I just finished All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham and here are my musings.

It’s been a year. A year since Isabelle’s life was turned upside down. Her son, her toddler son Mason, was stolen from his crib while she and her husband slept. There are no leads, no clues and no rest for Isabelle.

She is running on virtually no sleep and talking to true crime people to get her story out there. On the flight home from her latest keynote, Isabelle ends up sitting next to a true crime podcaster…. The police still have nothing so she decides to go on the podcast in hopes someone can give her some fresh perspective and new leads. Little does she know that the interviews will shake loose things she had forgotten in her past… Beginning to not trust what she remembers, Isabelle begins to question everything and everyone around her….

This is the kind of thriller that once you pick up, you can’t put down until you are finished. I don’t think you know how hard it is to do things with one hand when you won’t put your kindle down but you have chores to do. It was worth it though. The author weaved a dark tale with the kind of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Isabelle is the epitome of an unreliable narrator and her journey in trying to discover what happened to her son was a whirlwind of darkness and hidden trauma. I always felt the underlying mild panic of being completely unnerved by what was happening. I didn’t much care for any of the characters in it and everyone seemed to have secrets and agendas which just added to the excitement.

If you love a good twister thriller that will keep you on your toes…. This is the book for you!

5 stars! Genius writing.

Thank you to @netgalley and @minotaurbooks for my review copy!

This was a spectacular follow up to A Flicker in the Dark, which I thoroughly enjoyed last year. The story alternates between past and present, had great pacing and multi-faceted, complex characters. It is a phenomenal exploration of motherhood, mental health, grief and trauma and how they influence our decisions. While I don't always enjoy the unreliable narrator trope, this one felt refreshing and reminded me in some parts of Stay Awake (which was also a favorite last year). I figured out one of the many twists early on but all the twists were well-written and surprising and overall I appreciated how the story unfolded and that the ending was not rushed. I also enjoyed the influence of one very infamous true crime case (I won't say which one to avoid spoilers but the author discusses it in the author's note at the end). Highly recommend this one! 4.5/5⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copies!

All The Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham is an absolutely riveting suspense/thriller about every mother's worst nightmare—losing her child. I absolutely loved Willingham's debut novel, A Flicker in the Dark, and couldn't imagine enjoying ATDT as much. But I did! Such a cliche, but I honestly could not put the book down. I just had to know how it would all play out. Been raving about this book to everyone I know!!

Thanks to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

It's every mother's nightmare: a missing child taken from his own home. Isabelle Drake has spent one year desperately searching for clues to find her missing son. She scours the internet hoping to identify suspects. She speaks at true crime conferences in an attempt to gain insight and keep her son's case at the forefront. But in one year, the cops are not any closer to solving the mystery and finding her son. Troubled by both this tragic event and her haunting past, Isabelle becomes dangerously sleep deprived as she tries to solve this case on her own. And then a shocking video and a neighbor's memory of that night leads Isabelle closer to the truth. As the story of Isabelle's past unfolds and more clues are discovered in the case of her son, the reader is taken on a wild ride of guessing the culprit.

What I liked about this book: This story certainly held my interest and kept me guessing. It was full of twists, suspects, and creepy settings.

What didn't work for me: Overall I enjoyed the story but the main character annoyed me at times, particularly her relationship with her husband in the beginning of their relationship. Also, there is a focus on postpartum illness that can be triggering.

What depths will a mother go to find her son after he is taken from his crib in his bedroom? Its been 1 year and Isabelle Drake doesn’t sleep trying to figure out what happened that fatal night. She searches for clues and follows every lead she can. When a podcaster offers to help her dig deeper into her sons disappearance, Isabelle decides to let him help. This means he could dig deeper into her past which she doesn’t want to happen.
If you like reading domestic suspense you should read All the Dangerous Things.
Overall I found the story to be very compelling and gripping.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

It's been one year since Isabelle Drake's young son was taken from his bed in the middle of the night. Since, then Isabelle's life has been one long waking nightmare, where she battles insomnia in between obsessively searching for clues to her son's abductor. When she meets a podcaster who offers her a chance to share her story on his show, she decides to take him up on the offer, but as she begins to tell him her story, she begins to question her past and those around her.

