Beautiful cover! This is, in effect, a locked-room murder mystery, although it is set in a luxury African safari. Odelia Babel, the CEO of a fashion company, is planning to marry Asher Bach, her designer who is much younger. The wedding is set at the safari resort, and she has her whole family there, plus her lifelong best friend. There are many undercurrents running through the interactions. I wasn’t positive I would finish the book several times because it was extremely slow until about the 50% mark.

What a hugely dysfunctional family! Everyone has a deep dark secret, and they’re not revealed until towards the end. I agree with another reviewer—- I couldn’t figure out what the family’s Jewish faith had to do with anything, but it kept being mentioned. And the reasons for everyone’s actions are buried until they magically appear at the end of the story.

I had figured out the culprit, but it could have been one or more of the many characters because Odelia is ultra-controlling and everyone has issues with her.

My rating for this one is three stars!

I received a copy of the digital ARC via the publisher and NetGalley. My review is voluntary.

The Babel family runs a sustainable clothing empire. Odelia runs the company since her husband's death and her children have held various roles over the year. At their family resort safari in South Africa, the whole family has gathered for a vacation and Odelia's wedding to Asher, a much younger designer who works at the family company. The family has more money and secrets than they can count, and this trip is going to bring them all to the surface.

My favorite part of the book was the setting and animals in the wild. The characters were well developed and there were so many twists and turns. Other than Bailey, I found the majority of the characters to be unrelatable and frustrating. Bailey was a delight and by far my favorite character to see evolve throughout the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC of The Safari.

I was really excited to read this one but unfortunately it took me a bit to really get into the story. There's a lot going on and instead of keeping me intrigued it did a lot of the opposite.

The Babel family finds themselves back at the resort they own for a family vacation, but realize that their mother has another surprise for them. Sam, Joshua, and Bailey are not too crazy about their mother's surprise and don't shy away from letting her know about their thoughts. The entire story speaks on greed, dysfunctional family ties, twisted loyalty, nepotism, with multiple twists, and turns along the way.

None of the characters were likable in this one. everyone had their own agendas for going on the family trip. While I typically eat stories like this up, this one lacked overall character arcs and development. Some of the reveals were pretty apparent, minus the last one! The author did a good job at capturing how money and wealth can change people in horrid ways.

If you are looking for a story with a cast of dysfunctional characters that secretly hates each other and think of themselves, this one is for you.

The twists and turns of this book were really good. I was pretty intrigued and wanted to know more every time I sat down to read. The setting being a safari was unlike anything else I have read before.

Twisting and turning its way through the pride lands, THE SAFARI by Jaclyn Goldis is an Agatha Christie style mystery that earns all of its plot twists and holds back some reveals until the bitter end. The relationships between the siblings are fleshed out really well, as are the relationships of the extended family. The story is well plotted and the loose ends are tied up nicely and worked into the evolving narrative. I listened to this one on audio, and the narration is excellent as well.

Odelia Babel is 64 years old and the CEO of a fast fashion empire. She invites her three adult children, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, and her lifelong best friend, Gwen, to Leopard Sands, a luxury safari camp in South Africa, for her wedding to Asher, a man 25 years her junior. No one is pleased about the upcoming nuptials. Then, the night of the rehearsal dinner, Odelia is murdered.

Tensions run high and there is no shortage of suspects. Unsurprisingly, there are plenty of secrets to be uncovered in this dysfunctional family, and it seems the killer has other plans…

If you enjoy stories of rich people behaving badly, there’s a lot of intrigue, arguing, bitterness, and bad behavior on full display.

I was hopeful for the exotic locale but found it lacking. Plus tarot cards, a plot device I didn’t care for. And lots of virtue signaling. Yeah I know homophobia, religious extremism, and fast fashion are bad. I don’t need to be hit over the head with it.

It took me to 50% before the story took off. I came close to DNF’ing multiple times. Also, with multiple narrators, each narrating in the first person, it required close attention and flipping back to remember whose chapter it was. Perhaps this would have worked better for me on audio with a full cast.

The Safari was a little too all over the place for me. I couldn't connect to any of the characters and felt that the writing was quite lacking.

I am intrigued by some of Jaclyn Goldis other books as the setting might lend better to her writing. I think the South African landscape was a bit out of Goldis' scope and might have caused her writing to be hindered by that.

I did not fully finish reading this book as I was just a bit too bored and confused. I love books about rich people but these rich people were just a bit too shitty and uninteresting for me.

This was a solid read. I hated most of the characters, but I think that's intended and shows a depth in the writing. It was twisty and a few things I didn't see coming. The setting added a bit of drama that kept me turning.

