Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose is a dark slow-burn mystery. The quick plot is after the death of the mother, the kids watch a home movie that shows their parents with the body of a missing girl from their town. The story is dark and uneasy and mainly about grief. The novel is not a fun read but a good read. The story hooked me from the beginning and I was blown away with the writing. Every chapter had a clever metaphor that I savored. This was my favorite quote “I’ve thought about how our street goes nowhere, almost like foreshadowing for the people who stuck around.” The pace of the story is slow for the most part, there are some twists and turns that kept me going but I felt the slow pace. There’s not a lot that happens in the story, I think Jeneva Rose did a lot with dialogue and description but the plot is slow until the end, and then everything happens at once. The novel did a lot at the end it pulled everything together and gave me a shock when everything was revealed. I had doubts about the story coming together at the end but was pleasantly surprised. I was way off on my theory of what was going on. The story has four perspectives three that take place in the present and a perspective that was 25 years ago. Home Is Where the Bodies Are was published on April 30, 2024.

Plot Summary: Beth has been taking care of her mother ever since her father disappeared 7 years ago. As her mother was dying she confessed that her father did not disappear and not to trust…? a line she died before she could finish. Beth finds out her mother had more secrets like a secret bank account. Beth’s brother Michael who has not been around for 7 years and Nicole who is a junkie and made her family push her away both return home to spread ashes and go through their mother’s things. The siblings wanting to relax after a heavy day decide to watch old home movies. One of the movies was 25 years ago and a day synonymous with their 12-year-old neighbor’s disappearance. After the family’s home movie ends in static a new scene occurs with the dead neighbor in their father’s hands saying we need to get rid of the body.

What I Liked: Where the plot could have moved better the writing is top-notch. There are many clever moments and quotes. It has been a while since I read something where the writing stuck out this much. I liked the ending and thought everything wrapped up very well. The ending was intense with real stakes. I loved the reveal of everything that happened in the past. The twist worked well. The four narratives were used well. I liked how after finishing this book I thought about the twist and analyzed scenes and saw them in a different light and everything made sense. There are a lot of hints that I did not notice.

What I Disliked: The twist was a little too spread out, which hurt the pacing of the story. The pacing really hurt the story. The novel is a slow-burn mystery that is at times just too slow.

Recommendation: Home Is Where the Bodies is a good mystery with a slow pace that hurts it. Some reviewers have called it boring and I can see how they felt that way, but I feel the story’s hook made me interested enough to hang on until the next twist. The ending was very good. I will recommend my followers check out Home Is Where the Bodies Are. This was my first Jeneva Rose novel and will not be my last.

Rating: I rated Home Is Where the Bodies Are 4.0 out of 5 stars.