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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
you know what. i respect the fact that the conclusion of this was just her accepting that she’s a terrible person. because she is! glad she’s self aware about it!
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a pretty good mystery book. All the characters are messed up in their own way. Really shitty friends if you think about it. The flashbacks were a little repetitive which is why this wasn’t a higher score for me
“Sometimes, you really didn’t have to lift a finger to get exactly what you wanted. Sometimes, all you had to do was sit back and do nothing.”
The East House Seven: the tightest-knit, most popular group of friends that the prestigious Duquette University has to offer. That is, of course, until seven turned into six when Heather was brutally murdered. Since graduation, the remaining friends were scattered to the winds. Jess has always felt that she is second best, nondescript, distinctly ordinary, despite all her efforts to be the best, the prettiest, the most successful. She is determined to put her broken self behind her and be the object of everyone's envy. Now, their 10-year reunion is just around the corner, and Heather's brother will do anything for answers.
How can I describe my love for this book? Maybe this will be best: when I read the very first line, I picked up a pencil and decided that this book needed to become the first book I ever annotated on my first read. It opens with, "Your body has a knowing." That haunting tone continues and expands through the entire book as we unravel through two timelines what happened to Heather, and who these people really are.
I found all of our characters so fascinating and fleshed out, but Jess especially so. Though our characters are morally gray and sometimes over the top, Jess resonated with me on a primal level I wasn't expecting. Her drive and hubris, the amount that she lies to herself, and her unending dismay in her own perceived failures - these are all things I could relate to deeply. Don't we all just want what we think we deserve? Jess is a character that has built her entire life on the feelings that we feel that we are not allowed to feel, or speak out loud that we do. She feels that she's blended into the background her whole life and wants to break free of that - until opportunities arise where she can use her passivity to her unfair advantage.
The other characters are quickly infatuated with each other and form a found family they depend upon for all of their time at university. Their connection is the type you only form when you're young, that instant love that makes each person part of yourself. No matter how much or how little screen time each character got, they all felt extremely real with their own motivations and outside lives. Winstead also does something unique and allows characters other than Jess to have their own chapters when it's their time to speak, which brings a whole different sort of perspective to the group and the plot as they each have their own warped idea of everything around them. My favorite character other than Jess was Coop. The relationship between the two of them was so addictive and decadent, and I would die to read the chapters of them that were left out of the book. Mint was also particularly interesting to read about.
Winstead described a writing style she was hoping to emulate as feeling "like a panic attack". Through short chapters that flip back and forth between timelines and a narrative that indulges in the perspective character's intrusive thoughts, that definitely comes across. The breakneck pace lends itself not only to readability but to that sense of unease and impatience. The narrative circles the drain as we unpeel layer after layer of both plot and character. We additionally get an intense sense of nostalgia as Jess looks back on her college days as a magical time where she was as close as ever to finally being the best. They're those light-soaked days one can't help but long for years after the fact, especially because one can't return to them. She also perfectly captures the Southern Ivy university setting, and I say that as someone who lives where the actual Duquette was originally from.
That's not to mention the main pitch of this book: the mystery itself. In almost an Agatha Christie sort of way, the spotlight is shifted to each character in turn as each of them had something to gain from Heather's death. Each chapter gives a new piece of the puzzle as to what happened that night and who wanted what. I am not the only one who was left guessing until the very last page, and I couldn't be more astonished or pleased at the ending.
Overall, this is my favorite book that I've read this year, and my favorite book I've read in a long time. I will recommend this to anyone and everyone, but especially those who want to read about the question Winstead wanted to study in this story: "Why are people so attracted to things that hurt them?"
The East House Seven: the tightest-knit, most popular group of friends that the prestigious Duquette University has to offer. That is, of course, until seven turned into six when Heather was brutally murdered. Since graduation, the remaining friends were scattered to the winds. Jess has always felt that she is second best, nondescript, distinctly ordinary, despite all her efforts to be the best, the prettiest, the most successful. She is determined to put her broken self behind her and be the object of everyone's envy. Now, their 10-year reunion is just around the corner, and Heather's brother will do anything for answers.
How can I describe my love for this book? Maybe this will be best: when I read the very first line, I picked up a pencil and decided that this book needed to become the first book I ever annotated on my first read. It opens with, "Your body has a knowing." That haunting tone continues and expands through the entire book as we unravel through two timelines what happened to Heather, and who these people really are.
I found all of our characters so fascinating and fleshed out, but Jess especially so. Though our characters are morally gray and sometimes over the top, Jess resonated with me on a primal level I wasn't expecting. Her drive and hubris, the amount that she lies to herself, and her unending dismay in her own perceived failures - these are all things I could relate to deeply. Don't we all just want what we think we deserve? Jess is a character that has built her entire life on the feelings that we feel that we are not allowed to feel, or speak out loud that we do. She feels that she's blended into the background her whole life and wants to break free of that - until opportunities arise where she can use her passivity to her unfair advantage.
The other characters are quickly infatuated with each other and form a found family they depend upon for all of their time at university. Their connection is the type you only form when you're young, that instant love that makes each person part of yourself. No matter how much or how little screen time each character got, they all felt extremely real with their own motivations and outside lives. Winstead also does something unique and allows characters other than Jess to have their own chapters when it's their time to speak, which brings a whole different sort of perspective to the group and the plot as they each have their own warped idea of everything around them. My favorite character other than Jess was Coop. The relationship between the two of them was so addictive and decadent, and I would die to read the chapters of them that were left out of the book. Mint was also particularly interesting to read about.
Winstead described a writing style she was hoping to emulate as feeling "like a panic attack". Through short chapters that flip back and forth between timelines and a narrative that indulges in the perspective character's intrusive thoughts, that definitely comes across. The breakneck pace lends itself not only to readability but to that sense of unease and impatience. The narrative circles the drain as we unpeel layer after layer of both plot and character. We additionally get an intense sense of nostalgia as Jess looks back on her college days as a magical time where she was as close as ever to finally being the best. They're those light-soaked days one can't help but long for years after the fact, especially because one can't return to them. She also perfectly captures the Southern Ivy university setting, and I say that as someone who lives where the actual Duquette was originally from.
That's not to mention the main pitch of this book: the mystery itself. In almost an Agatha Christie sort of way, the spotlight is shifted to each character in turn as each of them had something to gain from Heather's death. Each chapter gives a new piece of the puzzle as to what happened that night and who wanted what. I am not the only one who was left guessing until the very last page, and I couldn't be more astonished or pleased at the ending.
Overall, this is my favorite book that I've read this year, and my favorite book I've read in a long time. I will recommend this to anyone and everyone, but especially those who want to read about the question Winstead wanted to study in this story: "Why are people so attracted to things that hurt them?"
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I don't get it, sister! I really don't! Lol
Towards the end, I felt like I was reading a romance book, not a thriller. Tf?!
Towards the end, I felt like I was reading a romance book, not a thriller. Tf?!
I really liked this one!! the ending was kind of unsatisfying but satisfying at the same time