This book is crafted as something between a thriller and contemporary fiction with a gothic element. I appreciate the mystery and character development weaved together. This book had a great premise of a family curse and I enjoyed that throughout the story I was trying to understand if the mystery and curse was real or some form of a ghost story. While figuring this out the author had a great way of truly diving into the characters personal journeys and the way they are all connected. Especially as you read chapters from their childhood and now adulthood. The way it ended was also very interesting and made me really reflect on how the characters were each involved with one another and what they meant to eachother.

I do think at times it felt like it weighed heavier on the characters than the psychological thriller mystery curse part. By the end of the book I think there were many good ideas and themes that were not strung together well enough. There was a gothic home of a rich family, a curse, holograms and deep fakes, complicated relationships between siblings and friends. All great things but thrown together without fully flushing each out. I wish there had been more about the curse or not have it at all.

Overall it was a good read, if I had to rate it in comparison to others in the same genres I would give it a 3.25. I would still have read it and would still recommend to my friends who like thrillers.

The cover is great! Very striking and does express the story well while still being captivating. Based on the cover I would pick it up at a bookstore.

A book's ending is paramount to a story's overall quality. Once you reach the end of a 350+ page book, the climax, the pivotal moment you've been waiting for after hours and hours of spending your precious time reading it cannot be a letdown. A bad ending will leave a bad taste in a person's brain-mouth that can tarnish the entire reading experience.

Unfortunately, Vantage Point's ending was so bad, so ridiculous, and so expected that it was actually unexpected, because it had been hinted at, extremely obviously, since the very beginning.

This novel follows the downfall of a fictional wealthy family as the (dickhead) older brother, Teddy, is in the running for a political campaign. His wife is Jess, a total pushover and bore, and Teddy's younger sister Clara is Jess's best friend. Clara is suffering from a raging eating disorder and has been a handful for most of her life, which makes her the perfect target for a scandal where no one will believe her when she claims it's not real. So, when a graphic sex tape of hers is released, and she begins to suspect she may be a victim of deep fakes, neither Jess nor her (I cannot stress this enough, dickhead) brother believes her.

Maybe I should have read the description of this novel a little better, but I was not expecting the entire plot of this book to essentially be about AI and deepfakes. It's not a topic I'm at all interested in reading about, but throughout most of the book, I was surprised by how much I was enjoying it. While the plot wasn't what I typically choose to read ("Gothic"? Gothic where? Why is this book being pitched as gothic!?), I thought the writing was good, the characters were developed and clear, and I was sailing through, ready for the mystery to be solved! But once answers began to unravel, I found myself scoffing and guffawing at the ridiculousness. I cannot say anymore without giving out spoilers, but I couldn't have thought of a more anti-climatic finish than Vantage Point delivered.

This was, sadly, a flop for me! 2 stars.

Thank you Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC.

Set in a beautiful family home on the cliffs of Maine, Teddy and Clara are wealthy children of parents who died tragically when they were young. In fact, the Weigand family is plagued by tragedies that happened in April over hundreds of years. Clara’s best friend Jess married Teddy and the book follows their relationship and its issues while Clara fights an eating disorder, Jess struggles with fitting into a wealthy family, and Teddy runs for office. Throughout, they struggle with the April curse and what it means to them.

Told from both Clara's point of view and Jess', we slowly learn about Jess' marriage to Teddy and Clara's struggles with feeling responsible fo her parents' deaths. All the while, Teddy is a strong protector. However, the book has twisty turns as these relationships unfold throughout the book. A well-told story with a somewhat unbelievable ending. I enjoyed it!

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for sharing “Vantage Point” by Sara Sligar. Vantage Point is the story about best friends Clara Wieland and Jess. Clara and her brother Teddy are from the wealthy and powerful Wieland family. The Wieland kids grew up at Vantage Point a well known estate on an island. There is a belief among the locals that the Wieland family is cursed as family members over the years have died in the month of April. Jess is brought up by a single mom and works for all she has. She and Clara become friends in elementary school. In high school, Clara goes off to Halpern School in New Hampshire and Jess stays at the public high school on the island. As a teen while home on break from private school, Clara witnesses her parents’ death and is haunted by the loss. There is a distance in the friendship that continues from high school through college. After a fight with her mom, Jess visits Clara in NYC. After this visit an incident occurs and they are back in each others lives. Jess marries Teddy who later is running for a Senate seat when things get turned upside down. The three lives will never be the same.
I enjoyed the book and the twist and turns. I would recommend to others who like unexpected twist.

