What a stunning book this is on so many levels- it had me gripped to the end. Bodie is a podcaster and professor of film studies, separated from but still close to her husband, and the mother of two children. When she is invited back to teach a two-week course at Granby, the elite boarding school where she spent several mostly miserable years as a scholarship pupil, she is drawn back into the case of her former room-mate, Thalia, who was found murdered in the school swimming pool. Beautiful, talented and popular, Thalia seemed to have it all, unlike Bodie, who never felt that she fit in and fell prey to bullying, but as an adult Bodie begins to question the assumptions of the time. Omar, the school athletics coach, is quickly charged and convicted of the murder, but the evidence is flawed and the investigation ineffective. Bodie and her students begin to explore the case and ask questions- where drugs involved? Did one of the teachers have a relationship with Thalia that crossed professional boundaries? Were some of her friends, or her jock boyfriend, jealous to the point of violence? This cold-case investigation is in itself tense and intriguing, and the coming-of-age story packs a punch, while other thought-provoking issues arise along the way. Bodie and the other girls are sometimes treated by particular boys in a sexist and sexually threatening way that would cause outrage today, but this is contrasted by the #MeToo claims in the present by a young woman who insists that her consensual affair with an older man at work involved an abuse of power with parallels to the teacher/student relationship Bodie suspects. There is no escaping the past, but things were not always as they seemed and a new perspective on the case is revealed. As in real life, though, there can be no conclusive “happy ending,” especially for the families involved. The characters are brilliantly drawn, the narrative will keep you guessing and the book is a satisfying, unputdownable read. It will be one of the best books of 2023.

Bodie is returning to her old prep school, Granby, for the first time since the 1990s to teach a couple of elective classes in film studies and podcasting. But once she arrives, she finds herself drawn back to the many questions she has about the murder of her roommate, Thalia, at the end of their junior year. The athletics coach, a black man called Omar, was convicted of Thalia's murder and has spent twenty-five years in prison. But Bodie never thought he did it - and now she's back at Granby, she realises that she may be able to find the evidence to prove it.

At first glance, I Have Some Questions For You might seem like yet another #MeToo novel, and I'm sympathetic to readers who see it that way (I had similar complaints about Kate Reed Petty's True Story and Winnie M Li's Complicit). However, I think Rebecca Makkai's take on the topic both rises above most of the rest and is doing something a bit different. First, I Have Some Questions For You is clearly not only in conversation with #MeToo but with the 'true crime' genre, its potential and its pitfalls - it turns out that my guess that it might 'resonate with Becky Cooper’s non-fiction account of a murder at Harvard, We Keep The Dead Close' was spot on. Second, it's something of a meta #MeToo novel in that Bodie constantly reflects on how the same stories keep getting told about murdered and sexually assaulted women, and yet nothing ever changes: 'The story was on MSNBC, too. The one where the judge said the swimmer was so promising. The one where the rapist reminded the judge of himself as a young rapist. It was the one where her body was never found. It was the one where her body was found in the snow. It was the one where he left her body for dead under the tarp.' Third, it's just a really well-written book: incredibly gripping, but with nuanced, interesting characterisation that isn't sacrificed for the sake of extra drama.

However, what I really loved about I Have Some Questions For You was its treatment of Bodie, and the way she constantly reassesses her adolescent self and her memories of her time at Granby. It's basically a cross between Kate Elizabeth Russell's My Dark Vanessa and Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep, two other brilliant novels with this intelligent, observant quality. I don't think I've read a novel other than Prep that is so good at capturing the things that matter when we're adolescents, how hard it is to get a grip on how others see us and yet how fervently we feel we know exactly where we are in the pecking order. But because, unlike Prep, Makkai has the older Bodie explicitly reflect on her adolescent self from the vantage point of adulthood, we really get to see how she reassesses her own narratives. As a teenager, Bodie was continually sexually harassed and stalked by one of her classmates, Dorian, who pretended that she was obsessed with him and publicly humiliated her on multiple occasions, as well as flashing her and groping her. She wrote this off in adulthood as just school bullying, but it's clear that it was profoundly traumatising. Here, Makkai also gets us to reflect on what we consider to be 'serious', and how things that happen between children and young people at school are often seen as less serious than when an older adult is involved.

