This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead

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🕵️‍♀️ Book Review: This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead

⭐️ Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
📚 Genre: Psychological Thriller / True Crime Fiction
🧠 Vibe: Serial meets Gone Girl with a sprinkle of Reddit chaos
📦 Buy on Amazon (affiliate link)

❗Spoiler Warning: Full plot breakdown ahead! If you haven’t read the book yet and want to stay surprised—this is your chance to back out and go sleuth elsewhere.

📖 Quick Take

Let’s start with the elephant in the room: Yes, this book draws heavy inspiration from real-life murder cases, especially the tragic University of Idaho killings. That parallel has understandably rubbed some readers the wrong way—and honestly, I get it. I tried to set that aside and just focus on the story itself.

And the verdict?
I was hooked.

Despite the length (it does feel long), the twists are juicy, the online sleuthing details are spot-on, and the ending left me thinking: “Wait... did I just root for someone who kinda turned into a killer too?”
It’s dark, meta, messy, and deeply unsettling in the best way.

🧵 Plot Summary (FULL Spoilers!)

Meet Jane: Grief, Forums, and a Crime Rabbit Hole

Our narrator, Janeway “Jane” Sharp, is your classic socially awkward loner who just lost her dad and dropped out of college. She’s depressed, grieving, and aimlessly drifting—until a local dismemberment murder makes headlines and Jane discovers the Real Crime Network, an online crime forum full of wannabe sleuths.

Soon, she’s neck-deep in Reddit-style threads, group chats, and crime scene photos. And, honestly? Same, girl.

Jane joins an elite little online sleuthing crew:

  • Citizen (ex-Navy, charming, shady)

  • Lightly (ex-cop, fatherly vibes)

  • Goku (tech wizard)

  • Mistress (knits and investigates—iconic)

Together, they help solve the first murder. 🕵️‍♀️ Suddenly, they’re the internet’s true crime darlings.

Then Comes the Big Case: Delphine, Idaho

Enter the big one: Three college girls brutally murdered in Delphine, Idaho, with eerie similarities to some high-profile real cases. The crime scene is bizarrely clean. No DNA. No murder weapon. The police are out of their depth.

The group, now basically amateur celebrities, flies out to investigate. They’re met with resentment from law enforcement, judgment from the public, and zero clues.

Things escalate when a second set of murders happens. Now it’s definitely a serial killer.

Suspects, Sleuths, and Sketchy People

The team splits up to investigate.

  • Jane pretends to be a college student and gets chummy with sorority girls (questionable, Jane…)

  • Goku and Citizen focus on Odell, a creepy criminology student

  • Jane suspects Lizzy, a seemingly sweet nursing student and sorority house mom

They pull wild stunts—impersonating people, hacking systems, releasing tips to podcasts. It’s total chaos.

Eventually, Odell is arrested after a confession (more coerced than legit), but turns out he’s not the killer.

Then the bomb drops:
Citizen might’ve killed a girl years ago. His DNA connects him to the unsolved Bridget Howell case.

Cue internal panic. Mistress goes missing. Trust crumbles. Turns out—yep—Citizen IS a killer. He vanishes before the police can catch him. But not before sending Jane a fun little letter implying:

“Hey, I think Lizzy might be the other killer. Wanna help me find her?”

Jane, tired of it all, sends Lizzy’s address to Citizen—hoping he’ll go after her.
What happens? They kill each other. Like a twisted Hunger Games finale, but make it Reddit True Crime edition. 🪦

Mic Drop Ending

The internet erupts. One of the victim’s sisters writes a hit piece about the sleuths. Jane, now a semi-celebrity herself, decides to tell her side of the story, knowing full well she orchestrated the whole final act. So, uh… is she a murderer too?
That’s up to you.

👏 What I Loved

  • Jane’s voice — vulnerable, honest, and a little darkly funny.

  • The true crime forum stuff — terrifyingly realistic. It’s like someone took r/TrueCrime and weaponized it.

  • Twisty finale — I saw Citizen coming from a mile away (he’s hot = he’s a killer trope), but Lizzy AND Jane's arcs shocked me.

  • Online sleuth culture critique — both fascinating and disturbing.

🤏 What Didn’t Work

  • Way too long — this book could’ve lost 75 pages and been stronger for it.

  • Feels exploitative — hard not to think about real-life families who might see themselves reflected here.

  • The “hot guy is the murderer” trope — come on, I’ve read this before. Still works, but... I’m onto you, Ashley. 😏

⚠️ Trigger Warnings

  • Murder (graphic, including dismemberment)

  • Serial killings

  • Stalking and impersonation

  • Suicide ideation

  • Child abuse (mentioned)

  • Online harassment

  • Gaslighting

  • Depression and grief

  • Violence against women

  • Sexual assault (implied, not graphic)

🛍️ Book Details

📘 Title: This Book Will Bury Me
✍️ Author: Ashley Winstead
📅 Published: 2024
📚 Standalone
📦 Buy on Amazon (affiliate link)

🧠 If You Liked This, Try…

  • 🔪 A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham — dark past, murders, and secrets

  • 🕵️‍♀️ The Night Swim by Megan Goldin — podcasting meets court drama

  • 👩‍💻 I’ll Be You by Janelle Brown — toxic sisterhood and identity games

  • 🧩 The Collective by Alison Gaylin — grieving moms and vigilante justice

  • 🔍 True Crime Story by Joseph Knox — meta crime fiction done really well

💬 Final Thoughts

This Book Will Bury Me is dark, twisty, and occasionally uncomfortable—but also thought-provoking, sharply written, and undeniably engrossing. It walks a fine line between commentary and exploitation, and depending on your sensitivity to real-world parallels, it might hit a little too close to home.

But if you’re a fan of true crime, online forums, and morally gray characters…
You might find yourself buried in this one too.

Have you read this book? Are you part of any online true crime forums yourself? 👀 Drop a comment—I’m curious if you saw the twists coming!

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