I did feel the later half of story wasn’t as compelling as the first half. Teddy’s changes seemed abrupt without any previous examples or signs. The final chapter ended in my mind abruptly without many details that led to end.

Sligar's writing is sharp and engaging, with a keen eye for detail that brings the characters and setting to life. The plot twists and turns, keeping readers guessing until the very last page. The exploration of themes such as ambition, betrayal, and hidden motives adds depth to the story, making it not just a thrilling read, but a thought-provoking one as well.

Overall, "Vantage Point" is a must-read for fans of suspenseful, character-driven novels. Sara Sligar has crafted a tale that will linger in your mind long after you finish the book.
Thank you for the ARC

At first I thought this book was elegant and suspenseful. However, the more I kept reading, it failed to hold my interest. It was marketed as "gothic" and I'm not sure that's accurate. The character development for Clara and Jess is great. The many childhood flashbacks work fairly well. The artificial intelligence and holograms? Well, that pushed it past the point of credibility for me. This simply doesn't read like a gothic mystery. Maybe if it were marketed differently, that might help.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-galley; all opinions in this review are 100% my own.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and Sara Sligar for the ARC. I had high hopes for this book, but I had to DNF it by 20%. I did not like the way the story was heading with the revenge porn and the way her family reacted to the trauma. I knew there would be more sexual assault and more victim shaming, and I can't read that. Anyone who has been through these types of traumas is going to struggle with this. It felt shame-y to me.
A strong trigger warning stating; rape, victim shaming, revenge porn is needed/required.

There was just way too much going on. So much that I was bored and struggling to get through. I like my thrillers to be fast paced and keeping me hooked. This just wasn't it for me.

Thank you to NetGally and Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux for this ARC copy to read and review.
Vantage Point is to be published on January 14, 2025.

Situated on a small island in Maine, Clara and her brother, Teddy, live in the shadow of a family curse. The story starts on April 1st which is the beginning of the month that the curse tends to strike down family members dating back through generations. Teddy is running for the US Senate with his wife, Jess, by his side (she also is Clara's best friend). When the campaign starts being targeted by incriminating videos, Clara goes on the hunt to find who is behind the videos. The story alternates between the 3 characters perspectives of events while giving the backstory to their complicated relationships. It really had me guessing right until the end with a plot twist I didn't expect. This book is a definite page turner.

I liked the idea of this book and the gothic vibes with the family curse, but it moved very slowly in the middle and the deepfakes and holograms took away from the gothic vibes. I feel like it would have held my interest more if the events that happened to these characters were natural.

Likes-
•Wikipedia articles detailing the deaths of ancestors, all in the cursed month of April
•Character development for Clara and Jess
•Flashbacks of their childhood friendship leading up to Jess marrying Clara’s brother
•Mysterious elements surrounding the videos and rattling their brains over whether they were real

Dislikes-
•Teddy. What a grade-a asshole.
•Deepfakes and holograms- I just didn’t feel like they fit. As the story played out and the reason behind them became known, I got it. But they took away from the gothic vibes of the story. I felt like I was reading two different stories.
•The ending statements. Why would the sister and the wife switch places and make people believe they’re the other? It was just weird.

Maybe it’s because I requested this ARC because I wanted a solid, gothic mystery and it just didn’t hit like I hoped it would.

Thank you, NetGalley for allowing me to provide an honest review.

Pretty bad.

I picked this book because I loved that it was set on an island in Maine and seemed to have an interesting plot. What a snooze. Spoiler alert: the big plot twist was holograms. So far fetched to believe and even if it was believable still not interesting enough to hold my attention.

a captivating thriller with ai technology at the heart of it. unsettling as it is completely believable, machine learning and deepfakes are the perfect weapon for a contemporary suspense. the lore and misfortune of a wealthy family a worthy accomplice. i have a lifelong love affair with midcoast maine and the way Sara Sligar has made the setting its own character does it justice in a way i have rarely experienced in fiction.