I Have Some Questions For You inevitably sidelines Omar's story to focus on Bodie's, given that she is the narrator, although it is acutely aware that he is the biggest victim save Thalia. However, Bodie is not the rich white woman taking a prurient interest in this case that the press paint her as in the novel. She is the survivor of a traumatic childhood (father and brother dead, mum checked out) that became knotted into her feelings about Thalia's murder in ways she untangles throughout the narrative. She's undoubtedly a flawed character, but that doesn't make her an unsympathetic one, and it's the richness of her characterisation that distinguishes this from many other novels of its kind. So: a #MeToo novel, yes, but one that's about so much more as well. 4.5 stars.

I sooo wanted to love I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai! The novel follows a podcaster and professor who heads back to her old boarding school to teach a course, and becomes obsessed with investigating a horrific murder that took place there in her senior year.

As a premise, I loved it – a campus-based whodunnit that brings in explorations of gender, race, the U.S. justice system, the #MeToo era and cancel culture (and more – yes, it tackles a lot!). Particularly if you’re a fan of certain much-buzzed-about “dark academia” tropes, I’m sure this will appeal to you too. But by the middle of the book, I was struggling.

The writing is very zoomed-in, while at the same time constantly diverting time and focus, which started to feel a bit of a strain. The plot itself moves very slowly, and there’s a sprawling cast of characters – personally, I found there were too many names to keep track of.

Makkai scatters overt messages about violence against women – both physical and psychological – throughout the novel, and while I understand her intent, this often felt jarring and somewhat unsupported by the flow of the narrative. I felt myself disconnecting from the most important themes and key figures of the book, and I found it difficult to stay invested on a character development level.

Don’t get me wrong, this novel is enjoyable and Makkai’s sharp writing will keep reeling you in, but you have to be VERY intrigued by the murder plot in order to sustain interest. For me, an overflow of “timely” subject matter started to feel heavy-handed and laboured, so beyond an intriguing murder mystery and wonderful setting there regrettably wasn’t too much deeper going on here. 2.75⭐️! I’d very much like to thank Viking and NetGalley for the ARC.

The narrator in Rebecca Makkai’s latest novel is Bodie Kane, a podcaster and film historian in her forties who returns to Granby, the elitist boarding school in New Hampshire from which she graduated two decades before, to teach a class in media and podcasting. During her own student years at Granby, Thalia Keith, Bodie’s roommate, was murdered, a crime for which Omar, a Black athletic trainer, is serving a lengthy prison sentence. Bodie has serious reservations about Omar’s conviction, believing it to have been based on racial prejudice and dubious testimonies, including hers. Her suspicions are, instead, focussed on a music teacher who had dubious relationships with students of his, including Thalia.

When one of Bodie’s students chooses Thalia’s murder as the subject of her podcast project, Bodie is cautiously encouraging, hoping that this amateur cold-case investigation could unearth new evidence which could be useful for a retrial. In the meantime, however, Bodie’s estranged artist husband Jerome, with whom she still maintains a relatively close relationship, himself finds himself at the centre of a #MeToo scandal, with a young performance artist accusing him of a past abusive relationship.

I Have Some Questions For You has a strong narrative drive, and even though I eventually felt it was rather overlong, it did hold my interest for long stretches. As one might infer even from a reading of my brief nd reductive summary, the novel raises several “big issues”, including the definition of “consent”; what constitutes “abuse”; racial and class prejudice and how these seep into the education and justice system. Makkai takes a gamble and recounts her story from the perspective of an unreliable narrator, who is inconsistent not only in her memories, but also in her ethical positions: thus, Bodie is keen to seek justice for Thalia and Omar, but adopts a defensive stance where her (ex-)husband is concerned.

