The plot of The Death of Us isn’t bad idea—the body of woman who may be the birth mother of your not quite adoptive teenage son is found in the quarry behind your house—but the execution was kind of slow. Not much happened for many chapters at a time beyond the main character talking about how much she loves being this kid’s mom and how she doesn’t fit in with the rest of the community. I found it odd that no one was friends with Lisette in this small town despite her being involved in the community, having a teen at the school she works with etc People really seemed to hate her and I never figured out why. She seemed fine if a little insecure.

The book felt very dated—I had to check the release date. I don’t think I missed that it wasn’t taking place in the current day? I was listening to an audiobook and couldn’t flip back to check.

Who in 2023 goes somewhere (with a murderer on the loose!) without their phone? Everyone seemed to marry young and never move away which seemed unrealistic.

I felt like some off the book was written without planning of where it was going to end up. The story was largely wrapped but they spent a lot of time on things that had nothing to do with anything.

There was a lot of discussion about the local potato chip plant that ended up having nothing to do with anything. Why was so much time spent on it?