I Killed Zoe Spanos

CW: Excessive alcohol and drug use, missing teenager, death of a loved one.

Well that was a twisty turny story! It was really unsettling to feel like I didn't have a grasp on what was real or imagined. At one point there was a reveal that literally made the hairs on my arms stand on end. I don't want to say too much but no book can maintain that level of tension. When the tension bubble bursts you want to feel like you need to collapse with exhaustion. For me it didn't quite deliver the massive sucker punch that it seemed to be building up to. I still really enjoyed it and the end had me doing an evil chuckle. The writing was really amazing and I won't easily forget this book and how it dragged me down into it's Rebecca-esque level of show more obsession, deception and betrayal. show less

*I would give this book 4.5 stars for review*

I really wound up enjoying this read. This book was nice mix between a mystery, mistake identity and podcast elements. I also liked that this book had two different timelines. I also liked that this book had various POV. It was super fast pace read and one that I had hard time putting down. I thought the unreliable character of anna made the story so fun to read. I also thought the twists were hard to predict. I sometimes struggled a tad with the pacing of the story but overall def a new fav thriller.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review here and on my blog Samwise Reviews. I started this book feeling pretty unsure, and I ended up loving it. The story switches timelines between Then and Now and it took me a while to get used to that and remember what was going on. The holes in Anna’s memory were both exciting and frustrating; I was able to guess one of the surprises around the ending but not any of the others. There were a number of loose ends around the ¾ mark, and I was mostly happy with how they were all wrapped up by the end. The final confession did seem a bit too easy, but it wasn’t a completely unlikely scenario. While being slightly frustrating at times, I still found the book hard to put show more down and I stayed up late to finish it. This also met the "Written In First Person" part of my 2020 reading challenge. show less

I like adding a YA novel to my reading list every so often. Kit Frick's ("Writing complicated girls out of impossible situations since 2018") latest is I Killed Zoe Spanos.

Anna takes a summer job as a nanny for a wealthy family in the Hamptons. She's happy to take the position as she needs to get away from her life, her friends and her own excessive drugs and drinking use.

But trouble finds her anyway. The residents of Herron Mills are still on edge after the disappearance of local teen Zoe Spanos. Anna keeps getting told that she looks a lot like Zoe. And being a teen novel, you know what's going to happen next don't you? Uh huh - Anna decides to investigate on her own. She just feels a connection with Zoe. Now, this isn't a spoiler as show more it is in the publisher's description of the book - Anna ends up being charged for Zoe's death.

But! Also investigating is teen Martina who hosts the podcast Missing Zoe podcast. I'm finding podcasts in a lot of books now. It's like a new take on epistolary story telling. I quite like it. (And I'm a big podcast fan!)

Frick takes us down the garden path and back again - multiple times. There are so many ways the final aha could have been played out. But, there was no way at all to guess what was coming in the final pages. I loved the uncertainty and the unreliability of almost everyone's narrative. Twists and turns galore.

And being a YA novel, there's lots of angst, drama, mysterious estates, mysterious neighbours, undercurrents, and more - on top of the murder. Fans of Riverdale would most likely enjoy I Killed Zoe Spanos.

This one was just so much fun to listen to. I love listening to a book - I become much more immersed in the story. This audiobook was really different as it employed a large number of readers - the two main characters and a large number of supporting characters. I really enjoyed this - it makes it so much easier to differentiate who is speaking which I really liked. Some were new to me and others were familiar names. Those reading teen characters had voices that sounded 'younger' and were just right for the characters. All of the narrators spoke clearly and were easy to understand. The tone and tenor of the plot was well portrayed and communicated with inflection and movement in the reading. show less

Was this really the YA Rebecca? No, not really. But was it really good? Yes. Plenty of tension and suspense, tightly written, with damaged characters who wanted to redeem themselves, this book had all the mystery! There were so many different directions it could have gone that it really was unpredictable. I really enjoyed it!

I am a little on the fence on how to review this book, so I will try to make it brief and as honest as I can after all the target audience is for teens so that can also be why it wasn't a 5 star for me.

It is a mystery and it is true to that genre, however at some points it did kind of drag for me but I think it's more so to the writing style. Now don't misunderstand I think the author did a good job in her writing style and keeping the mystery going but for my personal preference it was not exactly top tier for me. The aspects of the podcast portion of the book sometimes was distracting and pulled me away and other times it made me keep wanting to find out what happened to Zoey and absolutely how Anna is connected to the whole thing. I show more give it a 4 out of 5 star for it's mystery, story line and the intrigue of the characters.
If you enjoy crime, mystery, and podcast this book is definitely for you and if you like audiobooks definitely check that out as well I read the physical book but I also listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a great job. show less

*I would give this book 4.5 stars for review*

I really wound up enjoying this read. This book was nice mix between a mystery, mistake identity and podcast elements. I also liked that this book had two different timelines. I also liked that this book had various POV. It was super fast pace read and one that I had hard time putting down. I thought the unreliable character of anna made the story so fun to read. I also thought the twists were hard to predict. I sometimes struggled a tad with the pacing of the story but overall def a new fav thriller.