Ultimately, this novel left me with mixed feelings. Although it grapples with heavy subject matter, it shares something of Bodie’s own confusion, leaving us with no clear, final position. But, perhaps, the whole point of the novel is – as its title implies – that of asking questions, not providing answers.

3.5*

4.5 stars.

I really enjoyed Makkai's The Great Believers, although I found the present-day storyline detracted from the other. I Have Some Questions For You is quite a different book, focusing on Bodie Kane and Film academic and podcaster who returns to her New Hampshire boarding school to teach and finds herself confronting her time at the school, including the murder of classmate and former roommate Thalia. A school employee was tried and found guilty at the time but Bodie has doubts about the conviction and has a clear idea, not only of the cursory investigation but an entirely different suspect. Makkai brings to life the atmosphere of the semi-elite school, with its cliques, traditions and secrets and Bodie, with a troubled family backstory and her schooling funded by well-meaning patrons/foster parents offers an interesting view. The case is well-constructed and entirely riveting as Bodie and her former friends and schoolmates tread old and new ground and she mixes with a whole new generation of students, who are fascinated by the tragic murder.

Against this backdrop Makkai looks at violence against women and girls in general. Bodie, who comes across as doom-scroller is constantly viewing the deluge of crimes and incidents that appear in the news and on social media. Some are instantly recognisable, other not but shocking enough that I found myself desperately hoping they were fictional. When her own husband (separated) is accused of abusing a former, much younger colleague Makkai considers what abuse is and where the lines can be drawn and redrawn depending on the people involved and their motivations. Bodie finds her own sense of herself as a progressive, liberal feminist and her teenage opinions and experiences challenged by her new Gen Z students who have very different ideas.

The story itself is gripping. The complicated path following Bodie's investigations and her time at school has plenty of red herrings and changes of direction. Her characters are well-drawn and she offers no easy answers to the questions she raises. She directs Bodie's first-person narration to "you", the man she increasingly believes may have committed the murder and is convinced was abusing Thalia. It makes for a thrillingly direct voice.

I completely and utterly loved this book. As an avid true crime podcast fan (if that’s the right word), I loved the style, the storyline and how the characters developed in current times but also in their teen years. Definitely recommend!

I was very surprised by this book - not at all what I expected. It has an air of Secret History to it, but I felt that some aspects of it were laboured. The writing is excellent, and very atmospheric, but I just wish it had got to where it was going slightly quicker. Overall a good read though.

The plot is as deep and dark as it gets, multi-layered with 'who knew what when?' as the strands come together and the finer details get filled in. This is an absolutely compelling, gripping book full of mystery and suspense. Only a few authors can write deeply involving psychological drama of the very highest quality.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words some text written has been typed in red and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

A campus novel whodunnit with relevant commentary on some timely themes - this was the formula for my favourite fiction read of the year so far. Bodie Kane returns to her New Hampshire boarding school twenty-odd years after she left; the same year one of her classmates was killed. Omar Evans was declared guilty but there is more to the tale…

Whilst the mystery of who killed Thalia Keith is the thread that pulls you through this book it was the wider discussion of male violence against women, cancel culture and online witch-hunts that made this a standout read for me. The Granby campus deep in the woods gave me those ever lusted after Secret History/dark academia vibes but with a true crime podcast/documentary element woven in this story has an edge that made it feel modern and sharp.

I loved Makkai’s last novel, The Great Believers when I read it a couple of years ago and her latest offering here has cemented her as a must read author for me. I’ll be looking at picking up her other two backlist books before too long.

If you’re looking for a new release to whet your whistle then this gal is your winner. It’s out on February 23rd not too long to wait!

