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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.
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
chipwich's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
SPOILERS FOR SOME OF THIS BOOK AHEAD!!!
i am disappointed. and i mean that in a "worse-than-angry-parental-disappointment-you-know-you-could-do-better" voice. anyway yeah this book was average and didn't know what it wanted to be and yknow what i can sorta kinda deal with it because i liked some of the side characters. except for Jill. FUCK YOU JILL!! YOU TOOK UP MY ENTIRE PERFECT MYSTERY BOOK BECAUSE YOU HAD TO HAVE A GODDAMN LOVE TRIANGLE. NOT EVEN A TRIANGLE BECAUSE YOU ARE SO MUCH NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS YOU HAD TO HAVE LIKE A. A. UM. FUCK I DONT REMEBER THE NAMES OF SHAPES... A PENTAGON!! A LOVE PENTAGON. and of course your ex-maybe-i'm-your-bf did it. OF COURSE HE MF DID. AND I GUESSED IT 60 PAGES INTO THIS BOOK!!!! LITERALLY!!! I WAS ON PAGE 58 WHEN I WAS LIKE "lol, charming guy with secrets who had connections to everybody, it's Adam, how cute!" i feel bad for your first guy henry he was sweet as sugar and just wanted to be a reporter. not my fault you chose a murderer. can you tell i literally despise Adam he can choke on his (according to this book) ginormous schlong. I DONT EVEN FEEL BAD FOR JILL SHES NOT A GOOD PERSON SHE SHITS ON ALL OF HER FRIENDS AT ALL TIMES!!! she acts like her dead friend shaila is the worst ever after being a chicken on a thing for the Players and making Shaila drink 3 pints of vodka in a sauna. SHE LITERALLY ALMOST HAD TO GET HER STOMACH PUMPED AND YOU NEVER EVEN THANKED HER BECAUSE YOU HAD AN OLYMPIAD. STOP THAT BULLSHIT JILL!! STOP IT!! the 2.75 stars are because the Players were interesting and I liked Jared. also the fact that FOR ONCE a college subplot is backed up by "how do we pay for it??" and it feels like it actually matters for once. but yeah Jill don't let this review go to your already inflated ego!!!!! you're like if betty cooper from riverdale was a book character. thats right! i just compared you to riverdale! in fact, this entire book is comparable to riverdale! THAT IS NOT A COMPLIMENT! turns out HBO Max is making it into a TV show called The Player's Table. I'll watch it, but only because I wanna see if they can make Adam a better character. sometimes TV show adaptations are better, and I'm sorry some very butthurt book or nothing stans are going to get mad at me for saying that. yes im apologizing to myself. i deserve it after reading this book. WAIIIIT EDIT: HALSEY IS GONNA BE IN THIS SHOW. BAHHAHHAAHAH OKAY WATCHING IT THIS IS GONNA BE SO BAD IM EXCITED
i am disappointed. and i mean that in a "worse-than-angry-parental-disappointment-you-know-you-could-do-better" voice. anyway yeah this book was average and didn't know what it wanted to be and yknow what i can sorta kinda deal with it because i liked some of the side characters. except for Jill. FUCK YOU JILL!! YOU TOOK UP MY ENTIRE PERFECT MYSTERY BOOK BECAUSE YOU HAD TO HAVE A GODDAMN LOVE TRIANGLE. NOT EVEN A TRIANGLE BECAUSE YOU ARE SO MUCH NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS YOU HAD TO HAVE LIKE A. A. UM. FUCK I DONT REMEBER THE NAMES OF SHAPES... A PENTAGON!! A LOVE PENTAGON. and of course your ex-maybe-i'm-your-bf did it. OF COURSE HE MF DID. AND I GUESSED IT 60 PAGES INTO THIS BOOK!!!! LITERALLY!!! I WAS ON PAGE 58 WHEN I WAS LIKE "lol, charming guy with secrets who had connections to everybody, it's Adam, how cute!" i feel bad for your first guy henry he was sweet as sugar and just wanted to be a reporter. not my fault you chose a murderer. can you tell i literally despise Adam he can choke on his (according to this book) ginormous schlong. I DONT EVEN FEEL BAD FOR JILL SHES NOT A GOOD PERSON SHE SHITS ON ALL OF HER FRIENDS AT ALL TIMES!!! she acts like her dead friend shaila is the worst ever after being a chicken on a thing for the Players and making Shaila drink 3 pints of vodka in a sauna. SHE LITERALLY ALMOST HAD TO GET HER STOMACH PUMPED AND YOU NEVER EVEN THANKED HER BECAUSE YOU HAD AN OLYMPIAD. STOP THAT BULLSHIT JILL!! STOP IT!! the 2.75 stars are because the Players were interesting and I liked Jared. also the fact that FOR ONCE a college subplot is backed up by "how do we pay for it??" and it feels like it actually matters for once. but yeah Jill don't let this review go to your already inflated ego!!!!! you're like if betty cooper from riverdale was a book character. thats right! i just compared you to riverdale! in fact, this entire book is comparable to riverdale! THAT IS NOT A COMPLIMENT! turns out HBO Max is making it into a TV show called The Player's Table. I'll watch it, but only because I wanna see if they can make Adam a better character. sometimes TV show adaptations are better, and I'm sorry some very butthurt book or nothing stans are going to get mad at me for saying that. yes im apologizing to myself. i deserve it after reading this book. WAIIIIT EDIT: HALSEY IS GONNA BE IN THIS SHOW. BAHHAHHAAHAH OKAY WATCHING IT THIS IS GONNA BE SO BAD IM EXCITED
