Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
unfortunately bad… i checked this out bc i found the premise intriguing (i haven’t read one of us is lying so maybe i should have read that first idk) and the first few chapters had me interested, but then some aspects started to annoy me or take me out of the story, it grew easy to predict what would happen, and the ending was just… wtf.
one random thought i had is that if this is an elite prep school and everyone here is like the cream of the crop top students, is everyone taking AP classes? and is every single class AP? what about electives? also nancy taking AP lang and AP lit is unrealistic, since she’s a junior she should be taking AP lang and then when she’s a senior AP lit. ANYWAYSSS…. another thing that started to take me out is how jamie apparently would “get rid of” ppl who got what she wanted or were in direct competition with her. did no adult notice this behavior or trend at all??? did no one care??? like i know jamie’s family is rich and powerful and all but almost all of the students’ families are too.
also, the reveal of The Incident and the proctor reveal at the end were lowkey annoying to me. it was nonsensical! plastic surgery?!? gasoline? plus the incident especially had me feeling fed up with nancy. like YES obviously you’re being a sheep for doing whatever tf jamie wants you to do!! that’s the only reason she keeps you around! that and so she can make herself feel better for hanging out with a poor kid, and keep an eye on her academic competition. i was like does nancy really think she doesn’t deserve to be punished for what she did? and in the end nothing really happened anyway. i felt like pretty much none of these characters were really genuine with themselves or each other. overall i wasn’t really invested in any of them and didn’t care what happened to them.
one random thought i had is that if this is an elite prep school and everyone here is like the cream of the crop top students, is everyone taking AP classes? and is every single class AP? what about electives? also nancy taking AP lang and AP lit is unrealistic, since she’s a junior she should be taking AP lang and then when she’s a senior AP lit. ANYWAYSSS…. another thing that started to take me out is how jamie apparently would “get rid of” ppl who got what she wanted or were in direct competition with her. did no adult notice this behavior or trend at all??? did no one care??? like i know jamie’s family is rich and powerful and all but almost all of the students’ families are too.
also, the reveal of The Incident and the proctor reveal at the end were lowkey annoying to me. it was nonsensical! plastic surgery?!? gasoline? plus the incident especially had me feeling fed up with nancy. like YES obviously you’re being a sheep for doing whatever tf jamie wants you to do!! that’s the only reason she keeps you around! that and so she can make herself feel better for hanging out with a poor kid, and keep an eye on her academic competition. i was like does nancy really think she doesn’t deserve to be punished for what she did? and in the end nothing really happened anyway. i felt like pretty much none of these characters were really genuine with themselves or each other. overall i wasn’t really invested in any of them and didn’t care what happened to them.
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Good writing. Plot was meh. I felt like it was obvious and overdone. I liked that it leaned more into the cultural aspect, however I also found that the age gap romance wasn’t entirely determined to be bad??? Don’t like teachers pet tropes, really makes me kinda sick.
if i’m being honest this book was a mess and half. don’t get me wrong it was a perfectly fine book. there was just one logistical issue (that being Nancy taking both AP Lit and Lang and the same time? like if you wanna take 2 english AP classes good for you but also not realistic.) but though it was hard i kinda loved how much the story is a hot mess for the main characters. and will i be reading the next one? YES OF COURSE. okay overall if you love dark academia, rich new yorkers, murder mysteries, & academic validation, this book is for you.
The story is too nonsensical for me
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The premise of this was so good. The execution was terrible.
Four students are afraid that their big secrets will be revealed. These secrets are shockingly tame and consequence-free for how hyped up they are. I mean. For example, a charactertakes Adderall as a study aid. Not great, but like... he's not the only student even in his school, I'm sure. Also, he references taking drugs "to forget" something he feels guilty for, but there's no discussion of him doing anything else!! Is he doing something more illegal? Because I don't think Adderall makes you forget your problems!
When a secret is revealed, the character affected falls over on the floor and starts convulsing like he's having a seizure. This is, apparently, what him having a panic attack looks like. This was such a terrible description it took me out of things completely.
Finally, the villain reveal was just bonkers. Even if you can't guess the villain, you should at least have them in the back of your mind as a suspect. They should NOT literally come back from the dead, get plastic surgery, and somehow spend years at the same school unrecognized. There was no way the reader could've expected this "twist".
It was also so infuriating to watch the main character keepgoing back to Peter. She knows it's a bad idea, know's he's manipulative, knows it's a power imbalance... but she keeps going back to him. Why??
Oh, also, the main character tells us she's a poet early in the plot and makes references to writing lyrics to someone's violin music. Why does she never even think about writing a poem/lyrics for the entire book? Beyond the big stuff, there were a few small things like this that killed me.
Four students are afraid that their big secrets will be revealed. These secrets are shockingly tame and consequence-free for how hyped up they are. I mean. For example, a character
When a secret is revealed, the character affected falls over on the floor and starts convulsing like he's having a seizure. This is, apparently, what him having a panic attack looks like. This was such a terrible description it took me out of things completely.
Finally, the villain reveal was just bonkers. Even if you can't guess the villain, you should at least have them in the back of your mind as a suspect. They should NOT
It was also so infuriating to watch the main character keep
Oh, also, the main character tells us she's a poet early in the plot and makes references to writing lyrics to someone's violin music. Why does she never even think about writing a poem/lyrics for the entire book? Beyond the big stuff, there were a few small things like this that killed me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Drug use, Classism
Moderate: Self harm, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes