I rounded this up to 4 stars. As majority of the book would have been a 4. But the ending sadly lost it for me.
While this is slightly different to the thrillers I usually read, I found myself gripped throughout. Wondering where this was heading. Camile questioned everything after the fact.
The Collective is a group of honestly more than morally gray characters. But at the same time you can understand their anger and pain. Why they would want "justice" the way they do.
But sadly the ending didn't work for me. I'm unsure what I expect. Actually I think it makes sense why it ended this way. But I also dislikes how easy it seemed to be.

I do want to check out more by this author in the future.

I was really unsure about this book when I first started it but the more I read the more I got into it - it is definitely a book to persevere with.
Highly recommend reading this.

How far would you go to avenge your child's death? This book sets this premise about what a grieving mother would do and how far she would go to get the justice she feels she deserves. Entertaining read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orion Publishing and Alison Gaylin for this copy of The Collective!

Following Camille in the aftermath of her daughters horrific death, we see her life has come apart at the seams. After a public outburst at an event honoring her late daughters rapist and murderer, she is invited to join a support group on Facebook. From there, Camille enters a world full of secrecy, revenge and justice but is it all she thinks it is? Or is it something much more sinister?

I really loved reading this book. It was so intense and fast paced that I sped through it very quickly. I liked Camille as a main character. She has been through the wringer and all she wants is justice for her teenage daughter that was snatched away from her much too early. Most of her relationships/friendships have fallen apart, except for Luke, and her work even takes a hit. So when she finds likeminded people that have been through the same type of situations, she finds her people! She is given purpose again but, of course, not all is as it seems!

At times, this did seem a little far fetched but it didn't take away from my enjoyment. To be honest, reading all the ways that these women lost their children was all too familiar and could be a story seen today on any news channel. That part really hits home! So it was great to see these badass women delivering justice. I will say, there were some twists in here that I did not see coming and they left me shook, in the best way possible! Very excited to get my hands on more of Gaylin's work!

* Please look up trigger warnings before reading *

I wasn’t sure about this book to start with but am certainly pleased I stuck with it!!! Gripping dark and great! Loved it !

Wow! What a intriguing, dark tale of how powerful a group of people can become with the help of social media and the one thing that brings them altogether - grief and the loss of a child.

Very original, gripping and thought provoking.

I´ve not read anything by Alison Gaylin before (no idea why) but I´ll certainly be looking out for her in the future.

My thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy in return for an honest review.

'The collective' explores how far a mother will go to get justice for her lost child. This was a quick read for me, full of suspense and mystery and an ending I never saw coming! Loved it!

This great read spirals towards its dark conclusion, wrong footing the increasingly uneasy reader at every turn. This twisty thriller is jam-packed with tense moments and a growing sense of unease…..

Camille is a grieving mother struggling to come to terms with the fact that the person who killed her daughter got away with it. Then she bumps in to someone who hands her a business card for a group of liked mined mothers, could this be the answer she is looking for?
Fantastic book could not put it down! Great concept and really liked seeing Camille's internal struggle with what she feels she wants and what is right. Thought the ending was excellent too after reading it couldn't think of better way it could have finished. Love a book that makes you think what would i do if i was faced with that situation. Will be looking out for more books by this author.
Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.

I found this is a bit slow to start although the premise was intriguing and provides much in the way of food for thought. I think 'The Collective' would make a good book group read and generate some interesting discussion.

This book is all about the lengths a mother will go to to avenge the death of their child after their perpetraters evade justice, so they start to dish out the justice themselves.

I think the novel demonstrates the strength of a mother's love beautifully it's an emotive read portraying the struggles of grief and mortality.

Camille Gardner has never got over the death of her daughter. Now, five years on, she is incensed when the man she blames for her death wins a good citizen award. After making a scene at the presentation she finds herself a target on-line. Though many are not pleasant she is given a link to a site where she finds an outlet for her fury & grief. She doesn't want to forgive & move on. She wants revenge & before long she is on the Dark Web where other bereaved people give vent to what they would like to do to the person responsible for their loved ones fate. But before long she realises this isn't just a venting site. She is given some minor tasks by 0001 but before long they become more serious & Camille is in too deep.

This was an engrossing thriller that I couldn't put down. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Sounded better than it ended up being. The tragic reason for the main character Camille to act was dwarfed by how utterly unlikely her behaviour is.

Once I picked this up I couldn’t put it down.

The collective is a different look at what you would do for your child, explicitly joining a secret group of mothers that will help you get the justice you deserve.

Camille is the mother who joins and we follow her through the collective to what she believes will be closure, but maybe she doesn’t want things to be quite so permanant.

A good read, some character development missing and some holes but you will be desperate to read it all.

The Collective

How far would you go to get revenge for your child ?
5 years after her daughters death Camille is still grieving when she discovers an online forum of other grieving mothers and they all want justice.

I devoured this book I loved it I just couldn't stop reading. The suspense was nail biting and the twist slapped me out of nowhere and the end 😱 A brilliantly written book I will be reading more from Alison Gaylin.

