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rebeccaopiela's review
3.0
Like Pretty Little Liars but with POC representation. At least they actually discussed mental health issues and the impacts of student life in it??? Too much school pressure bro
dawn_chen's review
1.0
The day that victims of bullying are not written into revenge filled psychopath while bullies who causes permanent trauma in bully victims get glorified into tragic heroes who are all so "uwu babies all hurting inside" is the day I'd die happily
haveyoumetlisa's review
3.0
I had such a love/hate relationship with this book. I really really wanted to love it. I loved the characters, the writing was fantastic, and I enjoyed lots of it. But then someone would mention "the Incident" and I would bust out laughing. That's how people who mockingly refer to something talk. Capital "I" and everything. But we were supposed to look at it with trepidation and curiosity, because the Incident seriously messed up these kids. (Spoiler! The Incident was a let down after the build up, I gotta say.) The twist/reveal/whatever you want to call it was bleh, so I was left at the end with a sour taste in my mouth, and I wanted to give it one star I was so disappointed...but as a whole it really wasn't that bad. "Meh" is pretty accurate, I think, lol.
honeyvoicehwang's review
1.0
Idk if this actually contains spoilers, but felt better in case.
It left a lot to be desired.
Secrets had very little bearing on the plot, and I had geared up for them to be significantly more important, playing more role in an investigation (which of, we saw none), the guessing, but it was very… bland?
Also seemed like very few consequences, even if the explanation was “money can make it go away.”
And the end was completely fumbled.
Who did it, why, any motive at all, nothing about it really made sense.
A secret that wasn’t a secret.
If something happens on school property, you would know. You would. Even if there’s hush money, you would still know.
Dark academia is probably my favorite genre, and this was barely it.
It felt as though a half-baked pseudo-high school-lead investigation kind of happened sometimes, but nothing serious, they didn’t particularly find anything interesting, no suspects, no nothing.
260 pages of nothing with 30 pages of unbelievable garbage at the end.
I would read the second one, but I didn’t particularly enjoy the first one, and talked myself down from 2 stars to 1 star.
It left a lot to be desired.
Secrets had very little bearing on the plot, and I had geared up for them to be significantly more important, playing more role in an investigation (which of, we saw none), the guessing, but it was very… bland?
Also seemed like very few consequences, even if the explanation was “money can make it go away.”
And the end was completely fumbled.
Who did it, why, any motive at all, nothing about it really made sense.
A secret that wasn’t a secret.
If something happens on school property, you would know. You would. Even if there’s hush money, you would still know.
Dark academia is probably my favorite genre, and this was barely it.
It felt as though a half-baked pseudo-high school-lead investigation kind of happened sometimes, but nothing serious, they didn’t particularly find anything interesting, no suspects, no nothing.
260 pages of nothing with 30 pages of unbelievable garbage at the end.
I would read the second one, but I didn’t particularly enjoy the first one, and talked myself down from 2 stars to 1 star.
katrinaisabella's review
4.0
"How we fall apart" is a Young adult thriller based in a high end prestigious school, with a murder mystery, many secrets and not normally my type of book, however, I could not put this book down and read it within 3 hours.
You really do get pulled into this story to figure out why events have happened the way they are and the secrets of the 4 students involved. This story is told in a single pov of Nancy and while I think multiple pov's would have helped with the flow of this book, I do think it would have ruined the way we read the story. "How we fell apart" really turned into a little mystery game for me, I was really suspicious of everyone and at one point was convinced I knew who it was (shock, horror I was so wrong). I surprisingly enjoyed reading How we feel apart, it touches on a lot of important topics, so many plot twists that really kept me hooked. I still haven't figured out who Anon is yet though but I really hope there is a book 2, I am very curious as to what the golden trio did.
I will defiantly be grabbing a physical copy when I can, if you are looking for something a little different from your normal reads, something that fits in the realm of Pretty little liars, Gossip Girl and a quick read I highly recommend this book for you.
Thank you to Bloomsbury for providing me with an Arc of this book via Netgalley.
You really do get pulled into this story to figure out why events have happened the way they are and the secrets of the 4 students involved. This story is told in a single pov of Nancy and while I think multiple pov's would have helped with the flow of this book, I do think it would have ruined the way we read the story. "How we fell apart" really turned into a little mystery game for me, I was really suspicious of everyone and at one point was convinced I knew who it was (shock, horror I was so wrong). I surprisingly enjoyed reading How we feel apart, it touches on a lot of important topics, so many plot twists that really kept me hooked. I still haven't figured out who Anon is yet though but I really hope there is a book 2, I am very curious as to what the golden trio did.
I will defiantly be grabbing a physical copy when I can, if you are looking for something a little different from your normal reads, something that fits in the realm of Pretty little liars, Gossip Girl and a quick read I highly recommend this book for you.
Thank you to Bloomsbury for providing me with an Arc of this book via Netgalley.
angelod24's review
4.0
“How We Fall Apart” is Zhao’s debut YA novel. And what a debut it is. I hadn’t read anything else by Katie Zhao so I didn’t know what to expect. I’m so glad I requested an ARC from NetGalley and was provided one by the publisher (Thank you!).
The novel centers around a murder of the top ranked student at a private high school. When Nancy and her friends become prime targets due to the secret revealing menace known as the Proctor, the story really takes off. Dark academia ensues in this engaging debut.
I finished reading it in a couple of days and I’m looking forward to the next chapter in this story.
I think the story was very interesting. The only thing I wanted was more depth to the big reveal. However, the ending helped pique my interest right back up.
I’d definitely recommend this to others! Hopefully this can be adapted to a TV series
ekseaver's review
3.0
I wanted to like it, but I didn't. The characters felt flat, the plot lame. And maybe I'm just tired of YA "school murder" books, but do students have secrets that aren't inappropriate relationships with teachers/cheating on exams/having beaten someone up at some point/drugs?
luscath's review
4.0
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
Perfect for fans of dark academia, especially those who loved Pretty Little Liars!
I don't read much in the way of this genre, largely because it takes something special to hook me (I normally gravitate to fantasy) but this book had me immediately and the plot and pacing both kept me intrigued.
I didn't feel too strongly about any of the characters, but I felt like I didn't need to because the plot itself was so good. There was barely a moment in reading this to take a moment to breathe, because something was always happening! Even the flashbacks were intense.
The setting was brilliantly built. I love that it was such a high stress environment and that there was always so much going on in the background. It made the drama in the book so much more exciting and intense.
This was a really quick read for me and I really enjoyed it. But not sure I care enough about the characters to read a sequel if ever there is one. A really enjoyable read overall!
Perfect for fans of dark academia, especially those who loved Pretty Little Liars!
I don't read much in the way of this genre, largely because it takes something special to hook me (I normally gravitate to fantasy) but this book had me immediately and the plot and pacing both kept me intrigued.
I didn't feel too strongly about any of the characters, but I felt like I didn't need to because the plot itself was so good. There was barely a moment in reading this to take a moment to breathe, because something was always happening! Even the flashbacks were intense.
The setting was brilliantly built. I love that it was such a high stress environment and that there was always so much going on in the background. It made the drama in the book so much more exciting and intense.
This was a really quick read for me and I really enjoyed it. But not sure I care enough about the characters to read a sequel if ever there is one. A really enjoyable read overall!