Reviews with content warning for Grief - People Like Us

I still really want Brie to be the killer. Nola was too obvious and Brie was so annoying. Plus Key was going to forgive her making her a more gray character

~~The pirated PDF and ePub version https://oceanofpdf.com/authors/dana-mele/pdf-epub-people-like-us-by-dana-mele-download-54231753409/~~

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niah's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

The plot was wonky, loved the vibes tho. Dark academia mysterish-ish.
I wished it was done more realistically because everything felt so dramatic like the little revenge things the students did. Also the characters were really hard to follow. It felt like the things they do are so out of place sometimes that you cant even count it as a plot twist because it didnt really do much for the plot just some weird detail that was focused on too much.

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nickoliver's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

On the one hand, it was a bit predictable - I was able to figure out the exact nature of the plot twist way before the end -, and the characters and the way they acted was incredibly confusing to me sometimes. They often revealed things so nonchalantly as if they were no big deal and did things that seemed to go against what I'd been believed was their nature up until that point. It kind of felt like I was being gaslight by a book sometimes.

I also wasn't the biggest fan of the writing? It wasn't bad for the most part, but every once in a while, Mele would describe things in a way that made no sense. Here's an example:

But with every passing second, I feel a rising anxiety in the pit of my stomach, like I did the first time we kissed. It doesn't feel the same as those quick, crucial moments when Brie and I swirled together in Spencer's room, or the thousand times he and I flung ourselves at each other."

Who describes a make-out like that? "Swirled together"? "Flung ourselves at each other"? Moments like that just took me out of the story, because I just kept being taken aback by them. It just seemed like Mele tried to find ways to describe things without repeating herself, but without making sure the words actually meant what she thought they meant.

On the other hand, I had kind of fun reading this? It was a bit disappointing that the scavenger hunt mentioned in the synopsis didn't take up as much of the plot as I expected, because I was always very curious to see what new scandals it would reveal. I also kind of liked that some of the girls were queer. There was a bit too much cattiness and mean girls energy in this and friends being nasty to each other (which, to someone who hasn't had any meaningful friendship since childhood, has always confused me tremendously), but it didn't bother me quite as much as it usually would. (Possibly because Kay didn't talk about it all too much and always seemed to trivialise her mean streak.)

So overall, while this wasn't a masterpiece and also very easy to figure out, I read it very quickly (admittedly, it did also have a very big font, which helped) and had fun for the most part.

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kireeeeds's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

(THIS REVIEW IS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE READ THE BOOK TO SHARE OPINIONS, I APOLOGIZE I DONT KNOW HOW TO WRITE REVIEWS FOR PEOPLE WHO DIDNT READ IT ALREADY HAHA)

When it reveals in the beginning that she had a secret and that it was so horrendous it couldn't be revealed, I didnt think it would be that she "killed" her own brother. You guys know she didn't actually kill him but participated in it. Which is crazy since she so dearly loved him. I must admit I did think Kay was the killer at some point. I love the sapphic add-ons because I feel it adds more heat on the plot between Nola, Kay and Brie in a good way. (lol it rhymes) The only characters I didnt like were Holly, she needs to calm down it was giving very much brat behavior; and Tai because she annoyed me every now and then. I think the characters were less annoying but intersting because they caught my attention in an odd way. On another note the peoms such as Tai Burned Chicken, (tricias, i forgot hers lol sorry. Hers was my favorite too) Madd tea party and so on, were amazingly put together, GOOD JOB NOLAA!! They perfectly reflect their past's and how it led up to their current situation. Something I would've enjoyed more was a longer scene explaining nolas true feelings and their fight. Also an apology from Kay's friends -_- The tension correlates perfectly with the dark academia theme.
Dark 4/10 Academia 6/10, YA 9/10. Overall very good to start off my tbr list of 55+ YA dark academia books >v<

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