It’s been a year since Isabelle Drake’s little boy was snatched from his crib in the middle of the night, and she hasn’t slept a single night in the last 365 days. She might doze off suddenly here or there, taking little “micronaps” during the day, but she wants to be awake in case Mason comes home. When the police fail to make progress on finding Mason, Isabelle takes matters into her own hands, speaking out about the case and working with true-crime podcaster Waylon Spencer. Between Waylon’s too-close-to-home questions and her own insomnia, Isabelle doesn’t know who she can trust anymore. With secrets lurking in her own past, she doesn’t even know if she can trust herself.

“All the Dangerous Things” is a gripping, slow-burn suspense of the very best kind. The writing is raw, with vivid imagery and liberal use of metaphor to add to the immersive feel. The depiction of how women can lose themselves in marriage and motherhood, as well as the discussion of mothers’ mental health issues, is very compelling. If you like domestic suspense, dual timelines, unreliable narrators, and true crime podcasters, you will definitely want to read this book!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.

Just as enjoyable as her debut novel. Just like A Flicker in the Dark, this book has an unreliable female narrator. I was worried that would make these books feel too similar, but Willingham shows that this is a trope she can do very well. At its core, All the Dangerous Things is a complex look at motherhood and the damages that societal pressures place on women. While I can’t say anything necessarily surprised me, I really enjoyed the writing and how everything played out. Willingham will definitely be an auto-buy author for me now because she knows how to deliver a gripping story! I think fans of A Flicker in the Dark will definitely enjoy this one, too. I need some TV adaptions of her books! They would totally translate well to the big screen.

I loved a “A Flicker In The Dark” so I was really excited to read Stacy Willingham’s sophomore novel. The premise of this book really drew me in. Some things I noticed in the first five chapters was there was just so much rambling. There was paragraph upon paragraph of not so much background information, but a lot of internal dialogue. It was a lot and it wasn’t necessary. For this reason it made this not a slow burn, but a slow simmer. It really didn’t get good or pick up until 80% into the book. “All The Dangerous Things” had a very strong plot, it just wasn’t executed well in the beginning of the book. This was character driven and plot driven and very enticing once you got to that 80% mark. Things that were said about motherhood have left their mark on me and what the author was trying to talk about with this book was things that needed to be said. Stellar material, just needed better execution. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

All The Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

This book is the meaning of a mothers worst nightmare.
Imagine, going to bed one night. Like any other night . But when you wake up, you take advantage of the quiet. You make yourself breakfast, and drink a hot coffee. All this before your child wakes up. Just some time to yourself before you have to take parental responsibility again . After a while you check the time and feel uneasy about the time. So you go to check on your 18 month old . . Hes gone . No where to be found . Police spin that morning entirely . They blame you for your sons dissapearance.
One year later, and you still haven't given up hope. Despite being told that at this point, its more likely to be a body recovery . Despite your husband coming to peace with this and leaving you behind . Despite not being able to sleep since he left .
After all .. what kind of mother wouldn't wake up . Wouldn't feel something isn't right .

This is such a heart breakingly hard read. Especially for me. I have a 3 year old and couldn't imagine how much Id also blame myself if something happened to my children . Every feeling the mother has - did he struggle? Did he cry ? Was he scared ? Is he alive ? Did he know the person ? They are feelings that will break every mothers heart while reading .

However despite the beautiful story. The book was very slow .. not much actually happening until around 80%

I loved the feeling of n unreliable narrator. Not sure if she was in fact crazy . Or justified.

Wow. This book was suspenseful with so many twists and turns. Isabelle and Ben's son Mason has been missing for a year. Isabelle isn't sleeping as she's grieving her missing son and trying to figure out what happened to him. I don't want to give out any spoilers so I won't say too much. Just know that this story will keep your attention. Just when I thought I knew what happened, another twist would come up. The story and multiple plots that seemed unrelated but they all came together in the end. Great read!

Summary: After her toddler son, Mason, is taken from their home one night, Isabelle Drake will stop at nothing to find him. One year later, and she is more determined than ever that she will be able to figure out who took him. As she pursues every true crime panel around the country in hopes it will draw the kidnapper out, a true crime podcaster approaches her about sharing her story. As his questions begin to draw suppressed memories to the surface, Isabelle questions who she can trust, and if those closest to her might be harboring their own secrets.

Thoughts: I loved this book! It kept me enthralled from the moment I picked it up until I read the very last page. Unlike a lot of thrillers I have read lately where the middle begins to drag, the pacing in this book was outstanding, with clues and twists coming every so often throughout the book. Although not for everyone, I really enjoy an unreliable narrator. It adds yet another level to the mystery and you, as the reader, have to parse out what is the actual truth versus what the narrator believes to be the true.

