Wow . What a book and an eye opener in realised regards to AI in a fascinatingly horrific way. We know yet we don't learn how the power of AI can destroy lives without much ado.

So this book I finished sometime back but everytime I thought of reviewing it, I just couldn't come up with words that would describe the book. This book will leave dry and with lots of thoughts to process. I didn't like the characters because I think that was the point. Clara and Teddy are siblings, their parents dead in an accident. Clara and Teddy have each other and Clara's best friend Jess, is married to Teddy. Teddy is running for senate and Clara and Jess are helping him but there comes a video online which might ruin Teddy' political journey for well and good.

This whole book had a tensed up atmosphere which literally made reading it a see saw experience. It really kept me on edge. The deepfakes, AI, the videos and how the situations bring out the worst in any man on the earth, no matter how kind they seem in the beginning. I was kind of sad the way it was ending but Thank God for the last save. This book isn't easy so I will say read it after reading TW . For readers who suffer from any eating disorder it will be better to stay away.

It got slow which kept nagging me to dnf but I'm gald I pushed myself to complete the book coz holy shit it really gets better towards end.

Thank you Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux | MCD for ARC in exchange of an honest review.

I love Succession and Megan Abbot's lush prose, so this was a must-read. This book...is not either of those things, to its detriment. I don't think it's the book's fault, so much as the comps, but it really failed to live up to my high expectations, as it was probably bound to do. I found the writing more run-of-the-mill, and I couldn't stand the characters (and not in a fun way, a la Succession's Roy family).

Sara Sligar's first novel, "Take Me Away," was a literary delight, and with her second novel, "Vantage Point," she delights again, this time trading the coast of Northern California for the coast of Maine, art for deepfakes and holograms. Sligar's mysteries are smart, engaging, edge of your seat, with dynamic characters and plot. Much thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the opportunity to read this wonderful eARC. 3.5/5 stars.

Sara Sligar’s VANTAGE POINT is a look at old money, family secrets, political ambitions and the lies we tell ourselves and others.

Oh, the Wieland family, wealthy, powerful and cursed? That’s what they said when Clara and Teddy lost their parents. Now, over a dozen years later, they are living together again in the family home and running a community investment fund. Teddy married Clara‘s best friend, Jess along the way. He has now decided to run for the Senate and needs his wife by his side and his sister to control her demons. When a sex tape of Clara emerges on social media, she admits that it could have been filmed at some point in her past but that she does not recall, due to her psychological issues. As she looks into it, she has to wonder if it’s real or a deep fake. Jess is stuck in the middle between wanting to support her friend and needing to support her husband in his Senatorial run.

When Clara begins seeing visions of her parents and others on the property, Teddy is worried that she is returning to her previous emotional state and begins looking into having her committed to a psychiatric facility. Teddy‘s best friend from Harvard, Conrad has been there for him all along. Even though the investment bond turned down Conrad‘s idea of a digital start up regarding national parks, he supports Teddy in all of his endeavours.

Is the Wieland curse claiming Clara as another victim? What of the tape of Jess making statements on her wedding day about a money grab? Why is she afraid to return to Kattinocket, where she grew up? And will Teddy actually make it to the Senate?

This book kept me very entertained. The twists and turns came quickly and had me wondering what was really happening. I could feel the tension mounting and stayed up turning pages well past bedtime. The writing was clear and concise and led to an enjoyable read. This is my first Sarah Sligar novel, but I will certainly be keeping her name on my list of authors to watch.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ferrar, Straus and Giroux for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

Vantage is a quick, fun read that takes place in a small island town in Maine. I enjoyed the multiple viewpoints, the gothic-esq atmosphere, and the unreliable narrator aspects. I particularly enjoyed the Wikipedia excerpts educating the reader about the family curse and how something horrible happens to a member of the prestigious Wieland family every April.. My only issue with the book is that I thought the technology unrealistic, and it was easy to guess what was going to happen.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this ARC!

Thank you NetGalley, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux for the sneak peek of this book! This was a miss for me. I think it was because it was sooooo long and it could have been cut by about 100 pages. I got bored and started skimming it just to finish it.

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