Synopsis:
Single mother Elodie’s life has become a fairy tale. She’s met Bren, equal parts golden-retriever devoted and sinfully handsome. He’s whisked her and her autistic son, Jude, to the crumbling family house he’s renovating. She has a new husband, a new house, and a new baby on the way. Everything is perfect. Then Jude claims he can hear voices in the walls. He says their renovations are “hurting” the house. Even Elodie can’t ignore it–something strange is going on. The question is, is it with the house, or with her son? Then the one secret Elodie has been hiding is revealed, and no one is safe anymore. A pulse-pounding, clever take on the haunted house novel, You Did Nothing Wrong examines the complexities of motherhood and the twisted bonds of family as it races to its shocking ending.
My Edition:
Net Galley ARC
My Thoughts:
Please don’t judge this book by its cover – this cover does it no justice. You Did Nothing Wrong is actually a wildly fucked up book – and I mean that in the nicest possible way. Reading it feels a little bit like binging a season of The Sinner. Not necessarily in subjects, but in vibes for sure. It’s grimy, unexpectedly violent, and full of secrets.
Elodie is a young mother, and Jude is a challenge. He may be more of a challenge than Elodie can handle. See, Elodie is not just young – she’s clearly troubled. That much is apparent from the start. She married Bren on a whim and travelled across the world with him with her young son in tow. Now they live together as a very disjointed, very toxic-feeling family. Their domestic life is presented as everything is fine, like it’s all very normal – but it doesn’t feel normal. You Did Nothing Wrong is told from the point of view of Elodie – and she’s…a lot. She’s got some very troubling thoughts.
I think that in You Did Nothing Wrong C.G. Drews has brilliantly skirted the line between haunted house and haunted person/people. For most of the story it is extremely unclear which you’re actually dealing with – often it feels as though it may even be both. The dependence that Elodie has developed for Bren is really something to behold. I just keep thinking of this line:
“Until Bren, no one thought about her. Now she is thought of all the time.“
And I shudder. It’s CREEPY. But this is the kind of weird-ass dynamic you can expect between Elodie and…everyone. She’s either allllllll in or not at all. There’s Bren and Jude, and then there is everyone else. But, like many overwhelmed/young/first time parents with kids that aren’t the simple 1950s-television-dream child they had hoped for, Elodie has a troubled relationship with Jude plagued by some truly distressing thoughts. Which I’m sure are totally normal if you have a healthy relationship with reason and reality – but does Elodie have that?
Rating:
I found You Did Nothing Wrong genuinely distressing at times. The constant whiplash of “is it a haunted house or is this person/that person/all the people out of their minds” was a lot to deal with. Although I think the more astute readers will find and assemble the well-scattered breadcrumbs and be able to suss out the basics of what is going on well in advance of the reveal, I don’t think that takes away from what a truly fun but distressing read this is. There’s so much nuance in the characters, and Drews inter-weaves character arcs with story beats so beautifully that I think you’re going to want to tag along regardless.
I’ve never read Drews’ work before, but I certainly will be again after this. You Did Nothing Wrong was great!
You Did Nothing Wrong
By: C.G. Drews
St. Martin's Press
Published: March 17, 2026
ISBN: 9781250369994
Hardcover, E-book, Audio
304 Pages
