“At the Risk of Recovery” by Finn Adair Morgan is exactly what I would normally like out of a book - a thriller/murder mystery set in a futuristic society. Unfortunately, I think a lot of what drew me to the text, like the unique setting, got lost in the stream of consciousness narration. The narrator’s memory loss and general confusion about his life combined with the murder mystery itself left virtually no way to really anchor to the story at all. A few compelling characters were introduced, but then not really mentioned again, and I never did figure out how they played into the larger plot. At the end of the day, I don’t know what ends up happening to the narrator and his amnesia - maybe that wasn’t the point of the story, but that wasn’t ultimately clear to me, so it left me feeling a little unsatisfied at the end.

At The Risk of Recovery
Murder, drugs and mental health. On paper this should have been my ideal book but unfortunately I didn’t like it.

The prologue starts off with a condescending confession letter from a serial killer to the Police. That peaked my interest and I was excited to see what happened next.

However, then we are introduced to Aran Moreau, a guy who wakes up outside with drug induced amnesia. The story follows his journey to piece together his life and who he is which I found to be a bit slow to get started but I did find myself invested in how he comes to lose his memories. I’ll not give any spoilers but I did like how it happened as it seemed like something that could happen in our not too distant future.

The story is told through Aran’s stream of consciousness and he finds that he has the voices and memories of multiple people in his head. To be honest I didn’t realise at first that these were different voices as due to the style of the writing it just appeared that he was talking to himself. If it wasn’t for the blurb I don’t know how long it would’ve taken me to realise that they were meant to be other people.

He has several meetings with his therapist and I found these incredibly frustrating. If that was the authors goal to make us feel like Aran must be feeling then he definitely succeeded. I was lost, confused and irritated throughout so on that level I related to the main character.

The book is set in the 24th century and I felt that the author described the world well and you could truly imagine yourself there within the different social classes.

I struggled to find a character that I liked as they were all pretty annoying but again that may have been his goal and if that was the case then he succeeded again. I did feel for Maddy though, Aran’s engineer friend who is stuck trying to solve a problem that has ruined her life.

Overall it is worth a read though and I’m rating it 3 stars as it is was interesting and thought provoking.

A dark, cerebral read with moments of brilliance, but not quite for me.

At the Risk of Recovery is a unique psychological thriller set in a futuristic world that blends crime, mental health, and identity in a really intriguing way. The story follows Aran Moreau, an unreliable narrator battling inner demons and addiction, while also getting tangled in the eerie confession of a serial killer named Adrian Darrow. The mystery is layered and the tension builds steadily, with plenty of twists that kept me guessing.

That said, the narrative style—especially the stream-of-consciousness and introspective tone—was a bit hard to stay with at times. Aran is a complex, flawed character, and while I appreciated the depth, I struggled to connect with him emotionally. The writing is intelligent and thoughtful, but it sometimes felt like it got in its own way, slowing down the momentum.

There are definitely some standout moments and haunting themes that will stick with me, but overall, it didn’t completely land. I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy darker, slower-paced character studies with a psychological edge.

i think this book has an interesting premise but felt way too rushed and also was just a bit hard for read, which i think killed it for me. it would have been nice to have some distinctions of what was internal dialogue to make this easier to understand. i feel like it would have been helpful to have had it explained why Aran was dealing with what he was experiencing and then him trying to figure out why/understand it more. i feel overall a lot more things should have been explained for fleshed out. very interested idea, but just felt like not the best execution

What the hell did I just read?? This book was not for me. The writing is amateurish and so hard to follow. It almost felt like drinking from a firehouse with a stream of consciousness from a main character that has zero redeeming qualities and even less intelligence. I’m not even sure what happened in this book. I had to reread pages over and over again. I had to go backward in the book because I was sure that I missed something. This was not an enjoyable experience.

Thank you NetGalley and Finn Adair Morgan for my eARC. All opinions are my own. I found Finn Adair Morgan's writing to have a dark and twisty side but is also very retrospective. In a world obsessed with social media, the role of media and personal perception. Justice and vigilantism were another common theme. It was a well-paced story with a deeply layered character.