The Collective

this was SOOOO incredibly close to a 5 star read! it moved at a breakneck pace and kept me interested from the first page. it was DARK. i love thrillers with moral dilemmas, and fast paced revenge stories are like crack to me 😩 BUT i don't know if i'm 100% onboard with how it ended. also, i'm fine with featuring unhealthy/toxic therapeutic relationships in thrillers for the sake of the plot. HOWEVER, there was no mention in here that the mc and her therapist's relationship was in fact extremely flawed. i would hate for someone who doesn't have a vast knowledge of therapy to pick up this book and think that this would be a conceivable interaction with a therapist. :// 

How far would you go to right a wrong? That's the question grief-stricken mother Camille asks herself when she is approached by The Collective, a secret group that invites her to join them on the dark web. The Collective is a group of mothers whose sole desire is to take revenge on the people that caused the deaths of their respective children. Camille's own daughter, Emily, was killed at the age of 15, when she fell for an older boy, a college freshman that brought her to a frat party, got her drunk, sexually assaulted her in the woods near the college campus, then left her to die. As with many real-life cases, Emily's assailant - a wealthy white guy - faced no legal ramifications, while Emily was tried in the court of public opinion after her death. When she is initally approached by the group, Camille believes that it is a form of immersion therapy, where these angry women “play act” revenge fantasies against those who harmed their kids. She soon learns that none of it is fake and begins to wonder just how far The Collective will go to exact revenge and keep their group a secret.

The Collective is a fast-paced, twisty, jaw-dropping thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole way through. This was truly a wild ride and I devoured it in one sitting. While there is not a lot in the way of character development, as with most books of this genre, the plot is incredibly engaging and will keep you guessing the entire way through. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this story and would recommend it to anyone looking for the book equivalent of a highly entertaining, “popcorn” action movie. I am looking forward to seeing what Alison Gaylin comes up with next. 4 stars!

In contrast to a lot of the other reviewers here, I didn't really find this book that enjoyable or memorable. Camille was selfish, the plot felt incredibly improbable and engineered, the ending was anticlimactic and disappointing. I liked the premise, but found the storyline unbelievable, even doing my best to suspend my disbelief.

One of the craziest and most exciting plots I've ever read. I lost all concept of time while reading and before I knew it it was over. It also raises great, almost unanswerable moral questions, which was probably what I enjoyed most about the book. 

That being said, I did find Camille to be and infuriatingly dimwitted character. I would have liked to have seen the plot play out differently, where she showed some self control and didn't create problems for herself and lead to a much less predictable ending. Even the twists weren't super unexpected. That along with some moments that simply dropped off without continuation left more to be desired. Nonetheless, I did like this book a lot and got my heart racing at times.

i really enjoyed this book! 

as a true crime lover, hearing the stories from the parents of the victims perspective is something that almost always brings me to tears. perhaps because of that this book felt especially moving. so many of the passages diving into the rage gave me chills. i'm also an absolute sucker for revenge stories. camille wasn't the most compelling character on her own, but i think she carried the story in the way she needed to. the twists in this book were actually really skillful, but i think saving them all for the last 50-60 pages of the book made it feel just a little rushed. overall not an all time favorite or anything, but a super successful thriller. i devoured it in nearly one sitting and i'm just a big fan of what this book accomplished, even if it wasn't perfect.