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 

“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

Named a Best Book of 2023 by Esquire, Real Simple, PopSugar, and CrimeReads

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 compulsive story and a literary triumph.

©2023 Rebecca Makkai (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Thought-provoking, deeply unsettling and undeniably riveting...A fully immersive, addictive whodunit.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“A spellbinding work...[Makkai’s] prose is lean yet lush, with short, incantatory chapters and sentences as taut as piano wire.”—New York Times Book Review

“Enthralling...Rich in incident and alive with expressive imagery.”—Wall Street Journal

D+ rating couldn’t even finish last half

Maybe the last half got better but in the first half nothing really happened & I just couldn’t get into it after so many attempts.

Really?

I tried. It’s just not good. I had a really hard time following the story because there is more commentary on social issues than actual story. It’s distracting, unnecessary, and in my opinion, lazy. It’s just poorly written. Skip it

Oh my goodness!!

Hours of my life I’ll never get back. I kept waiting for something to like about, because I’m not a quitter, but it never came, and then it was over. Don’t waste your credit on this one.

Out With A Whimper

Ms. Makkai, you had me right there engrossed in your story of intrigue and murder, even with the inclusion of a few too many racial and gender related topics of the moment. The promise of the "twist," was effectively foreshadowed and dutifully delivered but then left to deflate with the most unsatisfying ending. Blah. Just blah.

Save your credit for something else.

Nope

Boring and so full of political propaganda I couldn’t even finish it. This is the only audiobook I have ever returned mid-listen.

Narration saves this clunky story

Julia Whelan’s narration saved I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU. I don’t think I could have slogged through this clunky novel if I had been reading words on a page or kindle.

I didn’t feel satisfied with the resolution of the book. I also thought Brodie’s boundaries with her high school teens would have been more appropriate with college students. They weren’t her peers, yet she treated them as such.

To be fair, literary fiction isn’t my favorite genre. I prefer mystery/thriller, dark academia, young adult and women’s fiction. I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU had a lot of opining and introspection.

I liked Bodie and agreed with most of her points of view on the importance of #MeToo while not over-indicting every comment and could he misconstrued. A comment can trigger (I hate that word) negative feelings based on life experiences without being inappropriate, which is an issue for therapy, not public denouncement. Similarly. “You look good” can be an innocent compliment or harassment depending on tone and if the person is staring at one’s chest. We need a nuanced approach to examining harassment based on circumstances so we don’t paint one comment under the same umbrella as rape.

What a great read!

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Completely engrossing. I was in its thrall and couldn’t put it down.

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.

Must read!

Excellent writing, well developed characters and suspenseful plot line. I would definitely recommend this one!

Unsatisfying End

Started out with such promise and then slowed at parts… The second half of the book seemed to gain momentum, and I was more and more into it. The ending though is so uneventful I felt cheated. Would not recommend sadly.