Rating:

EXCUSE ME. I WAS NOT DONE LISTENING TO BENNY AND JOY’S PODCAST!!!

I need everyone to understand that I finished this book and immediately felt the specific grief of a story being over. You know the one. Where you just sit there for a second like …okay but what now?

This was one of the most hyped BOTM picks among fellow subscribers on Facebook and Reddit, and I watched the buzz build for weeks before I finally got my hands on it. Should I have picked it as my primary? OBVIOUSLY YES. Lesson learned. Tiffany Crum, if you’re seeing this, I am so sorry it took me this long.

I received an ALC from NetGalley and was hooked from the literal first second — because the audiobook opens with what is apparently the intro music to Benny and Joy’s podcast, and it set the tone so perfectly that I knew immediately this was going to be something special. Whoever made that creative call: thank you. That’s the kind of detail that makes an audiobook feel like an experience.

And can we talk about Julia Whelan and Sean Patrick Harris for a second? The chemistry between these two narrators made the whole thing. Like, genuinely. You could feel the push and pull between Joy and Benny and that’s not easy to pull off in audio format. They nailed it.

If you’ve read My Husband’s Wife (see my review 👀), you might clock some early similarities. Dual timeline, slow-burn reveals, a relationship being peeled back layer by layer. It gave me those vibes in the beginning, but this one has a different heartbeat. My Husband’s Wife is relentlessly tense. This Story has banter. It has warmth. It has moments where you’re smiling and then suddenly something dark creeps in from underneath the main plot and you remember, oh right, this is still a mystery thriller.

It wasn’t trying to out-twist MHW and honestly that’s what I loved about it. The right amount of twists, with actual explanations for how we got there. No cheap shock value. Just a story that earned its ending.

The mystery, the anticipation, the WTF moments: all there. But it’s Joy and Benny’s story that got me. I loved them. I will miss them. I was not done with their podcast.

Tiffany Crum, I love you to death now. Congrats on that.

📚 Received an ALC from NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. And can I just say — Macmillan Audio has been absolutely eating this year. Every single one has been a hit. Keep doing what you’re doing. ❤️