*Then Things Went Dark* by Bea Fitzgerald is a sharp, binge-worthy thriller that feels like a reality TV train wreck you can’t look away from. Six washed-up contestants squabble and flirt on a desert island in front of millions—until one of them dies live on camera. The story flips between the “episodes,” police interrogations, and social media reactions, making the pace feel urgent and cinematic . The characters are messy, ambitious, and often unlikeable—but Fitzgerald leans into that, giving you delicious drama and satire on fame and reality TV culture ([netgalley.co.uk][1]). It’s compulsively readable, emotionally charged, and perfect for fans of Agatha Christie-meets-Love Island vibes—just don’t expect warm, heroic leads.

Six people land on a desert island ready to make their reality show debut. The contestants are suitably glamorous and dramatic – and they're also hungry to prove themselves. The stakes are high and with millions of viewers watching, losing is not an option. But three weeks and eighteen episodes later, five of the six contestants sit in a Portuguese police station, and none of them are winners.

Because twelve million people were watching when Rhys Sutton died on camera, and someone must pay for the crime.

The best friend, the rival, the girlfriend, the lover, and the sworn enemy are left standing. And of course, no-one is talking. But how do you keep secrets when the world has been watching? Especially when, just a day before his murder, Rhys was the most hated man on television.

A masterfully crafted thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat with every page. The plot twists are sharp and unpredictable, constantly raising the stakes. Characters feel real and layered, adding depth to the suspenseful story. It’s an exhilarating read that delivers both heart and adrenaline in equal measure.

The premise of this book really intrigued me because I am a sucker for a reality show full of drama but unfortunately it felt short for me.

The beginning was slow and it did pick up at the middle but then lost my interest at the end. I did manage to finish the book but it was very anticlimactic for me.

Then Things Went Dark had such a compelling premise—reality TV meets murder mystery? I was instantly intrigued. The setup had so much potential, and I genuinely didn’t know how it was going to end, which kept me curious enough to push through.

Unfortunately, where the plot intrigued, the execution fell short for me. The characters were just… unbearable. Not in a fun, “love to hate them” way, but in a grating, exhausting way that made the reading experience feel like a chore. I understand they may have been intentionally written to reflect the uglier sides of fame or society, but they hit a little too close to real-life toxicity for me to enjoy.

Despite the moments of intrigue and the strong concept, I never felt fully immersed in the story. The disconnect between the plot's potential and the characters’ unlikability left me disappointed overall.

Once again, I find myself stranded on outlier island—treading water, waiting to be rescued by a better book.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark Publishing for my DRC.

Then Things Went Dark is a binge-worthy, reality-TV-fueled thriller that reads like a juicy weekend marathon of your favorite murder mystery meets reality drama. Think Survivor with a body count and a Rachel Hawkins twist of sharp character work and social commentary.

The story kicks off with six contestants landing on a remote island to film a high-stakes reality show. It’s all cameras, competition, and chaos—until one of them, Rhys Sutton, ends up dead… on camera. With the world watching, what follows is a clever unraveling of motive, manipulation, and media spectacle.

I was immediately pulled in by the format—it flips between confessionals, production notes, and police interviews, creating that addictive, “just one more chapter” vibe. While a couple of the twists were predictable, the entertainment value more than made up for it. The characters are messy and morally grey, the pace is snappy, and the final reveal gave just enough bite to be satisfying.

Perfect for fans of reality TV scandals, unreliable narrators, and dark secrets caught on tape.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A book with a reality tv moment with murder is right up my alley. The characters were a little confusing as there was such a large cast and many viewpoints. This book was just ok but I will read future books by this author.

DNF- I wanted to love this but I had a hard time remembering the characters and I couldn't form enough of a connection to them. So I found myself skimming through the story and not feeling much of the intensity and suspense.

This story tells the tale of a reality tv show mixed with murder. The characters provided hilarious sections to the story, but I found it difficult to keep them straight with backstories and what was taking place on the island. Rhys and Araminta’s love story started off full of excitement which quickly turned once you realized he was the murder victim

Then Things Went Dark offers an intriguing premise: a reality TV show set on a desert island turns deadly when a contestant is murdered live on air. The narrative unfolds through a combination of show episodes, social media reactions, and police investigations, providing a multifaceted perspective on the events.

The characters are intentionally unlikable, reflecting the often superficial nature of reality television. While this adds to the drama, it can make it challenging to connect with them on a deeper level. The pacing is steady, and the writing is competent, though I found the structure a bit disjointed at times.

Overall, the book presents an interesting commentary on fame and the blurred lines between entertainment and reality. It's a decent read for fans of reality TV thrillers, though it may not resonate with everyone.

Bea Fitzgerald’s Then Things Went Dark is a book with an intriguing premise that unfortunately suffers from many problems. With a reality TV set-up, there’s so much that could have been done with the writing style and approach to make this a fun, candid, and engaging read, but instead it comes across as a muddled mess.

The six characters aboard the reality show Iconic are supposed to be, well, ICONIC, but sadly the characters as they are written are just not it. Not memorable. Not colorful. Certainly not iconic. Add to the equation that Fitzgerald tries to do too much with too little, making this story confusing and not at all compelling.

