I had a really tough, unfortunate time with this book. I found the whole thing slightly strange and off-putting. I had read Sligar's debut novel back in 2020 so it wasn't like this was an unknown author to me, but I still couldn't connect with VANTAGE POINT.

First off, this book did not need to be 400 pages long. I think the length does a lot of disservice to a story that is, at the end of the day, interesting and nuanced despite the somewhat clunky execution. The book is also genre-defining but not in a good way, as it can often be. I thought it was literary fiction, and then thriller, and then mystery, and then, horror? But by the end, which comes with a whimper not a bang, left me baffled. The climax was anticlimatic, and the mystery easy to figure out. The dual POVs don't really make the story more interesting, and I never would have guessed this whole book was about deepfakes and holograms.

That's right. I'm getting tired of all the AI storylines these days and was so distracted by that I didn't even realize deepfakes maybe the next big thing?! I'm only half making fun. It's an interesting premise! Deepfake videos start to get leaked about a rich Maine family, where the brother is running for senate despite a decade old family curse that ATTACKS during the month of April (guess when this book takes place!) The POVs go back and forth between the sister and sister-in-law who have a long history. I dunno man, this book is wild and I truly can't wait to hear what other people think.

⭐️: 4.5/5

Sometimes I judge a book by its cover, and find myself expecting one thing, only to get something entirely different and surprising. In this case, for some reason, based on the cover, I was pleasantly surprised by an honestly, pretty quality plot. The change in viewpoints between best friends Clara and Jess was utilized really well in order to make us, as the reader, doubt the truth from either of their POVs. Although this one leaned pretty heavily into the overused thriller trope of nobody believing the FMC, instead calling her crazy, it ended up kind of leaning into it in a different way, and managed to go a little deeper into to talk about why we it’s hard to believe things that threaten our entire reality, especially when trust in the person telling you about it is the only real evidence.

I don’t love when technology that doesn’t really exist in real life is the entire plot of thrillers, because it inevitably reads like an under researched sci-fi book, which was definitely a pitfall that this book fell into. The ending was decently satisfying though, and barring the how of a lot of the tech-y aspects, most strings were tied up. The characters were interesting, and evaded being put into boxes to characterize, which made it more interesting of a read than your typical thriller too.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this one so much, but I really couldn’t put it down once I got into it!

Thank you to @netgalley and @fsgbooks for this eARC for my honest review!!

Vantage Point blends family drama with a chilling mystery in this tech-savvy thriller. The premise stands out with deepfake scandals, holograms, and a centuries-old family curse.

The characters are mostly wonderfully messy, real and layered. We follow Clara, the main protagonist, as she wrestles with trauma and the fallout of a deepfake scandal, and the relationship between Clara and Jess, marked by envy, loyalty, and a love-hate bond, stood out as a highlight, but overall I struggled to fully connect and relate with the characters.

The Wikipedia-style entries about the Wieland deaths are brilliant. I’d happily read a standalone book just about that.

While the story is packed with twists and layers, at times it felt like there was almost too much happening. Some twists landed beautifully, but ultimately there were a few too many twists and turns for my taste.

As for the ending, it’s bold and daring, but it left me feeling disappointed. After such a complex buildup, I expected a bigger payoff. It’s one of those endings where you close the book thinking, “Wait, that’s it?”.

Still, if you enjoy thrillers that delve into heavy themes (check the TWs!) and keep you second-guessing, this one’s worth your time.

The unhinged elite of Saltburn with the political plot points of Succession meet Bladerunner tech in Vantage Point. Sligar’s writing buried its hooks into me and wouldn’t let me go until the very last page. I’m predicting this is going to be my favorite thriller of 2025. The shining stars of this story are the characters. Every single person felt so real I could almost reach out and touch them. Holograms, curses, political intrigue… there is a lot that drew me into this story but what kept me turning page after page was Sligar’s prose and dedication to character construction. Absolutely a five star read.

Trigger warnings: Eating Disorders, online harassment, revenge porn

VANTAGE POINT-SARA SLIGAR-Publishing January 14th, 2025 with MCD/
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Weiland Family has everything-wealth, status, power, and a famous
curse hanging over their family. Clara and Teddy tragically lose
their parents (not a spoiler), and Teddy married Clara’s best friend
Jess. They all move back to the island to take care of the family
matters, including the mansion titled Vantage Point. Then Teddy runs
for the Senate, and things start to unravel. Videos surface online,
and are they real? Fake? Is the curse real? As videos are released,
Clara is losing her grip on what’s real and what’s fake? Is she losing
her mind?

I loved this book. Sligar is a great writer. This was a page-turner.
Sligar sucked me in with this story.

