The Sassy Bookworm

Book Review: The Red Knot by Monique Asher 📚

Rating: 3 Stars

I picked up The Red Knot with the kind of eager curiosity that usually ends in a late-night finish — and for the most part, Monique Asher delivered. This is a moody, isolated horror-mystery that leans into atmosphere and small-town unease, and when it works, it really works. 📚🌒

The setup is deliciously claustrophobic: a tiny Alaskan island, knocked off the map by a storm and cut off from the mainland, becomes the stage for disappearances and murder. Audra, the island’s lead detective, is suddenly in a painfully personal position when her close friend — who also happened to be the local therapist — is found dead. Three girls have gone missing, and the town is brimming with secrets. Valorie, the ostracized daughter of a notorious cult leader, is found at the scene, bloodied and with large gaps in her memory. Her blankness acts like a black hole in the investigation — a place where trauma, repressed memories, and possibly something darker might be hiding. 🏝️🔍

Asher does a great job of knitting together the island’s past and present. Audra’s probe into the latest crimes pulls up a lot of old dirt: other suspicious deaths, whispered histories, and patterns that suggest these events aren’t isolated. The writing leans into discomfort in a way that keeps you uneasy but curious — neighbors who feel suddenly sinister, rituals hinted at but not fully explained, and an atmosphere that makes the whole place feel like it’s tightening around the characters. 🕯️🫥

Valorie’s fractured mind is one of the book’s stronger threads. Watching her struggle to piece together what happened to her and to reconcile with a traumatic past is compelling, and it gives the plot an emotional anchor amid the creepy imagery and slow-burn dread. Audra, too, is convincingly human — an investigator with personal stakes whose judgments and doubts make the story feel lived-in rather than schematic. 💔🧭

That said, this is very much a three-star book for me because the ending didn’t land the way the rest of the novel suggested it would. Up until the final stretch, the pacing, character work, and mystery layering mostly held together. But the resolution felt a bit sudden and, honestly, tangential to the careful breadcrumbing earlier on. I wanted a few more connective clues — a clearer buildup to the reveal — so that the ending felt inevitable rather than abrupt. It’s like being led down an intriguing hallway and then pushed through a door you weren’t given enough reason to open. 🚪❓

Still, despite that misstep, I enjoyed probably ninety percent of the book. The mood, the setting, and the human elements were engaging and often chilling in the right way. If you like atmospheric, slow-burn horror wrapped in a mystery about memory and community secrets, The Red Knot is worth your time — just be prepared for an ending that might divide you. 🌫️🕰️

⚠️This review was written based on personal opinions and experiences with the book. Individual preferences may vary⚠️