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carelessmanscarefuldaughter's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I loved this book! It reminded me of “People Like Us” by Dana Mele but a little shorter. I was kept guessing until the very end and I enjoyed that the book was never boring.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Grief, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, and Cursing
Minor: Blood and Self harm
chipwich's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
SPOILERS FOR SOME OF THIS BOOK AHEAD!!!
i am disappointed. and i mean that in a "worse-than-angry-parental-disappointment-you-know-you-could-do-better" voice. anyway yeah this book was average and didn't know what it wanted to be and yknow what i can sorta kinda deal with it because i liked some of the side characters. except for Jill. FUCK YOU JILL!! YOU TOOK UP MY ENTIRE PERFECT MYSTERY BOOK BECAUSE YOU HAD TO HAVE A GODDAMN LOVE TRIANGLE. NOT EVEN A TRIANGLE BECAUSE YOU ARE SO MUCH NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS YOU HAD TO HAVE LIKE A. A. UM. FUCK I DONT REMEBER THE NAMES OF SHAPES... A PENTAGON!! A LOVE PENTAGON. and of course your ex-maybe-i'm-your-bf did it. OF COURSE HE MF DID. AND I GUESSED IT 60 PAGES INTO THIS BOOK!!!! LITERALLY!!! I WAS ON PAGE 58 WHEN I WAS LIKE "lol, charming guy with secrets who had connections to everybody, it's Adam, how cute!" i feel bad for your first guy henry he was sweet as sugar and just wanted to be a reporter. not my fault you chose a murderer. can you tell i literally despise Adam he can choke on his (according to this book) ginormous schlong. I DONT EVEN FEEL BAD FOR JILL SHES NOT A GOOD PERSON SHE SHITS ON ALL OF HER FRIENDS AT ALL TIMES!!! she acts like her dead friend shaila is the worst ever after being a chicken on a thing for the Players and making Shaila drink 3 pints of vodka in a sauna. SHE LITERALLY ALMOST HAD TO GET HER STOMACH PUMPED AND YOU NEVER EVEN THANKED HER BECAUSE YOU HAD AN OLYMPIAD. STOP THAT BULLSHIT JILL!! STOP IT!! the 2.75 stars are because the Players were interesting and I liked Jared. also the fact that FOR ONCE a college subplot is backed up by "how do we pay for it??" and it feels like it actually matters for once. but yeah Jill don't let this review go to your already inflated ego!!!!! you're like if betty cooper from riverdale was a book character. thats right! i just compared you to riverdale! in fact, this entire book is comparable to riverdale! THAT IS NOT A COMPLIMENT! turns out HBO Max is making it into a TV show called The Player's Table. I'll watch it, but only because I wanna see if they can make Adam a better character. sometimes TV show adaptations are better, and I'm sorry some very butthurt book or nothing stans are going to get mad at me for saying that. yes im apologizing to myself. i deserve it after reading this book. WAIIIIT EDIT: HALSEY IS GONNA BE IN THIS SHOW. BAHHAHHAAHAH OKAY WATCHING IT THIS IS GONNA BE SO BAD IM EXCITED
i am disappointed. and i mean that in a "worse-than-angry-parental-disappointment-you-know-you-could-do-better" voice. anyway yeah this book was average and didn't know what it wanted to be and yknow what i can sorta kinda deal with it because i liked some of the side characters. except for Jill. FUCK YOU JILL!! YOU TOOK UP MY ENTIRE PERFECT MYSTERY BOOK BECAUSE YOU HAD TO HAVE A GODDAMN LOVE TRIANGLE. NOT EVEN A TRIANGLE BECAUSE YOU ARE SO MUCH NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS YOU HAD TO HAVE LIKE A. A. UM. FUCK I DONT REMEBER THE NAMES OF SHAPES... A PENTAGON!! A LOVE PENTAGON. and of course your ex-maybe-i'm-your-bf did it. OF COURSE HE MF DID. AND I GUESSED IT 60 PAGES INTO THIS BOOK!!!! LITERALLY!!! I WAS ON PAGE 58 WHEN I WAS LIKE "lol, charming guy with secrets who had connections to everybody, it's Adam, how cute!" i feel bad for your first guy henry he was sweet as sugar and just wanted to be a reporter. not my fault you chose a murderer. can you tell i literally despise Adam he can choke on his (according to this book) ginormous schlong. I DONT EVEN FEEL BAD FOR JILL SHES NOT A GOOD PERSON SHE SHITS ON ALL OF HER FRIENDS AT ALL TIMES!!! she acts like her dead friend shaila is the worst ever after being a chicken on a thing for the Players and making Shaila drink 3 pints of vodka in a sauna. SHE LITERALLY ALMOST HAD TO GET HER STOMACH PUMPED AND YOU NEVER EVEN THANKED HER BECAUSE YOU HAD AN OLYMPIAD. STOP THAT BULLSHIT JILL!! STOP IT!! the 2.75 stars are because the Players were interesting and I liked Jared. also the fact that FOR ONCE a college subplot is backed up by "how do we pay for it??" and it feels like it actually matters for once. but yeah Jill don't let this review go to your already inflated ego!!!!! you're like if betty cooper from riverdale was a book character. thats right! i just compared you to riverdale! in fact, this entire book is comparable to riverdale! THAT IS NOT A COMPLIMENT! turns out HBO Max is making it into a TV show called The Player's Table. I'll watch it, but only because I wanna see if they can make Adam a better character. sometimes TV show adaptations are better, and I'm sorry some very butthurt book or nothing stans are going to get mad at me for saying that. yes im apologizing to myself. i deserve it after reading this book. WAIIIIT EDIT: HALSEY IS GONNA BE IN THIS SHOW. BAHHAHHAAHAH OKAY WATCHING IT THIS IS GONNA BE SO BAD IM EXCITED
