129A

It has been a HOT minutes since I have been able to focus my mind on something that brought me immense pleasure, like reading.

I grew up poor af in the 90s in a very dramatic environment. My solstice could be found in the stacks of books I would bring home from the local library. I have always been an avid consumer of mysteries, so it should be no surprise to me that the book that hurdles me back into my love of reading was a tradwife murder mystery.

This was my first time finding Piazza as an author and she did not disappoint!

As the reader begins their journey down the influencer rabbit hole we are gifted the pleasure of having dual perspectives guiding our story. The book leads with Lizzie, one of our main characters, being interviewed by a detective on the local police force. This sets a tone of confusion from the first moment to solidify that Lizzie feels just as lost and in awe of the influencer world as the reader may be. We are quickly given the background of her relation to Rebecca- college best friends who hadn’t spoken in about 15 years for reasons unknown to Lizzie. Quickly backing up the story to the days leading up to said interview, we are given Lizzie’s raw insights to her day to day life and the tinge of shame she feels for Instastalking her former bestie who is far from the girl Lizzie remembers (relatable). Within moments of establishing the strain between our leading ladies, Lizzie is hit with a DM from her former bestie turned homestead living influencer, Rebecca, that turns her world upside down.

After agreeing to meet with Rebecca, Lizzie is swept away to the desert blithely unaware of what she is about to encounter. The behind the scenes world of influencer moms perplexes and astounds her as she learns the ins and outs of what it takes to make it and keep your place in this industry, as well as the secrets behind the scenes of every post. Within 12 hours of Lizzie and Rebecca’s reunion Rebecca and her six children have gone missing and Rebecca’s husband, Grayson, has been brutally murdered. With Rebecca as the prime suspect Lizzie doesn’t know what to believe or who to trust, but she goes searching for the truth at all costs while learning the real reason Rebecca reached out to her.

What made this book so interesting to me was the gracefully laid complexities that lead up to the final reveal. Piazza touches on themes including a patriarchal society, inherited toxicity, assault, “traditional” values, influencer culture, and taking back one’s agency. I would 100% recommend reading this if you enjoy murder mysteries, especially if you have an odd fascination with tradwives and the influencer community as a whole. The plot twists will keep going until the final punctuation mark of the story.