This type of storyline has already been done, but done better, which is ultimately Then Things Went Dark’s downfall.

Then Things Went Dark
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Author: Bea FItzgerald

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, Sourcebooks and Tantor Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: Six people land on a desert island ready to make their reality show debut. The contestants are suitably glamorous and dramatic—and also hungry to prove themselves. The stakes are high, and with millions of viewers watching, losing is not an option. But three weeks and eighteen episodes later, five of the six contestants sit in a Portuguese police station, none of them winners.

Twelve million people were watching when Rhys Sutton died on camera, and someone must pay for the crime. The best friend, the rival, the girlfriend, the lover, and the sworn enemy are left standing. And of course, no one is talking. But how do you keep secrets when the world has been watching? Especially when, just a day before his murder, Rhys was the most hated man on television.

My Thoughts: A realty show debut where the contestants are very hungry and eager to win, at all costs. You have an actor, an influencer (but of course), a chef, an activist, an entrepreneur, and a musician all striving towards the end of the reality show and all want to win. All of the characters have unique personalities with the corresponding bad behavior. However, the actor, Rhys Sutton, stands out the most and is just pure evil. It is no surprise he ends up dead, however, there are at least 5 suspects with many more behind the scenes. There are cameras everywhere within in and outside the house capturing their every moment. How are secrets kept when millions of people are watching? Will the others turn on one another to oust the murderer?

The story is narrated by multiple characters in two timelines. One timeline being the present with the police investigation unfolding and the other timelines starts 3.5 weeks ago when the contestants arrived at the house on the island. The characters were well fleshed out and developed, they had depth, they were mysterious, secretive, flawed, and absolutely creative. The author’s writing style was complex, multifaceted, suspenseful, twisty, and kept me invested from cover to cover. The characters are built up with their backstories, even filled with a little drama. The plot is delivered in twisty layers, like an onion layers. Then the conclusion was perfectly imperfect with one last twist.

I had both the digital and audio ARCs of this title. I preferred the audio version. The narrator, Zura Johnson was fantastic, the voice variation matched the character distinction, especially when there were so many main characters. The pitch and flow were spot on, allowing me to listen at 2x speed with no issues keeping up. This was the perfect psychological thriller that was gripping, captivating, compelling, twisty, and kept me on the edge of my seat until the very last word. This is a first read from Fitzgerald for me and it will not be my last. It was both satisfying to read and the conclusion was fitting. I highly recommend picking up today.

This book was just not for me and unfortunately it ended up in the DNF pile. I hated the storyline and the characters. I am sure that this book is very much someone’s cup of tea but it was not mine. This is probably a book that I shouldn’t have requested an ARC for. I hate reality TV shows. I think that they are unrealistic and cringy and the people on them are superficial and attention seeking. I felt the same way about this book. The storyline had me rolling my eyes so hard that I thought they would be permanently stuck in the back of my head. The characters were so unlikeable and not a single one had a redeeming quality. There were way too many and I disliked them so much that I didn’t even want to get to know them. I try to finish ARCs because I feel it is my duty but I just couldn’t with this one. I forced myself to the 25% mark but just couldn’t make myself finish.

I thought this was gonna be an addictive juicy read but i was bored and pushed through to finish it, was not for me

What a fun twisty read! I love a little reality TV moment, and I was honestly more entertained by this premise than I thought I would be!

The reality show turned murder mystery premise had me intrigued, but unfortunately I did not enjoy it at all. Every single one of the characters were awful, the mystery itself was uninteresting, the writing was not good... just overall not an entertaining reading experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me a digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This was an ok thriller. The story follows a group of friends who are on a weekend trip when a sudden blackout traps them in a remote cabin. As tension rises, secrets are revealed, and trust starts to break down. While the suspense builds throughout, the plot feels slow in parts, and some of the twists are predictable. The characters are interesting, but I felt they could have been developed more. It’s an okay read, but not as thrilling as I hoped.

Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC!!

The writing style was engaging, mimicking a reality TV show with multiple perspectives, confessionals, and social media posts. However, the social media elements felt unnecessary, and the increasingly unlikeable characters made it hard to connect.

The ending was the biggest letdown. After so much buildup and mystery, it felt anticlimactic and lacked impact. I wanted to love it since I love island reality shows but it just wasn’t there unfortunately.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and Bea Fitzgerald for the early copy to read and review via NetGalley.

TLDR: DNF 62% I love the premise of this book, but it just was too slow paced for me.

This book was SO slow. I thought this was going to be a fast-paced thriller full of dramatics, mystery, and reality-star celebrities. It took me three weeks to get this far into the book (which is a lot for me considering I typically finish books in less than a week, at most). Then I set the book down one day and never cared enough to come back and find out who killed Rhys or if it was really an accident.

The breakdown in each chapter was also really confusing to me. I didn't realize that at one point you're 'watching' the show, another you're in the contestants' heads, and then you're in the investigators' heads (who have their own drama going on - which I don't even know if it was necessary to the book. And if it wasn't, it didn't need to be in there). There could have been more separation between each of these sections within chapters, which I think would have helped with the pacing of the book.

Unfortunately I was unable to download this book before the archive date, so I'm not able to leave a review. I look forward to reading and reviewing books by this author in the future.