Book Review: SHIVER by Allie Reynolds

SHIVER by Allie Reynolds

G.P. Putnam’s Sons; 1/19/21

CBTB Rating: 4.5/5

The Verdict: A “popcorn thriller”-meets-locked room mystery

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of spending my Sunday doing just about nothing aside from reading. My book of choice? SHIVER by Allie Reynolds, a compulsively readable, superbly entertaining locked-room mystery perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley. SHIVER is pure “popcorn reading” material: lighter on violence but heavy on entertainment value, this engaging, relentlessly suspenseful mystery begs to be devoured in one or two sittings. In SHIVER, readers travel to the French Alps, where a group of friends are arriving for a reunion. Ten years ago, the group met while training for a snowboarding competition. That fateful winter, things took a tragic turn, and one of their own went missing. Fast forward ten years, and each member of the group has tried to move on… but this reunion is poised to bring old tensions, rivalries, and secrets back into the light. As the group settles into the resort where their reunion weekend is set to take place, they discover that things aren’t quite right. The resort is abandoned, with not a soul in sight. Then their phones go missing. And when they discover that the person they each believed invited them on this trip didn’t actually plan this getaway, things take a dark and deadly turn. Who called this group together? And who is behind the increasingly sinister events of the trip? Moving between present-day locked room mystery and flashback chapters that illuminate the dynamics and relationships between our central cast of characters, SHIVER is deliciously readable and delightfully chilling mystery fun. This book thoroughly exceeded my expectations and left me wishing it were even longer, just so I could spend more time with its engaging, endearing characters. SHIVER had me, the least-athletic person I know, ready to throw it all away and move to the mountains to take up snowboarding. If that’s not saying something, I don’t know what is. Readers who love the modern-day locked room mysteries of Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley won’t want to miss Allie Reynolds’ chilling debut.

Plot Details: 

In this propulsive locked-room thriller debut, a reunion weekend in the French Alps turns deadly when five friends discover that someone has deliberately stranded them at their remote mountaintop resort during a snowstorm.

When Milla accepts an off-season invitation to Le Rocher, a cozy ski resort in the French Alps, she's expecting an intimate weekend of catching up with four old friends. It might have been a decade since she saw them last, but she's never forgotten the bond they forged on this very mountain during a winter spent fiercely training for an elite snowboarding competition.

Yet no sooner do Milla and the others arrive for the reunion than they realize something is horribly wrong. The resort is deserted. The cable cars that delivered them to the mountaintop have stopped working. Their cell phones--missing. And inside the hotel, detailed instructions await them: an icebreaker game, designed to draw out their secrets. A game meant to remind them of Saskia, the enigmatic sixth member of their group, who vanished the morning of the competition years before and has long been presumed dead.

Stranded in the resort, Milla's not sure what's worse: the increasingly sinister things happening around her or the looming snowstorm that's making escape even more impossible. All she knows is that there's no one on the mountain she can trust. Because someone has gathered them there to find out the truth about Saskia...someone who will stop at nothing to get answers. And if Milla's not careful, she could be the next to disappear…

Before we dig into this review, I have to answer the most common question that I received while I was reading this book. I heard from so many readers who felt that this book sounded similar to Ruth Ware’s ONE BY ONE, and wondered if this novel was even worth reading if they had already read Ware’s latest mystery. The short answer is: yes, this book is absolutely still worth reading. In fact, in my opinion, this book is even better than Ware’s ONE BY ONE. SHIVER and ONE BY ONE may be set in the same part of the world, and they may both put their own spins on a “locked room”-style plot, but SHIVER is a cut above. With its unique snowboarding focus, its compelling and perfectly-paced alternating timelines, and its endearing and sympathetic characters, SHIVER is not only different from Ware’s ONE BY ONE, but, in my opinion, it’s actually an even better book.

