All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
If you ever want to know what a person goes through when their child disappears, read All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham. Through Isabelle, the main character and sole POV, we get extensive detail about the sleeplessness, the doubt, the worry, the suspicion…everything you could imagine, and probably some emotions you would never think of.
Unfortunately, that’s where the book gets bogged down. There is SO much emphasis on Isabelle’s emotions and thoughts that any forward action is often hampered or lost. Not to sound mean, but it sometimes felt like the author was being paid by the word because it was all extremely verbose.
The plot itself is decent, and the childhood memories that start to surface as Isabelle works her way through life (while trying to find out what happened to her son) cast enough doubt on the situation to make the reader wonder whether or not Isabelle is a reliable narrator.
Despite this, the culprit seemed obvious to me early on. I did like how it all resolved itself, however. I did enjoy the realizations that Isabelle came to and the actions she took in the end. For me, the book was okay but might have been better with maybe a thousand fewer words and some tighter plotting. 2.5 rounded up to 3 due to the culprit receiving just desserts.
Thank you to Minotaur Books for a digital copy of this book. For more reviews, please browse this site!
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