Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Ivies

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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cortanasreadingnook's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Gave this 4 ⭐️ solely because I actually enjoyed reading this and it took me out of my slump.

Mean Girls meets Scream Queens in this YA murder mystery stand alone. I think at this point I worship this genre because it’s one that I actually find exciting and Alexa Donne was the perfect choice of read for me at the moment. I l absolutely loved how chaotic the story and the characters were! This is the picture perfect cliché about a rich kids boarding school and a page turner with its fast-paced writing style with an impeccable drama-filled story escalating from just a

bunch of girls just trying to get into college into blackmail and murder.

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beckyremillard's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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ems_rxlibrary's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The book was a great mix of commentary on class, race, and college admissions mixed with a mystery/thriller. Parts of the mystery's conclusion were pretty obvious to me. But the final part wasn't as obvious.

I have to agree with the statement in the article from near the end but I think the obsession with Ivy League admissions is partly the students and partly the parents. It's gotten WAY out of control. I mean an Ivy League diploma depending on what you plan to do means almost nothing, and if you're not rich and don't get enough finical aid you're saddled with more debt when you could have gotten the same quality of education at certain state schools without all the debt. We need to stop this nonsense.

Overall a good book!

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phantastic's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This is the type of book that you’ll be thinking about long after you finish reading it. This story brings to attention many real-world issues embedded in the college admissions system and just how ruthless people can be when they chase after something they want.

No one is absolutely good, no one is absolutely evil, and people are always hiding parts of themselves from others. The characters are deeply flawed, and yet that’s what makes them realistic.

The Ivies does its job well, and I’ll certainly be left reflecting for a long time.

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onthesamepage's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I had a pretty good time with this. The characters were compelling, there was some very juicy drama, and the writing style was engaging. Some of the twists I saw coming, but others were a total surprise, which is always nice, especially because the author played with a few generalizations and managed to surprise me with the character growth.

Where this fell apart for me was the ending; both the motivation of the killer, and the way the reveal was set up, just didn't make sense to me.

Olivia thinks she knows who the killer is (she's wrong), finds the actual killer (who she doesn't suspect), tells them that she knows who it is, at which point the killer pulls a gun on her, even though she wasn't suspecting them. Just...why? They could have gotten away with it. I just didn't buy the way it happened.

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sniggy's review

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

so, i just finished this. there are a few things
1. the writing
it felt kind of forced to like connect with modern audiences. there were some weird words and phrases .

2. the plot
just like what!!???!??!? the plot was interesting to say the least. there were loads of things that were left unexplained. the things that were explained were just not explained well at all.

3. the love interest
what was happening with Ethan, i have no idea. like he was helping Olivia figure things out and then suddenly he was into Harvard and had been test taking for Emma's scam business. didn't like his character at all.

4. predictability
many of the subplots were predictable for me. like there was no surprise aspect at all.

5. the murderer
the motive was terrible. like did not make sense at all why that happened. mc was saying throughout the book that it's always the boyfriend and guess what? IT WAS THE BOYFRIEND!!!!!!!!!!

6. Olivia
Olivia's character was bland. it was giving pick me energy. saying things like 'i will never fit in' 'i will never be one of them' i'm not like them' like just shut up!!!

7.the names
the first thing i look at in a book is names. the names in this book were so basic. eg: Olivia, Avery, Sierra, Ethan, Paul, Emma, Tyler.

8. NOTHING HAPPENED!
also nothing happened. in most murder mysteries there are so many twists and turns but i felt like nothing really was happening. usually in books like these, there is so much information that you forget but not in this. all the 'MC almost getting killed' part was also bland and felt forced.

9. tropes
plus, all the basic murder mystery tropes were there.

10. just a me thing
covid-19 was mentioned in this. like its not a bad thing but it was kind of just glossed over. i think i just don't like it when authors put real life events into books.

apart from all that negativity i think the story was really fun and interesting and an out of the box idea.

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