Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam Publishing for this eARC. I have to give this one just 3.5 stars. I loved the premise and the setup but I struggled with the choices of one of the main characters and it was hard to maintain sympathy for that character as a result. Similar to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, I think it is important to be informed on how race can impact police and investigations especially in our nation's history. It is hard to review this book and not unintentionally spoil it but I do wish the author had dug a little deeper into the motivations of the antagonist .

I have just finished reading the novel,We Don’t Talk About Carol by Kristen L. Berry.
It was well written but the description sounded much better than the actual story.
I forced myself to keep reading to the very end and glad that I did.The last 25% was the best part of the 336 pages.The main character,Sydney, is an amateur sleuth of sorts who’s interested in podcasts involving missing persons. The story takes place mostly in North Carolina where 60 years earlier six black girls had gone missing including an aunt of hers,Carol,that she had never heard of before. The police at the time really weren’t interested in solving what happened to the girls. They said they all ran away which was typical when white policemen were involved with missing black people at that time. There were lots of names of the characters in the story which were rehashed over and over plus the IVF info of Sydney and her husband trying to have a baby. That was over-the-top,too. Sometimes character development is done so much it takes away from the main idea of the intended mystery. Remember,if the hook grabs you right at the start,read to the end for an interesting ending.Thank you Netgally ,and publisher Random House for the arc ebook.
On sale,June 03,2025

This book! 4.5 stars.
Dysfunctional family, trauma, haunting, twisty, mystery, cold case, complex characters.
FMC is staying at her Grandmother's house to celebrate her 65th birthday, when she finds an old photograph of a teenage girl. When she asks her Grandmother about the girl, all she gets is, "We don't talk about Carol".
Just WOW! This book was so much better than I anticipated. I think I am still recovering.
3 complex women: a mother who seems almost unfeeling because she doesn't show vulnerability, and two sisters who are emotionally damaged and distant.
Sydney, our FMC, is swept away in finding out what happened to Carol and the mystery of the family secret.
Pay attention to every detail in this book! I have to say that everything in the book is important to this story!
Also, the ending was so satisfying.
The plot was well structured, and the pace was ideal for this story.
Characters are all well-developed and shocking!
I really can't believe this is a debut novel! Kristen Berry - you have earned a fan out of me!
Thank you to NetGalley and Kristen Berry for the opportunity to read and review this ARC! So well done!
Happy Reading!

3.75 stars rounded up. This was a good thriller. I was engaged right away but it got slow for me toward the middle. Picked back up toward the end. Berry's writing was on point and it's amazing to me that this was a debut. Excited to see more from her in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

When journalist Sydney finds out she has an aunt who has been missing for 60 years, she begins to search for the truth. Why did so many girls go missing in Raleigh? Why did no one try to find them? Why is her family so secretive? Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader in exchange for my review.

Carol disappeared decades ago. As people go missing, there's no trace of where they've gone.

Carol's niece is a journalist who decides to solve the mystery of why happened to her aunt. When clues start to add up, details start to align, can justice be around the corner?

Tragedies and dark family mysteries that resolve with grief, love, and hope. Well worth considering, in light of the many persons who go missing in the USA each year

I gave We Don’t Talk About Carol four ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you Random House, Kristen L Berry and Net Galley for the ARC. These are my honest opinions.

What a poignant story. This story brought to light the fact that missing black girls/women do not get the same attention as other races.

The characters were very well developed and they were easy to understand. There was a lot of tangles in the characters, but not so much as to confuse the reader.

I did not see the end coming at all, so that’s a plus.

I feel like the ending was a little rushed and would have liked to have a little more insight into some resolutions.

I had the opportunity to read the upcoming We Don't Talk About Carol by Kristen L. Berry. This book is coming out soon on June 3, 2025 and is the author's debut novel!

The synopsis:

A dedicated journalist unearths a generations-old family secret—and a connection to a string of missing girls that hits way too close to home—in this gripping debut novel.

In the wake of her grandmother's passing, Sydney Singleton finds a hidden photograph of a little girl who looks more like Sydney than her own sister, or mother. She soon discovers the mystery girl in the photograph is her aunt, Carol, who was one of six local North Carolina Black girls to go missing in the 1960s. For the last several decades, not a soul has talked about Carol or what really happened to her. With her grandmother gone and Sydney looking to start a family of her own, she is determined to unravel the truth behind her long-lost aunt and the sinister silence surrounding her.

Unfortunately, this is familiar territory for Sydney. Several years prior, working the crime beat as a journalist on the case of an, other missing girl, her obsession eventually led to a psychotic break. And now, in the suffocating grip of fertility treatments and a marriage that's beginning to crumble, Sydney’s relentless pursuit might just lead her down the same path of destruction. As she delves deeper into Carol's fate, her own troubled past resurfaces, clawing its way to the surface with a vengeance. The web of secrets and lies entangling her family leaves Sydney questioning everything—her fixation on the missing girls, her future as a mom, and everyone she’s come to trust.

