ARC review: Finders Keepers by Natalie Barelli

Finders Keepers by Natalie Barelli kicks off as an interesting but occasionally frustrating read. Rose is finishing work for the day and walks past a bookshop and sees a book with a title that’s familiar. We learn that Rose kept an online journal when at school. It reflected a 13yr old’s thinking most specifically a crush (though she thought it was real love) on one of her teachers. We learn she lost the laptop on which it was written but the journal concludes with her confessing to planning something horrific. And now her story is out there and receiving accolades. Obviously she’s wondering… who has her laptop, why have they written ‘her’ story and why did they change the ending? Rose stealthily stalks the writer, ingratiating herself to her and is soon invited to join her inner circle – her focus being to get the old laptop and destroy it, along with evidence of the murders (yes, more than one) she once committed.

"You’re not going to murder me in the night, are you?" Emily asks."Haha. That’s funny," I say.

Of course, I’m not going to murder her in the night. I need my laptop back first. That’s the whole point of making friends with Emily Harper, author of the hugely successful novel Diary of an Octopus. So I could get inside her apartment and take back what’s mine.

Emily doesn’t know who I really am. She thinks I’m her biggest fan, her new best friend who happens to need a place to stay for a few days. She doesn’t realize the laptop she found—and took—from a busy airport almost two years ago was mine.I didn’t care about the laptop, just what was on it.
My diary.

The one I kept many years ago as a troubled thirteen-year-old girl with a vivid imagination and a flair for the dramatic. The diary Emily Harper has now published as her own.

She thinks it's a story about a schoolgirl’s crush on her teacher, but she’s wrong. It’s a story about a murder. Two murders, if you count the hamster.

She thought it was okay to make a few changes and publish it under her own name, but she was wrong about that, too. Because sometimes, truth is deadlier than fiction.

Current Rose is a bit of a mess but as we learn more about her past it’s obvious that she’s been living on the edge of society for some time… worried about ‘Crazy Rose’ making an appearance. She tells us she’s prone to fugue states, something that started when she was a teenager and can’t recall what she’s done.

I was surprised how readily the book’s (supposed) author, Emily, lets Rose into her life. Albeit as ‘Iris’, inviting her to stay when Rose/Iris can’t afford her rent. Meanwhile Iris takes every opportunity she can to hunt for the old laptop all while monitoring Emily’s social media feeds – worried that someone from her (Rose’s) own past will recognise the characters and events in the book.

And everything changes. Big time! And Barelli takes us in an unexpected direction. The frustration I occasionally felt for Rose’s bumbling attempts to save herself disappeared and we learn nothing was as we (and perhaps  Rose) thought.

I can’t say much without giving away spoilers but I had to summon all of my willpower to put this down when I was about 78% (according to my Kindle app) through the book. I’d woken up at sparrow-fart (4am) and after some procrastination on social media decided to head to the bathtub and read to wile away a couple of hours. (Reminding myself I could finish the last 20% in the bath later with some prosecco—the perfect Friday night in!)

I didn’t see the direction this was going to take so Barelli does a great job at luring readers into making some assumptions before changing things completely. I recently rated a book a rare 5-stars and it was all about the action that kept pumping and pages turning. Here, it’s the twist… This was a great read and my first book by Barelli (who I’ve not heard of previously!) so I must hunt down some of her others.

Finders Keepers by Natalie Barelli will be published by Poisoned Pen Press in February 2026 (though may have previously been published elsewhere).

I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.