The Reunion is a story that makes you question everything. Nothing and no one is safe. If you are a fan of YA thrillers, this has to be on your list! Keep reading this book review for my full thoughts.
Summary
Eleven Mayweathers went on vacation. Ten came home.
It’s been years since the fragmented Mayweather clan was all in one place, but the engagement of Addison and Mason’s mom to the dad of their future stepbrother, Theo, brings the whole family to sunny Cancún, Mexico, for winter break. Add cousin Natalia to the mix, and it doesn’t take long for tempers to fray and tensions to rise. A week of forced family “fun” reveals that everyone has something to hide, and as secrets bubble to the surface, no one is safe from the fallout. By the end of the week, one member of the reunion party will be dead—and everyone’s a suspect:
The peacekeeper: Addison needs a better hiding place.
The outsider: Theo just wants to mend fences.
The romantic: Natalia doesn’t want to talk about the past.
The hothead: Mason needs to keep his temper under control.
It started as a week in paradise meant to bring them together. But the Mayweathers are about to learn the hard way that family bonding can be deadly.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Told in multiple POV, The Reunion is a testament to never knowing the secrets of our family. We can think we know everything about our parents, our sister, the ones we see every day. But The Reunion calls everything into question. All the secrets turn sinister. Every mistake, harsh word, or chilling silence turn into accusations against us. I finished The Reunion in three days because I had to know what happens.
Frick does this fantastic writing trick where we are given snippets of the future reports, witness statements, and news posts. The tension keeps building and we don’t know who to turn to. What new clue will be revealed which will call everything into question. Frick takes this normally idyllic setting – a resort – and infuses tension and suspension in every word. The distance between who we show ourselves to be and who we are grows with shadows in the night and secretive moments.
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Nothing is as it seems and red herrings swim across the pages. If you’re a fan of YA thrillers, this has to be on your TBR. It merely solidifies Frick’s place in the genre as an author who continually delivers captivating story lines full of secrets. Grounded in characters, The Reunion asks us what secrets we are willing to do anything to keep. With our own motivations, how will we keep the peace with skeletons banging on our closet doors, screaming for release. Secrets buried so deep, they’ve rotted the foundation. The ones we try to bury, to keep hidden, and the more dirt we shovel, the larger our own grave is.
Find The Reunion on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, & Blackwells.