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sistershelves_fasya's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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
4.25
readscapsim's review against another edition
1.0
a trite mystery with a (half) decent plot execution that unfortunately doesn't make up for the mediocre writing or how unlikeable the characters were. others may enjoy it, but I guess it's a no for me.
thank you to PRH International for the ARC.
thank you to PRH International for the ARC.
bookingwithjanelle's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
5 reasons to read this book:
Genre - Who doesn’t love a whodunit? But when you add in teens/young adults, the abuse of alcohol, broken friendships and revenge plots… it creates the perfect combination for a book.
Social Media - Not to say that I’m not addicted to my social media (lol #bookstagram) but the characters in this book live and breathe their online personas and how many follows/likes they get. To the extreme that choices are made that can never be taken back.
Characters - The MC, all her friends AND frenemies are relatable. They can be empathized with, but they also have extreme personality traits that create chaos, make even small situations life or death and its so interesting to see how it all unfolds.
Writing Style - The book is so easy to get into, I read it in one sitting. I was entrenched in the mystery, in the jealousy & anger, in the hurt. Alvarez does a phenomenal job of making a YA story so captivating without making it too juvenile for a grown woman like me.
The “twist” - As I read, I was trying to figure out the bad guy of the story. Without spoiling anything…I was wrong, but also not. It was a bunch of small moments and small choices that allowed every piece of the puzzle to connect seamlessly
Genre - Who doesn’t love a whodunit? But when you add in teens/young adults, the abuse of alcohol, broken friendships and revenge plots… it creates the perfect combination for a book.
Social Media - Not to say that I’m not addicted to my social media (lol #bookstagram) but the characters in this book live and breathe their online personas and how many follows/likes they get. To the extreme that choices are made that can never be taken back.
Characters - The MC, all her friends AND frenemies are relatable. They can be empathized with, but they also have extreme personality traits that create chaos, make even small situations life or death and its so interesting to see how it all unfolds.
Writing Style - The book is so easy to get into, I read it in one sitting. I was entrenched in the mystery, in the jealousy & anger, in the hurt. Alvarez does a phenomenal job of making a YA story so captivating without making it too juvenile for a grown woman like me.
The “twist” - As I read, I was trying to figure out the bad guy of the story. Without spoiling anything…I was wrong, but also not. It was a bunch of small moments and small choices that allowed every piece of the puzzle to connect seamlessly
keziareads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
(Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Children’s UK for an eARC in exchange for an honest review)
This was a really good book! The plot had lots of layers that wove well together to create a suspense-filled mystery that had lots of twists and turns. I think the pacing throughout the book was great except for the last couple of chapters where things started to feel a little rushed and the mystery ended up being wrapped up pretty quickly. This is something I find happens in a lot of mystery novels and while it doesn’t impact the book too much, it is slightly frustrating to have all the motives etc thrown at you right at the end.
I really liked the main characters, how they were written and the different POVs as they were really easy to distinguish between (sometimes when reading multiple POVs, everything can get super confusing). As the plot develops, the perception you have of the main characters constantly switches. One chapter you think they must be innocent then the next they seem guilty and I really like how the author did this as it kept me hooked the entire time and left me questioning everything.
This was a really good book! The plot had lots of layers that wove well together to create a suspense-filled mystery that had lots of twists and turns. I think the pacing throughout the book was great except for the last couple of chapters where things started to feel a little rushed and the mystery ended up being wrapped up pretty quickly. This is something I find happens in a lot of mystery novels and while it doesn’t impact the book too much, it is slightly frustrating to have all the motives etc thrown at you right at the end.
I really liked the main characters, how they were written and the different POVs as they were really easy to distinguish between (sometimes when reading multiple POVs, everything can get super confusing). As the plot develops, the perception you have of the main characters constantly switches. One chapter you think they must be innocent then the next they seem guilty and I really like how the author did this as it kept me hooked the entire time and left me questioning everything.
cereadss's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
laura_is_fae's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I don't think I will ever shut up about Friends Like These now that I've read it. This book had me absolutely hooked from start to finish, and I'm not typically into mysteries and thrillers.
To start, I wasn't expecting the multiple person pov but it added a really fun aspect and I really enjoyed getting to understand what they were both going through throughout their entire ordeal. I really loved the added snippets throughout of the life of the victim leading up to "the event" as well. It made me feel like I might have more insight into the situation than the characters, and that maybe I knew more. I did NOT 😂 and that honestly made it even better! This is the kind of book the crazy teenage drama really works in, and I was completely eating it up. I wanted to know everything about everyone and was so incredibly invested in their lives I couldn't believe it. And some of the twists really managed to surprise me, which was a surprise in itself. I found myself gasping and trying to tell the characters things I thought I knew (at the risk at looking insane to everyone around me). It also adresses some serious and important topics in a way that I felt was done pretty well, and I always appreciate that in books. I really enjoyed the ending too, and how everything was tied up.