Thank you to Netgalley, Orion Publishing Group and Alison Gaylin for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest Review

I requested this arc because I found the blurb interesting and I'm glad I did it because i discovered a new to exciting author.
This is a great thriller, a gripping story with an original plot and plenty of interesting characters. There's a lot of strong emotions since the first pages: rage, hate, grief.
It's not always easy to read as these strong emotions are expressed in an extremely vivid way and I couldn't help feeling affected.
It was a fascinating and riveting read, a surprising thriller that I strongly recommend.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Camille Gardner's daughter, Emily, died following an alleged date rape at a party & the guilty person was not punished. Instead the media, people online, & the defence lawyers ripped Emily's life to shreds & painted her as a teenager who was going off the rails & the accused, Harris Blanchard, was found not guilty. Five years later, Camille's marriage is over, but she still wants revenge against Blanchard for his actions. In her fog of hate & need for revenge, Camille gatecrashes an awards ceremony for Harris which is unfortunately captured on camera & her inebriated outburst is posted online & condemned by most people. It also attracts the attention of a group called Niobe - named after the Greek myth of a mother who grieved so much for her children she was turned to stone.

This online group soon leads Camille to the 'dark web' where a group of women called The Collective work in secret to dispense justice to those who have escaped it in the criminal justice system. Camille is drawn in & as the women remain anonymous, using only their chosen alias of four digits, she becomes 0417. Soon she is asked by the leader, 0001, to carry out some simple tasks, without question & without telling anyone else, but these tasks soon become more sinister in nature. Camille is concerned about what the hunting knife she bought & posted off to a PO Box will be used for. She becomes more & more involved in the group & their activities culminating in her facilitating the drowning of a billionaire who had gotten away with abusing young women. Camille rationalises it as preventing him from hurting anyone else, but when another death happens to a man that has suffered his own tragedy, Camille sets out to investigate why he had to die.

Wow, that was a read which prompted a rollercoaster of emotions! I think most people have probably seen someone in the news who has gotten away with something merely because they were rich/famous & briefly thought how unfair the supposedly unbiased justice system is. The book posits some interesting questions for the main character - how far would you go to see that someone who killed a loved one faced punishment if the law failed to? Is there a line you wouldn't cross or a point where you would feel that things had gone far enough? Camille initially tells herself it's all a game, but seriously, why did she think she was asked to buy a hunting knife & post it to an anonymous address?! A lot of self-deception & rationalisation going on there.

After a slow first couple of chapters, it's a fast-paced read which effortlessly kept my attention throughout the rest of the book. You can work out where the story is going to go in terms of Camille eventually turning on the group, so it's not as dark as it could have been. I felt that Luke (the recipient of Emily's heart through organ donation) & his girlfriend were kind of superfluous characters who didn't really add much to the story, & for me, the ending was a little disappointing. Overall though I rate 4 stars for a great thriller with an interesting premise

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Orion Publishing Group, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

This was definitely a bingeworthy read!!

Camille Gardener’s daughter was killed 5 years ago and whilst she is still grieving the loss, Emily’s acquitted killer Harris, is about to receive a humanitarian award. Camille makes a bit of a fool of herself at this event and calls him a murderer which goes viral and attracts the attention of a group of vigilantes known as the Collective.

A gripping thriller that I found practically impossible to put down.
Thanks to Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this dark thriller.

The write up to this thriller didn't encourage my interest initially but once I had got past the first part of grieving mother Camilla Gardner making a drunken exhibition of herself at an event where her daughter's 'murderer' is receiving a humanitarian award - this became a very intense and cleverly written novel that sucks you in, twists your emotional responses as a mother and eventually leaves you thinking - 'Could I do that?'
The author is American and therefore the descriptions of fraternity world (ie colleges and young people) need some exploration perhaps, but it is clear that Camilla's (Cam) daughter Emily was raped and killed, then left for dead with the prime suspect to Cam being the very young man who was let free from guilt by a court and also by the piling in of locals and social media.
Ironically it is the intrigue of NIOBE group (good use of classical Greek myths) and the obsession to enter a dark web world that creates for us the manic response Cam gets into when she believe she might avenge her daughter's killer.
I liked some of the other characters particularly Luke who has lived because of the donation of Emily's heart donation. That symbiotic relationship of her holding onto him was not as corny as I had expected it to be.
This is an intelligent thriller much above the standard of many such other books. The theme of revenge/justice is dealt with with exceptional insight and if you didn't feel you could kill to avenge when you started you may feel differently at the end.
An author who knows her stuff and a style that gives literary depth to a popular genre. Guess there maybe a TV drama coming soon....

I'm in two minds about this story.
The concept is great and I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning of this story.
However Camille as a character was not the greatest. You're on the dark web and you honestly think all of it is a game?
I felt the story lost steam halfway through and I was hit with a, "That's it?" feeling when I got to the epilogue.
Could have landed with a greater punch than what it did.