The Kids Are Not Okay

by C.L. Murphy

In this razor-sharp debut, an outsider gets a seat at the table with one of America’s most powerful families, but the price of admission will cost her everything she holds dear.

Nora Rourke has committed herself to the corporate grind, becoming indispensable to her boss, Cassandra Rainsford, the matriarch of the all-powerful Rainsford dynasty. Leveraging that influence, Nora’s on the verge of climbing high when Cassandra drops dead.

Never mind that she’s been best friends with the youngest daughter since college… and sleeping with one of the already married sons. Without Cassandra’s support, Nora’s place in the Rainsford empire is suddenly in flux.

Determined to solidify her spot in their inner-circle, Nora accepts an invitation to take part in a grief retreat with the six Rainsford heirs. A week spent at their remote estate should give her plenty of time to prove herself. Afterall, Nora’s a natural at playing the corporate wheel.

But the Rainsfords have their own game: The Hunt. And this one has a body count.

As the siblings tear each other apart for the right to inherit the family empire, something else stalks the estate grounds—something with no regard for the rules.

Nora is about to find out that the only thing more dangerous than joining a dynasty is surviving the invitation.

Welcome to the family.

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication April 13, 2027

Reviews

[Adrian Dooley]

Fairly entertaining story about a woman who works for an extremely wealthy family only to eventually find that they have some pretty dark secrets and a truly unique way of choosing their next CEO.

Part thriller, part horror/supernatural and part social commentary it does get pretty silly at times and there are some plot holes but I didn’t mind that enough to take away from my enjoyment of the book.

Many thanks to Netgalley for the ARC through Netgalley.

[tammys bookish life]

The Kids Are Not Okay had me spiraling in the best way. This book is dark, twisted, and absolutely unhinged — I devoured it like a gremlin. Getting dragged into this powerful, secret stuffing family felt like walking into a mansion where every smile is a threat and every hallway whispers “run.”
The isolated estate and “The Hunt” were creepy perfection, and every time I thought I trusted someone, the book laughed and betrayed me again. Truly a fun, disturbing rollercoaster of family drama, secrets, and pure chaos.
C.L. Murphy, congratulations — I will absolutely be back for more.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

[Trisha]

this sounds so creepy - and the COVER! Creepy bunny mask - I love it!

Pub date: 04/2027
can't wait to read it!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

[Sierra Mason]

I was so excited to read this book when I came across it! This is my first official ARC and I've been pumped to write some honest feedback for it since I started it! I tend to word-vomit, so bear with me here.

This book has a great storyline - one I see frequently in movies, but hadn't read in a book yet. It gives real "Ready or Not' meets 'The Hunger Games' vibes.

SYNOPSIS: Nora has worked for the richest family in the country, The Rainsfords, for the past five years. While being best friends with the CEO's daughter, Greer, and sleeping with Greer's married older brother, Finn, Nora has put all of her time and energy into her job for half a decade, and is now ready to ask for a promotion. She already feels like she's part of the family, anyway. That is, until the CEO, Cassandra, dies of a sudden heart attack. Cassandra's lawyer delivers a letter to Nora, from Cassandra herself before she died, asking that Nora accompany her children to New Jersey for the funeral, and something referred to as a "grief retreat" that will take a couple of days. Nora obliges with Cassandra's final wishes, while worrying what her place within the company will look like upon her return. She's close with Greer and Finn...but the rest of the Rainsfords don't seem to take to her very well.

Upon arriving at the New Jersey estate, it is immediately noticeable that Nora does not belong, no matter how much she yearns to. Even moreso, when she's invited to the family dinner, and learns that she is to be a judge for The Hunt. As much as she wants to say no, go back to her rooms and wait for the nightmare to be over, Nora cannot stomach the idea of Greer and Finn out in the woods fighting for their lives, and her not knowing whether they're alive or dead. So she agrees to stay until the end, but as soon as The Hunt begins, it becomes increasingly clear that everyone in the room is hiding something from her, and someone or something has come to interfere with the casualties happening right before her eyes. Can Nora do anything to stop The Hunt, or keep the Rainsfords she loves safe?

**SPOILERS**

This book opens from Cassandra's POV from 2018, introducing all of her children and how they individually reacted when she told them about The Hunt. It then goes to singular third person POV from Nora’s perspective. The chapter says “October 2024 – Nora”. Because it had Nora’s name listed, I kept expecting the chapters to change POV, but they never did. I think it would read better to have a simple page break that just said “October 2024” and then the next chapter begins, so we aren’t expecting additional POV’s.

