Reviews with content warning for Death - The Things We Do to Our Friends

I personally found the plot very far fetched, even predictable in its impact. The actual drama is glossed over and the focus is mainly the protagonists feelings and thoughts after the current and past events happen/ed. Though they are completely lacking in reflection or improvement in the end. It takes away from the actual climax of the book, which I found to be lacking. The characters are relatable as people you might meet in your life, but are generally unlikeable and and mostly very copy-paste. Nothing sets them apart much in character. There is little to no character development or reflection despite the focus on the protagonists inner world and we don't see consequence to any of their actions, they seem to just continue and they have little emotion to what transpired and what they have caused, which was made "plausible" by their previous agonizing, mostly self-inflicted though. The revelation and ending is unsatisfying and it actually irked me that the protagonist just continued on living a wealthy boring life.

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aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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ingerlouise's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Such an incredibly dark and twisted tale, so perfectly crafted that you don’t want to look away for an instant even though the characters and their actions are downright despicable. A horrific story told horrifyingly well.

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aileron's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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atsundarsingh's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Look, this wasn't my favourite thing I've read, but it had me hooked. I needed to know what the climax would be, I wanted to know what was holding this group together, I needed to have that creepy prologue explained, and by the end, I needed to know exactly how unreliable the narrator was. I do think that the plot was winding itself along nicely and then gets weirdly fast in a way that's not in keeping with the rest of the novel about about 65-70% of the way through, but it's a debut. Not sure I'd say this is dark academia, but of course it is for about 40% of the book, a campus novel, so I guess it qualifies. Not sure I'll be recommending it, but I'll be talking about this debut, and will be curious to see what Darwent does next.

*Thanks NetGalley for a copy in exchange for review* This novel is due out 10 Jan 2023.*

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jos_haunted_library's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

When I saw this book I wanted to read it immediately: a toxic friendship with a touch of feminism and set in Edinburgh. What’s not to like?

The book for me was a slow burner for sure but it allowed to understand how Clare always had the need to re-invent herself and it increases how intoxicating it is as you read it. As she meets a new group of friends she tries to find her way to fit in despite the clear differences in lifestyles, and secrets…

The book is well written, I love how to gives the dark and gloomy ambience typical to Edinburgh. The characters are well written and the plot is nice and intense. An excellent debut!

I would definitely recommend checking for trigger warnings before hand as it has some heavy themes such as SA, m*rder and su*cide.

If you like the toxic friendship trope meets thriller I really recommend this book. Although if you don’t like slow paced books you might struggle a bit.

Thanks NetGalley and the author for this eARC.

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_bookishbella's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Since it’s been pitched to fans of The Secret History, but with a feminist twist, I was really hoping for a deliciously dark and intoxicating thrill ride from The Things We Do To Our Friends. I’m happy to report that I did enjoy this dark and twisted tale of a pretty toxic friendship gone all kinds of wrong.

The Things We Do To Our Friends has all the right elements:
🤔an unhinged and not-quite-unreliable-but-definitely-untrustworthy main character
😈a seemingly impenetrable group of mysterious and complex rich kids who will stop at literally nothing to get what they want
🏰a luxuriously dark and gothic Edinburgh setting
🌪a whirlwind of a plot with twists and turns for days
☠️sharp and almost venomous writing style with a toxic undercurrent that hints at the horrible and is completely compelling

I was obsessed from page one. It’s been ages since I’ve read the first 100 pages of a book in one sitting and so that was a real joy. I, like Clare, found myself completely hanging on to every word of Tabitha and her friends, and even though the foreboding sense of a car crash waiting to happen was always in the back of my mind, I couldn’t seem to look away. Clare is unlikeable and her actions and thought processes hint at a shameful past, but it’s not til the end that you get a true glimpse into who she really is, despite being in her head for the entirety of the novel. I was repeatedly surprised and sometimes disgusted at the secrets revealed, and while I do think it loses its way slightly towards the end, for the most part I couldn’t put it down. It’s one that’s best to head into blind, so I won’t say much more, but it’s definitely one to mark in your calendars for a dark, wintry afternoon in January, when it’s released. You won’t want to miss it!

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sophiareads_'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings: violence, death, child abuse (neglect), suicide (mentioned)

This was SUCH an intense read (in a good way!) This novel felt to me like a mix of Donna Tartt's The Secret History and Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl - a captivating thriller which feels like a car crash you can't take your eyes off.

Clare leaves her grandmother's home in Hull to attend the University of Edinburgh, where she falls in with a clique of wealthier students, led my the charismatic and commanding Tabitha. Tabitha's attention and the place Clare finds in this cohort are enticing and addictive, but it doesn't take long before Clare's new beginning in Edinburgh begins to take on sinister undertones.

I expected this to be more dark academia than it was - the university setting and The Secret History-esque clique of unhinged rich kids kinda do that to you, but I think that expectation set me up for wanting more in depth themes than this thriller really has to offer, so at first it felt a little shallow to me. However, as soon as I realised this novel was much more of a pure thriller (with just a hint of dark academia making this a good start-of-autumn read) I really enjoyed it. It's well paced and easy to read - reveals are satisfying and surprising. I'm notoriously picky about thrillers, but this one was really excellent. I could really feel the building unease as the story unfolded, and even in the slower moments, plot-wise, the twisted relationships between our main characters had me fascinated. Overall, it was just a really enjoyable reading experience.

Where I have to get picky is with the fact that this book is set in my country (it's REALLY hard not to get picky about that, I find). The novel totally plays into the reputation the University of Edinburgh has among Scots - full of spoilt rich English and American kids - which I found kinda funny. I know it's so petty, but Clare's scathing description of ceilidhs (which are AMAZING, by the way) lost her any sort of sympathy she might have gotten from me as a reader. Luckily, Clare is not a character you are supposed to like, so this didn't ruin the book for me. My only other gripe - Shetland was repeatedly called 'the Shetlands'? Is that a thing? I've literally never heard that before, it's just Shetland.

I managed to get over my petty gripes as a Scot reading a book set in Scotland by a non-Scottish author though, I swear. This was a great debut novel, I really did enjoy it - definitely a rec for the thriller girlies!

Thank you to NetGalley, Heather Darwent, and Bantam for the ARC of this novel.

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