I picked this as my Kindle FirstReads book for August. It has a very unique concept and I was looking forward to digging in! It tells the story of Mickie Lambert, a 24-year old memory maker, who is hired to curate a collection of 12 items from a store owner, Nadia Denham. But she isn’t the only one who’s lurking around - Someone is sending her threatening messages and killing young women in the area. Mickie’s family is also hiding something, and it seems, so is everyone else in the area where Nadia works, and then her strange family starts showing up. And they have secrets, too.

This book has a lot of twists and almost everyone has a secret. The ending was a shocker, one I did not see coming. I did want to know what happened, what everyone’s secret was, and who the killer is. The family subplot was an interesting addition. And the stories behind each of Nadia’s 12 items were super interesting to read about.

I did find it a little hard to make it through to the end, for the reasons below, but I pushed through anyway.

However…I had a number of problems with the book. I wasn’t a fan of all the racist undertones. The author focused on people’s skin color an awful lot, and it almost came off as “Black = good” and “White = bad” (with a couple exceptions, of course). And why, when describing someone, was Black capitalized but white was not? And there were a lot of stereotypes surrounding both ethnic groups. I normally don’t pay attention to these things and instead choose to focus on the story, but here, it felt like it was shoved in my face repeatedly. The whole coronavirus mention felt randomly tacked in and caught me off guard. There are enough books referencing the pandemic and the virus, I didn’t want to read about it in a story where I read to escape reality for awhile. And, too many woke narratives for my liking (and I’m liberal leaning).

The main character, Mickie, was very unlikeable and annoying. She is 24 years old but acts like a spoiled, melodramatic, bratty teenager. Her friends weren’t much better, either, and I’m still not sure what their purpose was in the story. I didn’t find them likeable or relateable, either. Unfortunately the book is told in Mickie’s 1st person POV for 90% of it (and some chapters from the killer’s POV), so you’re spending the majority of time with this character. I didn’t agree with her motivations, either - she brought herself into this whole mess simply because she’s nosy.

Lastly, the writing style. I loved the author’s descriptions of places and things. But the writing style overall is very abrupt and disjointed and felt like reading the thoughts of a distracted person. The story didn’t flow well in some parts and I had to go back a few pages to see what I missed.

And the genre labels it as a thriller, but I found it to be more mystery with thriller elements. It was very slow and didn’t pick up until the last 1/4 of the book. So those who come in expecting a fast paced, exciting read will be disappointed. The first chapter and last 2-3 were the most exciting, IMO.

I hate giving any book lower than 4 or 5 stars because as a writer myself, I know books are a labor of love. Except this book just wasn’t for me and I’m not sure I’ll be reading any further works from this author. ( )

Started out really good and interesting, and then just dragged on and on and on. Mickie is a classic mystery-thriller dumb bitch, but at least the author wrote that into the plot fairly early. Also, Mickie's reaction to her "family secret" was ridiculously overdramatic. The plot was predictable, but I did enjoy it for what it is-which is a pretty basic thriller, though it could've definitely been shorter (specifically all of Mickie's personal/family drama could have been removed or cut down significantly. I feel like it didn't add anything to the story). ( )

Well, it was okay. Michaela "Mickie" was overly naïve and desperate over a man. She was way too accommodating to sour puss Riley. But I liked that she came from a happy family who loved her. It was unique to see a twenty-four year old who still mostly lived with her parents. I also loved learning about her job; it sounded fascinating.

The mystery felt fast-paced in the accusations and suspicious behavior, but the other elements felt so slow. At times, it felt like the story would never end. As it dragged on so did my enthusiasm. Gentrification also played a big part in the background. The romance here was crusty dishrag dry. It felt like it was here as an obligation.

I don't have much experience with mysteries that aren't from the perspective of a detective, so I was oblivious to whatever common mystery/thriller tropes. But I guessed the Tyler Perry twist and the killer but it took me a while, so there's some praise in order.

