This was a bit of a slow burn for me. It's definitely more of a family drama than a thriller. The characters are all a bit un-likable, but the plot was unique and I enjoyed it! Overall a 3.5 star read for me.

The description said “Succession meets Megan Abbott in this seductive Gothic suspense novel about the dramatic downfall of one of America’s most affluent families.” They had me at succession, but gothic suspense sealed the deal. I’d never read this author before, but I really enjoyed this read! So twisty and addicting. Honestly very entertaining. I loved the Clara character and was really rooting for her the whole time. Can’t wait to read more by this author.

Thank you Net Galley, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux for the ARC!

I loved the concept of this book, but unfortunately it was about 100 pages too long which resulted in a slow-moving story that kept losing my focus.

The concept itself was fresh and did keep me guessing, but not enough to make up for the long read. Would read another book by Sarah Sligar again!

I was really intrigued by the concept (and cover) here. The curse. The strange goings-on. Family drama. It sounded interesting and right up my alley. I liked the way it started, and I was drawn in fairly quickly, but once the video broke things started going off the rails for me and unfortunately never righted themselves to my liking. The pacing felt uneven and I couldn't connect to the characters at all. This wasn't a good fit for me.

Vantage Point by Sara Sligar has been aptly titled. Vantage Point is the name of the uber-wealthy Weiland family home, but also a description of how each character sees their situation. Clara and Teddy Weiland are siblings who have inherited Vantage Point because their parents died possibly due to a family curse. They have money and live in luxury, but many of their ancestors died in freak accidents, as their parents did.

Teddy is Clara’s protector, in the absence of parents and being the older sibling. When Clara becomes a problem, doing drugs and partying a little too frequently and a little too hard as well as binging and purging, Teddy needs to be close to Clara to try to keep her safe from herself. In the process, he falls in love with and eventually marries, her best friend Jess, who grew up in a much more modest way being the daughter of a single mother.

Teddy is making a run for the US Senate, but things start unraveling when a sex video of Clara and an unidentified man is released on social media, she also suffers from anorexia and is sickly thin in the video. What is worse, she does not remember making the video or in fact who the man is.

At first Teddy was taking the electorate easily, going on tour making speeches and getting all kinds of media attention and endorsements. Teddy’s Senate run becomes challenging when more videos are released. Clara fears the curse is coming after her now, she cannot recall the things from the videos. Other strange things start to happen and Clara resorts to old habits while trying to deal with them.

From the vantage point of each of the three main characters, reactions to their collective situation varies, the book is surprising and unfortunately all too possible in modern times. It is a mystery and a puzzle worth working out, but you probably won’t be able to put all the pieces together until the very end of the story.

This is a thriller that involves technology and AI. AI is such a current interest for so many people, I think it will be highly anticipated by many. This story is told from the POV of Jess and Claire. It’s a story about typical wealthy people who are being blackmail using AI. I thought the story was good, however the ending was predictable and I’m not sure I really liked the characters that much.

The Wieland family is one of the most powerful and wealthiest families in the US. However, they are also known for the bad luck that follows them through the generations. Teddy and Clara Wieland lost their parents tragically at a young age. Now, years later, hoping they can put the past behind them, Teddy, his wife Jess and sister Clara decide to move back to their home at Vantage Point. But when Teddy decides to run for the Senate, it seems that someone is out to destroy the family. Damning videos of Clara surface and no one can tell if they are real or “deep fakes”. But that is just the start of what seems to be the Wieland curse returning.

While I was excited to read about a generational family with a curse, I struggled to finish this book. Some of the characters seemed underdeveloped and their motivations were two dimensional. Thank you for the ARC.

Vantage Point is a gothic thriller with a wealthy family and a long standing curse.
Clara and her brother Teddy watched their parents die in an accident when they were younger, a fact that continues to haunt their lives. Clara has some emotional issues that she deals with through the help of her good friend and sister-in-law Jess.

Technology is woven throughout the story with fake videos and a sex tape that come out in an effort to destroy the family. Who?

Clara uses some technology of her own, although her work is doubted due to her mental health. That doesn't mean she is wrong.

The premise is good and it is an interesting combination of factors. The ending wasn't terribly satisfying to me but I did read to the end just to see how it ended - to follow the characters to the very end.

This was fantastic. I really enjoyed reading it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC!

I received a copy of this early release in exchange for my honest review. Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the opportunity.