After reading Stacy Willingham's first book, A Flicker in the Dark, I jumped on the chance to read this one. And I was absolutely not disappointed! The book jumps back and forth in time between the present and a signifiant event in Isabelle's childhood, as well a brief glimpses into her adult life, but it all works together.

From the first pages, this book creates a tense atmosphere and introduces us to a main character who is obviously very troubled and possibly unreliable due to her very fragile mental state. As the book goes on, we see her go through the whole range of emotions and it's a rollercoaster that we gladly ride with her as the story unfolds and the twists just keep coming.

And as for that ending, - WOW. I can't even describe how amazing a storyteller Willingham is, able to craft a great story with multiple pieces that work together and create a picture that just comes together and blows you away. I was absolutely enthralled as I read the last chapters and watched it all unfold perfectly.

This book is a worthy successor to her previous book and I absolutely will continue to read more from Stacy Willingham. She's quickly becoming a must-read author.

I didn’t get a chance to read Willingham’s debut novel, A Flicker in the Dark, when it came out last year, so I made sure to make an effort to prioritize reading her sophomore effort so I could see what the hullabaloo was about.

You would’ve thought by this point in time in my life and with how many books I’ve read (even in just the last year alone) I’d learn not to get my hopes up. The higher the hopes the more of a risk the disappointment will hit you hard. That’s exactly how I would describe the way I feel toward All the Dangerous Things: a disappointment. A lot of reviewers seem to be loving it, but I’m just not feeling it.

This book is marketed as a thriller in every way, yet it never once succeeded in making me feel any of the components of what makes a thriller a thriller: I felt no stress, no anxiety, and no feelings of being unsettled or restless to see what happened next.

Was there suspense? Sure, but the elements of suspense like chapter cliffhangers, pacing changes, and timeline changes failed to feel like suspense because it was obvious to me from early on in the book where everything was leading. Heck, the past timeline might as well have been a road map.

A thriller is meant to have high stakes, and I apologize if anyone thinks that this book has high stakes (I’m neurodivergent and have some issues processing the emotional processes of other real life humans, plus emotional blunting from medications sometimes causes me to not realize when I might be having emotional congruent reactions to certain events), but I simply didn’t understand our protagonist’s desperation at the level I think I was meant to. I couldn’t connect with her on the level I think a neurotypical human was likely meant to. I mean, I have kids, and I still didn’t understand it.

There was just so much of this novel that felt like it was trying too hard. The past timeline felt almost like a southern gothic mystery. The present timeline felt like a pasted together pastiche of a thriller. It was predictable and it was hardly a thriller.

NetGalley and Minotaur Books provided me with access to this title. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. Thank you.

Due to the 3 star or lower rating this review will not be posted to any bookseller or social media site. This is my own personal policy as a reviewer.

File Under: Domestic Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Amateur Sleuth/Crime Thriller/Thriller

a l l t h e d a n g e r o u s t h i n g s
Are you a podcast lover? If so, what’s one you like? ⁣
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All the Dangerous Things is the newest thriller (drops next week!) from Stacey Willingham (author of the excellent Flicker in the Dark). It follows Isabelle whose young son was kidnapped from her home. Months after the kidnapping, the case growing cold, Isabelle cannot sleep and works tirelessly to help find out what happened to him. ⁣
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She teams up with a true crime podcaster and the case slowly but surely begins to unravel but not before the reader questions absolutely everyone.⁣
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Like her first book, the book is well paced and plotted. I was on the edge of my seat and didn’t see some of the twists coming (some were rather predictable though). Her writing works rather well - evocative, riveting, moody, and tense. ⁣
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I enjoyed the implicit questions this book asks - what does the true crime obsession of our society say about us? how do we balance insidious outsider interest with the needs of victims/families to keep the case alive? is true crime ethical? ⁣
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I am still thinking. ⁣
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In all, a competent and well written thriller. Thank you @stmartinspress and to @netgalley for the ALC and to @netgalley for the eARC. This one is out 1/10!⁣
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What a solid thriller! Isabelle Drake's toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night a year ago. With little evidence and few leads, the case quickly goes cold. Isabelle's entire existence now revolves around finding him, but at what cost.

