I was drawn to the description of the book and the premise of a mystery in an iconic theme park. With elements of a cult and nod to 60s mysticism, as well as cutting edge AI technology, the story becomes less a mystery and more of a cosmic question. Surrealist and dreamy, it was definitely a strange read, but one I’ll remember.

2.6/5 - *Free NetGalley review copy* Great concept of a detailed amusement park (cute map included) w/ a haunted aura after a celeb commits suicide there. The telling is rather jumbled like it started as a teen English project (given the childish infatuation w/ the place) but then revisited by a grad student who too often makes simple things sound fantastically confusing. Though the MC is a girl who escaped some cultish family, she comes across like a wistful old man, content only to admire the park’s engineering and act tired and strange. The type of guy who vaguely warns travelers in horror movies not to head into town. Her roommate Brooke is a good foil, a blunt Australian who doesn’t seem suited to be a teacher but is funny with their judgmental theories. I’d rather her POV w/ its modernity, combativeness, and forward assessments.

At the End of Everyday by Arianna Reiche

Characters: 2/5
Plot: 2/5
Pace: 4/5
Overall Enjoyment: 2/5

I am terribly sorry but I honestly was more confused by the end of the book than I was in the beginning. The blurb sounded like this would be right up my alley but there were so many strange things going on. The narrative can be convoluted at times the way it goes between the park and the letters from Delphi’s brother. I get that Delphi wears gloves to hide the scars but it is talked about a lot in the book. The chapters are longer than I am used to but overall I would honestly say I am not the projected reviewer for this book.


Thank you to NetGalley as well s the author and publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

After the tragic death of a celebrity on its grounds, a theme park must close down permanently. Delphi and a small contingent of staff are tasked with wrapping up operations. Meanwhile, one of the staff exchanges letters with his sister about the strange occurrences at the park.

It discusses religious cults, wildfires, and eerily human-like robots.

Usually, the weirder a book is, the more I love it. But this one had me confused nearly all the way through. It has a mind-bending quality, making it hard to tell what’s really going on. The ending took the sense of unreality to the next level.

I did enjoy one of the sibling’s POVs.

Avid theme park lovers might enjoy this mind-bender of a novel.

2.5.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an arc via Netgalley.

https://booksandwheels.com

I was really intrigued by the idea of this book -- creepy amusement park, Hollywood actress's mysterious death, etc. -- it all sounded like a good starting place for a novel. I stuck it out and read it all, hoping it would sort of make sense by the time I got to the end, but for me it never really clicked. Maybe it's not my genre, but my hunch is it is just confusing for many others as well. The further I got into the book the more confused I got -- unknown people on the grounds of the amusement park, secrets hidden within/behind/under the rides, the boyfriend -- what does he know? What is happening in the world outside the amusement park? Delphi with the gloves all the time -- it took a long time to explain that. I found it all just a really strange plot. For me this was a no, and I can't think of any people I would recommend it to (maybe my friends have similar reading tastes, but I can't really think of who this book would resonate with).

I thought the concept of this debut horror novel was extremely promising, but the execution left something to be desired. The theme park the plot revolves around, a kind of dark Disneyland, is wonderful to read about, but the characters have few redeeming qualities. I especially struggled with our protagonist "Delphi" and her frustrating immaturity. Other reviews have compared "At The End Of Every Day" to Iain Reid's novels and while that may have been what it is aiming for, the writing compares in comparison to Reid.

This is hard to review for me. I had extremely high expectations because the comparison to Iain Reid made me super excited. And there’s definitely some of that here.

That said, at about the halfway point, I thought to myself, I really hope this isn’t going where I think it’s going. And it did. It did so in a unique way and there was a nice extra at the end. But it left me wishing it was a different book. I wanted it to be an Iain Reid book where the emotional part was more impactful and the horror elements were less… actual horror? That might sound weird but I thought - despite the twists and weirdness - it was too straightforward. It felt like sci-fi horror and it was with some unique elements.

I think a lot of people will like this - and I definitely liked it. But I wanted to love it and the more genre-specific elements were just too genre-typical for me, I suppose?

It’s very hard to review this in an articulate way. Because my specific issues were basically just a personal disappointment that I wasn’t reading another Iain Reid book and that’s no one’s fault. I doubt anyone else will be disappointed in that - he’s just my favorite author right now and that bar is VERY hard to reach.

SPECIFICS NOT POSTED PUBLICLY:

I loved the idea of her being trapped and time passing but her not facing it. My concern was solely that I didn’t want there to be any horror or supernatural element. So the whole Renata thing and the cult just felt disappointing to me. Again, this is just because I love Iain Reid so much that I was so hoping for another “horror” that was just essentially sad and about mental health.

I changed this from 4 to 5 stars because it definitely sticks with you. And I don’t think anyone else will be sad that they’re not reading their favorite book again. I was just a bit disappointed that I didn’t love this as much as Iain Reid’s books - and that’s a silly standard.

This had a whole lot going on and even though it could get a bit confusing, I really enjoyed it. The only time it got a bit much was towards the end. I found things got a bit muddled with all the different themes coming together at once and so much happening, but it was still good. I just kind of had to accept these things were happening without thinking about it too much, if that makes sense.

