Member Reviews
I love Victoria Helen Stone's books because she always creates spicy, strong female characters who are gutsy, funny and fearless in bad situations. This book is no exception. Elise is a very interesting and relatable protagonist, despite being (as we learn) the "other woman" who is implicated in the death of her lover. Elise also works at a fun and popular little campground hotel in a park, and it just so happens that her sister went missing years before. Could these events be related?
Victoria Helen Stone's writing is addictive and page-turning and the plot here is full of suspense, red herrings, clues and twists. I couldn't stop turning pages to figure out whodunit, and I laughed out loud many times while being fooled and twisted and turned through the plot. Stone is an exceptionally talented suspense writer and I can't wait for her next book!
Three words I would use to describe this book: Atmospheric, tense, and stunning.
I enjoyed this book so much! I felt the author did a good job hooking me from the start and it moved at a great pace throughout the story. The plot was strong, and it was a very character driven book. Elise was very relatable but so was her mother. I wasnโt sure what to make of her brother but I can tell you what I did think was wrong. The ending completely caught me off guard and left an insane impression. This was my first book by Victoria Helen Stone and she now has a new fan!
Thank you so much to @thrillerbookloversthepulse , Netgalley, @victoriahelenstone, and @amazonpublishing for my advance reader copy!
Thank you, Victoria Helen Stone, and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book. The opinions are my own and freely given
Elise's sister, Robin, disappeared, and for years the cops thought she was just a runaway until a local man committed suicide and left a note confessing to her murder and dumping her in the river.
Elise's mom won't leave the house for fear that Robin might come back, since a body has never been found. And Elise's brother, Kyle, is obsessed with conspiracy theories. After years of drinking and drugs, Elise has finally cleaned up and moved back to her hometown. She owns a "tiny cabin" resort and is flourishing. That is until one day she finds out her ex-boyfriend has died, and the police are looking at her as the prime suspect.
So, I absolutely loved the setting. Out in the "wilderness" surrounded by the mountains and a creek. With the tiny homes for rentals and the touristy set up. I found this to be a little on the slow side, and even the car chase scene didn't really get my heart pumping. The standoff with police however did. While Elise is trying to prove her innocence, so can't figure out who to trust and she lets her brother's conspiracies get into her head.
I am very curious about the end, because (without spoilers) Elise looks like she is going to continue to investigate what really happened way back when. (You'll just have to read it for yourself to find out what I am talking about). Overall, I enjoyed this book. Again, another author I have been meaning to read, but haven't gotten a chance to.
This is my first novel by this author and I really enjoyed the premise of this story. I buddy read/listened to this with the โusual suspectsโ and our theories were all over the place!๐คฃ
I was on board with all of Kyleโs conspiracy theories which sounded quite plausible to me, and at one stage he had me suspecting each and every single person in the book. Thatโs why the ending was so utterly surprising!๐ณ
We follow Elise as she tries to put her life back together after a traumatic experience years ago disrupted her family.
25 years ago, her sister Robin disappeared and a local boy confessed to killing her shortly before committing suicide.
Now, Elise rents mountain cabins near her home town and tries in vain to ignore all the conspiracy theories her brother Kyle still regularly puts forward about her sister's death...
...Until the body of her ex is found near the lake where her sister's killer claims to have disposed of the body.
Thanks #netgalley and #amazonpublishing for my ARC!
โจReview โจ
If youโre into fresh plots, complex characters and small town settings, this oneโs for you!
The FOMO is real when the @thrillerbookloversthepulse group chat starts talking about a book I havenโt read yet. This time, it was Follow Her Down. Naturally, I put aside my other books and jumped right in - I was immediately hooked!
Elise is a strong lead โ you canโt help but root for her even when sheโs at her lowest. Eliseโs family dynamic adds depth to the story and I loved seeing how it developed throughout the book.
