Hot Springs Drive, the newest release from Roxane Gay’s imprint, is the story of two best friends, Jackie and Theresa. Only Theresa is murdered in the opening of this book and her death has direct ties to Jackie.

I don’t want to spoil what happened here and why, but you find that out pretty early on. This isn’t a mystery for the reader; we see the fuller picture sooner than the character. Rather, this is a character driven novel about hunger, desire, and the dark side of suburbia. We get chapters from the POV of many people affected by the murder and can trace its affects in many different ways.

This is a dark novel with gorgeous writing that peels back layer after layer, unveiling the inner workings of the characters and some ugly truths. This publishes on Tuesday, and I recommend checking it out if literary noir/mystery is your thing. Thank you to the publisher
for the chance to read this ahead of publication.


⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

HOT SPRINGS DRIVE
Lindsay Hunter

Did you read that synopsis? That is a phenomenal synopsis.

A slow burn that turns into a wildfire as hungry as the flames that consume it.

In HOT SPRINGS DRIVE we are following Theresa and Jackie. They are friends. Theresa and Jackie have a unique bond. They have a friendship built around a shared desire to be anything other than themselves.

We are also following a rapturous hunger, and everything devoured within. The two concepts run parallel and cannot be separated.

I was mid-sentence, mid-paragraph, a passage that took up the entire screen of my reader and I asked myself: Where am I? Why is this sentence so long? Why do I know the answer yet have so many questions?

HOT SPRINGS DRIVE doesn’t play by the rules. It’s a thriller, and there is a mystery, but the book is not confined to those genres. It’s written to an unusual cadence. It creates a propulsive experience. Like free diving.

At one point I couldn’t stop reading, five words later I couldn’t read another word.

Initially, I gave HSD four stars. I was angry with the difference between the before and the after. In a way, the plot folds in on itself, a crescendo misplaced. But days later I started to think about the book in a different way. Who am I to say the conclusion is the end?

Read it and tell me what you think!

The writing in HOT SPRINGS DRIVE is outstanding and stole the show. I highly recommend it to readers who are more inclined to pass on a thriller book. HOT SPRINGS DRIVE is the exception to the rule.

HOT SPRINGS DRIVE comes out November 7th, 2023. Pick it up where books are sold.

Thanks to Netgalley, Grove Atlantic, and Roxane Gay Books for the advanced copy! It was a pleasure!

HOT SPRINGS DRIVE…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A brutal glance into the mind of a woman!
🌟🌟🌟🌟
Hot Springs Drive is an incredible book that delves into the lives of two women. Best friends who navigate new motherhood together.

It isn’t filled with mystery or thrillers. More of a steady flow of daily life struggles, wants, needs and addictive behavior. Even though they are besties, Theresa chooses her own desires over their dependable connection.

Their story explores obsessive and destructive behavior that results in devastating betrayal. This is a brutal glance into the mind of a woman! Intense characters are described in detail.

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A literary thriller about murder - where you know who did it from the beginning and hear from everyone involved. Theresa is dead but this is less her story than it is about Jackie and the rest. It's totally character driven and at times a bit of a challenge because it's nonlinear, among other things. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Points to Hunter for bringing the genre to the literary fiction crowd but those who are looking for a fast paced twisty read might look elsewhere.

<I>Hot Springs Drive</i> is about the interwoven lives of two families, the Lindens and the Stinsons. Theresa Linden catches her best friend and neighbor, Jackie Stinson, having an affair with her husband. The next day, Theresa is found dead in her garage.
This book navigates back and forth between many different point of views, giving us a deep look in to each character’s life, actions, and true thoughts. In part one, readers get to know the characters before the murder occurs and in part two, readers see how the characters have moved on after Theresa’s death. While there is murder in this story, it is much less of a “who” did it story and more of a “why”. Why did Theresa have to die? What was the motivating factor?
In true literary fiction fashion, there is very little plot progression to drive this story forward. Instead, this story is all about the characters: their actions, yes, but also their wants, needs, desires, and wrong-doings. I would even go so far as to call this book a character study.
Unfortunately, for me, this story <I>needed</i> more plot to pull it forward because the characters weren’t enough. They weren’t interesting enough and I couldn’t find a way to care about a single one of them. In addition to my overall lack of interest, I found the formatting of the book sloppy and unorganized.

I really saw the potential in it so maybe I just wasn't in the right head space to read this but man, did it drag... Proven by the fact that it took me a week to finish 300 pages.

Amazing. Raw. Honest. Dark. Hot Springs Drive follows two women who meet at the hospital after giving birth and end up being best friends and neighbors. We get to meet their families and struggles leading to the tragedy that shake both families. The storytelling consists of many POV's to get to know each character but I have to say I loved Jackie's voice, not because she was likeable, but because she was brutally honest and dark and human. Definitely check trigger warnings before picking up this book, and if you do, you won't regret it. The writing was another level, I'm excited to read more of this author.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publishers for the eARC. (Yes, I requested this book because it's from Roxane Gay's publishing company. I'll read whatever Roxane recommends, it's my personal rule.)

