LOVED THIS BOOK! I could visualize the characters and wanted to be friends with them. It also had a number of plot twists that I was never expecting which made me laugh and yell out loud. For anyone who has encountered and gone up against a powerful, narcissistic person, you’ll enjoy this book even more.

This book had me hooked from the start! When Angie starts hearing those spooky voices in her house, I thought, "Here we go, classic ghost story!" But Thoman had some surprises up her sleeve! The plot twists were unexpected and kept me on my toes!

The way Thoman weaves together Angie's story with Madelyn's investigation is masterful. I thought I had it all figured out, but I was pleasantly surprised! 🙀 And can we talk about the villain? So despicable, but in the best way possible. Those tweets and quotes at the beginning of each chapter added an extra layer of intrigue!

And let's not forget about the characters! Angie and Madelyn felt like close friends by the end of the book. And Raymond? Such a shady character, but Thoman develops him so cleverly. The hints she drops about him? Pure genius!

Now, onto the slight drawbacks. The pacing in the first half was a bit slow, but don't let that deter you! The tension builds gradually, and once it picks up, you won't be able to put the book down!

"You Shouldn't Be Here" is a gripping read with plenty of surprises. Thoman's writing is engaging, and I'm curious to check out her other book and hopefully even more works in future. If you enjoy mysteries with unexpected twists, give this one a shot! It's a solid 4-star read!

Really good! Loved the authors first book so I was really excited for this one. The feel is different but I fell in love with the characters in both point of views. Ending was so so good. Thank you NetGalley for this arc

You Shouldn't Be Here takes readers on a gripping journey through the complexities of missing people and a murder mystery. The narrative unfolds with an unexpected twist as it delves into the perspective of the a woman looking for answers since her cousin went missing. The antagonist is crafted with such disdainful depth that readers can't help but loathe him, adding a compelling layer to the story.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the book is the inclusion of ghostly elements, which adds an eerie and captivating dimension to the plot. However, while the story boasts several compelling characters, not all receive the same level of development. This lack of character depth can sometimes leave readers feeling disconnected from certain individuals within the narrative.

Despite this, the book keeps readers on their toes with its numerous twists and turns. Each unexpected development adds to the suspense, making it difficult to put the book down. While not every aspect of the story may resonate with every reader, those who enjoy a thrilling mystery with a touch of the supernatural will find plenty to love in You Shouldn't Be Here.

A uniquely modern 'ghost' story. Madelyn has started a new job in the new town of East Henderson. She meet cutes with Alex a fellow teacher at the Junior High and her dog Potato is settling in nicely to their new home despite their fussy landlord's rules.

No one but Madelyn knows she's really here to solve the mystery of the sudden disappearance of her cousin Piper.

Angie Stewart starts to hear a voice in her house, a woman's voice but neither her father nor her best friend Bas believe her. Her attempts to record the voice lead her down an unexpected and deadly path.

A distinctly divergent tale of unsolved disappearances and dating in the modern era.

This thriller felt a bit basic and straightforward, for all of its twists and weird happenings. I appreciated the social commentary behind the moustache-twirling villain (not really a spoiler), but he seemed too inept and backwater to get away with everything he managed. Though I think in many ways that's the point: evil is banal and 'stupid' and yet it can often dictate reality for so many people. I think the characters were fairly well-developed, though, and I loved the dog Potato (who was fine!) and best friend Syzygy.

Ok so I went into this thinking ooooo a paranormal ghost story in a house love it. But it was soooo much more than that. I loved the mystery woven in but the story building was a lot at times. Overall pretty solid book I would label it as YA more than Adult thriller or paranormal fic just because of how its written but I really liked it.

This was a solid dual POV plot!
The first 40% was a little too slow for me and some sections seemed like they could be cut out - but the remaining 60% made up for it.

I personally love when mystery/thrillers have a little dash of sci-fi/paranormal without going full horror. So I enjoyed the ghost story and how the different characters story lines eventually tied into each other. It was very smooth and unexpected!

The characters did make it feel a little YA at times. Madelyn and Angie both annoyed me with their silly choices and dramatic reactions to things but not because they weren’t good characters. If anything they made me cringe because I know that's exactly how I acted at 16 and 23.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
I'm excited to check out more books by Lauren Thoman.

Great thriller filled with twists. that kept me guessing. I loved this and hope to read more by this author. This book is a great addition to any thriller fan's reading list.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an e-arc in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book felt a little slow to start, but once it got going I really enjoyed it. I didn’t love the main character or her narrative, but I did enjoy the story and appreciated the LGBTQ representation. Overall, a good read with a twist I didn’t see coming!

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

You Shouldn’t Be Here is a thriller centering on Madelyn, a first-year choir director, whose cousin went missing, and Angie, a 16 year old student, who hears a woman in her house that no one else can hear.

I was hooked from the very first sentence. I really liked how each chapter started with an excerpt from a tweet, an internal memo, email, etc. and enjoyed the cast of characters. Madelyn and Alex were my favorites. But that’s pretty much all I can because I can’t say anything else regarding what I loved about this book without giving anything away. Just know that it is a total page turner and a wild ride. I didn’t want to put it down. It had me stressed out but also laughing. I LOVED this!!

WOOHOO, my first five star read of the year! I loved the multiple timelines and the supernatural element. Lately I've been very into organized crime so this piqued my interest right away. I also appreciate hearing the experience/perspective of having last names from other languages and the description of how it should be pronounced in its native language - that was helpful for me! Madelyn's non-stop hunt for answers for her cousin she hasn't met was beautiful. I absolutely loved this novel and the ending.

