As featured in the New York Times and Vogue

Succession meets Megan Abbott in this seductive Gothic suspense novel about the dramatic downfall of one of America’s most affluent families.

"Terrifying and uncanny.” —Katy Hays, bestselling author of The Cloisters

The old-money Wieland family has it all—wealth, status, power. They’re also famously cursed.

Clara and her brother, Teddy, grew up on a small island in Maine in the shadow of their parents’ tragic deaths, haunted by rumors and paparazzi. Fourteen years later, they’ve mostly put their turbulent past to rest. Teddy has married Clara’s best friend, Jess, and the three of them have moved back home to take over the sprawling, remote family mansion known as Vantage Point. Then Teddy decides to run for the Senate—an unnerving prospect made much worse when intimate videos of Clara are leaked online. The most frightening part is that she doesn't remember filming any of them. Are the videos real? Or are they deepfakes? Is someone trying to take down the Wielands once and for all?

Everyone thinks Clara is losing her grasp on reality. But she knows the truth: the videos are only the beginning. Years ago, the curse destroyed her parents. Now, it’s coming for her.

Sara Sligar, the critically acclaimed author of Take Me Apart, returns with another shocking, breathless novel of Gothic suspense. Brimming with palpable tension, Vantage Point reveals a twisted web of family secrets and political ambition that raises questions about the blurred lines between public and private personas and the nature of “truth” in our digital age.


New York Times Editor’s Choice
Apple Best Books of January
Amazon Best Mysteries & Thrillers of January
Vogue Best Books of 2025
Lit Hub Most Anticipated of 2025
and more

Literary Praise

"Vantage Point oozes atmosphere and tension—I was seduced by the fabulously wealthy and famously cursed Wieland family and could not stop turning the pages until I learned every last one of their dark, dynastic secrets."
—Jessica Knoll, New York Times-bestselling author of Bright Young Women

“Sara Sligar’s new novel is a primal scream, sounding a harrowing alarm about how thin (and deadly) the line between synthetic and real has become. A terrifying and uncanny novel, Vantage Point takes dupes and deepfakes to another level. Even the shrewdest reader will be left off kilter and unable to answer the most simple question: what did I just see?”
—Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters 

“Vantage Point is a thriller for our times, where politics meets paranoia, and technology turns into terror. Sara Sligar has tapped into our most contemporary fears and turned them into a feast of a story. I devoured this book.”
—Janelle Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things and I’ll Be You

 "Vantage Point is a haunting, pitch perfect exploration of paranoia and perception, the ways we craft our identity both publicly and in our own minds, and the fine line between loyalty and complicity, power and control. Sara Sligar is that rare writer whose high concept is matched by faultless prose, rich emotional insight, and a vein of delicious dark humor that bleeds when pressed. This is a novel to devour, then savor. I loved every mind-bending page."
—Katie Gutierrez, author of national bestseller More Than You'll Ever Know

“Vantage Point is a thoroughly modern Gothic novel that will have you turning its pages at warp speed.  Sara Sligar has written a fearsome, sharp novel that is both timeless and culturally relevant and filled with dark delights.”
—Ivy Pochoda, author of Sing Her Down and These Women 

"Vantage Point is a sophisticated suspense novel that’s as thought-provoking as it is unnerving. With her signature seductive prose, Sligar holds up a mirror to the dark side of privilege and the true horrors of being a woman on the internet, crafting a story that feels like shattered glass: brilliant and exquisite, but it will cut you deep.”
—Layne Fargo, author of The Favorites and They Never Learn

“The kind of suspense novel that slithers under your skin—crackling with sharp writing and unforgettable characters. Sara Sligar makes it look easy with Vantage Point, an unforgettable story of family, identity, and how the two intersect - sometimes with deadly results.”
—Alex Segura, bestselling author of Secret Identity and Alter Ego

Critical Praise 

“The well-to-do Wieland family in Sara Sligar’s Vantage Point is subject to a curse of untimely deaths. Their contemporary affliction is more digital in nature: Clara, whose brother, Teddy, is running for Senate, finds herself the victim of an explicit viral video that might just be a cunning deepfake. Clara and Teddy have been raised on a remote island in Maine surrounded by generational wealth, and there is an acutely rendered upstairs-downstairs dynamic that plays out in the novel as well, offering acerbic social commentary laid on top of a propulsive and highly entertaining plot.”
—Vogue

"Sligar renders [Clara] with such complexity and compassion that it’s easy to cheer when she begins to figure things out—and when she rejects the convenient trap of the curse narrative, finding power and agency as she learns to trust in her own intelligence. A unique twist on the thriller genre with an appealing side of female empowerment."
— Kirkus

 “An ancient family curse roars back to life in Sara Sligar's superbly dark second novel, Vantage Point. It features siblings from an old-money Maine dynasty that has withstood terrible misfortunes and the modern-day calamity threatening to capsize them once and for all. Sligar's brilliantly crafted thriller delivers a hefty dose of horror-tinged suspense while expertly navigating contemporary themes such as online violations of privacy and the head-spinning speed with which artificial intelligence can manipulate people's lives. … Sligar's fiendishly clever plot portends a terrifying future where, thanks to technology, reality is whatever we choose to make it. In a literary parable for our unsettling times, Vantage Point delivers an immersive, urgent drama reminding readers that sometimes it's the ones who seem the most broken that are the strongest.”
— Shahina Pirayali, Shelf Awareness

 

"Viral videos send an influential Maine family reeling in this tempestuous domestic thriller from Sligar (Take Me Apart). So many descendants of steel tycoon Thomas Wieland have met with calamity that most believe the clan is cursed. Clara Wieland first bought into the theory at 16, when she saw her parents die. Sixteen years later, the curse comes for Clara when a degrading sex tape hits the internet. Clara’s brother, senatorial candidate Teddy, wants to involve the police, but Clara refuses, too humiliated to admit she doesn’t recognize her partner or recall participating in the recording. Then another devastating video drops, this one featuring Clara and her best friend, Jess—Teddy’s wife—disparaging Teddy in an exchange neither woman remembers. Suspecting high-tech sabotage, Clara vows to uncover the truth, but in an era of bots, trolls, and deepfakes, that’s easier said than done. Doubt and paranoia color Clara and Jess’s alternating narration, keeping the tension high throughout. A few preposterous twists tilt the plot toward soap opera territory, but Sligar’s nuanced, psychologically complex characters provide sufficient counterweight. Sarah Pinborough fans should take note."
— Publishers Weekly