I Have Some Questions for You

A Novel

By: Rebecca Makkai

Narrated by: Julia Whelan, JD Jackson

Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Named a Best Book of 2023 by The Washington Post, People, USA Today, NPR, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Real Simple, The Boston Globe, CrimeReads and more

“A twisty, immersive whodunit perfect for fans of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.”—People

"Spellbinding."—The New York Times Book Review

"[An] irresistible literary page-turner."—The Boston Globe

The riveting new novel—"part true-crime page-turner, part campus coming-of-age" (San Francisco Chronicle)—from the author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Great Believers

A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia’s death and the conviction of the school’s athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie.

But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn’t as much of an outsider at Granby as she’d thought—if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.

In I Have Some Questions for You, award-winning author Rebecca Makkai has crafted her most irresistible novel yet: a stirring investigation into collective memory and a deeply felt examination of one woman’s reckoning with her past, with a transfixing mystery at its heart. Timely, hypnotic, and populated with a cast of unforgettable characters, I Have Some Questions for You is at once a compulsively enjoyable work and a literary triumph.

©2023 Rebecca Makkai (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A critique of the true-crime obsession and its inherent voyeurism, refracted through everyone’s new favorite storytelling device, the podcast . . . This sense of collective responsibility is the kind of nuance that doesn’t often emerge from the true-crime content mills. In the world of I Have Some Questions for You, however, there’s an insistent hope that the truth still matters, even when it’s complicated—that the right thing might happen despite the near-impossibility of justice in our society.”—The Nation

“[I Have Some Questions for You] embraces the intricate plotting and emotional heft that made [Makkai’s] previous novel, The Great Believers, a Pulitzer finalist...Makkai sharply conveys the insidiousness of misogyny...[and] deftly explores how remembrance can melt into reverie...Her patient, evocative character work prevents Omar and Thalia from becoming types...The result is not a book that leers at a discrete and unfathomable act of violence but one that investigates...‘two stolen lives.’”—The New Yorker

“A sleekly plotted literary murder mystery…Makkai has written a complicated whodunit fueled by feminist rage as Bodie relentlessly interrogates her past and recalls the countless murders of girls and women whose stories have been all but lost in our collective memory.”—Associated Press

Execellent

Grabbed my attention and held onto it through the end. I rearranged my schedule to finish it in a day. Well written and thought provoking. Worth the credit.

Better fiction

Contemporary fiction at its best. Original, and thoughtful. Loved the storyline and development. I didn’t want to put it down. I’m going to tell my friends to read it and nominate it for my book club.

Longer than it needed to be

The narration really saved this story. The story itself was engrossing, there were just so man extraneous characters and situations, and the ending was anti-climactic

The best in a long time

From the writing to the performance, from the illustrative details to the unique psychology - this is a 5 of 5. Perfection begets criticism so from an overly critical view my only comments (because complaints would be too strong a word) are that the pace is slow, the ending abrupt and unsatisfying (likely intentionally so) and the point about the goods and evils so social media a bit too strong (but nonetheless accurate). Also, the use of the word “unconscionable” was questionable grammatically / syntactically speaking. But this is like picking microscopic organisms from the Mona Lisa, so bravo to all involved!

Best Audible so far this year

Julia Whelan is a superb performer. The plot kept me absorbed every step of the way. Beautifully written. Don’t pay attention to the negative reviews.

Highly recommend.

The thing about the negative reviews is this: those people were looking for a thriller, which this book is not. This book is literary fiction with elements of a thriller.

It's not meant to be shocking and filled with twists and turns you never saw coming. It's meant to be thought provoking. It's more realistic and doesn't end with everything wrapped up in a tidy bow because nothing in life ends that way.

The writing was beautiful and the narration excellent. It's a book that will stay with me.

Compelling mystery with grating virtue signaling

Rebecca Makkai is a gifted writer and storyteller: this mystery is gripping from the first five pages. As always, Julia Whelan narrates perfectly.

I will say though that Makkai seems bent on critiquing the very genre in which this novel exists while simultaneously profiting and reveling in those critiques. This comes across as hypocritical, and the protagonists frequent need to point out the racism and fetishization of true crime strikes more as vacant virtue signaling than insight. This aspect bogged down an otherwise excellent novel.

Wow!

I devoured this story in 3 days. It’s steeped me in an intense nostalgia, while simultaneously capturing so brilliantly the Zeitgeist of the 2020s. Thank you!

Great Story-Love The Narrator

The story was well written with twists and turns, drama, and some humor. Thoroughly entertaining with just enough darkness and suspense. Absolutely loved the narrator. I could listen to her read the dictionary and it would be entertaining!

Masterpiece all around

Brings to light so many layers for the reader to turn over and process. Important systemic themes as told through one story. The GOAT narrator 🐐