Andrea Bartz

The author means herd as in a phenomenon that protects the weak in greater numbers of strength, but it also has connotations of blindly following and keeping to accepted norms. The more women try to stand out from the herd, the more you realize they all do it in the same ways. There’s a lot of that here and it was interesting to see the world from the POV of women of ages that could be my daughter. At first it was nice; they all seem to want that close sister-hood thing where they show more genuinely care about and support each other. Seemingly selflessly. The women aren’t endlessly catty, competitive, or conniving. There is a lot of crying. The implication is that the patriarchy works that way, but women don’t and don’t have to. Thus the safe co-working space called The Herd. But it’s elitist and snotty and focuses on hyper-accomplishment and polish more than actual output or worthy endeavors and in the end the trend isn’t really bucked. Eleanor's first business was a frigging make up company after all. Still buying into the system, convincing others to do so too and making a killing. The more things change, the more things stay the same. show less

Four months ago, Abby got a text from her fiancée Eszter that said "I need to tell you something" — and then Eszter died of an allergic reaction on a remote Mexican island before she could say what it was. Now Abby is on the ferry to Isla Colel, a place that was once a tourist hub but was gutted by a hurricane and now has a population of about 250 people and a ferry that only runs every week or so. There's no easy way in or out. Eszter's conservative Hungarian family won't speak to Abby show more — they never fully accepted her as their daughter's lesbian partner — so she has almost nothing to go on except a photograph of Eszter with a group of expats who still live on the island. She finds them quickly (tiny island, everyone knows everyone) and falls in with a motley crew of people who have all dropped out of normal life for various reasons. Then one of them, a man named Brady, tells Abby he knows what really happened to Eszter — and before he can elaborate, he vanishes. The group is disturbingly unbothered by this. Bartz's fifth novel from the author of We Were Never Here, with similar DNA: isolated setting, people hiding secrets, unreliable narrator, tropical dread.

[May contain spoilers]
Brady had frozen during Eszter's allergic reaction — the EpiPen was there, he didn't use it in time, and his guilt is consuming him. But the bigger secret is that Eszter was secretly working with her father on a hotel development project that would have destroyed a significant portion of the island's ecosystem — something the eco-minded expat community, particularly Pedro, would have done anything to prevent. Eszter wasn't just a victim of circumstance; she was tangled in a corporate/environmental conflict that she was apparently having second thoughts about, which is what she needed to tell Abby. The revelation that Eszter was more complicated than the idealized version Abby had been grieving — a people-pleaser caught between her father's ambitions and her own conscience — is the emotional gut-punch. The ending ties things up with multiple twists, though some feel more earned than others.
What I think: The setting is genuinely atmospheric and the premise is strong — grieving queer woman, isolated island, shady expats, secrets about someone you thought you knew completely. Very much your wheelhouse. But if you've read We Were Never Here and loved it, this one might feel like a slightly less tightly wound version of the same energy. The eco-terrorism subplot might feel a bit grafted on. show less

The whole bestie snogfest is making me gag. Are all millennials this needy? This unable to do anything by themselves? It's nuts. So smothering. Stand up for yourselves already, on your own two feet. Perhaps you need Adulting for Dummies.

And duh! K is BLATANTLY manipulative. E can't see this at all? Really? I thought the kids of this generation were masters of manipulation. I guess it's only when it's not happening to them.

Stuck with it to the end. No one got any smarter, really, but there show more were a couple of unexpected developments and I think it ended fairly well. I'm so done with this writer though. Ugh. I weep for the future. show less

"desperate souls stop at nothing to get what they want."

This is a wonderfully dark story. While traveling abroad and on their own, two best friends bump in to a fellow traveler. One of them decides to head back to the hotel room with him and suddenly, he goes from a nice guy to violent quickly. With the help of her friend, they get him off of her.

But. . . he also dies in the midst of it. It's a huge nightmare. Foreign country, frightening systems and jails - two girls traveling alone, who show more would believe them?

Right from the get go, this story is heart-racing. The feeling of menace and feeling trapped is etched on every page. I loved trying to see the layers and try to anticipate the next turn. I loved how the two girls played off each other and it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. I didn't see the end coming, completely jaw-dropping. This was such a dark, satisfying read. So glad I gave it a try! show less