Liz's Reviews > I Have Some Questions for You

4.5 stars, rounded up
This is the first book by Rebecca Makkah that I’ve read. Initially, it didn’t impress. But then, it snuck up on me until I was totally invested.
I Have Some Questions For You covers Bodie Kane’s return as a mini-semester teacher to the New Hampshire boarding school she attended for four years as a high school student. She’s come back to teach classes on podcasts and the history of film. Back in her senior year, her roommate, Thalia, was killed. Omar Evans, the athletic trainer, had been convicted of her murder. Over the years, some felt he was wrongly convicted - think Dateline episodes, Twitter comments. When one of her students decides to revisit the case, Bodie is definitely invested.
It’s an unusual format. The narration consists of Bodie “talking” to Mr. Bloch, the teacher who produced the school’s theater and music productions. She imagines different scenarios of how Thalia was killed.
The book spends a lot of time on sexual predators - lists of them, incidents in the news, how podcasts are obsessed with the murders of pretty white girls. It looks back on how “boys will be boys” and girls should grin and bear it. But it also looks at the culpability of others - the school adults who allowed it, the wider world that accepts bad male behavior. There is a contrasting plot line about women taking their accusations too far - the cancel culture in full flame. The book raises some really interesting questions about the slippery slope.
Bodie is a fully fleshed out character. As the book progresses, she begins to think back and question what she thought she knew.
This is a book that grew on me. At first, it appeared like a regular old murder mystery. Was the wrong man found guilty of a crime? But as it goes on, and takes on all these additional questions, it becomes deeper. I don’t often think mysteries make good book club selections, but I think this one could be the exception.
I now intend to go back and listen to her previous book.
Julia Whelan is the primary narrator and did a great job.