In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead
Publication Date: August 3, 2021
Summary from NetGalley:
Six friends.
One college reunion.
One unsolved murder.
Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has planned her triumphant return to her southern, elite Duquette University, down to the envious whispers that are sure to follow in her wake. Everyone is going to see the girl she wants them to see—confident, beautiful, indifferent. Not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather Shelby’s murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she’d been closest to since freshman year.
But not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone left Duquette ten years ago, and not everyone can let Heather’s murder go unsolved. Someone is determined to trap the real killer, to make the guilty pay. When the six friends are reunited, they will be forced to confront what happened that night—and the years’ worth of secrets each of them would do anything to keep hidden.
Told in racing dual timelines, with a dark campus setting and a darker look at friendship, love, obsession, and ambition, IN MY DREAMS I HOLD A KNIFE is an addictive, propulsive read you won’t be able to put down.
ARC provided by Sourcebooks via NetGalley for an honest review.
Confession:
This book was all kinds of twisty and filled with some very unlikable characters. It is hard to believe that this is a debut! I think we will be seeing some great things from this author in the future, she will be one to watch!
This book is told in dual timelines with the past quickly catching up to the present. The timeline was nicely done, giving us just enough information from the past to help us figure out who the murderer was right along with the characters. Most of the story is told from Jessica’s point of view, but we see parts of the story from almost all of the characters involved.
Jessica is a really hard character to like. She is so insecure, but she tries so hard to project a self confident person. She makes so many really bad decisions throughout her college years, and even to some extent the present. She wants so much to be successful and to be liked that she doesn’t care who she hurts to get there. Because of these issues, she was sort of an unreliable narrator. I do really think that she did honestly care about her friends from school, but her need to be better than them kind of makes her a mean girl too.
None of the other characters were very likable either. They were the elite of the school, and they all knew it. They were kind of jerks to each other and to people outside of their circle too. The only one who I think was honest and really tried to be good was Cooper, who had his faults as well.
The thing that really sets this whole story apart is the twisty story line. There were times where almost everyone was a suspect and everyone was holding onto secrets. I really thought that at one point that everyone had committed the murder, and in some respect they all did contribute to poor Heather’s demise. It really kept you turning those pages trying to figure it all out, and then when the real murderer is revealed, you are surprised by it. It was all very well done.
The ending though, kind of irked me. Not who ultimately did the murder or even how the big reveal happened, but what happened in the aftermath of the whole thing. Some of it just didn’t jibe with me, especially with the choices that Jessica made. But it really did cement what an awful person she could be.
A wonderfully done twisty thriller that will keep you turning those pages.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 