Thanks @littlebrownbookgroup_uk and @netgalley for this digital arc

It’s an odd feeling to say this in January, but I can’t imagine I will read a better novel than I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS YOU this year. Indeed, I fear it may take a few years.

Because the story centres on murder at a remote New England boarding school, I am sure people will be comparing this to The Secret History, but I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS YOU is so much better than that. For one thing, it is possibly the most immersive novel I have ever read.

The main character is Bodie Kane – a famous podcaster- who is invited back to her old school to give a two-week course on podcasting. One of the kids has been working on the case of a murder that happened at the school twenty years earlier. The victim just happened to have been Bodie’s roommate; the murderer, convicted at the time, was a twenty-five-year sports assistant. Only now, with the benefit of hindsight and all the masses of documentary evidence collected by the students, Bodie is concerned the conviction is unsafe.

It's the perfect vehicle for Bodie to revisit everything she thought about the school and the people she knew then. Rebecca Makkai rolls out the most intricate and elaborate cast I can ever remember reading and yet we are always able to follow this parade of old school chums and the odd teenage nemesis. The story is so impeccably structured that each time a character is mentioned their cumulative effect makes it feel like we are remembering them ourselves rather than just reading about them.

Bodie’s journey into memory is shored up at the level of the sentence through prose which sometimes flicks to seeming non-sequitur paragraphs interspersed with the main flow, reflecting the jumpy, scratchy, maddening moves of memory – whether sought or self-conjuring, unbidden. It’s a triumph of translating the life of an eclectic (sometimes contradictory) mind onto the page.

Another thing I loved was the way Bodie’s story reminds us of the dramatic cultural changes in our own lives – our own world – in the intervening twenty-odd years. The central events of the novel happened pre-#MeToo, while the present day sees some characters caught out on this or that side of the culture wars. (I was avoiding a spoiler there…!)

I didn’t want I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU to end, and I will be re-reading it now. I’m also longing for the Audible to be released. Surely this must already be in production as a ten-part Netflix. The only question on that front is when?!


With many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me see an advance copy of this title.

I found this really boring, it wasn’t what I expected at all. I couldn’t finish it. The to stars are for the setting. With a better less woke focused story the setting could have made it brilliant. I admire the author for trying to take a different twist on a story as old as time but it didn’t work for me. I did like how she scattered little bits in about all the nameless poor women who are hurt at the hands of man, she really made her point with that but the novel itself had too much but too little going on to really make her point stand up.

Rebecca Makkai’s latest novel takes on true crime podcast in post-Me Too era. I’m somewhat familiar with Makkai’s work, with The Great Believers being one of my favourite reads in 2020, so I was so excited to receive an ARC for her latest book.

I Have Some Questions for You follows the protagonist Bodie Kane back to her high school as a guest lecturer; Granby remains a place Bodie seems to have avoided since graduating 20 years before, both in a bid to distance herself from her years as the out-of-place goth kid, and also because it is the site of the murder of her junior year roommate, Thalia Keith. Thalia’s murderer had been convicted and put behind bars, but Bodie has always held her own suspicions on the actual murderer that seem to grow the more time she spends on Granby campus…

I’ll be honest, for the first half of the book, I felt extremely ambivalent. I was looking for the genius I had seen in The Great Believers, and while I found the narration and the in-depth descriptions of Granby and Bodie’s reminiscing interesting, it dragged and I was looking hard for the “hook”, not really finding it. And at 448 pages, the first half of the novel is a significant amount of time to be pulled into different corners of this boarding high school. Upon finishing, I understand where Makkai was going with this, because the build up to the ultimate twist was truly spectacular and shocking. The development of Bodie as a character helps put the reader squarely into her experience, as well as blind the reader by embedding Bodie’s beliefs extremely deeply, to an incredibly effective end. This is testament to the strength and skill of Makkai’s writing, because the way she delivered the last third of the novel was pretty unbelievable, and transforms my “meh” experience to one of awe.