Stoneโs storytelling skills are top-notch. I like how letters were used to bring the past to life and give us a sense of Robinโs personality. Stone also nails the complexities of grief. The โrightโ to grieve and the hierarchy of grievers is a reoccurring theme and something that has stuck with me. The scene between Elise and Savannah just broke my heart.
AND THE ENDING ๐ฑI canโt really talk about it and keep this spoiler free, but letโs just say it was an unexpected twist and I need more!
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the gifted copy.
WHAT.
Iโm gonna be real honest, I didnโt expect this to hit so hard but the very end MADE THE BOOK.
Elise is (understandably) a very detached and hollowed out person, which makes it hard to connect with her as sheโs unreliable even to herself. Thatโs a very hard line to walk with a book, and itโs balanced SO delicately.
I also do not like Elise because sheโฆ makes a lot of very harmful choices without care to those around her. However in spite of not liking her I still wanted her to get answers.
And then the end??? HELLO???
I need to take a nap
So many enjoyable thrillers this year, including this one! This was a tense, taut read that had a thrilling sense of unease throughout and some riveting, tense scenes. Throw in conspiracy theories (which at first seem over-the-top), a troubled young woman dealing with past trauma, a remote cabin setting, a broken family, and murders and this one kept me turning the pages. And then that unexpected ending really caught me by surprise, in a good way!
Iโm so happy I got to read this one as part of Thriller Book Lovers The Pulse and agree with them that this one should be on your TBR! A great way to pass a lazy summer afternoon.
Thanks to Lake Union Publishing for this complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
Thank you Brilliance Audio/Netgalley, #partner for the ALC of Follow Her Down in exchange for my honest review.
I became an instant fan of Victoria Helen Stone when she wrote Jane Doe. That was such a crazy psychological thriller โ so unique and twisted, and so fun to read that I knew I would be reading everything this author writes and I pretty much have! Plus, Iโm constantly recommending her books to thriller readersโฆyou really canโt go wrong with her books!
This is such an emotionally charged thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time! It is completely atmospheric and full of suspense. It is also a story about emotional trauma over a loved oneโs murder and I loved seeing how that played out within a family โ from the mother suffering from crippling anxiety to the brother and his paranoid conspiracy theories to Elise who is just so emotionally broken she canโt seem to find herself. All these characteristics were so vividly portrayed with each character, especially Elise.
This book had so many twists and turns and it went in directions I did not see coming. I think I suspected nearly every character at one point. Itโs such a complex, layered plot and the setting โ that small-town feeling, with the little cabins isolated in the woods โ only adds to the overall tension of the story. Be sure to clear your schedule when you pick this one up because once you start reading it, you are not going to want to put it down!
This is my first book by this author but I will be adding her others to my TBR. This book was definitely a slow burn to begin with but it picked up and I didnโt want to put it down. I almost made my family listen to the audiobook while on our trip yesterday because I wanted to know what happened! But I decided against that. When I did finish, I was so surprised. That was not what I had expected at all! This is a great, suspenseful whodunnit. I did want a little bit more on the murder and disappearance of the sister. Maybe we could get a prequel?!
๐จ๐๐ข๐๐๐ข๐ช ๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ช๐ก๐จ
๐ธ๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฃ๐บ: ๐๐ช๐ค๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ข ๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐๐ต๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ
๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฃ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ: ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐๐ฏ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ
๐๐๐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ท๐ช๐ข: ๐๐ฉ๐ณ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ถ๐ญ๐ด๐ฆ
๐ฃ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ฌ: ๐๐จ๐ก๐ ๐ฐ, ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฐ
๐ท๐ท๐ท๐ท / ๐ฑโญ๏ธ
๐ช๐๐ก๐ ๐ฃ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ก๐: ๐ข ๐ด๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ข๐ถ๐ต๐ช๐ง๐ถ๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ช๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฑ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ณ๐ถ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ณ๐ช๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ
๐๐ท๐๐ป
๐๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ข๐ต๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ค ๐ต๐ฉ๐ณ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ซ๐ฐ๐บ!
๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ข๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด๐ค๐ณ๐ช๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ด ๐ข "๐ด๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ" ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฆ๐ต ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ, ๐ช๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ณ๐ข๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ง๐ญ๐ช๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ๐ด! ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐'๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ, ๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ญ๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ญ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ... ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ช๐ป๐ป๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ณ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ต ๐ช๐ต ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฐ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ!
๐๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ด๐ข๐บ ๐ช ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ...๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ.
๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ'๐ณ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐
#BookWineClubToronto #WINEnot ?!
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Follow Her Down was my first book by Victoria Helen Stone, and she completely blew me away. This story was nothing short of amazing. Gripping, twisty and utterly unputdownable. It will definitely be one of the top thrillers of the year! It's definitely on my all time favorites list.
Title- Follow her down by @victoriahelenstone
Rating -โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ
This title has been making waves over here at Pulse, and for good reason! Itโs been a hit with everyone whoโs laid hands on it. As a newcomer to this authorโs work, I was blown away by their masterful storytelling and Iโm confident that Iโll be coming back for more. The story had a fantastic pace that kept me hooked from start to finish, and I canโt help but hope that thereโs more to come from this incredible author. Fingers crossed for another installment!
The murder of Elise Rockwoodโs sister shattered her family. Their motherโs anxiety kept her housebound. Eliseโs paranoid brother, Kyle, saw conspiracies everywhere. Elise numbed her grief in an aimless lifestyle that left her emotionally broken. All of them victims. A local boy eventually confessed, but the damage was already done.
Years later, Elise is reinventing herself. Sheโs bought a mountain lodge to be close to home again and to find stability. Not even an email from her ex tempts her into revisiting the past. But Kyle wonโt let it go. He still believes thereโs more to their sisterโs murderโand the confessionโthan meets the eye. When Eliseโs ex is found dead in the same forest where her sister went missing decades before, Elise is finally willing to listen.
The traumas of the past are reemerging. So is the truth. Eliseโs greatest fear now is who will survive it.
QOTD- have you ever gone swimming in the ocean?
Thank you to @netgalley and @amazonpublishing @victoriahelenstone for this advance copy in exchange for a review.
Atmospheric, adrenaline pumping and small towns vibes! It started slow and built up to reveal after reveal!
2.5/5
Iโve really enjoyed several of the authors books but this one just didnโt work for me. I was disappointed because I had high hopes but I had too many issues with it. The premise had potential but the execution was lacking, the pacing was very slow and the payoff wasnโt there for me in the end. I failed to connect with any of the characters, I didnโt feel like they were well developed and in turn I just didnโt care what was happening. Then there were still some unanswered questions at the end and I hate when things are unresolved. Overall a flop for me.
What an immensely atmospheric and tense ride this one was!! #FollowHerDown starts off as a slow burn, the plot mainly driven by the expertly fleshed out yet wonderfully flawed characters - the suspense oozing. While Elise is starting over as a groundskeeper of some lodges, her brother is still rambling away, spouting conspiracy theories about their murdered sister.
Then bam ๐ฅ the second part of the book shoots off like a bat outta hell and the pages canโt turn fast enough. Red herrings in abundance! Twists galore. And an eye popper of an ending ๐ I meanโฆ what in the shittake mushroomsโฆ?!!
@victoriahelenstone please tell me thereโs a second bookโฆ ๐๐ป
So immensely thankful to be part of the fabulous team at @thrillerbookloversthepulse and get the opportunity to read these astounding books!
4.5 stars rounded up.
Follow Her Down is a whodunnit wrapped up with a psychological thriller and you definitely wonโt see what will happen next! With a bit of a warning, Iโll say if youโve been touched by violent traumatic events, thereโs a great message in this book about healing and claiming the life you want/need following that trauma. You can heal and stop the collateral damage. Great for fans of Amy Hagstrom, Minka Kent, or Joe Hart.
