I’ve had this book on my TBR list so long that I’ve forgotten where I heard about this book! But the title intrigued me every time I saw it, and I kept meaning to get to this book… so I finally have!

I Killed Zoe Spanos starts with a confession – Anna confessing to killing Zoe. And then we go back into the past, when Anna first arrives in the wealthy village of Herron Mills for a nannying job and starts to hear about a missing girl named Zoe. Apparently, Anna looks very much like Zoe and as she learns more about her, Anna becomes convinced that she’s forgotten something important, something about Zoe…

The blurb for this book makes it sound like a true-crime podcast is at the heart of the book, but while the podcast features prominently in the book, I didn’t really think this was a podcast-centred book. The star of this story is definitely Anna, who’s clearly battling her own demons. Anna’s voice and her doubts about her memories are so strong that the book revolves around her, not the podcast that’s trying to find the truth, though the podcast plays a big role towards the end.

I’m doing my best not to give any spoilers, but my favourite aspect of this book is definitely the unreliability of memories. Anna used to be a party girl, and from the start, we can tell that she’s got some gaps in her memory that she needs to fill. I really enjoyed how the book played with the possibility of several different explanations and made all of them seem believable. It was very easy to doubt Anna’s memory and believe all the shifting stories as the story progresses, but because I also saw Anna trying to turn over a new leaf, her unreliability was something that I accepted instead of being something that annoyed me.

The only thing I didn’t quite like was that some characters’ actions seemed kind of strange. Well, it’s actually just one character – Zoe’s boyfriend/Anna’s neighbour Caden. He’s definitely central to the mystery and I understand that his account can’t be believed, but some things just aren’t explained enough. Anna’s contradictions work because we really get into her head but since Caden isn’t a POV character, his contradictions just seemed convenient.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book! I found the mystery to be interesting and Anna is a fascinating main character. I’d definitely recommend this to fans of the genre.