What About the Bodies Written by Ken Jaworowski. A Book Review.

Thank you, Net Galley and Grove Atlantic for the Advanced Readers Copy. (ARC) These thoughts are my own.

What About the Bodies is available now for preorder and releases September 2, 2025.

What About the Bodies Cover

What About the Bodies is about a few residents of a small town in rural Pennsylvania. A small town where everyone knows everyone and everyone has something to hide. The story revolves around three main characters Carla, Reed, and Liz. Carla wants to make something of herself and provide for her college aged son. Reed wants to fulfill his promise to his mother. Liz, a down on her luck musician trying to make a name for herself in the music industry.

I honestly had to mull over this one. I really wanted to thoroughly enjoy this story, and I found it lacking. The cover of the book gave me I Know What You Did Last Summer vibes and it wasn’t. I did enjoy the moral dilemmas that the characters faced. I just wanted more, a quicker pace, more character development, more development of the individual stories and how they intertwined. Without spoilers, I liked parts of each story but the timeline to get to the points felt like something was missing. It felt like 3 characters just shared the same location of the novel and they were loosely tied together.

Overall, despite my assumptions…I did enjoy reading the advanced copy of What About the Bodies. It did not feel like a waste of time and placed me in a story which had a beginning, middle, and end for all characters. If a reader is looking for a slow burn mystery thriller I would recommend it.