I would have liked more of a look at what was happening outside of the park beyond the letters, I think that would have been interesting.

Thanks to Net Galley for an advanced copy. When I heard this was for fans of Iain Reid, I was quite excited.

The book was a tad confusing. At times I lost track of what character was who. There were also some passages that I feel mirrored other passages in the same chapter. I liked it and it's an interesting premise, I'm just not so sure about the execution. I definitely didn't love it.

DNF.

Got to a little more than 30% and I was bored out of my mind.
The chapters were so long, which is fine if you can grab my attention, but when you can’t…no.
The writing was confusing as well. Sometimes I was questioning which time period I was reading about and who was writing the letters back and forth to each other.

It’s a cool concept and an interesting backdrop of a theme park, which is what initially peaked my interest on wanting to read it, but I was under the impression that it was more of a murder mystery/who done it type of thing and by 30% I was able to figure out that it was going in a totally different direction - one that made me roll my eyes and officially say “I’m not finishing this.” Lol

Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books, and the author, Arianna Reiche, for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really liked the theme park setting and the main character’s love of it. For me, though, that is about as good as this book got. All the other stuff going on, I never really latched onto too much. There was some good creepy vibes as things built up, but the payoff and end wasn’t all that great for me. I do feel some people would really like this story as a whole, and there was enough here for me to put it at 3 stars instead of 2, but sadly overall this ended up a bit lacking.

Note: arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for honest review

Wow, this book is easily one of my favorites this year, especially if you're a fan of good weird books by authors like Mona Awad, Iain Reed, Karen Tidbeck, and others. The story follows the slow and unsettling closure of a Disneyesque theme park, narrated by Delphi, an employee who has an unhealthy attachment to the place and its mystique. At the end of each chapter, we're treated to letters exchanged between siblings Catherine and her brother "bro," which reveal the dark and deeply weird history of the park, along with warnings to stay away.

Debut author Ariana Reiche delivers a great main narrative through protagonist Delphi, using dreamy sentences and weaving in quick flashbacks of childhood trauma amidst vivid descriptions of the decaying theme park. What adds to the intrigue is that Delphi becomes increasingly unreliable as a narrator, subtly hinting at inconsistencies that challenge the facts presented. This creates an overall unsettling experience in the best possible way.

The book is sprinkled with mysteries surrounding the park, including the true reason behind its closure, which goes beyond the death of an actress initially mentioned. It also introduces uncanny AI, enigmatic founders of the theme park, and highlights the significance of setting as a character and driving force in the story.

This book held my attention so strongly that I finished it in just two days. However, if you're not a fan of unsettling and occasionally confusing or ambiguous books, this may not be for you. But if you enjoy the best kind of weirdness in books, keep an eye out for this debut release on July 4th, 2023. I would like to express my gratitude to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with the opportunity to read the ARC.

This is probably closer to a 3.75 but for the sheer audacity of this story I will gladly round it up to 4 stars.

What if Disney was darker? More sinister? A little bit unhinged? What if never wanting to leave the happiest place on earth... had its consequences?

Okay so the setting of this book is The Park, but its BLATANTLY obvious that it is modeled after Disney. I hope Disney execs actually read this book and use it as a blueprint of what not to do in the future, should they ever consider going down this path. Reiche has constructed an absolutely BONKERS story. I found myself reading it with a perpetual "wtf" face because, seriously, WTF. It is definitely a story that seems to be going down several unrelated paths, and that can be confusing at times, and there were times when I thought parts of the narrative were unnecessary, but Reiche ties it all together in the end with a very unexpected bow.

This story is unsettling. Much of that has to do with the fact that the narrative is a little convoluted and it moves between a day in the park and letters between an unknown brother and sister that further lay out the creepy narrative. But its also unsettling in its setting. Reiche does an incredible job of demystifying theme park rides and spaces. She does an amazing job of forcing the reader to see the unseen, the see what should not be seen. She forces the reader to be made uncomfortable by these things in a way that was genius. If you're a Disney fan, or a fan of any type of theme park, you know there are secrets, whether that be in the way its designed or how the staff moves around. All of this is flayed open for the reader and it is... uncomfortable. To think about the inner workings of a park that is supposed to be magical and mystical. To see it with the lights on (this is an overarching theme and it... does kind of make your skin crawl). Its unnatural. Much like this park itself.

There is something... I dont want to say supernatural going on, but otherworldly. And its dangerous in that its unknowable and unseeable. And its not until the very end that you understand to what extent.

Also, never have I been more taken aback by the use of a books title in the text. I usually find that comforting or like a little wink from the author. NOT HERE.

I really wanted to like this book!! Everything about it sounded right up my alley, ThemeParks and murder but it fell flat. This is a slow burn, so it was hard for me to get into and by the time it picked up I had lost a lot of my interest. This has such potential and I might go back and read again but would have to skip some of it. Thanks, NetGalley for the ARC.

This one was really hard for me to judge.