Overall, a great book to kick-off 2023, and definitely one to keep an eye out for when it is released on February 21st!

Many thanks to Little Brown Book UK and NetGalley for the ARC!

I Have Some Questions For You is an absolute banger.

I have been wanting to read Rebecca Makkai’s work for a while and had the galley in my pile. It wasn’t until Ann Patchett mentioned how much she had enjoyed this at a book event recently that prompted me to pick it up. And I barely put it down again until I had finished - wow.

Bodie Kane is a podcaster, sometimes podcasting teacher, and former boarding school student at Granby. When Bodie was a student, her former roommate was murdered. Bodie returns to Granby to teach a podcasting class and prompts the students to cover something from the school’s past. I won’t say any more!

This novel was gripping from the jump, and very cleverly weaves in the broader prevalence of violence by men and it’s impact. Bodie was an introspective, nuanced and complicated character.

Makkai’s writing is also just really good. It’s smart and griping. Even if you don’t normally pick up crime, I would recommend this (with the disclaimer to defs check content warnings!)

Pick up this book up if: you are a fan of Serial, Gone Girl etc. or are deeply sceptical about the genre

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I Have Some Questions For You is a novel that draws from several different genres - a sort of dark academia meets true crime meets introspective literary fiction hybrid if you will - but it succeeds in bringing them all together to form a compelling narrative.

The book follows Bodie, now a successful podcaster in LA, as she returns to Granby, her old boarding school, to teach courses on film and podcasting. Whilst at Granby, one of Bodie's students begins to research the murder of Bodie's junior year roommate who was found dead in the school pool in 1995 as a podcast topic and old memories resurface. A young black man who worked at the school was found guilty of the murder after a confession that he redacted less than 24 hours making it, but looking back, Bodie isn't so sure the right man is in jail.

I really enjoyed this novel! The characters were written as realistic and nuanced; none of them were perfect, but none of them were painted as truly evil either, including Bodie herself. I loved the comparison between the social environment of 1995 and the post-#MeToo world of Bodie's adulthood. Often books attempting to cover #MeToo related topics end up clunky and unfeeling, but I Have Some Questions For You didn't have this problem.

There was also a decent amount of coverage given to the ethics of true crime as a genre - whether or not it is objectifying victims and if it is causing further trauma to those left in the wake of violent crime - but this again was not heavy handed, feeling like a natural thought process that follows readers throughout the plot.

Bodie Kane, a podcaster, returns to her old boarding school Granby to teach a podcasting course. Her students decide to do a podcast based on the death of her popular classmate, Thalia Keith, and examine the flimsy conviction of the athletic coach that was found guilty of her murder. The book didn't ever really delve into the (what I think) was the most interesting story, which was the murder itself. Instead, this extremely lengthy book surrounded the protagonist and the players in her life, and I struggled to maintain interest, as her character wasn't particularly likeable, or interesting enough to sustain the level of focus. Overall this book for me was a 2.5 stars, rounded up. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

What a brilliant book - completely different to The Great Believers but equally well written.
I have some questions for you is an immersive story about the murder of a high school girl, inappropriate relationships, the Me-too era, and the dangerous obsessiveness of the true crime genre
Can't wait to read what comes next!
My sincere thanks for Netgalley for the review copy.

After a rather slow start, this book really picked up the pace and had me absolutely hooked.

Bodie has returned to her old boarding school, a place where she never really fitted in and where the dark cloud of a young woman's death hung over her and her classmates. She's there 20+ years later to run some podcasting and film studies classes for the students and prods one of them in the direction of investigating the death of her old roommate, the beautiful and charismatic Thalia. Was it really the only black guy on campus who killed her or was he just a convenient scapegoat? Surely it's always the boyfriend's fault but what if he has a cast iron alibi? And what about the older music teacher that Thalia was involved with? Is he the one who really did it?

