This book contains a list of trigger warnings at the start, and the author notes that she experienced childhood sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking and rape. And that she writes through the lens of survivors’ rage. And yes. This book is full of rage, I really can not stress enough that this is an angry book.
Dez Lane is not rich. She has dreams and wants to make her mark in the fashion world but her lack of capital is hindering her. She just needs that right connection and helping hand up – and she thinks she finds it when she meets Patrick Ruskin. He’s from the fabulously rich Ruskin family, and his mother is the editor-in-chief of a major fashion magazine, so Dez is willing to put up with the brutish Patrick to meet his mother.
Dez gets invited to a “family only” Easter gathering on the family’s private island, which is incredibly luxurious. Everything a person could need is provided, and the island and the family are served by a fleet of seen but not heard servants. Dez has to sign a really strict NDA to even visit the island, and those in the family and those who serve them have their own ties to the family. And then the servants decide enough is enough and it’s time to flip the tables …
One of the characters at one point comments that what is happening is “Saw for rich people” and yup, that pretty much sums it up. I also read a blurb that called the book “The Menu Meets Ready or Not” and yes, yes I see that. Ready or Not is a movie I hold dear to my heart, I am here for stories about the rich and corrupt having a reckoning. But man the violence in that is – not as graphic as the violence in this. This is the second book in the recent past where I wanted to close my eyes to not “see” what was happening, and I would have if this was a movie … but it is a book so I had to sort of squint and power through the incredibly graphic descriptions of just deserts getting served.
I can not stress enough that this book is violent, it is people-on-people violence, and it is …twisted. Read the trigger warnings if you are going to pick up this book. I don’t feel it’s a spoiler as the book makes it very clear, but awful things happen to awful people and I didn’t feel bad about it. There are innocent characters in the book, but most of the characters we get to know, well they have brutal ends.
I enjoyed the book’s lead though, if you’ve seen Ready Or Not, then yes Grace and Dez would be friends. And probably able to bond over their shared experiences. Dez is capable and smart, and sure she schemes a bit at the beginning but she isn’t evil. She’s just trying to level her own personal playing field. She is in awe of the money that the Ruskin’s have (I mean the way it is described in the book, I think most people would be), and her lot is kind of thrown in with them as she is a guest but – she’s a smart woman, she figures things out pretty quick, and I loved reading her journey as she adapted to a messed up situation.
Note: again I am stressing read the trigger warnings. There was a twist that I sort of saw coming because of the trigger warnings, but that is okay! I needed to know the rest of the bad things that were going to happen because this is not normally the type of thing I read. I tend more towards supernatural horror and normally am more into “rich people make deal with eldritch forest and things get wacky” and less “rich people are just awful without any need for outside influence and things get real brutal”. This novel isn’t that long (the edition I read had 208 pages) which was probably a good thing, as I don’t think I could have handled much more. (I would however be very down to read more about the characters that make it out alive.)