I got all the feels with this one. A lot of times, 5-star books for me are the ones that give me goosebumps and have me glued to the pages/audio. This one did that for me. There are so many things about this book that I loved and the complexity of how all the pieces fit together still have my mind reeling from them. There is gaslighting, manipulation, post-partum depression, secret affairs, sleep deprivation…the list goes on. This book had everything you could want in a thriller! The audio was addictive as well and the performance of the narrator, Karissa Vacker, had me glued to my ear buds.

The biggest thank you to NetGalley, Stacy Willingham, Macmillan Audio, and St Martin’s Press for providing me with these gifted copies in exchange for my honest review.

I had high hopes for this one after reading and loving A Flicker in the Dark. While there were some good twists this book didn't work for me. Maybe because it's hard to read about missing kids so if that is a trigger for you I would pass.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the arc. This review will be for both the ebook and audio. I really liked this story. It wasn't so much a thriller but more of a mystery for me. The author did a good job with character development.
Narrated by Karissa Vacker: She did an amazing job telling the story and bringing each character to life. She gave each character their own voice.
With that said the narrator and the author will make it so you just have to see what happens next and hold you captive until the very end.

6* If I could just add one more star!!! This captivating psychological thriller had me not wanting to do anything but read! I loved Flicker in the Dark, but this is her best yet!! It will be in my top 3 this year!
The main character, Isabelle, told solely from her perspective, created a dynamic look at sleep-deprivation's mind-boggling effect on diminishing reality. I was absorbed in her character looking for flaws and complex reasoning in her capability of parenting. When her 2 year old baby is taken from its crib while her and her husband Ben sleeps, her guilt and submission to her past overwhelms her. Two stories are running parallel; 1999 and now. The darkness in a tragic past is murky and unstable with memories of her younger sister, Margaret, as well as Ben's first wife, Allison, who died of an overdose.

The suspense builds as her story of the night Mason went missing alludes to what is in front of her. Ben has left her and continues with his life and girlfriend. The police evade her input and sleuthing with hints of that night distorted. She speaks at conferences for true crime in hopes of the culprit showing up and she scans each photo of a hint to someone in the crowd. A true crime pod-caster, Waylon, convinces her for an exclusive interview. As she allows the interaction, she lets down her guard with pricks and tingling something is not right about his motives. Then there is the mysterious stranger that no one seems to see but her..... rocking in a rocking chair across the street after midnight.

I don't see how anyone could figure this one out because there are so many twists, possibilities and a flawed POV, that you must be cut and dried for detective work. I was wrong! This was a dynamic & descriptive glance of a mother's distorted guilt, parenting tired like no other exhaustion and a strong willed husband she loves and her submission to leave her dreams behind.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this incredible ARC in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

Simply amazing. willingham is a master storyteller who creates believable characters that you actually root for.

After thoroughly enjoying Flicker in the Dark, I was so excited to read All the Dangerous Things. Willingham’s writing style is really rare for the mystery/thriller genre: she takes the time to really build the atmosphere and setting for the reader. In the case of this book, it was set in Savannah, GA and Beaufort, SC. I absolutely love books set in the South, so that was a nice bonus to find out the setting as I dove into the book. The full plot of the book fell a bit short for me. I wasn’t as sucked in by the story as I could’ve been. Maybe I didn’t feel as connected because I’m not a mother, but overall I just think this one was a bit slower than her last book. I still enjoyed the story, but I just wasn’t quite as invested as I would’ve liked to be.

This was a solid domestic thriller dealing with motherhood, guilt and hidden secrets. It was a slow burn and took awhile for the story to really get started. Once the story got going, it was really hard to put down. I had to know what was happening next! I enjoyed the present storyline as well as the childhood storyline. It was interesting to see how the stories were connected and I wasn’t expecting the outcome. Some of the writing was overly descriptive and took away from the action a bit, but I enjoyed the overall story.

Southern storyteller Stacy Willingham returns following her smashing debut hit, A FLICKER IN THE DARK, with her sophomore novel, which is even better, ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS —a compelling, emotionally charged psychological thriller standalone based on every mother's worst nightmare.

A mother's toddler son is abducted—and she questions her memories and past.

Complex characters, heart-pounding suspense, and a stunning conclusion. What starts as a child abduction warps into something far more twisted and nefarious.

Journalist Isabelle Drake struggles with overwhelming grief and guilt a year after her toddler son, Mason, disappeared one night from their Savannah, Georgia, home.

