One of my most anticipated for Summer 2022 Acts of Violet was such an interesting read!

Violet Volk, one of the worlds most famous magicians disappeared almost 10 years ago, right in the middle of her comeback show. No one has been able to find a trace of her, though the conspiracy theories are everywhere. With the anniversary of her disappearance coming up, her sister Sasha is being thrown back into the spot light, a place she’s never been comfortable with. As she’s forced to face her feelings around her sister, she’s also being chased by Podcast host Cameron Frank. Frank’s podcast wants to peel back the layers of who Violet really was, and the best way to do so is by getting an interview from Sasha to debate all the wild theories surrounding Violet’s disappearance.

This one is told in a variety of formats. We have the podcast that is dedicated to finding out what happened to Violet. We have letters between Violet, her sister, and brother in law. Then there are the email threads between various characters. Lastly, we have Sasha’s portion which is in first person narration. There are quite a few narrators but I think it really worked in this book and allowed for tons of background stories.

This book is definitely a mash up of different genres. The mystery of where Violet went is the foundation of the story, it doesn’t feel like your traditional mystery book. Instead, I felt this was more of a family drama, as we spend the majority of time unpacking the relationship between Violet and her sister Sasha . There is also a sprinkle of magical realism introduced into the story, which I won’t dive into for risk of spoilers.

I ended up mainly listening to this and while the emails were slightly harder to keep track of, Sasha’s POV and the podcast portions were excellent on audio. If you enjoy multiple narrators and narration formats than this one is for you. Podcast listeners will also enjoy this one.

Overall, the premise is unique and I really enjoyed the story. I was addicted to the story for the first half of the book and so investing in finding out what happened to Violet. The second half of the story dragged for me though. That combined with a lackluster/unsatisfying ending had be giving this a 3.5 rating, rounded up to 4 stars because I find the audio rendition and narrators excellent.

AMAZON | GOODREADS |★★★★

Acts of Violet comes out July 5th! Huge thank you to MacMillian Audio for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.  If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof_books.

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