
The Book:
The Note by Alafair Burke
Published January 7, 2025 by Knopf
Date read: December 1, 2024
Find more January 2025 releases here.
The Note spoilers can be found below, but they’re hidden under a spoiler tag so you’re safe to keep scrolling if you’d just like to read my review.
The Characters:
May, Lauren, and Kelsey
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
This page contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
The Plot (from Goodreads):
A vacation in the Hamptons goes terribly wrong for three friends with a complicated history.
It was meant to be a harmless prank.
Growing up, May Hanover was a good girl, always. Well-behaved, top of her class, a compulsive rule-follower. Raised by a first-generation Chinese single mother with high expectations, May didn’t have room to slip up, let alone fail. Her friends didn’t call her the Little Sheriff for nothing.
But even good girls have secrets. And regrets. When it comes to her friendship with Lauren and Kelsey, she’s had her fair share of both. Their bond—forged when May was just twelve years old—has withstood a tragic accident, individual scandals, heartbreak and loss. Now the three friends have reunited for the first time in years for a few days of sun and fun in the Hamptons. But a chance encounter with a pair of strangers leads to a drunken prank that goes horribly awry.
When she finds herself at the center of an urgent police investigation, May begins to wonder whether Lauren and Kelsey are keeping secrets from her, testing the limits of her loyalty to lifelong friends.
What had they gone and done?
The Note is a page-turner of the highest order from one of our greatest contemporary suspense writers.
The Note Spoilers
The Review:
Thank you to PRHAudio for this gifted ALC!
I was immediately drawn in by the premise of this book–three longtime friends reconnecting on vacation, each with a questionable past. I’m a big fan of vacation/girls trip thrillers, and I couldn’t wait to see what secrets these characters were hiding.
The author lost me somewhat partway through, though. A stupid lie to the cops over something totally innocuous is always a quick way to lost my belief in the story (although the lie was somewhat explained later on). From there, the characters just kept doing things I didn’t think a rational person would ever do.
There are some interesting reveals throughout the story, but I wasn’t in the right headspace to suspend belief enough to play along. The way things came together didn’t ring true to me.
Follow me on Bloglovin’!


1 Comment