To start, I wasn't expecting the multiple person pov but it added a really fun aspect and I really enjoyed getting to understand what they were both going through throughout their entire ordeal. I really loved the added snippets throughout of the life of the victim leading up to "the event" as well. It made me feel like I might have more insight into the situation than the characters, and that maybe I knew more. I did NOT 😂 and that honestly made it even better! This is the kind of book the crazy teenage drama really works in, and I was completely eating it up. I wanted to know everything about everyone and was so incredibly invested in their lives I couldn't believe it. And some of the twists really managed to surprise me, which was a surprise in itself. I found myself gasping and trying to tell the characters things I thought I knew (at the risk at looking insane to everyone around me). It also adresses some serious and important topics in a way that I felt was done pretty well, and I always appreciate that in books. I really enjoyed the ending too, and how everything was tied up.
novelbloglover's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Book Review
Title: Friends Like These by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery
Rating: 4 Stars
The opening to Friends Like These was interesting and get didn’t capture my attention at all, so a strange combination. We are introduced to Jessica Sanchez and her boyfriend, Jake Healy as they spend the final days of summer break together before starting their senior year. Jessica is shy and focused already thinking about college, whereas Jake is carefree and little clingy. They end up attending the end of summer party thrown by Tegan Sheffield who also happens to be Jake’s ex and desperately wants to get back with him. Jess doesn’t like parties and Jake promises they will only stay for a little while and he won’t get too drunk but he quickly breaks these promises and when Jess says she is leaving in an hour with or without him, he continues to drink. Even when he is wasted he doesn’t really seem to care about Jess rather her reaction to seeing him in this state but that doesn’t stop in from sleeping with Tegan at the party and he is determined to hide this from Jess.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Jake not only sleeps with Tegan at the party, Tegan films it and broadcasts it live during the party so Jessica will see it. This deals a huge blow to Jessica since she has wondered many times whether Jake still had feelings for Tegan and this confirms it. Several things happen really quickly after this, around three in the morning Jess and her friends are driving home when they hit something in the car because Jessica is too devastated to concentrate on driving but they assume was a deer and they can’t have done much damage to it since there is little damage to the car and the animal is nowhere in sight. Jake awakes up the next morning with no memory of the night before only to be filled in by a friend and realise how badly he has screwed everything up. He attempts to speak to Jessica when she is going near his house and she tells him that they are through because he cheated on her and she won’t be forgiving him or taking him back at all, to add insult to injury the video and Jess’ reaction to it have been plastered all over the internet. After returning home Jessica learns that Tegan disappeared after the party and she can only assume it is because she wants to lay low after the stunt she pulled with Jake but the adults around her are beginning to get worried.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, the first school day after the party has arrived and Jake is determined to clear the air with Jessica but she wants nothing to do with him. He also knows something more happened with Tegan but he doesn’t really know what which was intriguing. Meanwhile, Tegan is still missing even though many people like Jessica don’t care about Tegan the fact that the police and FBI are now involved means something really serious has gone down but they all think it is to do with the video since it was a crime as Jake is only 17. However, I think it is much more than that and the synopsis does say that someone died the night of the party. I think that person was Tegan and the question is who killed her since she has a lot of enemies and right at the top are Jessica and Jake. We also get chapters set earlier in the summer from Tegan’s perspective as we see that she is cold and manipulative person but she is also going through a tough time with her mother and her mother’s constant worry about appearance being a former senator.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, rumours are beginning to fly about where Tegan has gone, for a little while people believed she might have run away or been in hiding because of the video but the more that passes means that something bad might have happened to Tegan. When Jake finally manages to get Jess to speak to him he wants her to hand in Tegan’s phone which he found in his truck since he has little memories of the night before and most of it has been filled in by friends. However, the longer Tegan is missing Jake is beginning to suspect that he did something bad to Tegan and he doesn’t know what it is. Jess also has these same thoughts since she knows Jake put another boy in the hospital once before and because of his drinking back then he had no memory of that event either and these suspicions are made worse when a body is discovered on the beach and Jess instinctively knows it is Tegan. A lot of what happened in part one was teenage drama and angst which I wasn’t keen on but there were a few elements leading up to Tegan’s disappearance that I was eager to see explored and understand why Tegan’s perspective was needed in the book and why it takes place so long before the rest of the book.