Ending spoiler: Nadia's reasoning makes me itch. she started killing vulnerable women because she was a boring plain jane. make it make sense. ( )

We still have a week of January left and this is the second book that I've abandoned. I feel like I should be giving an, 'It's not you, it's me' speech. Except it's not all me this time. Take a look at that cover. See where it says 'A Thriller'. That right there is the problem. I'm halfway through and I'm not feeling the thrill. Not even a little.

I can see that I should be and that, maybe, the last half of the book will suddenly become tense as the person or persons who are stalking our heroine finally take action beyond sending scary notes and threatening texts. I'll never know.

The thing I regret about setting this book aside is that I like Rachel Howzell Hall's writing. When I was a quarter of the way through 'These Toxic Things', I was having fun, mainly because of how well Mickie Lambert, the heroine of the story, was described. Her whole experience of life was so different from my own and I don't know anyone like her yet I found her very credible.

The thing that surprised me most is her relationship with her family. She's a grown woman, a college graduate a few years into a job with a start-up in an interesting field yet her baseline expectation is that, whatever happens, her family will take care of her. She breaks up with her lover, who is also her boss and she moves back home to mum and dad. She gets threatening messages and thinks she's being followed, she asks her father and her uncle (OK, they're cops) to fix it. Her relationship with her family is enviable but also feels juvenile. The degree to which she expects to be protected astonishes me. She seems to have led an incredibly sheltered life. She expects to be loved and she expects things to work out OK in the end.

Mickie has a strong tendency to romanticise her life, to turn everything into a story and usually a story in which everything is sweet and nice and people are good even if bad things do happen. She's been clever enough to turn this way of looking at the world into a job for herself. She 'curates' memories related to objects and places and people and stores them in a digital Memory Box. I know this idea would sell but I hated it as soon as I heard it. It's a turn-your-life-into-a-Hallmark-movie-with-you-as-the star approach that turns me off.

At the start of the book, I thought this was all good. I assumed that, when the toxic things promised by the title turned up, Mickie's worldview would be shattered, she'd discover that she's vulnerable to the nasty things in life and it would either break her or make her stronger. There are some good hints that her family know more than they're saying and it seems likely that Mickie is being pursued by two dangerous people, at least one of whom is a serial killer.

How can I walk away from all that? Well, because nothing is happening. I'm waiting for Little Red Ridinghood to meet the wolf but the wolf hasn't shown. And Mickie's groundless optimism and endless romanticisation alternating with complete panic when under any kind of pressure are beginning to irritate me. I'm starting to wonder if I'd end up cheering the wolf.

I'm six hours and a half hours into the audiobook. There are six more hours to go. I could almost read another whole book in that time. So, it's bye-bye Mickie. I hope your family can protect you from the monsters when they finally arrive - unless, of course, they are the monsters.

Michaela Mickie Lambert is a digital archaeologist. She makes digital memory ‘scrapbooks’ for clients to record the images and provenance of cherished items for clients to ensure they are remembered. When her latest client, Nadia Dunham, owner of a curio shop and in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, commits suicide just as the project is startng, Mickie decides to continue with it since it is already paid for. As she researches each item Nadia has left for her, she discovers they were all from women Nadia had helped in the past but, as Mickie, dives deeper into their stories, she discovers they are all either missing or dead. And now Mickie is receiving threatening messages under her door..

I really enjoyed the premise of These Toxic Things by Rachel Howzell Hall and the first chapter offered the promise of a fast-paced and engrossing story. Unfortunately, it didn’t fuly live up to this promise. Instead, it often got bogged down in other sub-plots that added little to the main story and too often served only to slow it down. I also didn’t much care for Mickie who I found very hard to relate to.

Still, I did finish it and the ending certainly went a long way to mitigate these criticisms so, overall, I would recommend it for fans of thrillers looking for something a little different and aren’t concerned about the pace.

Thanks to Netgalley & Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review ( )