Initially, I noticed a lot of formatting issues, and I wasn’t sure if that was due to my kindle or not, but there were some line breaks and/or paragraph breaks where there shouldn’t have been. Some pages seemed to have excess white space because of this. I'm assuming this is the format in which I was reading this?

The next thing I noticed was the amount of spelling errors. There’s a substantial amount of proofreading that needs to be done before this book is published in April 2027. Along with spelling errors, there were a lot of extra words, as in “…said Nora noted” and “Brett and his younger brother both had both checked out already and looked half asleep.”

There were also a few times, mostly at the beginning of the book, where there would be some really good descriptive adjectives, and setting the scene was great, and then the scene itself was rushed. For instance, when they're at Greer's engagement party, and then Nora and Finn sneak away. Everything is explained perfectly, and then the next sentence is "when they were finished..." I saw this a few times throughout the book, where some pages were very descriptive and then some things were rushed through, and then the scene ended. I wanted more!

Overall, this was a good read. Compelling story; compelling characters; a main character I was actually rooting for. And when you're constantly questioning who you can trust? I'm here for it. However, I felt like the author here was just...trying to do too much. I finished this book having more questions than I'd care for.

Lenora and Byron are...alive, but not really? Assuming because they were never properly laid to rest? This didn't sit well with me. It would make more sense if, A - they were still actually alive but just living in the basement/within the walls the whole time. Or B - they're the ones doing all of the hunting, and their remains need to be found and laid properly to rest so they don't interfere with future hunts. Especially after Byron went after Nora and injured her. He's a threat to everyone else that works there. I just keep wondering if he's a spirit, or something more? Some sort of fairytale creature?

This ENTIRE TIME I kept thinking that this huge secret the family is keeping is that they have to feed some entity souls, otherwise the whole family will perish. Or something of that nature. It's about eugenics? And when Nora found the morgue and they were cutting up bodies and comparing them, I thought that maybe this entire family was inbred and they were doing experiments on them to see the effects of inbreeding. If this family really thinks they're superior, why shouldn't they just breed with each other, right? Reading that this is about "survival of the fittest" doesn't seem, to me, a great reason for all of your children to kill each other?

Then we have Artisimia and Nora. I didn't think this was necessary for the book. Them kissing, and then Nora in the hospital thinking she'd have a future with her when everything was over? These two literally had so few conversations the entire book, now they're making out and Nora is planning their future? It makes sense that Artisimia would have a crush on Nora and be jealous when she finds out Nora is sleeping with Finn...but the rest of it just didn't add anything to the story and was SO RANDOM. Where did this come from?

The Hunt having specific rules and a panel of judges makes sense, but I also felt like the judges didn't do a lot. Aside from executing Darwin initially, and then pausing The Hunt for one night to look for the masked person on the grounds, they were really just there watching everyone slaughter each other. I kind of wish Nora had more of a say, and the judges actually did more.

This book was put together well, the characters were rounded-out well, and from start to finish it really is enticing. I kept reading and kept reading because I just had to know more! I think I just sat my kindle down and thought to myself, did all of my questions get answered?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

[Kristiina]

Have you ever thought money would solve all your problems?
After reading The Kids Are Not Okay, you might change your mind.

Lenora (Nora) Rourke is an executive assistant to Cassandra Rainsford, the matriarch of TaurusComm. She is best friends with Cassandra’s youngest daughter, Greer, and is having a secret affair with Finnian, Greer’s brother. Finnian is married with kids, but he claims the marriage is over and he feels free to cheat with Nora.

There are six siblings, but the only other one I’ll mention is Artemisia, for reasons mentioned later. Cassandra drops dead within the first couple chapters and the rest of the book is a battle to see who will be the one to take over the family dynasty. But it’s not the typical battle between ruthless, ambitious siblings and their board members, it’s a battle (or a Hunt) to the death.

Ok, so I’ll first say, the rating of this book is going to be based on if the version I read was a first or second draft.

This has the great bones of a story, but it needs all kinds of editing from the ground up - development, copy and proofreading.

Development - (1) at one point Nora enters the library on the Rainsford estate, we aren’t told why she goes there, she just does. By chance (this is very clear via context clues), she encounters another character who she speaks with, then she gets up and leaves. Why was she going to the library in the first place? Nothing is explained; (2) Early on, Nora literally runs into a person wearing a rabbit mask and there is an altercation between the rabbit-man and Finn. This is never explained. The mask ends up making sense, but why that person was wearing it is never explained (nor is who they were or who put them up to it); (3) The attraction which pops up between two female characters, one being Artemisia. This feels completely out of the blue, with no groundwork laid for their attraction to each other to make any sense; (4) Nora’s apparent lack of fidelity to Finnian. I mean, he IS cheating on his wife with her but we are told to believe that she loves him, this is shown through her actions (smelling the shirt he left behind and sighing with apparent bliss) and her thoughts. However fairly early on she is shown to be attracted to and almost kiss another man, and then later actually does kiss another character who is not Finnian.