She cannot sleep, wrestling with severe insomnia, after what happened and second-guessing what she could have done differently. It has been over a year. Her 18-month-old son was abducted from his crib in the middle of the night.

Her husband, Ben, left her six months ago and has already found a girlfriend, Valerie. He seems to have moved on. Something Isabelle cannot do. Ben never really wanted to be a father.

Ben made her feel guilty for working part-time as a writer traveling to North Carolina. But she knew she could not be a good person or mother without first being true to herself.

Did it ignite something dangerous in Ben? NO CLUES or suspects. She cannot rest or move on with her life until he is found.

She will do whatever it takes, including speaking at conferences about her son. Anything to keep the case alive and draw out anyone who knows anything about her son.

While speaking at the TrueCrimeCon convention, she is approached by Waylon Spencer, a successful podcaster solving cold cases. He offers to help Isabella and get her story out to a broader audience with the hope of finding Mason.

However, to do so, he has to delve deeper into Isabelle's background, causing some unwanted memories to resurface, including a childhood tragedy.

What is Waylon's connection?

Her sister drowned, and it ended her father's congressional career. What happened that night in the marshes so long ago with her sister (Margaret), mother, herself, and father? What is her family hiding?

Who took Mason? Is he still alive? Who can she trust to help her? Can she even trust her memories of that night? Where nothing is as it appears.

Haunting! A perfect title, a beautifully rendered tale with vivid descriptions of the area, and excellent storytelling.

The novel is told from the point of view of Isabelle. Alternating from past and present, we learn of her childhood and early relationship with her husband, Ben.

"But aren't all of our lives just stories we tell ourselves? Stories we try to craft so perfectly and cast out into the world? Stories that become so vivid, so real, that eventually, we start to believe them too?"


From highly charged topics of mental health, motherhood, trauma, memories, marriage, and grief—as well as dark hidden family secrets are explored. The author handles them with compassion and sensitivity.

Captivating, atmospheric, vivid, lyrical, disturbing, thought-provoking, and emotional!

There are flawed, complicated, and messy women characters. We see in the novel firsthand, the damage and social pressures and weight on women and expectations of motherhood. I enjoyed the Author's Notes and resources about mental health included.

I enjoyed reading the e-book and listening to the audiobook, narrated by one of my favorite narrators, the fabulous Karissa Vacker! The performance was spellbinding. Highly recommend the audiobook.

I fell in love with Stacy's debut, and her fans and new ones will devour ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS. Fans of authors, Matt Goldman's Carolina Moonset, Mary Kubica, and Jennifer Hillier's Little Secrets will enjoy.

Thanks to #StMartinsPress #MacmillanAudio #MinotaurBooks #Netgalley for a gifted e-ARC and ALC. #SMPInfluencers #MinotaurInfluencers

Check out my #AuthorElevatorSeries Interview with Stacy (A Flicker In the Dark), where we go behind the scenes of the author and book.

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@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: Jan 10, 2023
My Rating: 5 🌟 STARS
Jan 2023 Must-Read Books

I’ve been bouncing back and forth between 3.5 or 4 stars for this one and am still undecided! I enjoyed the writing in this thriller more than others I’ve read in the past but the ending didn’t pack as much of a punch as I thought it would. There were almost too many plot points to keep track of that when one would be explained or resolved, we were already breezing on to the next. Overall, I did enjoy the story and thought the descriptions of the MC’s experience with sleepwalking was well done and unsettling! I’ll definitely read more by this author in the future & recommend this book to thriller lovers.

I loved this take on the unreliable narrator suspense genre. I found it gratifyingly unpredictable in its twists, but also well planned out with the loose threads of where the plot was going tying together beautifully. That being said, my only slight critique is that the ending seemed a little too “neat” for such a “messy” situation and storyline. While it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story at all, I did find the way it wrapped up a bit far fetched to happen so cleanly at the end..

Thanks to Netgalley for this advance copy!

Wow!!!! Stacy knows how to write a book that packs a punch! She captured my attention right away and it kept a hold the whole time.

What has happened to Mason? Why can't they police find him? Did his parents do something to him? Maybe his mother?

The story had to many twists and turns and that ending I never saw it coming! I loved flicker in the dark and this is right up there with it.

Stacy is rapidly becoming one of my new favorite authors. I will be reading her next one and it cannot come soon enough!