In SHIVER, protagonist Milla returns to the French Alps to reunite with friends she made ten years ago, when she spent the season in the Alps training for a snowboarding competition. Ten years ago, Milla was the group’s newcomer: an outsider who fought to find a place in the highly competitive and cutthroat world of freestyle snowboarding. Now, ten years later, Milla has turned her back on snowboarding. An unnamed tragedy from that season so many years ago has put her off the sport. She left snowboarding behind and never looked back… until now. Now, in the present, Milla finds herself drawn back to the French Alps thanks to a surprise invitation from Curtis, another snowboarder whom Milla met so many years ago, a man for whom she has harbored an unrequited love for all these years. But when Milla arrives at the ski resort and reunites with the group, they begin to discover that not everything is as it seems. Each member of this group of friends has been invited to the resort under false pretense, and someone seems determined to make sure they don’t leave until the truth about a series of tragic events ten years ago comes to light. Stranded in an abandoned resort, all means of communication to the outside world cut off, and a snowstorm approaching, tensions rise and trust within the group quickly decays. Who among them is the mastermind behind this trip? And how can they rely on each other for survival when someone in their midst is the one endangering them in the first place? Bit by bit, this idyllic getaway turns into a chilling fight for survival. 

There’s something perennially appealing about a locked room mystery, and Allie Reynolds does this longstanding crime fiction tradition justice in her debut novel. Central to a great locked room mystery is a cast of suspicious characters, and that’s exactly what Reynolds gives us with Milla and her friends. In the present day, SHIVER revolves around five key characters: Milla, Curtis, Brent, Dale, and Heather. Protagonist Milla was the group’s “outsider”; Curtis, the group’s golden boy and charmer; Brent, the daredevil and rising star; Dale, the rebel; Heather, not a snowboarder herself but a bartender in the town where the group met, now Dale’s wife. But there is also a sixth character whose presence looms large over the group, even if she isn’t with them in person: Saskia, Curtis’ sister, who disappeared ten years ago and is now presumed dead. In the present day, readers observe the lingering tensions and secrets among this group of friends as they navigate the bizarre circumstances in which they have found themselves. Old resentments, suspicions, and attractions arise, forcing each character in the group to confront pieces of their past they have worked hard to bury. Reynolds does a superb job building the tension, suspicion, and claustrophobia of the “locked room mystery” tradition in her story’s present-day timeline. But SHIVER isn’t just a “locked room”-style mystery. Reynolds weaves into her novel chapters that take readers into the past—10 years into the past, to be precise—as our group of friends meet and train for an upcoming snowboarding competition. In this “past” timeline, readers witness the group’s formation, and they witness the shocking and disturbing levels of competition that existed among these supposed friends. SHIVER revolves around Milla, but it also revolves around Saskia—Curtis’ sister, whose competitive streak led her down dark and dangerous paths, and with whom Milla had a fierce rivalry. Reynolds explores the push and pull of Milla and Saskia’s twisted form of friendship, taking readers into the heart of a sport in which the competitors might just be as dangerous as the sport itself. 

There is so much I could say about the elements that I loved about this book. I loved the way Allie Reynolds crafted her debut thriller’s characters; I became so invested in the fates of two of these characters in particular that I actually found myself tearing up at the end of the book. I loved that this book takes place within the world of competitive snowboarding; I have never read a thriller set in this world before, and Reynolds’ vivid and immersive writing had me ready to get on a plane (if we could travel right now, that is!) and head to the French Alps to become a snowboarder myself. But most of all, I truly just found this book to be so much fun to read. I love a good “popcorn thriller,” and SHIVER was exactly the wintry “popcorn thriller” I needed. If you’re in the market for a lighter suspense novel that isn’t too heavy or dark but still delivers chills, thrills, and even a few moments of romance, add SHIVER to your TBR list and clear your calendar—this binge-worthy locked room mystery begs to be devoured whole. 

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. All opinions my own. 

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Book Details: 

Publisher : G.P. Putnam's Sons (January 19, 2021)

Language : English

Hardcover : 400 pages

ISBN-10 : 0593187830

ISBN-13 : 978-0593187838

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