In theory, the synopsis sounded amazing. In reality, the execution was done poorly and honestly was a concept seen before.

The characters and writing felt flat. The stakes felt high, but none of them reacted as if they even cared. Everyone felt static. The twist explained some things, but also felt like an excuse for under-developing everything up to that point.

Unfortunately, for me, this wasn’t an enjoyable experience. Others may find this story more interesting and unique.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Atria Books for a copy!

The locked room concept is fun. Unfortunately this was really slow with not a lot to make me connect with the characters. I wasn"t expecting a horror story with quite so much gore.

The premise of the book drew me in, I liked the suspense and the concept of the locked room mystery but not so much the gore and graphic detail. Overall an entertaining story.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#NetGalley #TheOtherPeople

A closed door mystery that turns into a horror story. A group of people wake up in an old English mansion. They do not know how they got there and cannot get out of their rooms. Suddenly the doors are unlocked and the group assemble for dinner. A woman named Amanda comes in and says they were gathered to find a missing woman who will die if she isn't found in time. The missing woman is next in line to a serial killer who already killed several young, blond women and she is running out of time. The group doesn't know each other and cannot imagine why they were chosen. The different characters narrate in alternating chapters with some chapters narrated by someone calling themselves "The Beast". The Beast knows what is going on and dribbles out the information along with some humor and possible clues.

The author does a great job of creating an atmosphere that is dark and claustrophobic. As the characters move around the house in search of Claire they encounter creepy, dark rooms, trapdoors and hidden dark corners. During part two of the book we begin to feel that something very strange is going as the characters are encountering rooms decorated like their rooms at home, meals that suit their taste magically appearing and some of them are killed off in brutal ways. As the characters begin to forget their life outside the house and to lose all sense of time, the reader feels unsettled as well.

There is a big twist that explains everything but it was pretty obvious what was going on. I liked the creepy darkness of the story but after the twist some of the characters didn't seem to fit what was going on especially the woman with the child and the pole dancer from Texas. There is a lot of gore, depictions of child abuse and torture and a view on mental illness that is problematic. Thank you to the Publisher and to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC for review.

Stop me if you've heard this one - A group of strangers are marooned in a locked house, somewhere remote, and one by one, they start to get knocked off. They don't recognize each other, they don't know why they're there, and they all realize that, just maybe, the secrets they keep dear are the reason they're being targeted next...

C.B. Everett's THE OTHER PEOPLE certainly does not sound imaginative at first glance. And, let's face it, after Agatha Christie's AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, it's hard, but not impossible, to make a one-by-one novel really stand out. But it's possible: Look at Glass Onion and Murder by Death. But I'm here to proudly declare that THE OTHER PEOPLE joins the ranks of breaking the mold of the genre for a truly jaw-dropping, stupendous read. The type of novel where every clue you need to solve the case is available as you open the book, and yet, you'll never see it coming. Everett writes his characters with a pitch-black sharpness that makes them downright unlikeable, but, ultimately, doesn't it make them more satisfying to see knocked off? As you jump from character to character—The corporate monster, the stripper, the wide-eyed student, the infant (!)—you'll learn important details that ladder up to the novel's explosive (and probably divisive) ending. Themes explored in this story are far more sinister than its counterparts, and while you can compare it to a Glass Onion or a Knives Out for its uniqueness, it definitely is a much darker read than the cover suggests. I will be thinking about this one for a long time.

THE OTHER PEOPLE – by C.B. Everett

‘Ten strangers wake up inside an old, locked house. They have no recollection of how they got there. In order to escape, they have to solve the disappearance of a young woman. But a killer also stalks the halls of the house and soon the body count starts to rise. Who are these strangers? Why were they chosen? Why would someone want to kill them? And who—or what—lurks in the cellar?’

As a fan of Agatha Christie, this book was an automatic—Yes, Please! As the story opens, my interest is piqued—that is—until the unnecessary intermittent commentary throughout the narrative that feels irrelevant to the story.

Overall, it was meh. I will say, that I enjoyed Part Three.

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books (Simon & Schuster Publishing), for providing me with an eBook of THE OTHER PEOPLE at the request of an honest review.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)

In "The Other People," ten strangers awaken in a locked, dark house with no memory of how they arrived. To escape, they must unravel the mystery of a missing girl while a killer picks them off one by one (Agatha Christie anyone?). As the body count rises, questions about their identities and the reason for their selection deepen, adding to the tense atmosphere.

Everett sets a chilling scene, effectively creating suspense with the unknown lurking in the cellar. However, the plot can feel predictable at times, and character development is somewhat lacking, making it hard to fully connect with their fates.

While the premise is intriguing and the pacing keeps the tension high, the story falls short of delivering a truly gripping experience. "The Other People" offers an entertaining read, but it may not satisfy those seeking a more complex mystery.

If Saw and Mexican Gothic and Agatha Christie all had a baby, this would be the result. In theory, that sounds like it could be a good thing, but I think this would work better as a movie than a book. I feel like it’s been done before and just as average.
There’s so many characters to keep up with and at one point even the characters can’t keep up with all the characters so what does that tell you? Once the ending is revealed it kind of feels again like it’s been done before be forewarned that there are lots of graphic scenes in this. I was not expecting them and would have loved a warning. If you’re expecting your typical non descriptive scenes, this is not the book for you.
If however, you’re a fan of locked room, DID, slow burn gore filled slasher stories then you may want to pick this up.
Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

This was an interesting read. I found it to be a bit slow and it definitely dragged out in parts. I was interested in what the ultimate twist was and I did not guess it fully. I need it had to be some sort of alternate reality but I was not expecting Charles to have DID. I wish a bit more could have been done with that aspect. This honestly reminded me a lot of Shutter Island especially towards the end. Overall I liked this one. If you enjoy slow burn thrillers and a big mystery, this would be a good one.