This book had a really solid start with great changes in characters over each chapter! I appreciated the relationship between Clara and Jess specifically, but the middle seemed a bit muddy. I felt like it was dragged out more than necessary, and the ending felt rushed. That said, I really never knew where the story was going to go, and I really appreciate that!

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of Vantage Point by Sara Sligar.

Teddy and Clara Weinland are come from old money and live in a house called Vantage Point. There is a family curse that happens in the month of April which is a few days away.

The story is told by the 2 main female characters Jess and Clara, Teddy’s wife and sister. Teddy is ready for senator while the 3 are trying to figure out if videos that are being released are deepfakes or real.

This book was just ok for me. I liked the back and forth narrative and the Wikipedia articles about the family curse at the end of some chapters.

"Vantage Point" is an engaging thriller that masterfully intertwines themes of family curses, political intrigue, and modern technology. The story of siblings Teddy and Clara Wieland, along with Teddy's wife Jess, unfolds with a gripping narrative that keeps you guessing. While the characters can be challenging to like, their complex dynamics and the high-stakes drama surrounding a Senate campaign make for a compelling read. Despite a slow start, the novel picks up momentum and delivers a satisfying blend of suspense and psychological tension.

Vantage Point is a great novel exploring the many different ways to distort perspective -- from long-standing aspects like class and mental health to newfound technologies like deepfake videos and projections.
Adapted from an older novel about a very wealthy but cursed family, the book centers on Teddy and Clara Wieland, middle-aged siblings plagued by their parents death while children. The novel alternates perspective between Clara and Jess, her childhood best friend and now sister-in-law.
This is just the beginning in the complications of their relationships and loyalties, as Teddy is running for Congress, consuming his and Jess' lives. Clara has been dependent on one or both of them her whole life, having near constant battles with drug use, eating disorders, and haunted by the trauma of her presence at and inability to stop her parents' death.
When a sex tape of Clara and an unknown man goes viral, it disrupts both the campaign and their relationships, and that is only the beginning.
The novel unravels and escalates in a highly entertaining way, as their family compound on a small Maine Island becomes increasingly confining and bewildering.

wow - i want to read more like this. thriller meets suspense, but with a modern twist that you do not expect. loved this quick read and was hooked until the very end.

truly though, it was unlike any thrillers I've read recently, and I appreciate that. the introduction of deepfakes and warped reality really gave it the "modern twist" I was talking about above... and it was not overdone or overwritten.

It’s books like this one that make me want to read thrillers more often. Vantage Point was excellent.

Having a family curse is tough, and no one is more aware of that fact than the Weiland Family. Each April, they walk on eggshells trying to keep the curse at bay. Siblings Teddy and Clara Weiland lost their parents in a freak accident 16 years before the events of the story. Along with Clara’s childhood best friend and wife of Teddy, Jess, the Weilands start blaming the curse for a series of personal attacks ranging from leaked videos to hallucinations. Will it ruin Teddy’s senate campaign? Will it send Clara back over the edge? Where does it leave Jess, the outsider?

The mystery of this thriller took a while to unravel, but when it did, boy did I fly through the rest of the story. The pacing was a little slow for me at the beginning, but it eventually picked up about 60% in. Then I was hooked and couldn’t stop reading.

The characters were unlikable, but I think that was the point. Spoiled little rich kids always get what they want right? WRONG. But I couldn’t help but root for Clara. She was so fierce, even when everyone seemed against her. She took care of business.

I’d absolutely recommend Vantage Point. It might be more fitting for people used to reading thrillers, so thriller newbies might want to ease themselves in.

This book is really swinging for the fences in a bunch of different ways, and most of the time only hitting doubles.

Vantage Point focuses on the remains of a rich Maine family with a tragic history. They are thought to be cursed because they can’t stop creatively dying in April. Now combine this curse with a Senate campaign, a love triangle, and completely unbelievable technology. AI, deepfakes and social media are all very real concerns in today’s world but I felt like this book went far beyond what I think will be possible even 20 years from now. I couldn’t overlook it.

We get to know two of the main characters very well as we switch perspective, but this leaves the third coming across as very flat and unpredictable.

Unfortunately a rather boring experience. There was something about the writing that never truly grabbed me. The characters were up to some interesting stuff, but I didn't like them in the end. I hope other readers like it more.