Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay

My thoughts

Alex Finlay is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. His books tend to keep me guessing all the way. 

I enjoyed the audio somewhat. I did find the narrator to be annoying in a way. She seemed to be listing everything instead of smoothly reading or narrating this story. It got easier to overlook but was still a bit aggravating. I did enjoy it other than that though. 

Five students at an esteemed college go missing. Right after another students body is found. Natasha Belov's body was found in a cave. Everyone assumed she was caught in the cave and drowned when the tide came in. But could it have been murder and could the five students who have gone missing be responsible. And where are these students now.

At the Parents Weekend all of the parents are waiting for their child. Each tells their pov about their lives and their child. Some are not as close as they appear. Many secrets are revealed. Could one of these parents been responsible for the girls death or the other five's disappearance? Maybe these students are pulling a prank. Some of them are known to do that. 

There is a lot going on in this book. A lot of povs and each chapter told by a different one. The FBI agent has her pov also. So that is another character. 

While I liked most of the characters I have to admit there were some I wanted to smack. Even a couple of the students needed a good smack but overall they seemed to be good kids. What they go through is a rough thing for anyone. 

I never figured out who was the killer. I had lots of guesses but was wrong. 

This book hits a tiny bit on sexual abuse by an adult. Nothing in detail though. It also hits on the loss of a child to cancer and another one who attempts suicide. There is also a suicide after an affair. Just so you know.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this book. 

About

From the bestselling author of If Something Happens to Me, comes one of the year’s most anticipated thrillers.

In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up at dinner.

At first, everyone thinks that they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.

Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella—The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths call them—come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril or a threat to the friend group from within?

Told through multiple points of view in past and present—and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.