Copy and proofreading - scent is noted to “leak” into Nora’s nose. I’m unsure how something leaks into someone’s nose. One character is noted to have "unnaturally deft fingers”. This is a human, with no supernatural abilities so the unnatural aspect does not make sense. The word “complementary” is used in the context where “complimentary” should have been (someone gave her a compliment). Someone is noted to be “wounded like crazy”. This feels like stilted, bizarre language that maybe a 10 year old would manage, not a grown woman. Nora notes that her own “blush was aggressive”, another odd adjective to use. I could go on, but you get the point.

The synopsis of this story sounds fantastic, and is the reason I picked it up. And I think this could be a great novel with a bit more work. The creepy elements really hit, and there is one emotional scene where I did find myself tearing up. The ending and last chapter were bizarre, with Nora doing things that I really didn’t understand.

With some additional editing work, I’d recommend this to horror fans who, at the end of the day, want to finish a book and be glad they’re not trying to climb the corporate ladder.

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

[Hells]

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of The Kids Are Not Okay in exchange for an honest review.

Nora Rourke has spent years making herself indispensable to Cassandra Rainsford, the matriarch of one of America's most powerful families. She is already tangled up with the Rainsfords in more ways than one, but when Cassandra suddenly dies, Nora's carefully secured place within their world becomes a lot less certain. When she is invited to join the six Rainsford siblings at their remote family estate for a week-long grief retreat, Nora sees it as an opportunity to prove that she still belongs. Unfortunately, the Rainsfords have their own traditions, including something called The Hunt, and unsurprisingly, things go downhill from there. Apparently this family cannot just grieve like normal people.

I flew through this. The plot kept me gripped and constantly second guessing what was actually going on and, more importantly, who I could trust. I really enjoyed the character development, particularly the feeling that nobody was quite who they claimed to be. The relationships between Nora and the Rainsford siblings added another layer to the story because there were so many secrets, questionable motives and complicated loyalties running underneath everything. Basically, not one emotionally healthy person in sight.

The supernatural aspect was also really cleverly done. It could very easily have tipped over into being a bit ridiculous, but it never did. Instead, it remained unsettling and strangely plausible within the world of the story. The writing flowed really well, thus making it such an easy book to get completely absorbed in. I noticed one or two small spelling errors, but nothing that affected my enjoyment and they were the sort of things that could easily be picked up before the final publication.

This was such a strong debut. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys supernatural thrillers, dysfunctional wealthy families, morally questionable characters and books that keep you wondering what on earth is actually going on.

[Suesyn Zellmer]

Nora is a personal assistant to a CEO named Cassandra Rainsford, and after years of dedicated service, she believes it has paid off when Cassandra dies. Sounds horrible, but it’s because she’s invited to the family estate for the funeral. Her boss isn’t the only Rainsford she’s close to – her roommate in college was Greer, Cassandra’s daughter, and they’ve been friends ever since. She’s also involved with Finn, Cassandra’s son. Cassandra’s married son. The entire family will be at the funeral, and she hopes it will pay off for her in the end. But she has no idea what’s coming. Because after the funeral comes The Hunt.

The reader can tell they’re not talking about animals from the get-go, but Nora’s a bit too slow to catch on, in my opinion. The whole ‘hunt’ concept has been done before, but there are enough differences to keep it interesting. And weird, definitely weird. As the siblings run around trying to stay alive, there are other creatures that appear and disappear at will, and Nora seems to be the only one who can see them at first. Then the eldest sibling, Artemesia, appears to be a lot more interested in Nora than Nora ever realized, which comes out of left field and is immediately reciprocated by Nora. I mean, sure, why not.

But there was also a bizarre encounter early in the story that’s never explained, when Finn sees someone wearing a mask, and he freaks out. Later we can understand why it happened, but who was it, and who was responsible for doing it? How did that just never get answered?
The story is definitely fun, and I was immediately drawn into it, but it just needs some tightening up. It also felt like a young adult story, which I don’t mind, but it’s just not described as such. Like when a writer of one genre switches, but you can still tell they’re used to writing in a certain voice. Above all, I just want to be entertained, and boy does this story do that!

My thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the free advance reading copy of this book.

[Ava]

This book grabbed me from the first chapter and I ended up staying up to finish it because I couldn’t put it down.

The story follows Nora Rourke, a woman of average beginnings who has managed to embed herself in the lives of multiple members of the extremely wealthy Rainsford family and gets pulled into their horrific family tradition.

Tension is very well managed throughout the book. Even as Nora becomes more aware of what’s happening, I was never certain who could actually be trusted, which made it hard to feel at ease even when moments of respite arrived. I felt that the integration of supernatural elements was smoothly done, adding even more stakes rather than taking me out of the world of the story. There were a couple things that I caught onto a lot faster than the main character, but I didn’t feel frustrated with her because I felt she was having reasonable reactions to everything she was faced with and was generally quick on the draw, so instead it added more underlying dread as I waited for her to realise what was going on.

There were a handful of typos/missing punctuation that I noticed throughout, but I recognize I did not read the final, published product. Generally, I thought this was a well-crafted thriller with complicated family dynamics that interrogated both the cost and ideology of the American elite.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing the eARC. These are my honest opinions.

[Jeff]

The premise behind the book, “The Kids Are Not Okay”, is not completely new. People fighting in a different location to gain control, power, fame, etc. has been done before. But there was something about this description (and the creepy cover of the book) that drew me to this book. So, as always, it falls back to how well the concept is carried out.

Actually, C.L. Murphy has done a good job of writing a book that is quite compelling. There is a lot of drama. There is a lot of violence. Some of it quite surprising. I was caught off guard by end result and what happened with some of the family along the journey. Some authors promise that there will be a large body count, and then they find a way to have it all be secondary characters, well, C.L. Murphy isn’t that author and this isn’t that book.

There was one situation that happens where a character finds themselves in a same-sex attraction and actually gives in to those feelings. It didn’t fit with the character’s previous statements of their feelings towards the person they are in a relationship. It really doesn’t make sense considering the actions that just took place with the person they now feel attracted to. It just felt forced.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing an ARC for an unbiased review.

[Ashley McGovern]

The Kids Are Not Okay was dark, twisted, and definitely kept me turning the pages. I loved the whole setup of being pulled into this incredibly powerful family where everyone seems to have secrets, no one can fully be trusted, and things just keep getting more unsettling.

The isolated estate and “The Hunt” gave the story such a creepy, tense atmosphere, and I kept trying to figure out where everything was going and who I could actually trust. There were definitely moments that had me questioning everyone.

Overall, this was a really entertaining thriller with family drama, secrets, betrayal, and plenty of darkness. It kept my attention all the way through and was a fun, disturbing ride. I’d definitely read C.L. Murphy again!

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Leeandra Van]

This hooked me almost immediately and ended up being one of those books I kept telling myself I’d read “one more chapter” of.

I really enjoyed the tension throughout, especially never quite knowing who Nora could trust. The supernatural elements worked really well with the thriller side of the story and added an extra layer of unease without feeling out of place.

I did figure out a couple of things before Nora did, but it didn’t take away from the story at all — if anything, it made me even more anxious waiting for everything to come together.

A dark, addictive thriller with messy family dynamics, plenty of tension and just the right amount of supernatural weirdness.

I received an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Caroline Lewis]

Initially upon getting into this book my feelings were a bit lukewarm, sensing that it was a common trope and every angle of this scenario had been "done to death" however as I got past the halfway mark there became a supernatural element and this piqued my interest. I liked that the main character was not involved directly in the main action but was very invested in the outcome and was indirectly involved. I enjoyed the nuances of each character's personalities and motivations. I often thought I could see where the story would end up but the ending was not predictable at all. I did still have some questions which I think could have been answered with one or two more final chapters.

I received this arc from netgalley and Crooked Lane Books in exchange for my honest review.

[Sarah Workman]

Think Hunger Games, but make it wealthy siblings fighting to the death to be heir to their family’s multibillion dollar empire. It was a dark, twisted, and violent book without being overly graphic. It also had a supernatural element that I wasn’t expecting, but really enjoyed!

[Becky]

ARC review:
I had zero expectations coming into this book and to say it absolutely stunned me!! I read this within 24 hours, absolutely did not see the twist coming and enjoyed every second. This book makes you (rightfully) angry at the rich and the absolute insanity they put others through.

[Delana Wind]

A very dark and suspenseful story I loved the horror aspects of this tale and loved how the story unfolded to reveal the twisted secrets of the family dynasty. Family isn’t everything in this story..