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Grief, and Infidelity
cosmicsapphic's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Murder, Grief, and Bullying
kikicochrane's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Alcoholism
Moderate: Sexual assault, Vomit, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Medical content, Grief, Death, and Adult/minor relationship
aliyyah's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I really enjoyed this one.
They Wish They Were Us is a murder mystery set against the backdrop of an exclusive prep school on Long Island. Three years ago, Jill Newman’s best friend Sheila Arnold was killed by her boyfriend. When he confessed, the case was closed and everyone moved on. Now, Jill is determined to make the last school year her best yet, especially as she’s now at the top of the food chain with the Players, Gold Coast’s exclusive secret society. However, when she begins getting texts proclaiming that Shaila’s killer is innocent, everything threatens to fall apart.
I loved the plot of this. I really liked the Gossip Girl vibes of it and enjoyed the mystery. It was a little predictable, but ya thrillers always are and honestly, it didn’t take anything away from the novel for me. I still had a good time with the book.
I liked reading about the characters. Jill is only able to attend the exclusive prep school because she’s on scholarship and I really felt for her as she struggled with the pressure to be perfect in order to make her parents proud. I really enjoyed the friendships that we see between her and the other Players. These bonds can be a little complicated but they’re strong and this group of friends seem to find their way back to each other despite everything.
The writing was super easy to get into and I managed to finish this within a day.
I suppose my one complaint is that I felt like the mystery aspect took a little while to kick off. However, I still enjoyed this book a lot and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s in the mood for a short, easy mystery.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Murder, Sexism, and Sexual assault
nightmare's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
read like a 2012 attempt at ya mystery. little character development, and bad characterization. killer was obvious.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Alcoholism, Bullying, Grief, Misogyny, and Sexism
alicialoebl's review against another edition
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I found the ending predictable but it still didn't make sense to me. Good twists and turn and exciting.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Rape, and Sexism
Minor: Body shaming and Bullying
sarah984's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book was just not very good. In a lot of ways, it felt like the author wanted to write a darker book but had boxed herself into YA, so she keeps intimating that terrible things had happened but then all of the things are kind of standard hazing situations. (Yes that's still bad, but not as apocalyptic as it's made to sound for most of the book) The secret society is also just sort of silly - a bunch of answer keys that could change at any time and some social connections they would have anyway. Nothing worth the way all the kids and adults treat it in the story.
The murder mystery portion is very stupid because there is a character who is always acting suspicious and every clue points to them but no one ever suspects them which makes it extremely obvious.
There's sort of an attempt at feminism in terms of guys controlling everything and forcing worse hazing on the girls but we're only ever told this directly in narration, it's not really shown in the challenges that happen on-page. The one explicitly bad thing that happens isn't part of a challenge, and when the main character actually does witness something that affects a girl more she is only upset about it because her brother is involved.
The murder mystery portion is very stupid because there is a character who is always acting suspicious and every clue points to them but no one ever suspects them which makes it extremely obvious.
There's sort of an attempt at feminism in terms of guys controlling everything and forcing worse hazing on the girls but we're only ever told this directly in narration, it's not really shown in the challenges that happen on-page. The one explicitly bad thing that happens isn't part of a challenge, and when the main character actually does witness something that affects a girl more she is only upset about it because her brother is involved.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Vomit
Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Medical content, and Sexual content
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