Every Last Fear

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you for my gifted copy #netgalley and #minotaurbooks for #everylastfear

𝐒𝐲𝐧𝗼𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬:

In one of the year’s most anticipated debut psychological thrillers, a family made infamous by a true crime documentary is found dead, leaving their surviving son to uncover the truth about their final days.

“They found the bodies on a Tuesday.” So begins this twisty and breathtaking novel that traces the fate of the Pine family, a thriller that will both leave you on the edge of your seat and move you to tears.

After a late night of partying, NYU student Matt Pine returns to his dorm room to devastating news: nearly his entire family―his mom, his dad, his little brother and sister―have been found dead from an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI and State Department seem far less certain―and they won’t tell Matt why.

The tragedy makes headlines everywhere because this isn’t the first time the Pine family has been thrust into the media spotlight. Matt’s older brother, Danny―currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his teenage girlfriend Charlotte―was the subject of a viral true crime documentary suggesting that Danny was wrongfully convicted. Though the country has rallied behind Danny, Matt holds a secret about his brother that he’s never told anyone: the night Charlotte was killed Matt saw something that makes him believe his brother is guilty of the crime.

When Matt returns to his small hometown to bury his parents and siblings, he’s faced with a hostile community that was villainized by the documentary, a frenzied media, and memories he’d hoped to leave behind forever. Now, as the deaths in Mexico appear increasingly suspicious and connected to Danny’s case, Matt must unearth the truth behind the crime that sent his brother to prison―putting his own life in peril―and forcing him to confront his every last fear.

Told through multiple points-of-view and alternating between past and present, Alex Finlay’s Every Last Fear is not only a page-turning thriller, it’s also a poignant story about a family managing heartbreak and tragedy, and living through a fame they never wanted.

𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰:

This book opened with a splash, announcing that a college kids family had died while vacationing in Mexico. The family had been part of a documentary that made a splash on Netflix, due to their eldest son now serving time in prison because he confessed to killing his hush school girlfriend only after the cops coerced him with the confession.

This book was told from multiple POVs of the family members past and present and the FBI agent handling the case. For me, this made this book sometimes hard to keep up with and by the middle I found myself daydreaming through parts of it, having to go back and reread things again.

The families dearth was ruled as an accident due to a gas leak in their vacation rental, however, after looking further it appeared the bodies were staged.

Who killed the family and who killed the high school girlfriend? Matt, now the lone surviving member of the family (that isn’t dead or jailed) has to find this information out and fast!

Overall, the beginning and the end made this a solid thriller for me and I would recommend.