What a mind melt. I cannot talk about this book enough. But if I do, it'll spoil all the goodness. Highly recommend.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic, Roxane Gay Books, and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

Lindsay Hunter is truly one of my favorite authors. In this book, she examines the complex ripple effect that infidelity and tragedy can have on families. I love how Hunter weaves the perspectives of each family member into one cohesive and tragic tale. Her skillful storytelling really pulls you in and parts of this book will stick with me for a long time. A one-of-a-kind novel.

Incredible atmosphere, wonderful character writing. I was hooked from start to finish. Highly recommended to readers of all genres.

4.5

How exciting: Roxanne Gay has her own publishing company now—and this book is one of the gems she chose to give us! It did not disappoint.

Two women meet in a maternity ward and end up living across the street from each other. Their friendship is rich. One of the women, Jackie, has a bunch of boy-kids and is empty and unhappy; the other one, Theresa, has only one kid, a daughter, and is happy and centered. Jackie, who is not sophisticated or staid, is the main character and is so sad and iffy and intense. She adores Theresa. They join a weight-loss program together and are thick as thieves. That’s all I’ll say about what happens because I don’t want to spoil anything.

The story is about a crime, but it’s also about friendship and adultery in the ‘burbs. Although this is listed as a thriller, it’s not really one. There is a crime, yes, and right off the bat you know which person has been murdered. But you don’t know who did it, and the book keeps the suspense turned up until the middle of the book, when you learn what happened. One reviewer called it a cross between domestic noir and literary fiction, and I couldn’t agree more.

More than anything, this book is a killer-good character study. After the crime is revealed, we learn about each family member’s reaction and how it affected their lives; each character gets their own chapter. The author shows such insight into human behavior and knows how to keep us riveted. She makes each person come alive. There are several teens, and the author does a really good job of getting inside their heads. The writing is just superb.

My only complaint is that after the reveal in the middle of the book, the pace does slow down. Up to that point, I was so immersed, I didn’t want to take breaks. I did love the second half of the book, too, but it wasn’t as cohesive. It’s slower and doesn’t have suspense, which I had grown to love in the first half.

There’s some raunch (several low-grade sex scenes), and it fits in with the tone of the book, which is a little noir-ish.

When I think of this book I think of friendship, motherhood, bad decisions, wound-tight teens, basic husbands, lust, a broken mom, suburbia, and of course, a crime.

This book works. Going in, I was worried it might be another ho-hum, unsophisticated thriller, but it was so much more. It has such psychological depth, and the writing is ever so sharp. Even now, a month later, I think back fondly on it, all excited to check out the author’s earlier work. And of course, now I want to keep my eye out for new books from Roxanne Gay’s publishing venture.

Note: Don’t read the blurb, as it gives one key point away.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Publication date: November 7, 2023

Hot Springs Drive starts out like a modern day women’s lit book. Jackie and Theresa meet at the hospital after giving birth and they end up as best friends and neighbors on Hot Springs Drive. But….things take a dark turn!
Hot Springs Drive is an intensely character-driven novel. I loved the writing and the author’s many clever observations, such as Cece’s thoughts about her father’s hair dye: “She wanted to find a way to tell him, to help him understand that the cheap hair dye wasn’t doing him any favors.”
The story is told by a variety of narrators, mostly key characters but an occasional stray one thrown in (like Jessica Bender and The Investigative Journalist). It’s also told over an extended time period, up to the adulthood of the children, and that, at times was confusing to me (since there were fairly large undefined gaps of time). There are a lot of potential triggers: disordered eating, dysfunctional families, infidelity, and, of course, murder!
Thanks to Netgalley and Roxane Gay Books for the opportunity to read Hot Springs Drive in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting format for a novel in the mystery/thriller genre. Intriguing but didn’t quite work for me. Some of the propulsion that I wanted is lacking here.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review. I stopped and started this book five times and I just found myself unable to continue. I could not get into it and it may be because the ending was revealed in the first chapter. I'm not sure but thank you for the opportunity and your consideration.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Two mothers who are neighbors become best friends. They diet together, hang out, their kids start dating--all-American perfection. Then one of them begins a torrid affair with the other's husband, one ends up dead, and their families struggle to go on.

This was difficult to get through. I did not connect with any of the characters. The story was strange and not enjoyable.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I’m beyond happy I requested an early ecopy of this one. It first came on my radar when I saw an author talk about it on Instagram… since then I really haven’t seen anyone talk about it and I’m hoping to see start popping up now that we are getting closer to pub day.

