Hey, it’s Diego.

This week, I finished In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead.

And I have strong feelings about this one.

Let’s dive in.

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In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead (A Review)

Ten years after graduation, Jessica has planned her triumphant return to her university to prove to everyone she’s gorgeous, accomplished, and confident. She, along with her closest best friends, was left broken when their friend Heather was murdered ten years ago. Her murder, still unsolved, becomes the focus again when everyone gets together for their college reunion.

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead is a domestic thriller set on a university campus.

Winstead’s writing is stilted and convoluted. Dialogue between characters is awkward, stiff, and riddled with clichés. We get a mirror scene so the protagonist can describe her looks in chapter one, which is never a good sign. It also doesn’t help that out of seven, none of the characters are charismatic or have any likable features.

Although that may also be an issue with how the book is structured; we are introduced to Jessica as a shallow person (most of the characters are), but her tragic background is introduced at around the 60% mark which has some compelling parts in it that would explain her motivations, but by that point it was hard to connect with her, which was a pity.

All in all, it was not my cup of tea, and I dreaded going back to it. I normally can knock off a thriller in 5-6 days, less if it’s compelling. This one took me two weeks, as I would keep putting it off.

We follow a single point-of-view character, Jessica, in a dual timeline where we relive her story of being a good student with pretentious “friends” in over-the-top situations. I put “friends” in quotes because even though they are constantly reminding us how close they are, they keep big secrets from each other and treat each other terribly.

There is a murder in the college, there is also a designated amateur sleuth assigned to solve it after the cops fail to do so, but everything centers around the drama and the twists of who slept with whom, who won the most beautiful award, or the best football player trophy. It’s a teen soap with a dead body as an excuse to get dirt thrown around. There are no thrills.

There is a lot of romance between the characters, and most of the twists revolve around this. There is some foul language. No scenes of graphic violence or sex (although there is an implied rape scene). There are LGBTQ+ characters.

So, what about the ending? (No spoilers, obviously)

The soap aspect was so dialed up towards the end that I was half expecting the murdered woman to walk in at the end, being like “I was behind it all bitches!” just before getting crowned homecoming queen. And although that would have been hilarious, I was pleasantly surprised that the ending did wrap up the mystery in a satisfying way, followed by a long denouement.

You’ll like In My Dreams I Hold a Knife if you are into team soaps with some thriller aspects in them. Pretty Little Liars comes to mind.

This Week’s Update

• Hot on the heels of last week’s book release with Reese Witherspoon, Harlan Coben's latest show, Lazarus, premiered this week.

• And speaking of collaborations, Remain: A Supernatural Love Story by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan hit the stores last week.

That’s all for this week. See you next time.

— Diego Dunne

P.S. Let me know how I did today by replying to this email.

P.P.S. I would love to hear your recommendations for thrillers you loved. Reply to this email and I’ll add them to my TBR list. Thanks!