IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU

An accidental “reply all” leads to violence and tragedy in an affluent suburban neighborhood.

Susan O’Donnell has a four-month-old baby and never gets enough sleep. One day, after checking her neighborhood WhatsApp group, she sends her two sisters a snarky message about Celeste Geary, “mistress of pointy comments,” intending to vent her frustration at Celeste’s latest passive-aggressive post and including insinuations about her husband, daughter, and son: “Urgh. I know. I’m awful. I just needed to get that out of my system.” Several minutes later, she gets panicked replies from Leesa and Greta: Susan has sent the message to the whole neighborhood group chat. By the time she manages to delete it, it’s already been screenshotted and shared around the neighborhood and beyond, and reactions have been put in motion that will result in a brick through a window; a kidnapping; the revelation of at least one extramarital affair; attempted murder; and multiple deaths. To Mara’s credit, she paces the drama perfectly; even as things escalate to an extreme degree, she switches narrators and perspectives frequently enough to prolong a sense of mystery, but not so much that it feels fragmented. At the center of it all is Susan, who’s dealing with her own struggles as a mother as well as the guilt and shame she feels for saying publicly those things that were meant for private consumption. Her humanity grounds the tension, even as the plot threatens at times to spill into the realm of absurd and sensational. No character emerges unscathed, a sobering reminder that secrets—whether harmless or not—rarely stay buried, particularly when they can be broadcast with a single click.

An entertaining cautionary tale in the age of digital gossip and social media.