This one won’t be for many but the story… the characters and Lindsay’s writing style held my attention the entire time. With knowing very little about the premise I started this one and found myself half way through it by the afternoon. With shifting POVS and timelines I was invested… the writing has a bit of you know what’s coming but you just don’t know how it’s going to play out vibe.

An odd comparison but I kept thinking… these families… this situation… could be a season of Shameless… which I love that show. Similar to Shameless in ways of OMG IS THIS HAPPENING…

I’m excited for others to read this and hear their thoughts!

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted ecopy!

This book will stick with me if only because it was so unusual. Although marketed as a "twisting literary page-turner" I'd say "literary" is the most apt of those descriptors given that you find out who did it pretty early on and the why-done-it, though saved for the very end, isn't something that really requires a definite explanation and isn't much of a twist when you get to it.

To some extent what you get instead is a character study, and a look at a crime from all angles that reminded me of a true crime documentary where you hear from the main people involved, but also a bunch of randos. The standout rando is a classmate of the murdered woman's daughter, who decides one day to hang out with the daughter and takes her to the mall, where a happenstance meeting occurs that we don't hear anything else about despite its seeming significance.

Ideally this type of approach would lend a puzzle-solving aspect to this story, wherein each perspective adds clarity until by the end you have a complete and satisfying picture. Instead, as in the previous example, it felt sometimes like padding the wordcount until this became novel-length. We even hear from the killer in a chapter that adds shockingly little to any overall understanding of the whole situation. The most clearly drawn character is Jackie, who is unlikable in a mildly interesting way, a descriptor I could use for most of the other characters. Like with the killer POV, you hope to glean some insight into each character's motivations that gives them depth beyond being ordinary people behaving selfishly, but that is mostly absent in the narrative. Instead you will spend this book hanging out with people who suck in different ways, and are sympathetic mostly only in that they have to deal with the actions of other people who are worse.

This book took a big stylistic swing and, though it didn't entirely work for me, I have to respect the effort to do something different in both the literary fiction and domestic crime/thriller genres. A solid three star.

My thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

'hunger has a lot of names: loneliness, boredom, fear, anxiety, trauma. All of these are hunger in search of satisfaction'.

Jackie and Theresa meet at the maternity ward and become inseparable best friends. They even live next door to each other. But while Theresa seems to enjoy the daily routine of domesticity, not buried by it, Jackie is slowly eaten away by both the burden of responsibility and the gnawing guilt for being unfulfilled by motherhood. As the kids grow up and middle age sets in, their waistlines burgeon out and they decide to 'Get Skinny' together. It is here, that Jackie has an epiphany: the emptiness she was filling with food could be filled with something else, 'Instead of hunger I'd call it desire. That was my starting point'. However, despite luring Theresa's husband Adam into adultery, their increasingly lustful affair also fails to fulfill her. None of this matters though once Theresa discovers their secret.

'Hot Springs Drive' is a work of literary fiction centered around a domestic thriller. We know within the first couple of chapters who is killed and it becomes increasingly obvious who is likely to have done it. This book is not a thriller of the unforeseen but rather a character study of all the family members. Each chapter has a different viewpoint. We gain insight into each person's perspective on their family's dynamics, and the mundanity of life. 'It's easy to look back, after everything that will happen, and assume that there was some deeper meaning...'.

This book took me by surprise. I was expecting a traditional thriller but got a unique read with complexity. The heart of the book is dark and disturbing but ultimately it is a journey toward self-discovery. A great book for readers who enjoy character-driven stories and aren't perturbed by dark, indulgent behaviour.

One of my favourite books of 2023. I loved everything about it, from the characterisation through to the plot.
The book centres around a murder but the murder itself is just a paragraph, it instead tells the story leading up to the incident and the aftermath from different viewpoints, layering the shocking and sad with the ordinary.
A truly original voice and a fascinating plot - each character resonates but the friendship between Jacqui and Theresa is especially recognisable.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. This novel publishes on 11/4/23.

I was not familiar with any of the author's previous works, but was excited to read a novel that combines literary fiction with suspense/crime.

This was a pretty quick read for me, and I enjoyed the pacing and was interested to find out how all the characters fared at the end of the novel. I can't say that I found any of the characters very likeable, but I generally don't rate a book based on that anyways. This is a well-written novel, which is not always the case with suspense/buzzy books.

I wish there had been some more time delving into Douglas's character. I think there could've been more backstory or time focusing on his motivations for his actions. The basics were there, but I think his character needed more fleshing out.

I'm not sure I found parts of the story very believable, but that's also what makes the novel more entertaining.

I'd recommend to readers who like literary suspense novels/family and friendship dramas. This novel is very sexually explicit, and there are graphic description of violence ( possible trigger warnings).