All the Dangerous Things

All the Dangerous Things (2023) is a thriller novel by Stacy Willingham that follows recent insomniac Isabelle Drake as she attempts to find her son, Mason, who was kidnapped from his bedroom one year prior. Isabelle’s grudging partnership with true crime podcaster Waylon Spencer leads her down new paths and makes her question everyone’s culpability—including her own. She grapples with her memory and perception, examining the traumatic death of her sister during their childhood as she reconciles her own experience of motherhood.

Willingham was educated in Georgia and continues to live in the south as of All the Dangerous Things’s publication, providing her with regional knowledge for the novel’s setting. All the Dangerous Things is her second novel; her first, A Flicker in the Dark (2022), was a New York Times bestseller. In 2024, Willingham published her third novel, an adult thriller, Only If You're Lucky.

This guide is based on the 2023 First Edition hardcover edition of the book.

Content Warning: All the Dangerous Things depicts emotional abuse, miscarriage, postpartum psychosis, and child death. It also references drug abuse and suicide.

Plot Summary

Isabelle Drake suffers from insomnia the year following the disappearance of her son, Mason.