It’s hard to write a review about a story when there’s so much to unpack. Jay and Lauren were humans and were depicted as such, which I think adds to the depth of their story. I didn’t want to just read about all of the fun adventures they had cycling the world, but also their hardships and personal perspectives, which this book does a great job of doing. Learning a bit about Tajikistan was also helpful to understand the background and paint a better picture for me as a reader.

I thought this book was really sensitively written while still being informative and doing the story justice. It’s something quite different for me so I really enjoyed the way the author took you on the journey with Lauren and Jay through the various countries, gave a brief overview of the political nature of the countries, dangers, culture etc. so you really got a feel for the trip in both good and bad aspects.

The author was also honest about Jay and Lauren and doesn’t paint them to be perfect which I appreciate. Speaking about their personal difficulties, relationship conflicts and imperfections is what makes them human and you feel like you really get to know them.

The book is well researched with various sources corroborating each other so you have confidence it’s an accurate description of events. Hours of interviews, trawling social media and footage has gone into this so overall it’s a quality book.

I do wish the author had delved more into the strange things that happened for the couple of days prior. I do think this was only briefly spoken about but it would be good to have more details of the strange things that happened and how the cyclists were feeling safety wise.

There was some repetition and sometimes the anecdotes from other adventurers didn’t always feel overly relevant but I definitely will recommend this book to people. I can’t believe I’d never heard of this, especially with how Lauren and Jay blogged.

Easily a 4.5 rounded up to a 5 because 4 just doesn’t do it justice for me. Thanks so much to net gallery, the publisher and author for my advanced copy.

On a bleak mountain highway in the mountains of Tajikistan known as "the roof of the world" on July 29, 2018, Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin were brutally murdered by five ISIS terrorists along with two other cyclists. They were both Georgetown University graduates who had quit their well-paying Washington, D.C. jobs to pursue a bike trip around the world, looking for a different kind of American Dream. Pieced together from Jay and Lauren's Simply Cycling travel blog and social media posts, interviews with their friends and family, and media coverage of their murder, author William Elliot Hazelgrove creates a complete, narrative retelling of Jay and Lauren's story. Evil on the Roof of the World combines biking and travel adventure with true crime elements, sensitively presenting the trajectory of Jay and Lauren’s hopeful beginnings; the difficulties and meaningful experiences they found on their journey; the foreshadowing leading up to the attack; and the way they, their loved ones, the media, and the perpetrators made sense of this violent encounter. Like Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild, this is a story of a couple who went off the grid to find the great adventure of life.

4 stars

On July 29, 2018, American cyclists Lauren Geoghagen and Jay Austin were murdered along with two other cyclists by five ISID terrorists in the mountains of Tajikistan. This book tells the story of the two 29 year old Georgetown graduates who decided to quit their jobs and cycle around the world (which sounds pretty miserable, even pre-death.)

This ARC was riddled with misspellings and errors (including reference to “Keith” Ledger) which made it a bit frustrating to read…I know these aren’t meant to be perfect, and so font expect that, but, Geez. It was also a bit repetitive, biting to same statistics multiple times. However, since either I missed this story in 2028 or have completely forgotten about it, this was incredibly interesting to me. So, despite the errors and assuming all is cleared up for publication, strong four stars.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. I had never even heard of this event before reading this book. Now not only do I know what happened but I learned about who Jay and Lauren were before the tragic events took place. The book as so well written especially how the timeline was laid out. I felt like I really got to know a lot about jay and Lauren and would have really admired them as friends in real life had I known them that way. This book did a great job of honoring their legacy.