What happens to Isabelle is every parents worst nightmare. Her desperation and refusal to give up makes her very relatable but also very complex, flawed, and a messy character.

This is the definition of a slow burn book with unreliable characters. I enjoyed the various twists and turns and how you can never quite place your bets on who to believe. My only complaint was that the middle seemed to slow down a little too much for me but definitely picked up towards the end. And the ending - I may be the only one but the ending definitely caught me by surprise!

This book is getting a lot of love and for good reason! Check it out when it publishes on January 10th!

I highly recommend the audiobook as Karissa Vacker narrates!

Stacy Willingham is officially an auto read author for me!
After obsessing over A Flicker In The Dark, I could not wait to get my hands on this one…and it did not disappoint! I didn’t want to put this one down, and when I had to, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

This story is filled with twists & turns- and they don’t all come at once which I love- you get so much in this one.

The story is absolutely compelling. It involves some heavy topics but it is just so well written and gripping from the start. I felt like everything I was reading played such an important part in this story and there was no fluff thrown in or any dragging storylines. There were so many different layers, all of them equally fascinating.

I had a ton different theories, and I was close to guessing some of the twists but let me tell you when I found out the truth my jaw dropped. I loved that this story could have gone sooo many different ways, thanks in part to some very unreliable characters.

Ok so the characters…I loved Isabelle, the MC. I could feel her devastation and desperation over everything that had happened in her life. She took matters into her own hands and was so determined to find the truth and you could tell she’d stop at nothing.

The book flips between past and present and the transitions were timed so perfectly and the whole book flowed so well.
I loved the snippets of Isabelle’s past and how closely it related to her current life.

I also thought the authors note at the end was such a great way to really end this book. It gave a glimpse into why Willingham wrote Isabelle the way she did…and it was fantastic.

This is one you need to read asap!

This book was SO fantastic and I will spend the rest of the year highly recommending this one to any and all lovers of dark, twisty thrillers. I have absolutely loved both of Willingham’s books and I am desperate for more.

This was a quick and engaging read! I am so interested in seeing Stacy Willingham grow as an author. I personally loved A Flicker in the Dark a little better than All The Dangerous Things, but it kept your attention, filled with twists and turns, and a wonderful writing style.

Isabelle Drake hasn’t slept in a year. The last time she slept was the night her son, Mason, was taken from his room, never to be seen again. Although the case has gone cold, Isabelle is still fighting to find her child. She agrees to work with a true crime podcaster, Waylon, but it seems he’s interested in her story for another reason. That couple with her insomnia is digging up memories from Isabelle’s past that she might prefer to keep buried.

Stacy Willingham’s sophomore novel was a page-turner filled with intrigue and suspense. I literally thought everyone was a suspect at one time or another. Told in dual timelines, present day and 1999 when Isabelle is a child, this book had me invested from the prologue right through the end.

Although the past timeline was easier to predict, I did not see the ending of the present timeline coming at all. Well done to Willingham for keeping me guessing the entire time.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for advanced copies in exchange for my honest review.

This one was very confusing to rate.

The ending was so good and I didn't see it coming but the first half just felt like it lacked something. The whole time I was waiting for something to happen to make me, as the reader, start theorizing things and wonder if the child is alive or if there was a character that I should be keeping an eye on. I never really felt that or formed a theory until about 60% into the book and that's where the story really picked up.

I debated between a 3 or a 4 star but because the book took 60% for me to start liking it, I'm going to settle on a 3 star. I think its worth picking up but I liked her debut better.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Minotar Books for the advance copy and ALC.