Palpable fear. A conspiracy trail. Compelling characters. Those are just a handful of the attributes describing Follow Her Down. A breathtaking ride that explored residual trauma alongside a gripping slow burn tale of suspense, the character-driven plot ducked and weaved throughout. Believe the paranoid brother? Second guess his lunatic ramblings? The further into the book that I got, the more I gave a serious side-eye to each and every characterโincluding Elise herself.
Speaking of Elise, Stone crafted quite the unreliable narrator. Pulled into her brotherโs irrational rants, her own descent into potential madness also made me start to believe as her frenzied panic oozed from the pages. That was just one of the huge strengths of this novel. Both possibilities were equally valid. And, of course, Elise was such a strong persona. Fully fleshed out and with realistic flaws, I yearned to reach out my hand to help as everything imploded around her. More than anything, though, I easily connected with her and that alone made this a truly stunning, binge-worthy read.
But that wasnโt all that sucked me into the story. Despite a slow start, the runaway storyline took off like a rocket around the halfway point. From there it was one explosive reveal after another. Donโt get me wrong, I did suss some of them out. Well, except for that truly shocking conclusion. Now Iโm just crossing my fingers and toes that there will be a book two exploring that damning cliffhanger of sorts. All in all, thanks to a deftly woven narrative, heartbreaking emotion, and perfectly placed red herrings, I fell for this one hook, line, and sinker. Rating of 4.5 stars.
Thank you to Victoria Helen Stone, Lake Union Publishing, and Thriller Book Lovers: The Pulse hit my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
Trigger warning: death of a sibling, infidelity, alcoholism, mention of: agoraphobia
This book is getting a lot of buzz around @thrillerbookloversthepulse, itโs definitely one that youโre definitely not going to want to miss out on this summer!
This may have been a slow burn yet it still kept me on the edge of my seat. Let me tell ya, it was hard to put down and had me guessing until the very end! I just love thrillers like that! ๐ค๐ผ
The past and present timelines worked very well together and the characters were well-written with the perfect amount of complexity to add to the suspense of the storyline.
I also enjoyed how the story is set in a cabin in a small mountain town.
Overall, a very enjoyable thriller that will make for a binge worthy read for thriller lovers this summer!
When Elise Rockwoodโs sister was murdered, it understandably shattered her entire family. Her motherโs anxiety kept them all in the house, while her brother Kyle saw conspiracies everywhere. Elise, however, numbed her grief in a lifestyle with no real path or direction. Now years later, she attempts to reinvent herself and purchases a lodge in the mountains close to home. But her brother refuses to let things go. He is convinced that there is more to their sisterโs murder and that the confession from the alleged murder doesnโt quite add up. When her ex-boyfriend ends up dead, Elise finally begins to wonder herself.
I loved Victoria Helen Stoneโs previous book, The Hook, so I was eager to read this one too and it did NOT disappoint! Deeply atmospheric, โFollow Her Downโ is so much more than a mystery. It is also the story of flawed, relatable humans and how grief essentially follows them down (see what I did there?!) I really respected how Elise was trying to start over and rebuild her life after it had fallen apart so many years ago. Her stories as a groundskeeper of the lodge were entertaining (spoiler alert: the story pretty much starts with her cleaning up animal carcasses outside of the cabins - LOL!) The tension in this book kept me glued to its pages and as the mystery unraveled, there was one twist that I had predicted but that did not keep me from enjoying this book in the slightest!
โFollow Her Downโ is another book we are loving over at The Pulse! Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and Victoria Helen Stone for the beautiful autographed ARC! This story releases June 4, 2024 and this review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)
Thank you to @thrillerbookloversthepulse for the #gifted copy of the book.
Family drama. Murdered sibling. Whodunit. Slow burn revenge thriller with an ending that I didn't see coming! WOW! Overall, I enjoyed this book.