Just One Bite Review: Not The Psychological Thriller I Expected

 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5)

"‘It’s not true!’ I say again. It may not be completely true, but it is a little true."

Just One Bite by Miranda Rijks is a story about celebrity chef Brittany Cole who seems to have the perfect life: fame, success, and a lovely family. But everything falls apart when a clip of her shouting at her four‑year‑old goes viral. Before long, more “proof” surfaces showing her mistreating her daughter, and #bitchmom is everywhere. Brittany knows those videos aren’t real at all. Then someone close to her gets murdered, she suddenly has to navigate tough questions from the police. 

Even though I hadn't read Miranda Rijks' books before, I realized she's a famous thriller author, so I was excited when I got the ARC. Maybe I got my expectations too high, but this book didn't impress me. 

First, I think the story is dragging on too much because of the deepfake videos. I think it would be much better if the author played with this more and made the readers also believe that the videos were true, but no, from the start, I knew that the video was fake, and keeping bringing up this situation just made me lose interest. 

Second, the plot twist was quite predictable. From chapter five I could tell who the suspect was, and the fact that I was right about it, made me feel disappointed when I finished the book. I felt like I gained nothing! 

And the last, the ending. For mystery/thriller books, I prefer the author to show the revelation instead of just telling us what really happened, and unfortunately, that's exactly the case here, the culprit just tells us all the things that she did and I was like "Really? That's how you're gonna solve this?" 

Unfortunately, this book is just not for me. I felt like I was reading a cozy mystery instead of a psychological thriller. It was okay but it's definitely not what I expected from a thriller book. If you prefer fast-paced and low‑tension thrillers, you might enjoy it. 

Thank you to Inkubator Books and NetGalley for providing me with the review copy.