Delving into family, community, secrets, and motherhood, We Don’t Talk About Carol is a gripping and deeply emotional story about overcoming the rotten roots of your family tree—and what we’ll do for those we love.
As soon as I saw this description, I was pulled right in and couldn't wait to see how it all turned out. I am very impressed that this is the author's debut. I thought it was really well done. Not only was the whole story engrossing, but I thought Ms. Berry did an excellent job in tying everything all together, PLUS, it even surprised me in some parts.

Honestly, I was going to give it 3 stars, but the more I thought about it, I gave it an extra star. I wish the author the best of luck with this book upon its release and with any other future projects.

The mystery is fine. The characters are fine. The writing is worth reading. But damn if this wasn't just the slowest thing I've read in ages.

A powerful, thoughtful debut- beautifully written and captivating the entire time! Thank you for the ARC!

3.5⭐ I was excited to get to this one after seeing all the great reviews and the plot sounded really intriguing. This was well written and compelling. It's not necessarily a twisty thriller, but more of a slow burn mystery about the unsolved case of Sydney's missing aunt, her father's sister, and six other missing Black women in the 1960’s that have not been investigated. She wonders if there is a connection between them and her aunt. If you like true crime I think you may enjoy this one. It's a sad and true fact how Black women that go missing are often not investigated as they should be. I found the story to be very realistic and emotional. It was slower than I was expecting but still compelling enough to hold my attention.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review. I was very excited for this book, especially when I saw all the 5-star reviews for this debut book for this author. Sadly, I could not connect with the characters and it was a slow burn for me all the way through. It must’ve been me.

This book was very well balanced. Unlike most mysteries and thrillers that mainly focus on solving the case, I really enjoyed diving into Sydney’s personal life and dealing with her own family trauma. It was full of complex familial relationships, which we can all relate to, as well as systemic racism which is unfortunately still an issue today. As for the mystery, I enjoyed how I truly did not know how it was going to play out until the last 40 pages or so. This will have to be an author I seek out from now on.

This book healed something in me. I would’ve liked more of a twist but the story was well written and gripping and draws attention to the staggering statistics of unsolved and un investigated disappearances of black Americans. Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this ARC

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I really wanted to love it, I’ve seen really good reviews it’s just been a struggle to continue past 25%

4.5 stars rounded up to 5!

I loved this one. The mystery, a tiny bit of twists and thrill, grief, love, and development of characters. I just wanted to know more and keep reading. My only dislike was the bit of annoyance I had for the main character and I didn’t want Malik to be wronged in any way! I loved all the characters and how I could feel like I was in Raleigh listening to the characters recount the past.

4 stars

I feel very fortunate to have read two outstanding debut novels in a row, and this is one of them. If you're in the mood for something dark and tightly woven, queue this now.

Sydney is a complicated protagonist, which makes her the perfect character for this gritty journey. While her family espouses the titular mantra, Sydney lives in opposition to it. Once she discovers a picture of a young girl who very closely resembles her, Sydney learns about her mysterious lost aunt. In her dysfunctional family of origin - and in her current nuclear family which has seen happier times - Sydney spirals all the way into a hunt for answers. What happened to her long-missing aunt? Is she the victim of foul play? Is her disappearance connected to the disappearances of many other young women? How does this all relate to the horrors Sydney experienced with her own violent father?

Berry does an exceptional job of connecting Sydney's complex family relationships across generations and time periods and featuring her current personal struggles. I found myself just as interested in Sydney's outcomes as in the central mystery, which, as a mystery/thriller fan, I can say is truly uncommon in my reading experience. I found this read extremely engaging and recommend it to fans of the genre, though I will add that it got even darker than I was expecting in some ways, so folks should be ready for that.

I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

f you like true crime, this is a must read. Although based on fiction, the stats of black women going missing is true. The timeline of this story digs into the 60’s in the south. I liked the deep storylines we get from the Singleton family.

This was a compelling thriller that brings to light a real issue. Upon the death of her grandmother, Sydney starts to wonder what happened to Carol, the aunt who supposedly ran away as a teenager. Unfortunately, she's just another missing Black girl whose story no one knows.

Sydney takes on an investigation to figure out what happened to Carol and the other girls, and while it wasn't overly twisty, I was kept interested. Her investigation itself felt realistic (as compared to some "layperson busts out a murder board and becomes a detective" tropes) and the characters felt real.

While not the main point of the story, I also appreciated how the author wrote Sydney's ambivalence about parenthood—as well as the conversations she had with her husband about how prioritizing family doesn't mean giving up on everything else.

Overall, a solid debut novel. A little heavy handed at times—the epilogue was a bit too tied-up-with-a-bow, telling-not-showing for me, and maybe because I work in tech but I didn't really care about her husband's startup—but overall a good read.

(I received a free advance copy via NetGalley.)

Not only an excellent, well-written debut novel, but insightful and thought-provoking book told from a Black person's perspective. It's disappointing and unfair that society doesn't pay as much attention when Black people go missing. WE DONT TALK ABOUT CAROL is an emotional and powerful story with well-developed characters and descriptive settings. The author successful weaves the mystery about 6 Black girls going missing in the 2960s with main character Sydney's personal issues. Sydney's grew up with family secrets and tight lipped parents who held the philosophy "what happens in this house stays in this house." Sydney wrestles with if she will be a good parent due to her upbringing.while going through her IVF journey.

I look forward to reading future books by this talented author.