Come Join the Murder

I was provided an opportunity to read this in exchange for providing feedback (via the BookSirens).

My final impression: I don't really get it. This isn't the book I thought it was going to be based off the description. Some of the aspects of this book were fairly unbelievable which took away from the experience a bit for me.

This review is also featured at Behind the Pages: Come Join the Murder

A huge thank you to Blackthorn Book Tours and Holly Rae Garcia for including me in the book tour for Come Join the Murder. I was provided a copy in exchange for an honest review.

What can a mother do when she loses her husband and son? After a trip to the beach turns deadly, Rebecca is left wandering a house filled with memories and silence. The police have found no answers, and she is left trying to pick up the pieces of her life alone. She finds herself searching for the person who took her family from her. But the paths it will lead her down are dark and unforgiving.

James was there the night her family was last seen but is determined to keep quiet. Having recently lost his job, he will do anything to make money. Growing up he learned to take what he needed, and he will do whatever he can to keep a roof over his mother's head. Even if it means killing a few people along the way.

Holly Rae Garcia's characters will send a chill down your spine. The choices they make due to the desperation they feel will leave you haunted. Rebecca and James face their own hardships with a gritty determination, forcing them both to make rapidly declining decisions. And yet they both believe what they are doing is best for themselves and the ones they love. Come Join the Murder shows what happens when desperate people are put in tough situations that end up breaking them.

I couldn't help but feel for Rebecca as her grief tore her apart. I wanted answers just as badly as she did, even if I didn't agree with her actions. Rebecca's increasing need to know what happened in her family's final moments drove the story forward at a rapid pace. With each turn of the page, Rebecca's hope grew that one day she would have her answers and find the person who took her family away. Even if that hope is founded in dark intentions layered in guilt.

On the other hand, James' story was sinister and dark from the start. A man who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, his mind was always on the next prize. James' story made my skin crawl as he developed a taste for murder, and he began to take greater risks. Money was his greatest motivator, and the more he thought people had the more determined he was to take it from them. His warped perception of the world set him on a collision course with Rebecca, creating both a riveting and disturbing story. I can't wait to see what else Holly Rae Garcia writes!

I picked up this one on Kindle Unlimited on the basis of a youtube video from Well Read Beard, one of my favorite Booktubers that I regularly watch. He's usually on target for me and he definitely was with this one. This is a very good dark crime novel. I'm pretty sure it's her debut novel If so it is remarkably well written. There are no supernatural elements in this novel.

This a tough one to review without giving away too much plot, but I'll try, and be as vague as possible.

This is a story told mainly from the perspective of two people. Rebecca and James.
Rebecca is a ambitious woman married with a little boy and a job that faces her worst nightmare, the disappearance of her husband and son. She goes through grief and anger in trying to find closure slowly loses her mind and worse. James is the person responsible for the disappearance of her husband and son (not a spoiler, it's revealed right on the first page).

This book was very well done. The characterization was realistic and scene transitions worked well.