The premise was really interesting but this book was just really hard to get through. There were many characters and not enough character development so it was really hard to keep track of who was who.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

And Then There Were None as well as books like Dead of Winter, One by One, etc are one of my favorite types of tropes! I love a locked room mystery. Unfortunately, this just fell flat for me. I didn't love the characters and felt the buildup was taking way too long. Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC.

I struggled with this one as well. I think it had something to do with the lack of depth of the characters. I just couldn’t keep them straight.
This book is pretty much clue but way more gory.
I do think some people will like it. It was just not the book for me.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3.
I received an ARC of this title, all opinions are my own.

This one fell a little flat for me. I was SO hooked in the beginning, especially with the beast character, but I just could not keep track of the multiple characters and POVs. This might have been due to the fact that I wasn't entirely interested in any of the characters. The writing was intriguing and had so much potential, so I will be picking up another book form this author!

I DNF'd this due to it being REALLY boring. I'm sad though because I could tell it wanted to be a really good, suspenseful book, but it fell flat. I needed more from it and it left me wanting. Thank you, NetGalley!

This was possibly the worse book I have ever read. It was boring. Tedious. Horrid. Not in anyway believable. It took me forever to read half of it and then I stopped. I've read books almost the same but better..

I'm sorry but I can't recommend this on.

*4.5 Stars On My Instagram Account*

"Even the villain believes they are the hero of their own story."

There are twists in psychological thrillers and then there are TWISTS! The chilling climatic The Other People by mind blowing author C.B.Everett had an ending twist I never imagined; especially the way the writer cleverly plotted out this deadly locked room mystery.

Ten people, including a mother and her baby, with no connection to each other, wake up in a sealed up mansion. They have no idea how they got there. They are told that a young woman, Claire, is locked away in the mansion. They have 12 hours to find her would-be killer, and her, in order to keep her alive and leave the mansion.

They're an eclectic group made up of a university student, an army captain, a stripper, a retired detective, an elderly librarian and a despicable being. As time ticks away so do their numbers as one by one they die gruesome deaths. Yet the way they die seems to reflect the secrets they keep not only from each other but themselves.

Voice actors Heather Long and Kaffe Keating are phenomenal in giving each character their own voice filled with fear, regret and often sadness.

My favorite was The Beast In The Cellar. He's hilariously cheeky and philosophical in this "what just happened" thriller. He toys with the reader breaking the fourth wall; asking if we figured out who's the killer while we forget to worry about Claire being found in time. He talks about grief versus guilt and pain in love.

Reading and listening to each person struggling with the horror that was happening to them and not someone else, begs the question, what do you do when you are "The Other People" bad things are happening to this time?

I received a free copy of this book/audiobook from the publishers via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. Opinions are my own.

I really did try, but I just could not keep forcing myself to pick this one back up. I made it 40 percent in, and it just felt so.....boring. The murders were described in very graphic detail (it felt like for shock value), but the actual plot just dragged. There are so many characters, and there just wasn't enough character development to keep track of who was who very easily. This one had potential, but I just do not have the time to see if it ever rises to the occasion.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an e-arc!

The premise of this one is really interesting, it immediately had me hooked! A group of strangers all wake up in a house with no idea how they got there or why. The most troubling thing, though, is that they have no way to get out.

Although the guests don’t know each other, it’s clear that whoever threw them together (perhaps the owner of the house, we’re not sure) knows them all very personally. This person knows their likes and dislikes, what their homes look like, what they do for their jobs, and even their secrets.

The guests are told that someone in the house-maybe even one of the members of the group- wants to kill each of them. The only way to escape the house is to solve a huge mystery. A serial killer has been going around kidnapping and killing young, blonde women, and there’s one missing right now. The group is tasked to find her within 12 hours, or else she will die, and so will the house guests.

I did find this to be an interesting read, and it was unlike other books I’ve read! There’s twists, and you’ll be questioning what’s happening and second guessing your favorite characters throughout reading.

I do want to give a warning that there are some offensive things in this book. This is due to the troubling thoughts and opinions of some of the unlikable characters, and sometimes they said things that were upsetting. Without spoiling anything, just know that some remarks made by characters and the characters themselves may make you uncomfortable at times, but the author doesn’t let anything terrible happen… besides death of course.

Overall, if you like thrillers, mysteries, and twisty stories, this one is worth a try!

Thank you to Atria books for my copy of THE OTHER PEOPLE. This one is out March 25.

I sadly, couldn't get into this one. I should have looked at other reviews before requesting it. I have such a hard time when I hate all the characters in a book. It's just too much work. It's like hanging out with people you don't like and makes reading become less fun for me. This book will put you in a slump if you let it.

If you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you know I love and adore a locked room setting. Everett hits that mark with ten strangers waking up in a house they have no knowledge of ever arriving at. There’s a strange woman who tells them they’ve all been brought here to find a missing woman who has 12 hours to live.

Murder. Mystery. Mayhem.

Everett lets readers bond with some of the characters more than others, but even the one’s I didn’t get to spend as much time with drew me in and left me wanting to know their story. While they all certainly weren’t likable, that didn’t stop me from being intrigued about their fate because you know everyone isn’t making it out alive.

There’s a really intriguing twist at the end of this one that I thought was very well executed. I had a lot of guesses based on some hints, but I didn’t guess this one!

I’m honestly shocked by how divisive the reviews are for this book. I saw several that said people DNF’d but there was no explanation. For me everything worked, but if you want to take the cautious route because of others, snag a copy from your library and give it a go!