Swipe Right for Murder by Derek Milman

Hi all, it’s Linz, and this ARC came from the bounty of BookCon. We’d like to thank Derek and Jimmy Patterson books for the opportunity. This book comes out on August 6th and you can pre-order it here.

What it’s about:
From Goodreads:
On the run from the FBI.
Targeted by a murderous cult.
Labeled a cyber-terrorist by the media.
Irritated texts from his best friend.
Eye contact with a nice-looking guy on the train.
Aidan has a lot to deal with, and he’s not quite sure which takes top priority.

Finding himself alone in a posh New York City hotel room for the night, Aidan does what any red-blooded seventeen-year-old would do—he tries to hook up with someone new. But that lapse in judgement leads to him waking up next to a dead guy, which sparks an epic case of mistaken identity that puts Aidan on the run from everyone—faceless federal agents, his eccentric family, and, naturally, a cyber-terrorist group who will stop at nothing to find him.

He soon realizes the only way to stop the chase is to deliver the object everyone wants, before he gets caught or killed. But for Aidan, the hardest part is knowing who he can trust not to betray him—including himself.

What I drank: Rose all dayyyyyyyy during bookclub 1 of this weekend (btw, The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls is supes good)

Thoughts:
Circle of trust – i wasnt a huge fan of this book.

Pros:

• Teh protag Aidan is likeable, and that’s a huge compliment bc i’m ao not liking teenagers rn after the many pushy ones i dealt w at bookcon. his interal struggle throughout the book is, given how bonkers the story gets, relatable and well thoguyht out
• Aidan’s backstory UGH my heart hruts i loved it so much. that on its own would make a great book. his family is wild, his support system is adorbs, and you just GET why he’s the person he is and you want to just hug him and tell him youre his friend
• the plot moved very quickly which it def needed to for this story to work
• it was educational in teh best way about the gay rights movement
• i really like when books or shows have to come up with fake names for social media (I SEE YOU RIVERDALE) and the gay dating ap is called DirtyPaws. fantastic.

Cons:

• both the FBI and the cult are like…REALLY over the top
• ugh i’m trying to hard to avoid spoilers but like yall the fbi isnt’ THAT wildly incompetant and reckless
• that cult was like a little too wild and i wish we’d had a little more explanation on some things related to it, even though you know cult, scary, mystique

OH ok i figured out my problem. i figured it out while writing the pros section but it makes more sense for this part to be HERE> You have this whole backstoy to aidan that’s beautifly written and then you have this, like REAL extra thriller story. like real extra. and like even the setup to the thriller plot is good but then it just splodes extra. And here’s the thing – Milman’s a good writer. i finished this book bc i was enjoying it, but that whole last third is real eyerolly/

What I gave it: 3 stars

What I’d pair it with: mmmmmmmm some of kind of berry gose (Editor’s Note: I assume you mean Rose so that’s what I’m tagging it as), somethihng tart and fiizzy and light

FBGM,

linz