Review: "Then Things Went Dark" by Bea Fitzgerald

Then Things Went Dark by Bea Fitzgerald
Published August 2024 via Sourcebooks Landmark
★★★

Six celebrities (after a fashion) land on an isolated island off the coast of Portugal, cameras following their every move. There's a lot of money on the line—and they all have their reasons, financial and otherwise, to be there.

What they can't predict going in: Not all of them will make it out alive.

What they really should have predicted: Everyone, surviving and not, will be pretty miserable by the end.

We all know the basics of this plot—what is a locked-room reality television show but a chance to watch people being forced into uncomfortable situations while we chomp on our popcorn? As a rule, I don't enjoy most reality TV, but...I enjoy reading about a lot of things that I don't enjoy watching, so here we are.

The book shifts back and forth: the days the cast spends on the island, and the aftermath, as they're being interviewed (repeatedly) by Interpol. Interpol has a tougher job than usual—because the whole world, more or less, has seen this death play out and the events that preceded it, and the whole world (again, more or less) has opinions. At its best, the book makes for incisive commentary on reality television and how society views the participants; there's an epic amount of Schadenfreude in the commentary we see from the show's viewers online, yes, but there's also the way the show itself delights in exploiting every raw nerve and doing its utter best to tear the contestants to the ground. Iconic, that's the stated goal—but iconic for what reasons, and at what cost?

Now...to enjoy this book properly, you have to enjoy reading about unpleasant people being unpleasant. I did not take that into consideration when I picked the book up, and that was definitely to my detriment while reading. (My preference is to be hoping with bated breath that the characters won't die rather than hoping with bated breath that they'll all die, and soon...) This is mitigated somewhat by the social-commentary angle, but even then it's hard to find characters to root for. (About the borderline satirical B plot, between the Interpol agents—the less said, the better.) Now, whether finding a character to root for is the point...well, that's another question entirely.

There's a whodunnit angle here, but I'd say that that's also rather besides the point. I guessed at some, but not all, of the details of how things would turn out, but I think this is better read as something much more meta than a simple 'who is guilty, who is innocent, and who might or might not get away with murder'.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.