ALC Review: Do Not Open by Kiersten Modglin

Do Not Open
Author: Kiersten Modglin

Narrator: Mara Wilson
To Be Released on Audio: December 26, 2023
Audiobook: 5 hours 4 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To:  December 11-13, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars

Book Description:

On the day author Mari Montgomery receives the email, she has little left to live for.

The message—simple yet utterly life-changing—offers a glimmer of hope to her dismal existence. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, and if she takes it, it could change everything.

Mari’s immediate sense of unease is eclipsed only by her curiosity—elicited from the supposed fan on the other end of the email. Unsatisfied despite doing her due diligence, and with no way to discern the legitimacy of the sender, Mari takes a leap of faith and replies.

What harm could come from one innocent message?

Soon, as she comes face to face with her ‘number one fan,’ it’s all too clear things are not what they first appeared. Now trapped by a villain far more sinister than she could’ve crafted herself, the fate awaiting her is inspired by the darkest depths of the monsters in her own novels.

In order to escape and survive, Mari must use the strength of the heroines she’s spent years writing about. But this villain has spent years inside her worlds, too.

How will she defeat an evil who has learned from the best?

For fans of Misery, YOU, and Behind Closed Doors, million-copy bestselling author Kiersten Modglin brings us a haunting tale of obsession and survival in the form of a writer’s worst nightmare come to life.

Jessica’s Review:

I can round up my thoughts of Do Not Open saying this: It’s like Misery but on crack! It has a gender reversal and is set up for our time now with social media complications. I have only ever seen the movie once many years ago and had to watch it again after finishing Do Not Open.  Modglin may take the basics of King’s Misery, but definitely makes the story her own!

I guess this is every writer’s nightmare: Meeting your ‘number one fan’ according to said fan and end up fighting for your life. This novel may be troubling for some as the ‘#1 fan’ is a man and our author MC is a woman, and yes, we do have violence done against her. 

This story takes off from the very beginning and just keeps going!  There are issues dealing with grief, alcoholism, obsession, and survival.  Mari made some decisions I just didn’t agree with. I didn’t know where Modglin was going to end this story, and it did go in an unexpected direction for me!  When the big twist happened, I was confused and had to listen to the previous track again.  But OMG!  This unexpected direction deals with some serious emotions. This is the second audiobook I have listened to that was written by Modglin, but she is definitely on my radar now!

The audiobook is narrated my Mara Wilson.  Yes, that Mara Wilson! The little girl who starred as Matilda is all grown up now. She did a good job with her narration.

Do Not Open has been out since October 30th in paperback and will be out in audio on December 26th. I was fortunate to receive an alc from the publisher Dreamscape Media. It is a shorter audio book, just over 5 hours, but intense the entire time! 

Many thanks Dreamscape Media for the advanced listening copy! It was a pleasure to listen to this one! Just keep bringing on the thrills!

Purchase Links (As it is already out in physical/Kindle format. The audio will be out December 26, 2023):
Amazon US
Amazon UK