𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ★ ★ ★ ★
𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: May 20, 2025
𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪:

We have a storyline with so many twists and turns and gripping moments. I spent an amazing weekend living in this book. Multiple POV, amazing characters and such a beautiful backdrop. Turn after turn of mystery, secrets and who done it. If you love a fast paced twisty murder mystery—you’ll love this!!!

Huge thank you to our Author, NetGalley as well as Atria Books | Atria/Emily Bestler Books

𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗦: Murder Mystery, Multiple POV, Twisty, Secrets

This had a little of everything. Family drama, love, a safari, a wedding, and a ton of secrets. Definitely worth the read.

2.75 stars rounded up

Odelia is newly engaged to a man over two decades her junior and brings her family to their Safari resort to celebrate her impending marriage. Unbeknownst to her, it's the last place any of them will see her alive. Twists and turns follow to uncover who had it out for her and why.

*****

This was a genuinely difficult book to get through. The multiple view points of unreliable narrators should have been interesting, but they all were such unlikeable characters. We got constant diatribes about the issues with Aba and Ophelia to the point that the entire book was cycling around it endlessly. By the midway point, I had put the book down so many times out of boredom that I wasn't sure I could finish it. I also found the main killers voice going from confident and secure to almost manic and immature once they're uncovered, to be extremely odd and not fit the character.

Thankfully, the last 25% or so, the story picked up, and we had some mystery and intruige. However, it had layers and layers of secrets and twists that it almost felt nonsensical in their excess. Literally, every character had some deep, dark secret or quiet betrayal aside from one (two if you include an actual baby). It dragged the conclusion out to just be too much in all and pulled this book slightly under 3 stars for me.

If you like a more drawn out mystery and lots of mental diatribes, with surprises over and over, this one could work for you. It just wasn't for me!

*****

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books, for the digital ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Like a luxury safari, Jaclyn Goldis’s enormously entertaining new novel takes readers on a thrilling ride through terrain as brutal as it is beautiful: an imperiled ecosystem of secrets, manipulation, and murder that will leave you breathless. With characters as richly realized as its sub-Saharan setting, The Safari is a transporting page-turner with surprises around every corner. I couldn’t put it down.

aclyn Goldis’ The Safari is a masterfully crafted thriller that transports readers to the lush, untamed wilderness of South Africa while unraveling a tangled web of family drama, secrets, and murder. With its gripping plot, multi-dimensional characters, and vivid setting, this novel is an exhilarating ride from start to finish.

At the heart of the story is Odelia Babel, the dynamic and larger-than-life CEO of a sustainable fashion empire. As she prepares for her lavish second wedding to a much younger man, she gathers her fractured family for a luxurious safari at Leopard Sands, a place rich with memories—and buried tensions. The stunning backdrop of South Africa is not just a setting but an active participant in the story, with its beauty and danger amplifying the suspense.

Goldis expertly captures the Babel family’s dysfunction, weaving together their secrets, rivalries, and betrayals. Odelia’s adult children, her designer fiancé, her loyal assistant, and even her grandchild all have complex motives and hidden agendas, making it difficult to determine who can be trusted. When Odelia is murdered hours before her wedding, the story takes a chilling turn, transforming the safari into a claustrophobic, high-stakes game of survival.

The novel is as much a family drama as it is a mystery, with characters who are flawed, vulnerable, and achingly human. Goldis peels back their layers, revealing deep-seated grudges, unspoken resentments, and forbidden desires. Sam and Bailey, Odelia’s twins, become the focal point of the investigation, and their bond—strained yet unbreakable—is both heartbreaking and fascinating.

The pacing is pitch-perfect, with the story moving seamlessly between the present-day murder investigation and flashbacks that illuminate the Babel family’s troubled history. The twists and turns are relentless, and the tension is palpable as the killer’s identity remains elusive until the final pages. Goldis also explores themes of privilege, ambition, and the consequences of long-buried sins, adding depth and nuance to the narrative.

The Safari is a taut, atmospheric thriller that will keep you guessing until its explosive conclusion. Jaclyn Goldis has delivered a richly layered story that combines the glamour of high society with the primal intensity of the African wilderness. Fans of family dramas and twisty mysteries won’t want to miss this captivating tale of betrayal, survival, and the dark side of love.

[ 2.5/5 stars ]

DNF @21%

The premise about a series of shocking murders set in South African Safari involving a wealthy family intrigued me.

I enjoyed the wilderness of Safari and the mystery behind it - I think that's the highlight of this novel. Then the story dives deeper dive the characters of an unhappy and messy family, into their past and possible motives. The relationships are often intoxicating yet real and it's expected to see some character study.

Yet, this feels like a family drama going nowhere, focusing on their privilege and hypocrisy. Don't get me wrong, these can be very real and I would to read about sustainability x profit and also (re-)marriage, that being said, I found meandering both the plot direction and character development. I want more than past grudges and selfish/privileged characters.

While transported at times to the setting, the characters lost me.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

I very much enjoyed this book. The writing was great and the characters were well developed. I hope to read more from this author in the future.

