YOU DID NOTHING WRONG Book Review

You Did Nothing Wrong¹ by C.G. Drew, eBook, 299 pages

Synopsis from Goodreads: Single mother Elodie’s life has become a fairy tale. She’s met Bren, equal parts golden-retriever devoted and sinfully handsome. He’s whisked her and her autistic son, Jude, to the crumbling family house he’s renovating. She has a new husband, a new house, and a new baby on the way. Everything is perfect. Then Jude claims he can hear voices in the walls. He says their renovations are “hurting” the house. Even Elodie can’t ignore it–something strange is going on. The question is, is it with the house, or with her son? Then the one secret Elodie has been hiding is revealed, and no one is safe anymore.

A pulse-pounding, clever take on the haunted house novel, You Did Nothing Wrong examines the complexities of motherhood and the twisted bonds of family as it races to its shocking ending.

BOOK REVIEW: This was a hard book for me to keep reading. At times it felt like it was moving really slow and most of that was in the beginning. Here's the deal...I don't know if I liked this or not. It's labeled as Horror Occult/Supernatural. I agree with the supernatural but it's more suspense/thriller/supernatural in my opinion. There are still scenes and comments that Elodie made that have left me scratching my head.

There were twists and turns in the end that left me feeling happy that I kept going but I don't think I actually have a favorite part. Part of me thought we were reading about a mother with such bad postpartum depression and her husband was gaslighting her about her feelings but then there's this scene where she is having tea with her sister-in-law. She is telling Elodie how much her brother has always wanted to be a dad and will do everything right and then we get this from Elodie:

All Elodie can think of is she, alone, devouring him, her teeth sunk into Bren's raw, throbbing heart, his worship for her never-ending as his blood stains her tongue.

It's not the first or last time she mentions something weird about blood that just seems so far fetched and I can't understand why the author put it in.

This is a 3.5 star for me. I hate to say it but I almost DNF'd it because of all the odd blood references. They didn't fit and didn't make sense. Other than that, the story was okay. It fit with the typical whirlwind romance and getting married fast. The characters are in their early 20s and maybe because I'm in my early 40s I felt too disconnected from the storyline but the author does a great job with the imagery. It was definitely disturbing and creepy at times. This is the first book I've read by this author so I'll definitely read another to see more of their writing style.

3.5/5 Stars

2026 Reading Challenge: 16/55 complete

¹This is an affiliate link through Bookshop.org which supports independent bookstores nationwide. Pick a bookshop you choose to support and when you order a book, the proceeds go to that store! Books are sent from a main distribution center so if you don't know what store to support, it's okay. All orders not supporting a specific shop go into a pool that gets divided among all the stores listed on the site!