Family secrets. Wealth. Class. Technology. Family. Trust. Mental
Illness. Suspense.

This is a must read. MARK IT ON YOUR CALENDARS-JANUARY 14TH!

Thanks to @netgalley for the ARC, and Thanks to @sarasligar
writing a fabulous book. @mcdbooks @fsgbooks

Wow! What a book!

Throughout the book I was completely immersed in the world of the Wieland family, their troubles, wins and ambitions. Every tense argument felt like my own, every suspenseful moment I lived through like I was there.
The writing is sharp and excellent! Although the reveal was a tiny bit predictable, it didn't take away from the story at all.
Vantage Point has an amazing character-driven plot with a very electrifying family drama and current themes about struggles of living in the digital age.
4.5 stars from me.

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this ARC.

"Succession meets Megan Abbott in this seductive, technological suspense about the dramatic downfall of one of America's most affluent families.

The old-money Wieland family has it all - wealth, status, power. They're also famously cursed.

Clara and her brother, Teddy, grew up on a small island in Maine in the shadow of their parents' tragic deaths, haunted by rumors and paparazzi. Fourteen years later, they've mostly put their turbulent past to rest. Teddy has married Clara's best friend, Jess, and the three of them have moved back home to take over the sprawling, remote family mansion known as Vantage Point.

Then Teddy decides to run for the Senate - an unnerving prospect made much worse when intimate videos of Clara are leaked online. The most frightening part is that she doesn't remember filming any of them. Are the videos real? Or are they deepfakes? Is someone trying to take down the Wielands once and for all?

Everyone thinks Clara is losing her grasp on reality. But she knows the truth: the videos are only the beginning. Years ago, the curse destroyed her parents. Now, it's coming for her.

Sara Sligar, the critically acclaimed author of Take Me Apart, returns with a shocking family drama full of suspense. Brimming with palpable tension, Vantage Point carefully unravels a twisted web of family secrets and political ambition that raises questions about the nature of "truth" in our digital age."

First mistake, trying to run for office. That right there will activate a curse every time.

An affluent family haunted by a decades long curse are thrown into turmoil when a series of deepfake videos threaten to end the political career of one sibling and halt the recovery of another. This uses technology in a really interesting way to propel the mystery and highlight the blurry space between what’s real and what’s an illusion. Great character development and commentary, harrowing story, original premise, it’s a big recommend from me!

"Vantage Point" by Sara Sligar is one wild ride and earns a top spot as one of my favorite books of the year! Combining deepfake technology and a generational family curse, the author plaits together a Gothic mystery that packs a serious punch and keeps a reader turning pages. Including such heavy themes as body shaming, eating disorders, and slut shaming, "Vantage Point" is not a light read and may be triggering for some. However, it left me breathless with suspense and on the edge of my seat, with twists and turns I didn't see coming and its entirely relatable characters. This is the kind of book that makes a reader stay up late into the night, unable to put it down. It truly is psychological suspense at its best.

Many thanks to NetGalley for introducing me to this talented writer-"Vantage Point" is my first novel by Sara Sligar but certainly will not be my last!

I enjoyed a lot of this book, it was well written, and I felt I got to know the characters with a few laughs along the way. However it felt unnecessarily long as if the author felt she had to keep adding twists and layers of plot rather than let the story speak for itself. The ending also seemed a bit unlikely.
Thank you to netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advance copy of this book

I’ve never read anything from this author before, but I’m so glad that I did! It was quite suspenseful and as described, it definitely had the Succession feel. The creativity was so impressive as well.

Suspense story about a rich family with a curse and a family torn apart by ambition. Clara and Teddy are part of the very wealthy Weiland family and Jess is Teddy's wife and Clara's best friend, Clara has struggled with an eating disorder for years and has been unstable since the accidental death of her parents that she feels responsible towards. Teddy is running for the senate and wants everything in his life to look perfect including having a perfect wife and hiding his sister away. Trouble rears it's head when a video comes out which appears to be a revenge porn video of Clara. Only Clara cannot remember the video and suspects it is a deep fake. As other videos start being released, Clara begins to see strange visions and her brother and best friend don't believe her. Told in both Jess and Clara's voices, we see flashbacks to when they were teenage students and became best friends to the current time when Jess has to choose between believing her best friend or her husband.

The novel deals with politics, deep fakes, holograms and eating disorders. At times the story seems disjointed as different chapters seem to go in different directions and it took quite awhile before the suspenseful parts were featured. There are also snippets from Wikipedia links about the Weiland family curse which takes place in April but this was never really fleshed out in the story. The author did do a good job in talking about Clara's eating disorder and how hard it was for her to be believed by her family but I thought the mystery part was a bit lacking. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for a review.

