Welp. I wasn’t going to start on the full spooky season books for a couple weeks, but Kendare Blake‘s new young adult novel seems to fit that bill and I’m okay with it. So let’s celebrate the start of fall with some good ol’ fashioned murder.

All These Bodies is set in the 1950’s, (which was harder for me to keep in mind than I’d like to admit…) and is based on two real life murder sprees. I’ll let you read the authors note in the book to find out which ones. This story is told from Michael’s perspective. He’s a teenage journalist wannabe who stumbles into a major story.

His dad is the sheriff, so he ends up at the scene of a triple murder that fits in with a string of bizarre and terrifying kills. That’s where he first sees Marie Hale… and she’s covered in blood. That’s strange because in all of the prior connected murders before this one, there was no blood. Each of the more than 10 victims was drained of their blood.

Marie is thrown in jail and multiple states want to be the first to put her on trial, but there are still so many questions. Investigators don’t believe a 16-year-old girl did any of it on her own, so they demand to know who she helped. Marie decides, she’s only going to talk to Michael.

Without spoiling it for you, the reason she shares for the “Bloodless Murders” is a bit hard to accept as fact. Not even Michael fully buys into her story, but he does more research to try to find his footing in this slightly magical world.

On one hand, I enjoyed All These Bodies. It moved quickly and I didn’t feel the need to try to figure out who was responsible for the killings. It was a story that just unfolded without leaving me feeling like I needed to try to solve it.

But on the other hand, that ending left me with some QUESTIONS. I’m sure it was intentional, but daggumit, I thought I’d get a little more closure. I would love to chat with Kendare to get some answers (and also because she’s a sassy and hilarious human. I think we’d be friends).