LOOK WHAT YOU DID By Kaitlin Reilly
I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Look What You Did by Kaitlin Reilly Published by Sourcebooks Fire on 9/15/26
Genres: Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 309
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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"I know about Will....I know what he did that night"
After the tragic death of golden boy Will Ashford, everyone in town is in mourning. Or almost everyone. Seventeen-year-old Mackenzie couldn't be more relieved. Because she knows Will's veneer of perfection hid something dark and dangerous. It was a truth she learned one night at the Ashford house and swore never to tell.
But her plan is threatened when she starts receiving texts from an unknown number. Someone knows the secret Mackenzie has tried so hard to hide—and they are determined to reveal it.
When Mackenzie's former best friend is found dead, she is convinced the anonymous texter is connected to her murder, and she will stop at nothing to find them. But doing so will mean confronting the trauma she's fought so hard to suppress and exposing the dark secrets her town has tried to keep buried—or risk being the next girl dead.
Short and Sweet Review
Mackenzie has a secret that she has spent years trying to keep buried. Everyone in Cold Creek is mourning the death of Will Ashford, the town’s golden boy, but Mackenzie isn’t exactly heartbroken. She knows the version of Will everyone else remembers isn’t the person he really was, and she knows something about what happened the night he died. She promised herself she would never tell anyone, but then she starts receiving anonymous texts from someone who knows her secret. When her former best friend is found dead, Mackenzie becomes convinced the texts and the murder are connected, forcing her to confront the trauma she’s been trying to avoid while uncovering just how many secrets her seemingly perfect town is hiding.
I thought this was a pretty solid YA thriller. The mystery definitely kept me interested, especially with all of the secrets, anonymous messages, and different suspects being introduced throughout the story. I liked trying to figure out who was behind everything alongside Mackenzie, even though some of the twists were easier to predict than others. There were quite a few characters and connections to keep track of, which got a little confusing at times, but I still wanted to know how everything was going to come together. Mackenzie’s relationships were probably one of the most interesting parts of the book. Her friendship with Emaline is especially complicated and toxic, and I thought it was interesting to see how Mackenzie continued to hold onto a relationship that was clearly hurting her. It felt like she was so afraid of losing the people around her that she was willing to put up with things she shouldn’t have to. Watching her slowly start to recognize those patterns and confront what had happened to her was one of the stronger parts of her character arc. I also appreciated that the book wasn’t just focused on solving a murder. There’s a much heavier story underneath the mystery involving sexual assault, trauma, self-harm, grief, and the way people can protect someone simply because they don’t want to believe the truth about them. The contrast between Cold Creek’s perfect image and the things happening beneath the surface worked really well, and I liked how the story explored the consequences of staying silent and the different ways people deal with trauma. Definitely check the content warnings before reading because some of the topics are pretty heavy. My biggest issue was that the pacing wasn’t always consistent. There were parts where I was really invested and flying through the pages, followed by sections where the high school drama slowed things down and didn’t feel as important to the main mystery. I also didn’t always connect with Mackenzie, and some of her decisions were frustrating. At the same time, I think her flaws made sense considering everything she was dealing with, and I liked seeing her eventually stop running from the truth.
Overall, Look What You Did was an engaging and sometimes uncomfortable YA thriller with plenty of secrets, toxic friendships, trauma, and twists. While some of the reveals were predictable and the pacing dragged in places, I liked the mystery and the way the story explored what can happen when people choose appearances over the truth. The ending also left a stronger impression on me than I expected. If you enjoy darker YA mysteries with complicated characters and a small town where absolutely nothing is as perfect as it seems, this is definitely worth checking out.