What We’ll Burn Last by Heather Chavez
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars**
I always look forward to new releases from Heather Chavez. After I finish one, I’m immediately on her author page, checking to see if there’s info on the next release.
What We’ll Burn Last is her 2024-release and it follows a few different perspectives. It’s set in California and is a Missing Persons-based Thriller. Our main perspectives are Leyna, Meredith and Olivia.
Leyna was my favorite. She had an older sister, Grace, who went missing years before. At the beginning of this story, she has an interaction with a young woman that stirs all sorts of memories about Grace.
Shortly thereafter, she sees the news that this young lady, Ellie, has disappeared. Not only did Ellie greatly resemble Grace at the time of her disappearance, but she also went missing from the same spot that Grace did. This cannot be a coincidence, can it?
Leyna has been active on true crime forums since Grace disappeared and she uses those platforms to begin to dig into Ellie’s case. This string of events eventually leads her back to the hometown she left years prior and back into the circle of people she’s been trying to avoid.
Her Mom, Meredith, is a hard perspective to follow. She wasn’t likable, but I never feel like I need to like a character in order to enjoy their perspective, but I will admit to finding Meredith’s POV to be a real slog.
We also follow a woman named Olivia. She is the Mom of Grace’s boyfriend, Adam. Boyfriend, as in, they were a couple at the time that Grace went missing. By-the-by, Adam went missing at the same time. The two families have been at odds ever since.
You follow along with these three perspectives as the truth about the past, about what happened to Grace and Adam, as well as the current mystery of Ellie, and the drama between the two families is all worked out.
Honestly, it was a lot to follow. I really enjoyed the first half. As mentioned above, I had a great time following Leyna’s perspective. The beginning was so intriguing, as she met Ellie and then learned of her disappearance.
This stemmed her investigation into Ellie, and it also rekindled her interest in what happened to her sister. This brought her back to her hometown. The trope of an MC returning to a hometown after a long period of time away, to look into some old mystery, is one of my favorites.
Unfortunately for me, the other perspectives brought this story down for me. They weren’t as interesting to me as Leyna and my mind began to wander during their sections.
By the 60%-point, my interest was down. Whereas one would think my interest would only increase as the story went along, that really wasn’t the case here.
I still feel like this is a solid story and that first half was def a 4-star read for me, but I had to drop my rating a bit, as went my level of interest, in the later half.
With this being said, even though this wasn’t my favorite of her books, I’m already chomping at the bit to see what Chavez is going to deliver us next.
In comparison to her earlier books, I didn’t find this one quite as pulse-pounding, but I still feel like it had a good plot and included strong character work.
I did like the setting and the initial build-up of the mystery as well. It did bring to mind the real-life tragedy of Gabby Petito, and that case was mentioned briefly within this story. I’m not sure if that case inspired Chavez to write this or not, but the relationship between Grace and Adam did have a similar vibe.
At the end of the day, this is a solid Missing Persons Thriller and I would encourage others to pick it up. I think if you’re able to connect in some way to all three perspectives, this could be a very intriguing read for you.
Thank you to the publisher, Mulholland Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. Chavez is a gifted writer and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!