Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - The Ivies

Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

phantastic's review

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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just_a_bibliophile's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.5

Murder mystery in an elite private boarding school? Check. A group of terrifyingly ambitious students who will do anything to get into the college of their dreams? Check. The Ivies is a recipe for disaster. And I loved it.

The Ivies, set in the ambitious boarding school of Clafin, follows a group of determined seniors - known as the Ivies - aspiring to get into their ideal Ivy League colleges. Shortly into the book, a member of the Ivies is found murdered after being accepted into Harvard, bringing about the key question: just what would someone do to bring about their own college acceptance?

As the story progresses, our narrator Olivia, another member of the Ivies, (naturally) begins to take the murder investigation into her own hands. This leads to her discovering a whole host of (rather extreme, crazy, and bizarre) events and actions which have been committed by her peers, massively amping up the incredibly mysterious atmosphere created throughout the story.

While we did have our YA-typical cliché characters, with the rich queen bee and her entourage, the scholarship student, and so forth, the characters were explored in such a way that they didn't come across as 'flat' or the likes at all (which is always exciting in a book, isn't it?). I thought Avery's character was particularly intriguing, as despite her queen bee exterior, she seemed to be a lot more complicated as we found out more about her. While Margot appeared to be more of a dull yes-person with little personality, Sierra also turned out to be quite a well developed character, with her involvement in the Ivies and her own reasons behind her ambitions. All of the Ivies put together made a crazy interesting story, adding on to the mysterious tension which I do so love.

As for Olivia, our main character, I thought her POV was well written as the story's narrative. She's pretty much your standard 'scholarship girl' in YA books: smart, seemingly nice enough, wants to 'fit in', etc. I didn't think there was a great deal of character development for her, apart from the changes in her relationships, but I did enjoy hearing her perspective throughout as she discovered more.

It was fast paced and mysterious, with incredibly clever foreshadowing utilised during the story, forcing me to question each and every character and their motives. The twists and turns in the novel were meticulously placed throughout, definitely keeping me guessing until the very end. Ultimately, The Ivies is well worth a read for any YA mystery fans, or just anyone craving the drama and tension of these ambitious private boarding schools.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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aichaa's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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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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its_madi's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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dream_in_pastel's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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hanghuhn's review against another edition

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emotional sad

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

I don't know anything about college/university and schools in the US. I don't know why they need to write essays for the applications and also, the whole concept of elite universities, at least the elite universities in the US, is foreign to me. Although I also study at an "elite university" (excellence university) in Germany, from what I gather, it's completely different.
So I don't know how realistic this boarding school/applying to university in this book is. The protiagonist are mostly not likeable, they are rich kids who think they can get anything what they want. Maybe there are too many clichés, but we all know that rich people behave badly and think they are the best and can get what they want without consequences.
And than there is this schoolarship girl, Olivia, at this elite boarding school. She dreams of going to Harvard since she was a child, but doesn't have the money and background all the others at her school have. The Ivies, a group of mean girls, takes her under their wing and manipulates the girl who tries her best to fit in. So she falls for the Ivies. She does things that are not okay, but the rest of the Ivies do worse things.
There are secrets and scams, money flows between the rich kids, they cheat on exams, but hey, they wont get caught or get any punishment. Their families have connections, money, lawyers.
And than one of the Ivies is dead. Murdered. Olivia is scared. What if it's one of her supposed friends? Because the dead friend got into Harvard and Avery, the leader, was rejected. And Olivia got into Harvard, too, but keeps this from Avery. Because of the pact that the Ivies made. One girl for each elite university.
Olivia is determined to solve this murder. She has help from the boy she has a crush on, Ethan.
Olivia digs deep and although she receives threats to stop or else, she wont stop. She wants to know if the Ivies kept secrets from her and why. She thought they were her friends, but thankfully, she starts to question their behaviour. But then, especially Avery is nice to her again and it seems like she isn't that bad.

I've read an Amazon review about this book where the reviewer says that the book is racist because of the way the author talks about all those rich kids – they are white BTW (with the exception from Sierra, one of the Ivies). The reviewer says that it seems that racism is okay if it's against white. Well, there is no racism against white people. It's called discrimination, but not racism. And maybe some people may feel a bit offended, but than it may be because you are on of those white, rich kids who can get whatever they want without any consequences, punishment and so on. Maybe you should ask yourself why you feel offended.

I liked the book, not the things the Ivies did. But I liked that Olivia got out stronger.

A few words about Olivia and Ethan: At first I thought they would be great together, as a pair. But Ethan turns out to be just like the rest. Not because he did bad things, well, he did. He participated in Emmas SAT scam. But otherwise he seems to be harmless. But his apology towards Olivia, or his so-called apology ... I'm glad that Olivia stood up for herself and didn't let her crush blind her. It isn't always necessary for a girl in a YA novel to get together with her crush. It would have been a nice ending, but Olivia didn't need Ethan or any boyfriend.

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