Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman

8 reviews

thissagreads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-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

1.75

A YA mystery for sure, but at times I was confused about the characters and their roles. There were a lot of names bounced around and the mains character started to annoy me with keeping all these secrets to herself. In my opinion, this book would’ve been better had there been clearer “game” instructions and there was a lot of internal thoughts from the main character, that I wanted to just tell her to shut up and continue on with the story! Lol because when she went down a rabbit hole of thoughts it became such a slow read. Towards the end the book picked up thankfully, so it wasn’t all a drag.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Sexual assault

Minor: Drug use

maggie_hamel's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death, Alcohol, Medical content, Grief, and Drug use

amyluck's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Cursing, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Vomit, Sexual assault, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, and Grief

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Vomit, Violence, and Drug use

Moderate: Sexual violence and Adult/minor relationship

cepbreed's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious

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

4.0

Why is it always the private schools in the North east?? Rich people are crazy. I really enjoyed this book and honestly was inspired to write a little based on its plot, and shocking applicability to my hometown. The plot twist is predictable, but when the twist is done well that's never a bad thing. I found out by chance that Sydney Sweeney will be starring in and producing an adaptation through this app actually and I'm so excited. I don't know if everything is confirmed yet, but I hope they host an open call. Speaking of the cast Halsey is going to be in it and I bet she'll play Rachel, to be frank she looks wayyy too old to play a teenager. I was unable to put this book down and finished it in one day, at 1 am on a school night to be specific, so I cannot recommend it more. I just know these kids listen to a shit ton of Kanye.

Songs: 

• Heartless - Kanye
• National Anthem - Lana Del Rey 
• Royals - Lorde

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Cursing, Death, Bullying, Classism, Drug use, Murder, Sexism, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Sexual content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Pedophilia

emily_mh's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

It is not often I come across a book that I don't like a single thing about, but unfortunately They Wish They Were Us was one of these. Nothing happens in this book. There is no proper investigation as you would expect in a mystery/thriller book, and no character development. I couldn't stand most of the characters. Jill herself is so judgemental it's gross, and her friends are horrible

and are redeemed without doing anything to earn it

. The "Players" plot line is the ONLY plot line for half of this book, and then half of the plot line for the remainder of the book and it just wasn't interesting. There was an attempt at an analysis of misogyny within hazing but it didn't really go anywhere. I was really disappointed that the book turned out the way it did as I've been looking forward to reading it for a while. Regardless, I am still interested in reading They'll Never Catch Us as the premise sounds interesting and this book was only Goodman's debut.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Blood, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Confinement, and Misogyny

Moderate: Cursing, Grief, Drug use, Alcohol, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Violence, Physical abuse, Child death, Murder, and Death

Minor: Drug abuse, Car accident, Ableism, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Death of parent, Cancer, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Torture, Self harm, Antisemitism, and Adult/minor relationship

diifacto's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Misogyny, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual assault

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.

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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