Title: Everyone in the Group Chat Dies
Author: L.M. Chilton
Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press
Pages: 368
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
My Rating: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤

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Everyone in the Group Chat Dies

Kirby ran away from Crowhurst, and she isn’t the only one. A year ago, she was living in a terrible flat with her roommates. One day, a new flatmate named Esme moved in. She was obsessed with true crime and believed that the real killer from the ’90s was still out there, so she started digging into the case.

Then, one night, Esme disappeared. Kirby tried to find out what had happened to her, but a year later, something strange occurs. Kirby receives a message in their old group chat from Esme, warning that everyone in the group will die.

The only problem? Esme is dead.

Review

I found this book at the bookstore not too long ago, and it sounded really interesting. I had never heard of L.M. Chilton before, but then again, I don’t read a lot of thrillers. Most of the time, if I do, it’s usually something by Freida McFadden. So I went into this with zero expectations. Although with thrillers, I do always hope for that mind-blowing moment.

And I sort of got that mindblowing moment, but it was completely different from what I was expecting. There are two timelines: one set a year ago and one in the present. In the past storyline, Esme arrives in Crowhurst to find out who the real killer from the ’90s was. Then, suddenly, she disappears, and Kirby tries to figure out what happened to her. The present-day storyline follows Kirby returning to Crowhurst after receiving that message from Esme, even though she’s dead.

Esme’s storyline and what happened to her were interesting at first, and I was definitely invested. But honestly, when Kirby finally found out the truth, I felt a bit disappointed. I was expecting something different, maybe something more intense or gruesome. In the end, Esme just came across as a young woman who cared too much about likes and follower counts.

The most interesting part, for me, was definitely the present-day storyline. When I read a thriller or mystery, I want some shocking, bloody moments. I want the killer to be ruthless, I want dead bodies. Luckily, I did get some of that here.

But there is one thing that really bothered me, and it’s not even about the plot; it’s about Kirby. She was terrible at cooking and almost burned down the flat once… but she also burned her salad. Like, how do you even burn a salad? I’m still trying to figure that out. It would have been great if the author had explained that to me.

Overall, it was an okay thriller. Freida McFadden is still my favorite thriller author, that hasn’t changed. But this was also my first book by L.M. Chilton, so I’m not ruling them out yet. There were things I liked about this book, but also things I didn’t. It wasn’t amazing, but it definitely wasn’t the worst either.

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