WOWWWW what an incredible thriller!!! This was SO well written and I loved every single page!! The characters were fantastic and I felt so connected to them. The plot was fun and super twisty, I audibly gasped at so many moments of this! The villain is super hateable and I love-hated the tweets and quotes from him at the beginning of each chapter. I started reading faster and got physically closer to my book as I was reading as if I could take it in more that way 🤣 I LOVED this book!!!!!

The saving grace of the book was the tweets and podcast transcripts excerpts used in the beginning of every chapter.
As appalling and ridiculous they were, they were too realistic and I'm sure you can think of real people who have the same warped mentality.
The problem was, the dialogues of the villain were really underwhelming, one reviewer described his character as cartoon-ish and they nailed it. He was described as indestructible and having high connections everywhere, but there was no backstory, no explanation whatsoever.
Ten years ago he was a normal man owning a real estate agency, and in the present, he is the big brother of the county. Even the period in between was extremely vague. The timeline started with Angie and ended with Piper, no recollection of the time between.
Moving on to the characters, they were really bland, apart from the times they frustrated the heck out of me. There was a scene where a part of a corpse was found by Madelyn's dog, you know what was her reaction? I'll gladly tell you. After a few minutes of shock and panic, the woman was hinting at being intimate with Alex. I didn't know whether to laugh or cringe.
It also didn't help that the characters lacked depth, they felt as if they were actors just reciting their lines, there was a sense of detachment from what was going on around them, almost like they were faking their reactions.
The ending was commercial-movie one, it was on the same bar with the rest of the book so I wasn't shocked by that time.
I think it's the kind of book that would go viral on social media because the author focused so much on social media, trends and representation, like writing Syzygy as nonbinary, which took me a lot of time to figure out the pronouns in the narrative. It was a book wrote to appease and sell.
*I received an ARC of this book through netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

"You Shouldn't Be Here" is the follow-up novel to Lauren Thoman's debut "I'll Stop the World". Like her debut, YSBH is a mash-up of genres - mystery, thriller, paranormal, romance, with some whimsy thrown in.

The story features two narratives around mysterious missing person cases. The two main characters, Madelyn and Alex both have missing people in their life and they soon discover their stories are intertwined more than they imagined. Layered on top is the villainous Doug Raymond, a megalomaniac real estate tycoon that looms a powerful shadow of secrets over the town of East Henderson, Pennsylvania - where our main characters live. Layered throughout is this is a string of paranormal experiences that helps string together the missing pieces of the missing person cases.

This was a 3-star read for me. I enjoyed Thoman's genre mash-up style as displayed in her debut, this showing fell a bit flat. It didn't have the heart that her debut novel captured with nostalgia and charm as interconnected thread. Instead, Thoman uses a paranormal thread that was well-done and very light - not gimmicky or cliche ghost type stuff. The whole story felt mysterious and moody until the back half of the novel, where it began to feel disjointed. I am even struggling to synopsize the book because it felt a bit all over the place (and trying to avoid anything that could be a spoiler). What I enjoyed: the slow burn mystery, the small town dynamics, and the dual narratives. What I didn't enjoy: the "twist" that connected the two narratives at the end landed with a dud, the pandering romance storyline and the chaotic ending. The novel left me interested enough to finish it but really didn't execute the delivery. There were too many things going on to find the heart in this story.

I enjoyed the story line; however I did struggle at the beginning to feel connected to the plot. After the first half I was invested. A lot of twists occurred which helped the pace of the book. The first half I felt like I was “world building” and I didn’t know where it was going, after that I was interested and couldn’t put it down.

I recommend reading but don’t let the first half be the judge, the second is where you get your answers!!

Murders mixed with evil corporate town miser? Suspicious noises in a closet. Ghosts or time travel?! Teachers in love?! Best friends potentially reunited?

The layers in this book were so fun and kept me on my toes.

Thanks, NetGalley for the chance to read!

Thank you Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for this ARC.

Madelyn is a teacher who moves into a house owned by Doug Raymond in East Henderson to investigate the disappearance of her cousin Piper, who was an accountant for Raymond Realty.

Angie is a high school student who lives with her father and hears the voice of a woman in her house, whom no one else can hear. Bas is Angie’s best friend who thinks Angie needs professional help for being obsessed over this supposed ghost in her house. Soon after, Angie and her father disappear from East Henderson with no trace.

Madelyn meets Alex, who is a Spanish teacher at the school she works at. They form a friendship that becomes romantic and discover a connection that causes them to work together to solve the disappearances of both Piper and Angie.

Then, she meets Nat, an unknown woman she meets in a coffee shop and they become friends over a borrowed shirt.

I was able to predict some of the twists and connections, but I was still engaged. It was action packed, mysterious, and creepy. I think the story line deviated a bit as initially it was about Madelyn finding out about the disappearance of Piper, but then shifted to focus on Angie. The ending wrapped up all of the unknown questions about the characters and the Raymond Realty. There are many theories about the supernatural world, so the ending leaves the reader to draw their own conclusion abut the connection between Madelyn and Angie. Overall, I enjoyed the thrill of the book. It was well written and easy to follow.

Wow!! Mystery, suspense, romance…what more could anyone want? I loved every second of this. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

This was definitely different than other books I’ve read. I throughly enjoyed it. I look forward to reading more books by this author