A new month means two new books from the ’26 in 26 challenge’. This time spin the wheel choose the following books; Alison Gaylin – The Collective and Roshani Chokshi – the last tale of the flower bride.

I just finished with Alison Gaylin’s book called the Collective, I was craving a thriller book and it didn’t disappoint.

Camille Gardner has a tough time with the reality; five years ago her daughter was murdered. At the age of 15 her daughter was very advanced for her age, having found a boyfriend that was older than her. When Camille was out for a work meeting, her dad okayed her going to a frat party, telling her to be home by curfew. Curfew came and went, when Camille came home and her daughter was still gone, she panicked and called the police but they only told her to wait it out. Hours later her daughter was found in the woods within a 15-minute walk from the frat house the party was at, clinging to live. Three days she fought but eventually died. The last thing she told her mother was how sorry she was she had gone to that party, trusting the boy she had gone there with and that he took her to the forest and did this to her, he even raped her. DNA was found, the boy had been named as Harris, someone that came from money and was found not guilty.

Camille quit her job and became a web designer working from home, her marriage to Matt had gone to shit because he thought her obsessed with another guy named Luke. She wasn’t obsessed, but Luke was special. You see, he had her daughters heart beating in his chest. How could she not care for this man? It was just not what her husband thought, it was simply platonic.

It’s been 5 years and Harris was getting some kind of award and Camille couldn’t resist going to the ceremony, purely to watch she told herself, but things quickly turned for the worst when she yelled, he was a murderer. That encounter was filmed and it wasn’t pretty but it did have something come of it. She was soon invited to a group of people that were in similar situations; a facebook group called Niobe and not long after another group of the dark web, or more a collective where a lot of women were telling their stories and how they wanted to see the person responsible to suffer.

When you pledge your alliance and the leader called 0001 trusted you, you were in. But once you’re in, you can’t pull back out again. Because you were part of the greater good, you became WE; Their actions became yours and yours became theirs. At the beginning the assignments were simple. Pick something up here, post it to this address – drive to this place and pick up this and deliver it here – Go to this bar and meet this person, enjoy your evening etc. The assignments would become harder, why? Because it ended with murder. That night out? Was so you could have an alibi. Slowly but surely, you would become aware what the collective actually was and you had second thoughts about it.

The ‘sisters’ were everywhere and nobody really could be trusted because some of them were so deep into it they became a danger to you. Who to trust – How to get out – Who is 0001? – What is her story? – Why are innocents getting killed?

It’s a ⭐⭐⭐⭐ star read.