This book is suspenseful and dark and satirical and eerie, and the perfect palette cleanser between humongous fantasy books. It’s told in one of my favorite ways, entirely via letters and multimedia inclusions (of notes, recording transcripts, guest book inscriptions, etc). It’s the story of Evelyn and Richard’s honeymoon on a Greek island, where things do not go as planned.

The first half of the book is mostly from Evelyn’s perspective, via a letter she’s writing throughout the events to Richard, unsure if she’ll ever send it. She’s a writer, though, and prone to melodrama. Can’t imagine what that’s like. Evelyn hints at tension in their relationship due to something that was revealed at their wedding, but doesn’t specify what it was. This is compounded by the villa’s manager, Isabella, being suuuuper welcoming to Richard and passive aggressive to Evelyn. Richard is a twat and gaslights the crap out of Evelyn about it, of course.

All of this minor drama is compounded as Evelyn starts to learn more about “the sleepwalkers”, a married couple who visited the island the year before but tragically drowned during a storm (one of which while sleepwalking). The story is romantic and suspicious, and apparently took place at this very villa, in the very room they’re staying in. But the more Evelyn hears about it, the less things add up. And the tension is ratcheted up as the island starts to shut down due to a huge and dangerous storm approaching.

We switch to Richard writing to Evelyn for most of the last half of the book, and while neither of them are “likable” characters (intentionally, that’s not shade, they both recounted horrific things theyd done in the past ) I was 100% Team Evelyn. Richard’s reveal of the cause of their rift shocked me, and while I questioned some of the details, it was a bizarre and fun enough book that I rolled with it anyway.

The dark humor in this was amazing, I especially loved Evelyn’s tangents about her writing, as well as her perceptions and glamorizations of random people and situations to a degree that flabbergasted Richard. I loved how this story took place in such a beautiful setting but somehow that contrast made it even more unsettling. The ending definitely left me staring at the wall for a while, if you’re in the mood for something weird I definitely recommend, but beware triggers, they might sneak up on you here.Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, & the author for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.