Good Reads Challenge ARC Review: The Afterparty
Hello to you, and welcome back to the blog.
QUOTE
“There has to be an alternative to taking a deep breath and sucking it up. There is. It’s just not the one they expected.” — A.C. Author
Beautiful people, how are you? I hope you are well, getting plenty of rest, staying hydrated, eating clean, focusing on your mental health, and giving yourself grace.
I almost feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel because I only have two more ARCs to review, and I’m currently reading one, and then one more in October, and I’m done. I’ll focus the rest of my time trying to get through my Good Reads Challenge before the end of the year. I feel like I’m so behind but no one is holding me to fire but me, so if I get through it. Awesome! If not, there’s always next year.
Today, I’m sharing my quick review of The After Party by A.C. Author, one of my Good Reads Challenge titles.
Book Details
Title | The After Party
Author(s) | A.C. Author
Format | Audible
Pages/Hours | 352 Pages
Published | November, 2021
Publisher | Montlake Publishing
Genre | Mystery,
GR Rating |3.96
Purchase | Amazon
Storyline
Three women form an unbreakable bond in a sexy, suspenseful, and adventurous novel about empowerment and sisterhood through thick and thin.
Venus McGee, Draya Carter, and Jackie Benson are coworkers with a lot in common. They’re smart, independent, driven, and deserving of recognition—certainly more than they’ve been handed by a demoralizing boss. He’s the topic of conversation at their impromptu get-together after the company holiday party, where the threesome fantasizes about a life without him.
3.8 ⭐⭐⭐
Characters/Players
🎧 Venus, Lead Project Coordinator
🎧 Jackie, The facilities manager
🎧 Drea, Accounting
🎧 Rufus, The boss that everyone hates
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I like that the story was set in Baltimore, which is relatable regarding (because I’m an hour away) the area and how gentrification has affected specific locations there.
All the women are successful professionals who care about their work and try to balance that with their personal lives. Still, they also have a mutual dislike (hatred) for their boss, who, in one way or another, has harassed them, been prone to bullying, and made sexual or inappropriate passes.
THE SHORT OF IT
🪩 The story is about three coworkers, Venus, Jackie, and Drea, who are aquatinted because they occasionally eat lunch together but are not good friends. At a Christmas party, they sit with one another, and all have the same sentiment: they hate Rufus.
🪩 After Venus has an encounter with Rufus over a project, they decide to take the party back to her condo (The After Party), where they pass the douche (yes, I said it) and talk about different ways to kill Rufus. This part was hilarious because, let’s face it, we’ve all had moments with people at work, and maybe we wouldn’t wish them dead, but perhaps just that they never returned.
🪩 Fast-forward…Drea gets a call from Rufus in the early morning hours, saying that he needs to see her immediately so they can fix an accounting problem. And yes, he is blackmailing her, so she goes, but when she gets there, she finds Rufus dead.
🪩 She calls Venus and Jackie to the house to figure out what to do and NOT be accused of a crime. From there, the story begins as these ladies try to avoid being suspects in the murder. Through this ordeal, they bond and come out better, even with the drama of personal relationships, work, and family pressures.
BUT WHY THO’
💨 I’m all for supporting my culture and giving characters spice, and I will always support these authors, but mannerisms and all those tropes we can do without.
💨 The characters (each one) all drove me crazy at some point because we can’t seem to get out of the way of ourselves and do what needs to be done. Mind you this is not just with these book characters but this is us in our everyday lives.
The Ending
This ending fell flat for me because, typically, in a mystery novel, the reveal is told in a room of people who have something to do with the story or from one person’s perspective. I only had an hour left on my audiobook, and the killer still hadn’t been revealed.
In this story, you learn who the killer(s) is in a general conversation at a Christmas party. Then they introduced a whole new character as the killer, and I was like …🤦🏽what??? There could have been a different type of execution and a better way to reveal the ending.
With that said, this title was interesting, so if you’re looking for a book that’s more about relationships amongst peers vs. mystery, then this title is for you.
Good Reads Challenge Progress
Where I’ve posted a link, I’ve created a podcast on that review, which is a little more detailed than the written review and, of course…commentary. All my other reviews can be found ➠➠➠ here.
What Moves the Dead (read)
Leslie F*cking Jones (read)
The Cousins (read)
September House (read)
The Echo Wife (ARC: read)
Her Lost Soul (ARC: read)
The Black Girl Survives This One (ARC: read)
The Bad Ones (ARC: read)
The Eleven (ARC: read)
The Sundown Motel (read)
We Lie Here (read)
The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar (read)
Kill The Boy Band (read)
I Need You to Read This (ARC: read)
The Wishing Game (read)
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide (read)
The Kind Worth Killing (read)
Home is Where the Bodies Are (read)
My Heart is a Chainsaw, Stephen Graham Jones (read)
Mary: An Awakening of Terror, Nat Cassidy (read)
Houses of the Unholy (ARC: read)
Suck-U-Bus (ARC read)
Antenora (ARC read)
Sadie (read NOT REVIEWED)
The Night She Disappeared (read)
Sleep Tight (ARC: read)
Wasp in the Ice Cream (read)
William (ARC: read)
The Afterparty (read)
The Hitchcock Hotel (ARC: read)
Sleep Tight (ARC: read)
The Book of Witching, C. J. Cooke (ARC: read) review in draft
Good Read Challenge (Currently Reading)
American Rapture (ARC)
Middle of the Night, Riley Sager
For my partial Good Reads Challenge list, check out this ➠➠➠ post. For all the other posted reviews, check out my page. For the review podcast, check out my Spotify.
Thanks so much for visiting the blog today. Don’t forget to follow and subscribe, as I appreciate the support. — Peace