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Grief, and Infidelity
plantbasedbride's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I wanted to love this rich-kid high school mystery, billed as Gossip Girl-esque, but sadly it fell flat.
Universally awful characters treating each other badly with a dash of a very predictable reveal and red herring, I found myself passively consuming the story while impatiently waiting for my suspicions to be confirmed.
There was clearly an attempt here to explore privilege in education (a very topical discussion after the Aunt Becky ordeal) as well as clique-based bullying and hazing, but it was sloppily done. I think what frustrated me most was how obvious Goodman was about framing this story as feminist without doing the work to include any nuance whatsoever or introspection on the part of the female protagonist and her participation in and reinforcement of the toxic culture created by the players.
Overall, They Wish They Were Us had elements of an intriguing story but was ultimately disappointing.
Universally awful characters treating each other badly with a dash of a very predictable reveal and red herring, I found myself passively consuming the story while impatiently waiting for my suspicions to be confirmed.
There was clearly an attempt here to explore privilege in education (a very topical discussion after the Aunt Becky ordeal) as well as clique-based bullying and hazing, but it was sloppily done. I think what frustrated me most was how obvious Goodman was about framing this story as feminist without doing the work to include any nuance whatsoever or introspection on the part of the female protagonist and her participation in and reinforcement of the toxic culture created by the players.
Overall, They Wish They Were Us had elements of an intriguing story but was ultimately disappointing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying and Sexual assault
Moderate: Death, Blood, and Infidelity
alicialoebl's review against another edition
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I found the ending predictable but it still didn't make sense to me. Good twists and turn and exciting.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Rape, and Sexism
Minor: Body shaming and Bullying
sarah984's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book was just not very good. In a lot of ways, it felt like the author wanted to write a darker book but had boxed herself into YA, so she keeps intimating that terrible things had happened but then all of the things are kind of standard hazing situations. (Yes that's still bad, but not as apocalyptic as it's made to sound for most of the book) The secret society is also just sort of silly - a bunch of answer keys that could change at any time and some social connections they would have anyway. Nothing worth the way all the kids and adults treat it in the story.
The murder mystery portion is very stupid because there is a character who is always acting suspicious and every clue points to them but no one ever suspects them which makes it extremely obvious.
There's sort of an attempt at feminism in terms of guys controlling everything and forcing worse hazing on the girls but we're only ever told this directly in narration, it's not really shown in the challenges that happen on-page. The one explicitly bad thing that happens isn't part of a challenge, and when the main character actually does witness something that affects a girl more she is only upset about it because her brother is involved.
The murder mystery portion is very stupid because there is a character who is always acting suspicious and every clue points to them but no one ever suspects them which makes it extremely obvious.
There's sort of an attempt at feminism in terms of guys controlling everything and forcing worse hazing on the girls but we're only ever told this directly in narration, it's not really shown in the challenges that happen on-page. The one explicitly bad thing that happens isn't part of a challenge, and when the main character actually does witness something that affects a girl more she is only upset about it because her brother is involved.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Vomit
Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Medical content, and Sexual content
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