Vantage Point, releasing in January 2025, is a modern thriller centered on one wealthy family in Maine, and the curse that seems to follow them through the generations. This a very modern plotline, centered on AI and deepfakes, but shot through with gothic elements. Much of the action, for example, takes place at their aptly named estate, Vantage Point. It was this setup that really appealed to me, and the story delivered on much of that promise.

I enjoyed that we got two POVs: Clara (daughter in the family and strong believer in the curse) and Jess (Clara’s lifelong best friend and wife to Clara’s brother Teddy, who effectively runs the family business). And the backstory of the curse is explained in a very smart way -- through newspaper clippings interspersed throughout the novel.

We watch these characters wrestle with major challenges and setbacks, dealt to them often using these technologies. What interested me most was seeing their trust in what they saw and heard on a screen over believing what they were told from family and longtime friends. Trust, in so many ways, was the overall theme.

The ending didn't do it for me, so I knocked off a 1/2 star for that. But I have been thinking about the story and the themes since I finished reading, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in exploring these topics within a well-paced thriller. 3.5 stars, rounded up.

CONTENT WARNING: Deep discussion of eating disorders

Have been super delayed writing this review because of covid so my thoughts aren’t as fresh as they could be but this was sooo good. I loved the use of Wikipedia entries here — a great way to do exposition. This is a slightly futuristic, tech-based horror that still feels very much in the realm of possibility. Deep fakes are only going to get more realistic, and the potential consequences of that technology is honestly terrifying.

Anyway, so much to love about this. A creepy and unsettling story about the dark side of technology and the danger of men desperate for power and recognition.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Great read! I think I’d call it a literary thriller because there is suspense, mystery, drama. It’s just packaged in better quality writing and character work than you expect. Light on the mystery, though - there aren’t multiple levels of twists like you typically get in a genre thriller.

This is from the POV of two women, Jess and Clara, longtime friends. Jess is now married to Clara’s brother Teddy. Teddy and Clara’s family are part of the blue uber rich, and the book follows Teddy’s first senatorial campaign. But damaging videos of them start getting posted online, and Clara starts seeing impossible things. What follows is an unraveling of relationships and a lot of reflection on past choices.

I absolutely loved the plot of this book. It was such a good time. I also thought the dialogue was fantastic. It felt authentic and led to some real awful scenes that had me like 😱😱 just over what someone said. It’s also frightening to think what deepfakes and AI mean for our ability to trust our own memories.

It did some things villain-wise I don’t love, but also some things I thought were interesting. The things I didn’t love did affect my rating, but obviously would be spoiler-y to specify here.

I found this to be a very compelling read, and I’ll definitely read more from Sligar!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

(Note to the publisher: “breech” is used where it should be “breach” in chapter 34)

Teddy and Clara Weiland are siblings, rich siblings. When their parents die,Teddy takes responsibility for Clara. As adults, Teddy is married to Clara's best friend Jess, He is also running for a political seat.
In this thriller, it's not who you know, but what they know. It leaves you wondering, do you know???

This is seriously my favorite book so far this year! Incredible storytelling, fast paced, a true contemporary gothic thriller.

I am obsessed with Sara Sligar’s first novel, Take me Apart, so I was super excited to get this ARC from NetGalley! But this one just didn’t do it for me at all 🙃 I could not for the life of me get in to this one. I’m curious to hear everyone else’s thoughts on this 🧐

This will be released on January 14th!

#netgalley #arc #sarasligar #vantagepoint #takemeapart #newrelease

Vantage Point is a tech thriller that explores the theme of deepfake technology (which is so terrifying tbh)

The plot follows Clara Wieland, a woman who’s part of one of the United States’ wealthiest and most powerful families. Oh, and her family is kinda cursed! Every single Wieland for generations has died a strange and tragic death, including her parents. In the middle of her brother Teddy’s political campaign to become senator, a revenge porn video of Clara comes out and becomes extremely viral. The thing is… she’s not completely sure that the girl in the video is actually her.

Throughout the story we follow Clara’s POV and we also follow her best friend and Teddy’s wife, Jess, as the deepfake videos keep coming out and creating tension between the three of them. I wouldn’t categorize this as a mystery thriller because the main characters (and we as the reader) sort of suspect what’s happening and who’s behind it pretty much the whole time. I would categorize this as a very suspenseful, very eerie family drama with tech elements that would be fun for John Marrs fans.

