Succession meets Megan Abbott in this seductive Gothic suspense novel about the dramatic downfall of one of America’s most affluent families.

The old-money Wieland family has it all—wealth, status, power. They’re also famously cursed.

Clara and her brother, Teddy, grew up on a small island in Maine in the shadow of their parents’ tragic deaths, haunted by rumors and paparazzi. Fourteen years later, they’ve mostly put their turbulent past to rest. Teddy has married Clara’s best friend, Jess, and the three of them have moved back home to take over the sprawling, remote family mansion known as Vantage Point. Then Teddy decides to run for the Senate—an unnerving prospect made much worse when intimate videos of Clara are leaked online. The most frightening part
is that she doesn’t remember filming any of them. Are the videos real? Or are they deepfakes? Is someone trying to take down the Wielands once and for all?

Everyone thinks Clara is losing her grasp on reality. But she knows the the videos are only the beginning. Years ago, the curse destroyed her parents. Now, it’s coming for her.

Sara Sligar, the critically acclaimed author of Take Me Apart, returns with another shocking, breathless novel of Gothic suspense. Brimming with palpable tension, Vantage Point reveals a twisted web of family secrets and political ambition that raises questions about the blurred lines between public and private personas and the
nature of “truth” in our digital age.

I received an advance galley of this book courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

I think there’s something wrong with me. I am having a tough time enjoying any sort of thriller these days. I don’t know if my month of Halloween reads caused it or if I’m just tired of the genre in general. While this one had an intriguing premise and promised to be reminiscent of HBO’s “Succession,” I was left disappointed when all was said and done.

Set against the backdrop of the cursed Wieland family, the novel delves into the lives of Clara, her brother Teddy, and her best friend and Teddy’s wife, Jess as they navigate the haunting legacy of their parents’ deaths and the pressures of modern public life.

Teddy is running for a Senate seat (or maybe it was Congress – I forget), so he and Jess are on the campaign trail. Things look promising for Teddy’s chances, so he steps down as head of the family’s corporation and appoints his younger sister, Clara, as head. When a video surfaces of a drugged-out Clara having sex with an unknown man, it brings Clara’s former addiction struggles to light and reignites the Wieland family curse. The video is only the beginning of the family’s problems. As Clara falls deeper into paranoia, she begins having visions of her dead parents, and Teddy’s poll numbers begin to tank. When more questionable videos appear, the family drama intensifies. April has always been a dangerous month for the family, and it looks like this year will be no different. The question is – which one of them will die?

On the one hand, the premise was really intriguing. I love stories about rich people behaving badly; this one has it in spades. One thing that worked well for the book was the dual narrative structure, alternating between Clara’s and Jess’s perspectives. Clara, with her chaotic and unreliable narration, is the novel’s most compelling character. Her erratic behavior and fractured sense of reality make her fascinating to follow, even if she’s not entirely likable.

Jess, on the other hand, serves as a counterbalance—calmer, more grounded, and ultimately more relatable. The dynamic between the two women, particularly given their shared history and complicated ties to Teddy, is one of the novel’s strengths. Their relationship is layered, shifting between loyalty, resentment, and unspoken tension, providing much of the emotional weight.

Another thing that worked really well (and was probably my favorite part of the novel) was the Wikipedia-style articles that closed each chapter. These entries chronicled the deaths of various members of the Wieland family, reinforcing the idea of the family’s supposed curse.

One of the biggest drawbacks of this book was its lack of surprises. From the outset, the story lays its cards on the table and pretty much spells out that we are focusing on AI and deepfake videos. Yes, these things are prevalent today, but I’m kind of tired of these plot points. It could also have something to do with the fact that I don’t really care for technothrillers, which this book definitely is. By the time the final revelations come, they feel more like confirmations of what readers have long suspected rather than shocking twists.

Teddy, Clara’s brother and Jess’s husband, is another weak point in the story. As a character, he feels like a collection of clichés. His presence in the narrative is less engaging compared to Clara and Jess, making him feel more like a plot device than a fully realized person.

I was also disappointed that the book is marketed as being similar to “Succession” (a show I love), but I failed to find any real comparisons between this book and the TV show besides the story focusing on a wealthy family of broken characters.

Overall, this book was pretty underwhelming. The story, while competently written, lacks the edge and unpredictability that might have made it memorable. It’s worth a read for fans of unreliable narrators and intricate relationships, or those who are into technothrillers, but it may leave others feeling unsatisfied. I know I certainly was.