I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

May 8, 2025

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

Almost 25 years after graduating, Bodie Kane (successful podcaster and some-time college professor) returns to the Granby School in New Hampshire where she spent four fairly awful high school years, to teach a seminar on podcasting. One of the things that made her time there so bad was when her roommate Thalia was found dead in the school swimming pool. A culprit was quickly arrested and convicted, receiving a sentence of life in prison, but one of Bodie's student isn't so sure and decides to do her podcast project about the crime, which dredges up all sorts of memories for Bodie.

It took me a while to get through this, I kept picking it up and then putting it down to read something else that was more interesting, so the story and the characters obviously weren't pulling me in. A literary fiction cold-case mystery, combining themes of murder, sexual predation/Me Too, the popularity of true crime podcasts, and the effect of social media on all of it. Many of these themes have been worked over at length already, and in books that did a better job of exploring them. The writing and the language are really good but the story drags, and then there is no real resolution, too much is left hanging. Made me remember how awful high school was at times. I don't recommend it unless you are a die-hard fan of the author. I think I may be finished with Makkai.

Boarding school in winter

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

January 6, 2024

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

Lucy and Savannah were best friends, until the night that Savvy is murdered, and Lucy is found wandering the streets covered in Savvy's blood. Because of a severe head injury, Lucy has no memory of what happened, so her friends and family immediately suspect that Lucy killed Savvy. She relocates to Los Angeles and starts a new life, until a popular podcast called "Listen for the Lie" announces that their next season will investigate Savvy's murder.

So many lies here. There is a lot going on: we have an unreliable narrator who has no recollection of events due to a head injury; the small town of Plumpton, TX, is a twisty little place, with everyone focused on projecting the image that life is perfect, when in reality, everyone is having an affair with everyone else; a couple of men that everyone loves are actually very violent and abuse their partners regularly. I hated Lucy's parents for automatically believing the story that Lucy's lying husband was telling - they also did not see that Lucy received proper care for her injuries (my mother would have been the same way, more concerned what the neighbors and the people at church would think, and telling me not to make a fuss). As one of the characters notes, people always prefer to believe a man's version of events. Grrrrrrrrr. This is a good mystery with well-developed characters - not sure it was necessary to toss in all the adultery and domestic abuse.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

A small town in Texas - don't be fooled by the polite, perfect surface appearance