What started as a week of family bonding in paradise will soon turn deadly in Kit Frick’s latest book, “The Reunion.” The novel follows a doomed family reunion gone wrong at a posh Caribbean resort where old grudges and dangerous secrets culminate in murder.
It’s been years since the fragmented Mayweather clan was all in one place, but the engagement of Addison and Mason’s mom to the dad of their future stepbrother, Theory, brings the whole family to Cancún for winter break.
A week of forced family “fun” reveals that everyone has something to hide, and as secrets arise, no one is safe from the fallout. By the end of the week, one member of the reunion will be dead—and everyone’s a suspect.
The only other work I’ve read by Frick is “Very Bad People” for my Author Spotlight series, and I think I enjoyed that book more since Frick accomplished the dark academia plot better than the “murder on a vacation” storyline.
As a fan of “Glass Onion” and the murder mystery genre, I really wanted to appreciate this book but I found it hard to get through. After researching more about the book, however, I learned that people who have watched “The White Lotus” understand and love the book more. Needless to say, I think I am one of the people who couldn’t fully enjoy “The Reunion” as I have not watched the show.
Despite this, I do think Frick did a great job at giving her characters engaging backstories and personalities. Due to the back and forth between perspectives and multiple characters, it was hard to keep track of the plot. Had there been not many characters or a more defined focus, then I think it would have been easier to get through. I did really like that Frick included each perspective through various media types of hotel memos, news articles and police interrogations.
Sadly, the murder mystery itself wasn’t very intriguing because the stakes weren’t high enough for me to want to keep reading. Frick’s defining aspect in “The Reunion,” however, is her use of elaborate characters and their backstories. She also tackles themes surrounding gender roles such as when a character changes their name and pronouns. The theme of toxic masculinity really adds to the tension in the book and feels very needed when it comes to the family’s perspectives on what’s right and wrong.