This is a clever tale with occasional passages that made me almost breathless with their intensity. When the author drags in numerous other 'real world' cases of girls abused or controlled by others, cases of women driven to things they didn't really want to do, and crimes we already know about, it's just so high-impact that I was seriously impressed.

I felt the book was quite a lot longer than it needed to be. Sub-plots about Bodie's on-again-off-again affair with the Israeli lawyer didn't seem to lead very far and the whole story of her ex-husband being accused of exploiting a younger girl left a lot of unanswered - but valid - questions.

Did I see this somewhere compared to Donna Taart's 'The Little Friend'? I can't completely recall but it does seem that both are REALLY good books and both are way longer than they probably needed to be. The whole 'it must have been the black guy, why look elsewhere' theme also reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird.

HIghly recommended - thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy.

This book is one of the best I've read in recent years. I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU is a powerful and immersive story about the fallibility of memory, the dangerous obsessiveness of the true crime genre, and the blind spots we all have about the people in our lives. Nothing about it is at all what I expected when I picked it up, but I will be thinking about it for a long time to come. Slow burn literary crime at its best.

IHSQFY tackles a lot of the BIGGEST issues – racism and wrongful incarceration, classism, sexism and abuse - under the prism of a literary whodunnit meets academic campus novel. However, I ended up feeling somewhart underwhelmed and I can't help but wonder what happened in editing.
There are SO MANY elements that don’t add to storyline or character development and so many points attempted made resulting in them read as underdeveloped and shallow.

Maybe IHSQFY should instead be interpreted as encouragement to reflect on these points in our own time. In fact, perhaps Makkai indeed has questions for US. And THIS is something she has achieved successfully. Rarely have I pondered a read to the extent I did, and continue to do. I’ve have found myself thinking about this one A LOT. In the end, I think my most important takeaway isn’t so much which questions are being asked but rather, whose answers we accept.

Ultimately a three-star read for me, it just ended up being too long and sprawling. A huge thank you for the earc in exchange for an honest review!

Bodie Kane has constantly thought about the murder of her former classmate Thalia Keith while they were still at boarding school. With a man behind bars for the crime, Bodie dwells on the questions that weren’t asked and the people that weren’t investigated. After twenty three years, Bodie returns to Granby school as a guest teacher where she has to confront what she thought about the crime.

Bodie is not always terribly likeable. There are moments where you feel for her such as when she recounts the horrific bullying she suffered at school or her family’s tragic history. Then there are moments where I got incredibly angry with her as dismisses the accusations against her estranged husband, her response jarring with how she’s previously spoken about famous actresses treatment by Hollywood on her podcast. However this helps to make Bodie feel like a real person to me, though the book doesn’t delve into her hypocrisy.

Makkai focuses on many themes and issues throughout the book. We see how racial discrimination and classism played a role in the murder investigation the first time around. A prestigious school, Granby fights to protect its image as well as its staff and students leading the police to focus on a young black man. While rumours spread like wildfire through the school about Thalia sleeping with an older man, doing drugs, etc. these rumours are believed as facts. When Omar, a twenty three year old black man, is arrested and makes a confession which he later recants, no one questions it. But Bodie wonders if the real person Thalia was seeing was the music teacher Dennis Bloch. We don’t learn much about either Omar or Thalia, with the story more focused on Bodie’s experiences of everything. We don’t read of Omar’s experience in prison or the failed justice system, with very little filtered through Bodie’s voice. We also don’t learn anything of Thalia, the actual murder victim. It almost feels like a portrayal of the True Crime genre where the victims are often lost and forgotten in the noise around their cases.

I adored the writing throughout, highlighting many passages I read. I thought one of the interesting elements of this book was Makkai’s effective use of repetition. Throughout Makkai details different sexual assault/domestic abuse/murder cases all in one paragraph showing how often this happens, that it feels common place. This was a captivating read which I did enjoy, but left me questioning elements of it.