The Anniversary by Alex Finlay
Publication Date: May12th 2026 by Macmillan Audio
Pages: 336
Audio Book Length: 7hrs 38min
Narrators: Brittany Pressley & Ari Fliakos
Source: Publisher
Rating: ★★★★★
My
Thoughts:
Jules and Quincy are unlikely friends. Jules was part of the
popular crowd and Quincy, a quiet loner from the wrong side of the tracks,
however they have a connection. Tragically, their lives are changed forever on the
May 1st of their senior year.
Quincy tries to break up a fight, and it goes badly. He ends
up in juvenile detention, and while he’s locked away, his mother is murdered.
On his release, without options, he joins the army.
Jules is abducted by the May Day Killer, but she ends up
being “one of the lucky ones” and is let go.
The story is told through both Jules and Quincy’s POV on the
May 1st of each year over a decade. Jules struggles with the
aftermath of surviving the attack but eventually gets on track and starts
looking for the killer. Quincy is haunted by his mother’s murder and sets about
trying to solve it.
I was moved by Jules and Quincy’s friendship in the
beginning. Their lives separated that fateful May 1st, but along the
way, they ran into each other, and I wondered if and how their stories would
connect.
I absolutely loved The Anniversary, it’s my favorite
Alex Finlay yet! While most of the story wasn’t a tense thriller, I was
completely hooked from the first chapter! The mysteries come to a head at the
end and then I was very worried! I suspected some of it but was surprised by other
parts.
I listened to the audiobook, with Brittany Pressley
narrating Jules’ chapters and Ari Fliakos voicing Quincy’s. Both performances
were fantastic, expressive, immersive, and perfectly matched to their
characters. The audio elevated the entire experience. A definite recommend!
5 Stars
Book Description:
Every Year He Comes For Them.
On one fateful night in 1992, the lives of two seventeen-year-olds are changed and intertwined forever. Quinn Riley, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, is arrested after he innocently tries to break up a fight but ends up nearly killing someone. Jules Delaney, high school royalty, survives an attack by the elusive and terrifying May Day Killer—a serial predator who strikes every May 1st in midwestern small towns.
A year later, Jules is struggling with trauma and guilt, tormented by one question: Why was I spared? Quinn is newly released from juvenile detention and returns home to fresh the unsolved murder of his mother.
Over the next decade, their lives are revisited on a single day each year—May 1st. As secrets unravel and the paths of Quinn and Jules collide, two mysteries edge closer to the truth. All the while, the May Day Killer is still out there—and the clock is racing toward another May 1st.
The Anniversary is an utterly compelling story of the hunt for a serial killer. But it’s also a heartfelt—and heartrending—novel about fate, innocence lost, and two souls who find that sometimes being broken is the only way for the light to get in.
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