Thank you Libro.fm / Penguin Random House Audio, for the ALC and Viking Books, #partner for the finished copy of I Have Some Questions for You in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Viking Books / Penguin Random House Audio
Published: February 21, 2023
Summary:
The riveting new novel from the author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Great Believers
A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia’s death and the conviction of the school’s athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie.
But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn’t as much of an outsider at Granby as she’d thought—if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.
In I Have Some Questions for You, award-winning author Rebecca Makkai has crafted her most irresistible novel yet: a stirring investigation into collective memory and a deeply felt examination of one woman’s reckoning with her past, with a transfixing mystery at its heart. Timely, hypnotic, and populated with a cast of unforgettable characters, I Have Some Questions for You is at once a compulsive thriller and a literary triumph.
My thoughts:
This is the first book I’ve read by Rebecca Makki but it certainly will not be the last. I was thrilled when I saw that it was selected as this month’s #MysteryBookClub selection and that I was picked to participate – that gave me the opportunity to not only get a print copy of this beautiful book but also be involved in a book chat with the other members of the book club this month! The fun part about this bookclub is that when you throw your hat in to participate each month, you don’t know what the book choice is at first, hence the name, #MysteryBookClub! But boy did they pick a good one this month!!!
I loved this book! I was captivated from the start and found myself completely consumed by the story. It’s a blend of multiple genres – mystery, literary fiction and true crime – all of which come together to create a slow-burn story that is both masterfully and powerfully plotted. Despite its length, I could not put this one down once I started it because I needed to know where it was going.
Using a podcast element, the story looks back at a murder committed when Bodie was a student at the boarding school. Was the right man convicted of the crime or is the killer still out there? Because this crime happened in the past, memory comes into play and we see how things we know now are things we didn’t think we knew then.
“I don’t trust my memory of what I ate last night. What do you think happens to memory over twenty years?”
This is such a layered, complex novel that is also very timely. It addresses many themes, including violence to women, racism and classism and society’s obsession with true crime. This book is truly amazing and it’s definitely one I will reread at some point because I don’t think one read is enough to pick up on all that is contained in this book.
Audio thoughts:
I was able to grab an early listening copy of this one and the audio was fantastic! It’s narrated by Julia Whelan and JD Jackson and they nail this performance. I loved listening to this one and even though it’s 14 hours long, I couldn’t put it down!