All the Dangerous Things tells the story of a woman who's infant son was taken from his bedroom in the middle of the night. One year later, and the mc still has no idea what happened to her son. When the book begins, she is speaking at a conference about her experience with the kidnapping of her child and how the case remains unsolved. On the flight back home, she is seated next to a man who runs a podcast, who seems to take an interest in her. At first, she is reluctant to accept this man's offer to tell her story on his podcast, but soon realizes that this gives her the chance to reach more people that might know something about what happened,
This thriller connects all parts of this mystery in a way that I didn't see coming. I was pleasantly surprised by this one, being that I did not particularly enjoy the first book I read by this author. I am rating this one 4 stars, and looking forward to read more by this author.

Another great book by Willingham ! I think I may have liked her debut slightly more, but this was an amazing follow up for her.

I was very intrigued going into this, reading about a mother who had her child taken right from her home. Im not a parent but I cannot even begin to imagine what that would feel like. We have an unreliable narrator (our MC, Isabelle) which keeps you guessing the entire time. This is multi-timeline, with Flashbacks to Isabelle's childhood, learning about how she's slept walked since she was young, and a horrible accident that happened, where she believes she was to blame. Remembering this childhood accident makes her second guess herself in her adulthood, especially when her son goes missing.

This book threw me for a but of a loop. To be honest, I started off very intrigued and then got a bit bored in the middle. I thought this was going to be super predictable with the way things eere unfolding. But the end got me with a twist I didn't see coming and made me bump up my rating.

Overall, not one of my favorite thrillers, but still a great read!

All the Dangerous Things
Stacy Willingham
4.5 ⭐️

The author of A Flicker in the Dark who blew me away with her debut has gone and done it again, but even better! My first thriller of the year did NOT disappoint.

Blurb: One year ago, Isabelle Drake's life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally. Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year.

In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle's past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust... including herself!

The addicting story gripped me right away and was so well written, it had me guessing to the very end. Willingham does such a fantastic job developing her characters and with an added unreliable narrator, you suspect everyone. I am not one to forecast while reading, so I absolutely did not see that ending coming, and I loved everything about it. I can’t wait to read more from her.

What I loved;
💙Twisty Thriller
💙Dual Timelines
💙Domestic Suspense
💙True Crime Podcast

All the Dangerous Things pubs 1/10/2023 and it definitely needs be added to your TBR! 

Thank you Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the gifted ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Isabelle hasn’t slept since the night her son was taken besides some cat naps here and there. She’s exhausted and you can feel that when reading. I loved the flashbacks to her childhood because it added even more to this mystery. Are they connected or not?

The pacing was good, I was intrigued the whole time! So many good twists I didn’t see coming. And the ending? Solid. Satisfying. Well done.

After reading this book and also the authors debut novel (which I really liked) — A Flicker in the Dark — she’s definitely an author for me!

Thank you Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

This one was amazing! I loved how I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. It was truly a good story and a can’t wait to read more by the author.

One year ago, Isabelle Drake’s son was abducted from his crib in the middle of the night, and the case has yet to be solved. Ever since, Isabelle has not truly slept, and is in a constant state of sleep deprivation as she tries to solve her son’s case. When she is approached by a true-crime podcaster to share her story, she hopes the opportunity will draw more attention to the case. However, she soon begins to wonder if the podcaster has an ulterior motive, and how much she can trust her own memories with the extreme insomnia dominating her brain.

This dual timeline novel focuses on present day as well as events from Isabelle’s past, providing background on her life on her problems with sleep. Isabelle’s incessant insomnia aides in her role as an unreliable narrator, quintessential to a suspense novel. As a new mom, I understand sleep deprivation all too well, and I think the author did an excellent job depicting Isabelle as a struggling, albeit normal, mother. I appreciate the time and research the author put in to accurately represent Isabelle’s role as a mother in a world where the weight of motherhood bears down on women (be sure to read the author’s note after finishing the book).

FAVORITE QUOTE: “Sometimes, the mind is just stronger than our attempts to override it.” {pg. 26}

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with an e-ARC!