The character development is also excellent in this book with each of the characters fully flushed out from their past all the way through to their present. And most importantly, everything connects and makes sense. I understood what made each of these characters tick, why they made the decisions they made, and how that resulted in certain repercussions.

Read if you like:
•domestic suspense
•twisty thrillers
•unreliable narrators
•true crime podcasts

While I really enjoyed the author’s previous book A Flicker In the Dark, it has nothing on this one. I have become a major fan of Stacy Willingham and cannot wait to see what she comes out with next. She has become my newest auto-buy author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Available on January 10, 2023.

I could not put this down. I HAD to know what happened and I empathized with the main character and felt she was a very believable character.

A parents' worst nightmare...your child is kidnapped.

The guilt, the horror, the longing never stops.

And to top it off people think Isabelle staged the kidnapping and killed her son.

Isabelle hasn't slept more than a few hours since her son was taken from his room in the middle of the night while she slept through it all.

She feels she can't sleep in case he comes back...she can't believe she didn't hear anything that night.

Isabelle has been on a speaking tour about her nightmare in hopes that the kidnapper will show up in the audience.

On the anniversary of the kidnapping, her husband who left six months after their son was gone showed up.

She thought it hadn’t affected him, but it did.

He also had something else to tell her, though. He has moved on and was seeing someone.

As Isabelle continues her sleepless nights and traveling for her speaking engagements, she meets a pod caster on the plane who poses a question in hopes that Isabelle will agree to doing a podcast about the crime.

This podcast brings up Isabelle's childhood and her life now. As she invites him into her home she thinks…just who is this pod caster who came out of nowhere to hunt her down and badger her until she said yes?

Something happened in her childhood that was traumatic.

Could the kidnapping be as traumatic as the childhood incident?

Could she really be responsible for her child's disappearance as everyone thinks?

Even though there were surprises, secrets, revelations, and ending pages definitely worth the wait, ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS dragged.

BUT…if you are willing to wait for the fabulous ending and wrap up, this book will be a VERY satisfying read

I had it slated as a 3/5, but the ending was so brilliant and different, I brought it up to a 4/5.

Don't Miss It!!

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

Ok for a slow burn, this book managed to be completely gripping. Ms. Williams seamlessly weaves together past and present, suspense and drama, heartache and suspicion. This is my second book by her and I'll now be blind buying everything she publishes going forward. Buy this on publication day for your first five star read of 2023!

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s press for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

This was my first read for Stacey Willingham and I thoroughly enjoyed it! The writing style keeps you hooked and if you’re like me, I was guessing until the very end.

The story of a troubled mom/unreliable narrator and a kidnapped baby. This was an unpredictable, intense ride.

This was my first Stacy Willingam book, and I loved it! Unreliable narrators are usually hit or miss for me (often miss, to be honest) - but this book nailed it! I was invested from page 1, and shockingly did not see the end coming at all - another rarity for me. I also really enjoyed the interspersing of a variety of themes throughout the book (mental health, loss of child, infertility, marriage challenges, grief, etc.). I went in wanting a solid thriller read, and came out delightfully surprised that it was that and so much more! Thanks so much to NetGalley and the author for the ARC.

When Isabelle wakes one morning to find her 18 month old son missing from him crib she literally won't sleep until she finds out what happened to him. A year after his disappearance and still no closer to finding her son, it seems everyone is moving forward except for Isabelle. When Waylon approaches her about telling her story on his podcast, she is hesitant at first but decides she can use all the help being offered. As truths are discovered, Isabelle finds that nothing and more importantly no one is what she thought (including herself).

"All the Dangerous Things" is an amazing story that kept me guessing until the end! Stacy Willingham proves she is an exceptional author by following up one of 2022's best thrillers "A Flicker in the Dark' with what I expect will be one of 2023's best thrillers! I loved this book and will keep looking to Stacy Willingham for great reads!

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read "All the Dangerous Things" in exchange for my review.

This is my second Willingham book and while I figured out the plot of the last one pretty quickly, I adored the writing style and the theme of the mystery itself so I just had to pick this one up.

Willingham definitely kept me guessing more with this one and while I did have my suspicions about certain characters that turned out right - this was so much more intense than her last book. I loved how she portrayed the feelings of new motherhood and a mother's desperate search for her missing son. There were a lot of twists and turns along with the element of if the narrator is unreliable or not.

