REVIEW: I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

OUR REVIEW:

I Have Some Questions For You was recommended to me be a few people and seeing some compare it to The Secret History intrigued me. It blends podcasting with true crime with social commentary with some introspection and carried over teen angst. 

Most of this novel is set at a boarding school and centers around Bodie Kane's suspicion that the person in prison for the murder of her high school roommate was wrongly accused. Decades after she's graduated, she's back to teach a two week session and while there delves into various aspects of the murder and the case that followed. The vast majority of the novel takes place in those two weeks and it's a little arduous. I think that made it a little bit of a slog was that she was so hung up on who she was back then that she can't always see that she's not that person anymore...or at least she's progressed past her adolescence. So while I was hoping for more revelations about the crime, the vast majority of the time I was reading about her struggle to marry who she was to who she is. But it wasn't all a slog and the last fourth of the novel really picked up steam and delved into who might have committed the crime and how and why. 

All in all a 3.5-4 star read for me. Interesting but a little *too* plagued with the angst of the ghosts of high school, for me at times. 

BUY IT: https://amzn.to/4apLuZF

SYNOPSIS:

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 

Named a Best Book of 2023 by The Washington Post, People, USA Today, NPR, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Real Simple, The Boston Globe, CrimeReads and more

“A twisty, immersive whodunit perfect for fans of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.” —People 

"Spellbinding." —The New York Times Book Review

"[An] irresistible literary page-turner." —The Boston Globe

The riveting new novel — "part true-crime page-turner, part campus coming-of-age" (San Francisco Chronicle) — from the author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Great Believers

A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia’s death and the conviction of the school’s athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie.