure Ocean State will have books clubs members staying late to debate that thin line between right and wrong.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 3.5 stars for this interesting and well written drama purposefully devoid of emotion. I believe many will give this a higher rating but for me I NEED those driving emotions

I think this is probably a really good book, but there are issues with the audiobook that make it a goopy mess. There's no distinction between the characters, or distinction between voices from the narrator, so when the POV changes you have to wait a bit and play catch up to understand which character is speaking. There are also too many characters in my opinion, you have Angel and Marie and Birdy and Carol, but you also have these women interacting with so many other women that I couldn't tell them apart. Now, this is again, probably my own fault and not the fault of the story, but I spent a lot of the time confused instead of enjoying the development of these characters. This book is a focus on the interconnectedness of these characters and how they all touched each other in (mostly) bad ways. I do want to say, the end, abrupt and disappointing. After 10 hours of listening to this book to have it wrap up in 4 minutes was just... anger inducing. I wanted to like this better, but I found a lack of distinction between characters in writing and in narrating.

This mystery/thriller follows the "Columbo" formula. We find out whodunnit at the beginning of the book and the story is actually about how and why the murder occurred.
The story is about an unfortunate family. I felt sorry for them. The author created atmosphere and developed their situation, which was actually rather depressing to read about. If this was the objective, mission accomplished. The story is full of teenage angst, family problems, poverty, and dysfunction. It's really a bummer. It isn't a bad book or a bad story, but if you are not in the mood for something heartbreaking, you probably will not enjoy or appreciate it. In my opinion, it was a decent book, but nothing that I will remember. It might be a good book club selection for teens. There is plenty here to spark discussion about consequences for one's actions as well as other topics.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

** spoiler alert ** I had a really hard time getting into this book, I didn't really like any of the characters, and thought it was a very slow read. And I really didn't like Angel, I don't think she learned anything nor was she sorry about what she did or thankful for her mother and her boyfriend for helping her in her time of need. Or for her sister for keeping her secrets. I have a hard time leaving any sort of negative review b/c I know and appreciate that an author puts his/her heart into a book. But this one just didn't do it for me.

#OceanState
#NetGalley

This was a pleasant book to listen to with the narrator as Sara Young. To me, the book doesn’t really fit the thriller genre, but it was still a well written book and I really enjoyed it. I enjoy stories with multiple viewpoints and this one had the viewpoint of 4 different characters. The story was told mostly through the younger sister’s point of view, but we were also able to get inside the head of the mother, victim, and the older sister. This book was very wise and mature in its progression that led to an ending with Marie looking back at her life and how she was never able to move on from her past. I was very pleased with this audio book!

Thank you to NetGalley, Stewart O’Nan, and Dreamscape Media for allowing me to listen to this ARC in exchange for my honest review.