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Jake and Jessica are going in different directions since Jake is Jake is panicking about whether or not the police are going to arrest him for something he can’t remember and Jess is trying to keep herself out of this mess as it is becoming bigger and bigger. We get a surprise when the body found on the beach turns out to be Shawna, Tegan’s friend rather than Tegan herself and things are starting to become a little clearer. In the past we learnt that Tegan and Shawna had a safe word that they would use if the other one was genuinely in trouble and we also learn that Shawna’s boyfriend, Marcus, isn’t only physically abusive towards her but he seems to have a thing for Tegan even though she hates him. Jess in the present manages to access Tegan’s phone deleting the messages she sent to Tegan earlier in the summer since it paints her in a bad light and sees one from Shawna the night she died using the code word but Jess doesn’t understand its meaning. It seems like Marcus potentially had a fight with Shawna that led to her uses the code word with Tegan even though she is missing and Marcus killed her causing him to flee. He might have even been the person that attacked and possibly killed Tegan but I need to see what really happened the night of the party to figure out who is really behind everything.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, the truth is finally beginning to come out when Tegan is found alive but in a coma inside her own house. We also get several new pieces of information when Jake is arrested for assaulting Brenden and asked about what happened to Tegan. Jessica is also arrested since Jake’s fingerprints are on Tegan’s phone and her are too as she didn’t wipe the phone down before Marcus came into the cave. The police believes they have been working together to get revenge on the people that bullied and harassed them on a daily basis. However, it soon comes out that Jessica was actually the person behind the bet in the first place since she spots Marcus coming on to Tegan and Shawna and Jessica both believe that Tegan is at fault. Rather than admitting to being scared of Marcus she claims she can get anyone she wants so Jessica makes her a bet to kiss Jake believing Jake to be completely loyal to her. Jessica obviously wasn’t expecting it to go so far as Tegan slept with Jake and stayed at the party afterwards, but Jake remembers Tegan claiming to be hurt but he can’t remember if it was him hurting her or someone else. It seems like these two are really deep in it now and the truth about what happened that night is going to have to come out sooner or later or the pair of them are going to end up in jail for this.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, we get to see everything come together and finally we understand what happened the night of the party and months prior to that and how a whole group of people were involved in it. This doesn’t have a happy ending as Jessica and Jake don’t get back together, one person is dead and several more are in prison for their actions. Overall, Friends Like These was a great contemporary, mystery with some amazing thriller elements to it. Honestly the top three people I had picked for Tegan’s attacker wasn’t even close and the reveal really surprised me in the end. I will definitely be checking out more of Alvarez’s work in the future and I looked forward to her future work.
katiemack's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.0
I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The mystery here--Where is Tegan? Who killed [character name removed for spoilers]?--is compelling enough that it would probably entertain fans of Karen McManus or Holly Jackson. For me, this didn't do enough to stand out in the plethora of YA mysteries that have come out in the last five years or so. The unreliable narrator trope makes the story more intriguing, but I didn't care what happened to the characters because everyone had at least one aspect that made them wholly unlikeable. I'm all for realism (no one is perfect), but they didn't have anything to make them interesting either. Plus, the suspension of disbelief asked of the reader is, well, almost too much to keep the story going.
The mystery here--Where is Tegan? Who killed [character name removed for spoilers]?--is compelling enough that it would probably entertain fans of Karen McManus or Holly Jackson. For me, this didn't do enough to stand out in the plethora of YA mysteries that have come out in the last five years or so. The unreliable narrator trope makes the story more intriguing, but I didn't care what happened to the characters because everyone had at least one aspect that made them wholly unlikeable. I'm all for realism (no one is perfect), but they didn't have anything to make them interesting either. Plus, the suspension of disbelief asked of the reader is, well, almost too much to keep the story going.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Murder
oracle_of_madness's review against another edition
3.5
Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this Arc!
Talk about toxic!! Whew... this was a wild ride and it had my head spinning with the possibilities in this intense small town thriller.
I think this was the point, but I didn't really like any of the characters. Plus, right from the start, the author throws the reader into the middle of one of the worst things that could happen at a party... or anytime, anywhere really.
When Jessica is ready to leave a huge summer party the TV suddenly turns on and she sits in horror watching her boyfriend hook up with her ex- best friend. This story continues with a missing persons case and much more. So be ready and hold on bc this does not slow down!
Out November 1, 2022!
Talk about toxic!! Whew... this was a wild ride and it had my head spinning with the possibilities in this intense small town thriller.
I think this was the point, but I didn't really like any of the characters. Plus, right from the start, the author throws the reader into the middle of one of the worst things that could happen at a party... or anytime, anywhere really.
When Jessica is ready to leave a huge summer party the TV suddenly turns on and she sits in horror watching her boyfriend hook up with her ex- best friend. This story continues with a missing persons case and much more. So be ready and hold on bc this does not slow down!
Out November 1, 2022!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Toxic friendship
More...