All the Dangerous Things – ARC Book Review

One year ago, Isabelle Drake’s life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally.

Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year.

Isabelle’s entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle’s past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust… including herself. But she is determined to figure out the truth no matter where it leads.

So I read A Flicker in the Dark written by the same author and after I enjoyed reading her debut book, I decided to read all Stacy Willingham’s books. And the good news was, I got approved an ARC of her latest second novel, All the Dangerous Things and I am so super excited!

The story starts with Isabelle Drake, whose toddler son Mason disappeared mysteriously one night, nearly a year ago. Ever since then, Isabelle is having trouble falling asleep and is suffering from insomnia. Isabelle’s main aim is to find what happened to Mason and was willing to not give up on her search. Soon, she was interviewed by a crime podcaster who seemed to be interested in doing a piece about Mason’s disappearance. And as she was questioned, Isabelle’s start to doubt what really happened the night Mason disappeared and wondered to whom she should trust at all..

I have to say, this book is so much better than her first book–it was mind-blowing and unputdownable and so much of twists and turns that you wouldn’t expect. Not only that, as a reader, you feel Isabelle is an unreliable narrator as she too had some secrets back from her past life when her sister Margaret died. As a reader, I wanted to know what really happened to little Mason. Did Isabelle really kill her own child? Or did someone else kill her child? And the husband, Ben part was also interesting. I was nearly put on the edge of the seat as I read and simply couldn’t put the book down. The ending was a dramatic one and I actually liked the ending. The writing was good and the author did a good job of drawing the reader into the story.

Overall, this is a fast-paced thriller that will keep you up all night! Worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.