This story is about a very strange family with so many secrets. I finally decided at the end of the book that I really didn't like any of the characters. A wealthy business woman gathers her family in South Africa for a safari/wedding. She's marrying a man 20 years her junior and the family is skeptical. When she is killed before the wedding the siblings and family are stuck with the killer as they read the will and find out some amazing secrets. An ending you won't believe.

There were parts of this book I really enjoyed and then parts just seemed to drag on. I really liked the plot twists at the end. I think it just took a long time to get to the death (which is revealed right away) but it took a looooong time to come back to that in the book. And then with the plot twists you felt like it was near the end but there was still more to happen. Solid read.

Thank you to Atria books for an early copy

This novel did NOT make a safari sound fun. That being said, the read itself was fun-- twisty and complex-- though fairly overwrought. Not everything needs to resolve cleanly-- a red herring can just be a red herring! But a fun setting for sure.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for the ARC copy of this one.

This one was just okay for me. I really enjoyed the setting, but this one was a bit too slow getting started for me to really get into it. I have seen other people really enjoy it though, so definitely still give it a go if you were interested in it! There's quite a bit of family chaos the ensues to make for quite the entertainment.

I was unfortunately pretty disappointed in this book. I've rated a book by this author 4 stars before, and I was fully expecting this to be the same, but I was wrong. My biggest issue is that I hated all of the characters. Not in a "unlikable, morally gray character" kind of way, but a "these people actually kind of suck and they'll never change" kind of way. I will argue that the author definitely did this on purpose, but it didn't work for me in this instance. We follow a cast of characters on a safari in South Africa (which is such a rich person thing to do) where their super rich mother is doing the thing super rich people do and being white while owning land that should not belong to her. While these are important things to talk about, I think the author didn't go deep enough into the conversation about apartheid in South Africa. It is mentioned by name which is a great start but I would've liked to see more in depth converstations between the characters about why it happened and the racism that is fueling it. I did enjoy the multi-layered mystery that all came to a head in this novel! There were so many complex layers and overlapping reveals and that's what saved this book for me. This is probably my least favorite book I've read by this author but I see her potential to write an incredible mystery/thriller novel and I look forward to following her work!

This one just wasn’t for me. The premise is fantastic—an extravagant luxury safari with dark secrets simmering beneath the surface—and the setting is lush and vivid. But for all its promise, I found the story didn’t quite live up to it. The multiple POVs ended up working against the narrative; in a story like this, you really have to pay attention to who isn’t included, and that choice felt more like a gimmick than a strength.

The twists came fast and furious, and while I’m usually up for a well-timed surprise, this had so many that it started to feel a little absurd. Personally, one solid, well-earned twist is enough for me—stack too many on top of each other, and it starts to feel more like a trick than a payoff.

I can see this being a fun, bingeable thriller for readers who love high drama and big reveals, but it left me wishing for something a little more grounded.

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for the advance copy. All opinions are entirely my own.

2⭐️⭐️

I loved the idea of a family vacation gone wrong set in the middle of a wild safari so I was really excited to read this book but it completely fell short for me. With a MPOV style, I found there to be too many point of views, it got confusing and overwhelming to learn who everyone was and I didn’t enjoy many of the characters. The dialog became boring with family drama that wasn’t always related to the mystery going on in the moment - a lot of back history to read. I really enjoy this author’s other books but this one was not for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

At the matriarch's wedding to a much-younger man who is not interested in her money, her family just can't get along. Everyone is at each other's throats. People go missing. Family secrets are brought to light that probably should never see the light of day. And just when you think it's all been wrapped up and tied neatly in a bow, Jaclyn Goldis does that Columbo thing where he turns around and says "Just one more thing."

Written with a true Agatha Christie flair, this book captures her signature style but Jaclyn still manages to make it her own. I was especially drawn to the twisted dynamics between each family member, which added so much depth to the tension and mystery surrounding Odelia’s death. The ending really impressed me, paying homage to Christie’s iconic twist but layered in even more delicious debauchery that made it all the more satisfying.

*Thank you to Jaclyn Goldia, Atria Books and Netgalley for the digital copy. I am freely leaving my honest review.

3.5 This was a fun thriller but with pacing all over the place it made it a bit of a difficult read. This book gives rich people behaving badly vibes as a rich family goes on safari and one of the main characters end up dead. Lies and secrets start unfolding as they try to figure out who murdered who and who inherits what. While this was a fun plot the first half was pretty slow and was kind of tough to follow with all the characters in this book. Now the last quarter went into overdrive and this book went a little over the top but it was still a fun read. This is my second book from this author and this authors work may just not be for me. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for and honest review.

I did not like this book. The synopsis made this book seem interesting but it turn out that way for me.