It starts out with an interesting idea: a once-famous and beloved Southern California theme park (the author tries really hard to describe Disneyland without actually saying Disneyland) that is closing up because of a disastrous incident involving a famous young starlet’s death at the park during the opening of a land devoted to a movie starring her. The main character, Delphi, and her boyfriend are among the last of the employees to stay for the final weeks of the park to usher in its closing and guide around VIP groups and tour groups given permission to visit the non-closed parts of the park. Then weird thing start happening.

And in between the chapters of Delphi’s stream-of-consciousness narration of her days at the park, we read letters between a brother and sister describing weird things leading up to the fateful opening of the land opening and such.

It seems good right?

But the action is pretty slow-moving at first, and Delphi and Brendan, the boyfriend, never actually seem to be doing any actual work at the park, which you never get a good read on, because there’s so many names of areas and rides being thrown around, it’s hard to keep track. Then power! Things seem to just rocket forward. It’s really just kind of a lot, especially since the “solution” is kind of complicated and involves some technical issues to bring it all together.

It’s not that I didn’t like the book. It’s just that I think it could have been a little bit better organized to make it easier to follow and to keep the pace more even.

From the first page of At the End of Every Day, I was all-in. This book was an uneasy ride, and I mean that in the very best way.

My thanks to both NetGalley and Atria Books for an advanced copy of this book dealing with the fantasy that theme parks give to our lives, and the darkness that lurks in underground tunnels or Utilidors that lie below the sight of visitors.

Maybe it is the fact that a certain mouse mascot, created by Ub Iwerks, not the owner of the company, controls so much of the media we watch, or that its theme parks are supposed to be magical and happy, but a lot of books are starting to appear with theme parks as a setting. And why not. They promise, for a large price, joy, happiness, smiles, rides ,thrills, and a sense that unlike the country of America things still work. I have never been, nor ever really wanted to go, that forced happiness of the employees seemed so mean to me, and a life in retail makes me feel bad for those people. However I understand the draw, but can see the darkness that lies behind it all. I can imagine when the park closes, doors opening and creatures coming from tunnels, moving garbage, fixing rides, engaging in strange rites and stranger conversations. A person who has never belonged could find a home here, a place of safety even as it closes all around, and stranger things than usual keep happening. At the End of Every Day a debut novel by Arianna Reiche is about a theme park, it's closing, and the oddness that one character notices as the rides are shut down.

Delphine, known as Delphi had a rough early life that left her with scars on her hands and soul, and a feeling of being an outsider. Delphi has found a haven in California, in a theme park that has a history that no one can really agree on, but loves her job of repairing amusement park rides. The job has also given her a boyfriend, and life is looking better for her. Until a Hollywood starlet dies in the park, videos of which keep appearing on numerous media platforms, no matter how quickly the park's lawyers try to pull them down. So the order is given to close the park. Delhi now spends her days watching fellow employees disappear as they are let go, and watching her boyfriend slowly change. As employees go, strange visitors are starting to appear in the park and other things are starting to happen, leaving Delphi confused about what is happening.

A very atmospheric slow burn of a novel, that might not be for everyone. There is a bit going on with few different narrative paths, Delphi now, Delphine growing up in the Midwest, and two other characters who share letters with each other about what is happening in the park, and what it could mean. The plot takes a while to get moving, and does not offer jump scares, but more a mood of wrongness, that fills every page. Delphi is an interesting character with a past that is slowly revealed, and a bigger part in the story than even she expects. I have seen a lot of authors compared to these book, but the one author I think of most is Jonathan Carroll, Carroll is also a slow builder, moving the plot with weirdness and uncomfortable thoughts, before hitting people near the end with the crux of the story. The writing is a little detached, as fits the story, but carries a few big wallops that surprise, and well as make a reader emotioinal.

A dark kind of thirller, an anti-beach read, but one that should be read in the sunlight. Not a story for everyone, but a story for people who like the slow build, the hint of bad things, and feel uncomfortable around theme parks.

I really loved At the End of Every Day and its tale of a run-down theme park. It was spooky at times, funny at others.

A powerful and atmospheric debut novel and one that keeps you hooked from START to FINISH! the visual of the swirling roller coaster captured on the cover is brought to life through the pages of this book and it leaves behind a haunting an eerie imprint.

While painting a vivid picture of her love for theme parks, Arianna Reiche is also inviting the reader to explore the mechanisms behind the theme park and the chicanery that they can cause on individuals.

Fasten your shoulder harness and keep your hands and feet inside the coaster car at all times, this book is going to be an adrenaline filled experience!

Haunting is right. At the End of Every Day is definitely a vibe.

This is book is spooky and uneasy. Partly the story of Delphi, a current theme park employee, part flash backs to Delphi's past, and part ominous letters exchanged between siblings, At the End of Every day is doing a lot. And that is before we get to the cults, clones, and conclusion.

The setting is amazing. Lovers of theme parks will appreciate all the quirky little details included in the descriptions. Lovers of spooky vibes will appreciate the adventures that take place.

The issue for me was that it was difficult to tie everything together. I tend to prefer novels where everything is wrapped up and explained, but I finished At the End of Every Day feeling dissatisfied. It's entirely possible that I missed something and that smarter people will find everything they need to complete all the puzzles within the confines of the pages.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC.