Title: All the Dangerous Things
Author: Stacy Willingham
Release Date: January 10, 2023
Length: 326 pages
Genre: Mystery/ Thriller
****My Review****
Sometimes it only takes a little carelessness for a disaster to happen. But there are also such cases when no matter how hard we try, no matter how much we try, we cannot do anything to escape from evil fate…
A year ago, the young mother Isabelle Drake woke up to her worst parenting nightmare. One seemingly ordinary night changes her entire life. Her son disappears from his crib in the middle of the night. The tracks lead nowhere, and there is almost no evidence…
The police soon give up the search, but this heartbroken mother does not stop in her search… She does not need sleep, food, or life until she finds her little son.
The desperate mother asks for help everywhere, she even agrees to a podcast interview. But certain questions evoke memories of her childhood. Memories that bring painful truths to face. The perspective changes and the doubts culminate. Who can she trust? Can she even trust herself?
All Dangerous Things by Stacey Willingham is a book that will leave you sleep-deprived. Lies, deceptions, twisted truths, twists, and turns as well as the well-structured plot will immediately capture your attention. At times, you’ll even pause to reevaluate what you’ve read. You will make assumptions, you will try to reach the truth…
The entire action is told from Isabelle’s perspective and moves back and forth between the present day and flashbacks of her past, as well as parts of her relationship with Ben. There were also quite a few parts that offered a complete insight into Isabel’s childhood. Events that haunt her and that she simply cannot face.
Although the main focus is on Mason’s disappearance, the events of Isabelle’s life are seamlessly intertwined with past events in the primary narrative and expertly tied together at the end.
What I liked is the way how the author covers serious topics such as marriage and parenting, but also past trauma and mental health. Subtle, with just enough processing and fully tailored to add to the completeness of the story.
As a mother, I honestly managed to connect with Isabelle, I managed to feel the pain of a mother who is fighting but also grieving for her little one. And her character is well-built, with enough complexity and depth. Far from perfect, she is a person with many flaws and scars that cannot be seen with the naked eye.
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t like Ben’s character. It was hard for me to understand how a parent could lose hope and move on in life, dating a new woman. But that is a completely subjective opinion.
I won’t say the ending wasn’t completely unpredictable, but I was surprised by how the threads unraveled. Some bits were totally unexpected.
And although I liked most of All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham, there have been some instances that could have been improved.
First, there was quite a bit of repetitiveness. Certain issues and incidents were so many times repeated, that they were starting to get in the way, such as her insomnia.
Then the pace at the beginning is really slow. The whole first part felt somehow dragged out, but luckily the second part of the book picked up the pace as well as our wish to turn the pages in search of answers.
All in all, All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham is an excellent choice for all fans of slow-burn thrillers in which truths and lies are intertwined and the narrator is completely unreliable. A story about a mother’s worst nightmare that will leave you sleepless…