I loved the story of a affluent family's downfall combined with deepfakes and technology in this one. I think the ending might alienate some, there is a decent amount of suspension of disbelief needed but I ended up liking what Sligar did with it.

I have never read anything by this author before and was very intrigued by the cover alone (Never judge a book by its cover, I know I know lol) but this was very interesting! It was very creepy and I love dual perspectives. Overall, a great read!

Thanks NetGalley for this opportunity

It would be nice to say that what happens in this book is completely, absurdly impossible but, as the author says in the afterword and as anyone with internet access can discover, it is eerily plausible with modern technology. Clara and Teddy are mega-wealthy siblings. Teddy is married to Clara’s best friend Jess and is running for Senate. Clara is really struggling with an eating disorder and Teddy and Jess are her rocks. But then things happen and, well, maybe the least balanced one of them may be the most resourceful. The characters are insanely rich, which makes them unrelatable to 99% of the population. Still, I was really invested in their story and rooting for them. Being of normal extraction, Jess is the stand-in for the readers, since she sees everything through less privileged eyes. The plot is bananas but completely addictive. The main reveal may not have been the most shocking, but it made sense so I was happy with the way the story ended. It was also nice that the book was not political, despite dealing with a Senatorial campaign. The plot delves into very dark territory, but it was so suspenseful that it was not too depressing. Very enjoyable.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Farrar, Straus and Giroux | MCD.

Gripping, twisty-turny, completely engrossing read that will nail you to your seat until you've reached the last page! Can't wait for more from this author.

I wasn't sure what to expect - this was CREEPY!! it was good - story line was a bit hard to follow at times, but creepy is the best way to describe it! CREATIVE to the max. The hologram piece was fascinating

Vantage Point is the Wieland family mansion, built on a small island off the coast of Maine. It's also where generations of Wieland's have been famously cursed. Not long after Clara Wieland, her brother Teddy, and his wife Jess move into the mansion, bad things begin to happen. These events caused this reviewer to wonder, "Do family curses become self-fulfilling prophecies?"

Clara is a damaged, fragile young woman and the protagonist of this story. I empathized with her throughout the tale and rooted for her through a life-shattering crisis. How she confronts the ordeal and the changes it brings is at the heart of the story.

Vantage Point is a modern-day gothic novel with all the nuances and atmosphere of a vintage tale set in our technological time. The writing is good, the story is entertaining, and the ending is satisfying.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for providing an advance copy of the book to read and review. This review will post to Bayside Book Reviews.com at https://baysidebookreviews.com and its Instagram page on release day. Follow us! *NetGalley Top Reviewer*

4.5 stars. I have been in such a terrible reading slump, and this gritty techno family drama finally got me out of it.

Vantage Point tells the story of two siblings, Teddy and Clara, the remaining heirs of the Wieland fortune. Much has been made about the supposed Wieland family curse, where numerous family members encountered a terrible fate during the month of April. Now that Teddy is running for Senate and Clara finally seems to have put past addictions behind her, a series of strange events and the release of malicious deepfake videos bring the curse back to the forefront.

This story is propulsive and has definite Succession vibes. Added to the mix is Jess, Clara's childhood best friend, and wife to Teddy. The narrative effectively jumps between Clara and Jess's POVs, both in the modern day and the past. There is a tech element that requires a little suspension of disbelief, but overall, this was such a solid and twisty drama with a wild ending. Highly recommend.

[Snack-Size Review] Vantage Point, by Sarah Sligar

Quick Bite: Rich people problems… are weirdly fascinating.

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

What It’s About: Clara and her brother Teddy are the last remaining Weilands - a fabulously wealthy and famously cursed family reminiscent of the Kennedys. Right now, however, things are looking up. Clara is on the road to recovery from a serious eating disorder, and Teddy, married to Clara’s best friend Jess, is in the middle of his seemingly predestined Senate run. But then a disturbing video featuring Clara appears online. Clara can’t remember the events of the video, but also, isn’t sure they didn’t happen. But then another video comes out. And another…

A Word From The Nerd: I’m just going to say it: I usually try to avoid anything that could be labeled a “techno-thriller”. Mainly because a lot of authors who would describe their work as such are so in love with the techno part that they forget the thriller amidst all the VR and AI and whatever other kind of techy stuff the kids are into now. But Vantage Point never loses sight of the messy humanness of it all, with deeply flawed and deeply understandable characters and a rich family history and oh yeah - a pretty great mystery.

The Nerd’s Rating: FOUR HAPPY NEURONS (and a big old seafood platter.)