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur books for this ARC! One of the best books I have read in 2022

I really enjoyed this book. Im not a huge thriller reader but I really liked her last book and the narrator is excellent so I knew I was going to read this. I ended up mostly reading the audio version of this. I like to switch back and forth. I kinda partially guessed one of the twists but otherwise I was totally surprised by how things turned out. Definitely would recommend! I picked up a hard copy from BOTM and will definitely recommend to my Instagram followers closer to the pub date!

I loved Stacy Willinghams debut of A FLICKER IN THE DARK so I was ecstatic to read her sophomore novel: ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS.

My thoughts:
-enjoyed the past/present timeline, but it wasn’t always clear which time frame we were reading about
-true crime podcast aspect is always interesting to me
-not a fan on unreliable narrator trope but it worked well in this instance
-no major twists or shocking turns for me

I enjoyed this read just as much as Willinghams debut so I’d definitely recommend picking both up when you are in the mood for a quick thriller 😊

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martins Press for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Over the last year I kind of started to give up on books with missing children. I think I just felt like it has been over done at this point. Then along comes All The Dangerous Things. Should I? Should I not? Well I did and it totally paid off.

So I’m not going to rehash the plot because like I said, there’s a missing child and you can all kind of assume/imagine the feelings that come with that, but there is also so much more . I will say that what made this book for me was the writing, the complex characters and just the overall mood of the book. I loved it, I really did. I was emotionally invested in the plot, at times riddled with anxiety and had no idea who or what to believe. I love when a book makes me actually care and feel so I will always give all the stars for that!

I didn’t read the authors debut novel, but I think after this I will. I loved the fast pace, twists, how a podcast was connected, the bayou creepy vibes, Isabelle’s character. The plot was so original with a sleepwalking mother who questions everything, including her sisters ,mysterious death.
Thank you Minotaur books & NetGalley for an advanced e-book copy in exchange for my honest review!

Stacy Willingham does it again! I couldn’t put this book down for a second. A missing child, a grieving and sleep deprived mother, and her fight to find answers. So highly recommended by me, this book grabs you and keeps you wondering!

I have a feeling this one is going to come with many conflicting opinions; but I do believe we can all agree that Willingham is a talented writer. Her prose is stunning, characters well developed, scenery is vivid, and words are thought provoking.

But boy does this one come with triggers. What I'm sure is not an all-encompassing list: cheating, missing child, suicide, murder of a child, infanticide, murder, kidnapping, mental illness, postpartum psychosis. And the list goes on and on. I will say is that nothing is described in too much detail so for those with weak stomaches, it's not gruesome. But it's really messed up and uncomfortable. Which I suppose adds to the brilliance of the story - anything that elicit's strong emotion is a mark of a good story.

I was thoroughly engrossed in this story the entire time. And although I do think it was a bit long, it didn't ever feel repetitive to me, just more drawn out than it needed to be.

If you're a thrilled/suspense fan, and can stomach the triggers, I'd say this is highly worth the read!

Once I started this book I couldn't put it down. I didn't know if I would like it with a missing child involved, but I quickly became hooked and wondered if the mother was a reliable narrator and then I just couldn't stop listening. This is a fantastic story and I didn't know which characters to trust. The flashbacks were well done and added to the story. I highly recommend this book!

AHHH, so good!

I have a new favorite thriller writer & I’m already trying to get my hands on a copy of her first book, because I need more of Willingham’s wonderful writing in my life. I was GLUED to every page, never wanting to put this one down, needing to know if my theories were right or wrong and what *actually* happened. All of her characters were so multifaceted and there wasn’t anything in the plot that went unanswered; we knew who these people were and eventually we found out ALL of their stories (which you don’t often get in many thrillers these days). Sleepwalking, motherhood, missing children, suicides, homicides, postpartum mental illnesses (which DEFINITELY need to be talked about more!!) — I mean this book has it all, but yet, it’s so expertly crafted and incredibly well written, that it all goes together seamlessly into making this extremely unsettling and creepy thriller. Overall, just a really riveting story (and a satisfying ending!)! Definitely add this one to your list, people!

Thank you to Stacy Willingham and Minotaur Books for providing me with an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Good character development and the book itself moved at a good pace. i found it to be a bit predictable as I had guessed what happened before it was revealed. The plot line about the missing boy was good. I did have some characters in this book that I didn't care for.