This was a bit of a slower-paced thriller but the elements within it had me drawn into the story and wanting to know more. As always I love her writing style and her ability to create these plots/characters that keep you reading. I liked how it was wrapped up and the author's note at the end gave me more respect for the author for writing this story and doing a lot of research into the mental health side of it.

Overall, if you were a fan of A Flicker in the Dark - definitely give this one a shot. It ended up being a 4-star read for be due to guessing some of the twists again but the story itself was interesting and twisty.

⭐️: 4/5

Ever since Isabelle’s son was taken from his room in the middle of the night a year ago, she has been unable to sleep, other than small “micro sleeps” throughout the day, keeping her alive. She continues to do what she can to find leads to her son’s disappearance, even when the police start to give it up as a cold case, including being interviewed by a true crime podcaster, hoping to reach new audiences. However, as the podcaster’s questions start getting increasingly personal, Isabelle starts remembering her childhood, and begins to doubt her own recollections and assumptions.

I really enjoyed this psychological thriller/mystery book. The author’s note at the end sums up what I liked so much about the book really nicely, in that Willingham was attracted to the concept of analyzing the guilt that women are conditioned into feeling by society, particularly concerning motherhood. The portrayal of many different types of flawed and interesting women, while also keeping the reader guessing about what happened to Mason, made a great reading experience. One of the caveats of this however, is that I find the common thriller trope of the main female character being disbelieved for being too “hysterical” or having “let herself go” to be frustratingly redundant sometimes, when compared to other similarly themed thrillers. I certainly felt that way at points throughout this book, and it moderately stopped the story from feeling fresh and new. Overall though, I found All the Dangerous Things to be a more entertaining and better structured thriller than A Flicker in the Dark, which is saying something, because the latter is one of the BOTM Book of the Year nominees. The twists were relatively unexpected, and the flashbacks into the past really lent themselves well to providing context for the current storyline.

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!!

A story of the unimaginable--a kidnapped baby--with a troubled mother, whose first-person narrative weaves a yarn of sleeplessness, loss, and despair. Determined to turn her trauma into something of value, Isabelle has reinvented herself as a motivational speaker, but at night she is unable to sleep, unable to trust, and unable to move on. A brisk beginning draws the reader into Isabelle's world, and her unreliable world. As shadowy memories emerge, she begins to wonder what she remembers--and who she can trust. A twisty pleasure.

A very strong sophomore novel by Stacy Willinghan that I couldn’t put down!!

Synopsis: For the past year Isabelle Drake has been searching for her missing son who was taken in the middle of the night from his bedroom. Sleep deprived and desperate for a lead, Isabelle agrees to work with a true crime podcaster and hosts him in her home. However, all this digging starts to bring up secrets from the past, and Izzy starts to second guess who she can trust… including herself

Thoughts: This was well-written, unpredictable, and one wild ride. I am not usually a fan of the unreliable narrator/ crazy mom trope but the Stacy Willingham made it work. I really enjoyed learning about Izzy’s relationships with the other characters, especially her ex husband and parents, and seeing how it all tied together. There were also flashbacks to Izzy’s childhood, which added an extra layer of suspense and eerie vibes. I had many predictions when reading and while some were correct, there were many twists that I was surprised by!

Read if you like:
-True crime podcasts
-Atmospheric settings
-Kidnapping stories
-Past/ present timelines

Pub date" 1/10/23

Willingham's debut, A Flicker in the Dark, was one of my favorite books of 2022. I was unbelievably excited to get my hands on All the Dangerous Things. I will say, missing child/"crazy" mom is not one of my favorite storylines, so I was a bit apprehensive.

Ultimately, this one played out different than how I expected and I did end up enjoying it and will certainly be eager to see what Willingham does next!

Thank you to Minotaur/SMP for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

This woman has done it again with the rollercoaster of story. l am so grateful to have been able to read this ARC. Without giving anything away this book had me on the edge of my seat wondering wtf was going on. Cant wait to have this book on my shelf beside A Flicker In The Dark.

Listen, I would probably read Stacy Willingham's grocery lists if asked. So maybe I'm a little biased when I say this was one of my favorite books of the year so far. It was without hesitation a five star read for me. I LOVE a side character plot twist. I didn't see it coming. I had my doubts about the father, but I absolutely did not see the ending coming. Run, don't walk, to get your copy on publication day.

Okkkkkk Stacy Willingham, you got me! I was completely blindsided by the twist and conclusion- I never saw it coming! This was an interesting premise and features a dual plotline. I thought they both added to each other in a fantastic way! This was well written and I was completely caught off guard by the reveal. Well done!