This book is insane... and I loved it. The way it was written was semi-unsettling, but it propelled the plot forward because I had to know what happened. It reminded me of being inside of some kind of escape room, and gave off shades of The Veldt, which is one of my favorite short stories ever. It's hard to write a summary without giving anything away, but if you're looking for a unique thriller with a killer setting... this one is for you! Highly recommend! (I need to do a re-read now, knowing what happens!)

I will share more on my YouTube, Instagram, and other social media on release day!

The star of this book is really the setting. The plot works, but the pace is slow enough that the reader gets to learn more and more about a little-understood part of the world.

The setting really makes this book! There are lions and elephants (and ivory hunters -- but they kind of get their dues by the end) in a South Africa setting. The characters are quite unlikeable, but in a way that makes you want to keep reading as opposed to giving up. Most of the twists are unexpected, even if not especially original (spoiler alert: a lot of people are related). I appreciated the different perspectives offered and the multiple motives added to the uncertainty of who could be the murderer. I would recommend this for fans of Lucy Foley, Hannah Richell, and Caro Carver.

Perfect for fans of armchair travel and locked room mysteries.
The setting is a character in its own right in this book and the author did a great job describing the animals in thier habitat in the safari...the crew gets their own POVs and their voices felt authentic to me....

This was such a good read. It started off really dull for me but I ended up addicted a few chapters in and couldn’t put it down. It had a family of perfectly cast characters (super flawed and classically relatable) and a lot of mysterious secondary characters I didn’t figure out until literally the last page (a pleasant surprise). There was lots going on in the plot which I loved, and lots of twists I didn’t see coming. I found there were some parts that languished a bit long but truly a pleasure to finish.

The struggle with this book was the timing, it was a slow build and a slower action plan. The plot, the twists, the characters were all perfectly unlikable, which is what saved this book, unreliable narratora all. Locked room mysteries have been done better but this will appeal to readers of the other authors that write this particular genre.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jaclyn Goldis and Atria books for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This was definitely a unique thriller and I enjoyed that aspect of it, but I was expecting the Safari aspect to play a bigger role in the novel. The twists were amazing and the family drama was unreal. Definitely an interesting read.

THE SAFARI is a fun multi POV story with a unique safari setting. The author does a wonderful job of including enough evocative details that you feel dropped into the scene, but not so many that the plot gets bogged down. She has also clearly researched South African culture, which I appreciated. While there are quite a few characters to keep up with, thankfully they are easy to keep straight and each of the POVs is sufficiently fleshed out so that, over time, we learn about each person's motivations and desires. In terms of pacing, I do think the novel would have been tighter if it was a bit shorter, but that did not impact my overall enjoyment of the story.

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

4.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed “The Main Character” by this author, so I was excited to read her next book. And this was such a great read!

First off, I love the multiple POVs and how they were utilized. Each character was fleshed out and became well-developed too. Every POV felt very unique, which is important in a book like this.

The setting was also very unique. I loved the safari setting and the South African culture sprinkled throughout the book. It was a real treat reading a book set in this particular setting.

Finally, the plot was well done and I loved the twists and turns! I honestly didn’t predict all of them, which made my reading experience that much better. I loved watching the mystery unfold and how everything slowly but surely came together.

If you’re looking for a slow-burn mystery set in a unique location, I can’t recommend this one enough!

This was a fun, fast-paced mystery thriller, that fits well within one of my personal favorite mystery subgenres : rich people behaving badly. This is a pretty typical set-up : an ultra-wealthy family is on vacation in South Africa, celebrating the mother of the family’s marriage to her decades-younger fiancee. There are rifts within the family and secrets among them all and the mother ends up dead. Most of the characters in this are awful, verging on despicable. I did like the way the author built these characters - although they are awful, they’re still written differently than other rich people mysteries I’ve read, with a bit more nuance. I liked the perspective changes with each chapter and the solution to the mystery, even if certain storylines felt a little obvious (I read a lot of mysteries, so this could be a product of that). If you’ve read and enjoyed either “The Chateau” or “The Main Character” by Jaclyn Goldis, you’ll enjoy your time with this. If you like a family drama mystery with a fairly unique setting, this will probably be a hit as well.

I've always been fascinated by South Africa and have dreamed of going on safari. Thankfully, Jaclyn Goldis has brought that dream to life in her superb thriller, allowing me to feel like I was right there, witnessing the majestic elephants, the fierce lions, the swift cheetahs, and the breathtaking landscape, all while staying at a luxurious hotel/family compound.

In The Safari, an incredibly wealthy family gathers at their opulent hotel compound for a wedding. The occasion is the marriage of the family matriarch, Odelia, to her much younger fiancé, Asher. However, this union is anything but joyous for Odelia's three adult children, whose discontent looms over the event. Tensions rise, secrets come to light, and when a shocking murder occurs, followed by multiple mysterious disappearances, chaos descends. No one knows who they can trust, and the danger lurking in the shadows keeps everyone on edge, unsure of what’s coming next.

Jaclyn Goldis weaves an intricate tale of suspense, betrayal, and family dynamics set against the stunning yet perilous backdrop of the African savannah. It’s a thrilling ride that kept me hooked from start to finish, making me feel like I was part of the adventure — up close with the wildlife, surrounded by opulence, and entangled in the mystery.
#Thesafari #jaclyngoldis
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