I enjoyed this book! It kept me on my toes, wanting to know what the HECK was going on in that neighborhood. ( )

This book was absolutely terrible. I rolled my eyes all the way until the end because this was for a book club. And out of 25 of us only 2 liked it. Overall consensus is it’s not worth reading. In fact, so far this is being marked my worst read of 2024. I can’t possibly think a book could get worse than this…
Essentially the story is ridiculous and absurd about a cranky racist black chick who meets up with this nice new white guy in her neighborhood so they can study the history of the neighborhood for a tour she was going to be conducting. She’s ungrateful to him the whole storyline and then for some reason at the end they go shooting people up together. It’s literally one of the most stupid plots I’ve ever read.
It’s obvious the author has a huge problem with white people, and essentially any modern day issue. She literally brought in modern day issue she could think of. She’s made her main character a depressive racist who needs to get a life. She’s a romance author who tried to write a thriller. The first 250 pages are just black people this, black people that, white people are bad and taking over, oh no! Her paranoia over gentrification shows either personal trauma (probably self-inflicted) or the fact that she simply doesn’t know anything about true gentrification. For those of us who’ve actually been through it, it’s a long time coming, it’s not fast, and it’s not that noticeable.
She almost made gentrification to be comedic. The last 100 pages of the book were laughable. It was like she all of a sudden woke up and remembered she was trying to write a thriller….and it came out more like a bad Sci Fi movie with an unrealistic ending. And she had to bring in a white boy punching bag who her main character disliked for most of it until she screwed him so it was obvious she should’ve just written another romance, it’s what she knows.
And she should fire her publishing team. Her editors should never have let this one get through.
★ Don’t waste your time. ( )

Sydney moves home to her Brooklyn neighborhood and immediately notices a lot of changes. A lot of gentrification is taking place and she's not sure she likes it. A pharmaceutical company is looking to build its headquarters in her neighborhood and it's not going over well with some folks. When people start mysteriously disappearing, including her best friend, she's not sure who she can or should trust. One night, during a blackout, everything comes to a head. ( )

Thriller

This is definitely a "Get Out" style horror, where the very real racial tensions are covering up an even more sinister plot. Gentrification and underhanded property grabs set the scene for the undercurrent of dread you feel, and towards the end you start to wonder if that feeling was an overreaction. It's not. Very good, tho the relationship woven in wasn't my favorite. ( )