One thing I really loved about Vantage Point was the eating disorder representation, and how Clara felt so disconnected from her body due to her illness that she truly doesn’t know what she looks like (so real for that), and how that plays into the deepfake debacle. I thought that was so smart!

Definitely keep this one on your radar, it comes out January 2025!

Vantage Point is the kind of psychological thriller that made me feel truly anxious while reading it because the concept is so bizarre and disturbing, yet something that could plausibly actually happen at some point given advances in AI technology. I also felt incredibly anxious reading each characters' chapters as the events slowly unfolded and they confronted what they thought was reality. In addition I appreciated the chapters that provided backstory to who these characters are and what led to their current undoing.

The Wielands are an extremely wealthy family in Maine with a "curse" upon them, clearly inspired by the so-called "Kennedy Curse." Clara and Teddy are the sole survivors of their immediate family after their parents died in a tragic curse related accident 16 years prior (at least Clara believes in the curse, other characters dismiss it as coincidence) and Teddy is Clara's legal guardian despite them both being adults now. Without going into too much detail as it relates to the plot, Clara is in a conservatorship due to mental health issues. Teddy is also married to Clara's best friend Jess which puts strain on their friendship for reasons that are more than just platonic.

Teddy feels a calling to run for Senator representing Maine and their lives begin to unravel starting with a sex tape of Clara appearing online and Clara seeing disturbing and hyperrealistic visions. Then they all begin to question their reality as a variety of videos drop online exposing the Wielands as rich, out of touch assholes, and they see each other in real life doing a variety of out of character and cruel things which they don't actually remember doing.

This book has some cliches around class issues and the trope of a "poor woman" being rescued and given a "good life" by a rich man, however it isn't laid on too heavy, and despite their wealth, Clara and also Jess, are shown to be self aware about it enough to not be completely insufferable, especially Clara who was born rich as a Wieland. Some of Clara's choices were frustrating to read, but I understood that she was coming from a place of being treated like a child her entire life due to mental illness. I appreciated also how the book depicts that a man's "care" can also be a form of coercive control and that conservatorships are abusive no matter what anyone's intentions (this should be clear anyway for anyone who followed the Britney Spears case). This also applies to the institution of marriage and the power dynamics in a marriage with a man who is from a much wealthier social/economic class than the woman he marries.

Vantage Point is also fascinating in how it explores how AI and other forms of virtual reality can be used to psychologically torment people. This is magnified when a person being tormented is already regarded as unreliable and unstable. In real life AI is being used as a way to psychologically terrorize people with the rise of fake pornographic images being made of both celebrities and every day women who are targeted. Plenty of people believe AI images of anything are real despite various ways we currently have to know if something isn't an actual photograph. Even the keenest eye can be fooled no matter what and it's terrifying to think of what consequences there could be. Reading this book was horrifying in that it really laid bare how lives can be destroyed by deceptions like this.

I absolutely love thrillers that are slow burning, scary, and at times made me cringe (in a good way! I'd recommend this for fans of Yellowface by R.F. Kuang). This was a mystery that I absolutely did not want to put down. I also loved reading a mystery that wasn't a murder mystery. I definitely want to read Sara Sligar's first book, Take Me Apart, after reading this.

Many thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and to NetGalley for this ARC to review. This review is my honest opinion.

Thanks to Netgalley for a sneak peek at this book.
I am loathe to review it because I can't give it any better than 3 stars and that's even stretching it. There wasn't one person in this book who had any redeeming character traits or anything positive I could say about them.
The "mystery" aspect wasn't believable to me and I found bored more than anything.
I'm sure there are many who have a totally opposite opinion from me, but I won't be posting this review anyplace but here. Not on GoodReads, bookbub or amazon because I don't want the author's ratings to suffer.

Taking place on an island off Maine out story is centered around best friends, Jess and Clara. Jess marries Clara’s brother Teddy, and thus is thrown into the world of the wealthy and cursed Wieland family. Every Wieland has died a bizarre death in the month of April. While Teddy is running for senate, Clara’s sex tape is released online. Presumed to be deepfakes or a forgotten memory of Clara’s past, who is trying to destroy the Wieland family?

Fast paced, tech thriller that leaves you constantly wondering… what’s real? The characters are all very complex as we get narratives from both Clara and Jess. I really enjoyed this novel! I felt the end was a bit jumbled and predictable, however I still thought it was a great read.