Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Ivies by Alexa Donne

12 reviews

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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gabriella_l's review

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dark mysterious 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

5.0

i read this book ages ago and i still think about it, amazing plot, twists, and storyline. highly recommend 

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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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jackie_jackman's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a great book. It kept me engaged and turning pages until the very end. The one qualm I had, that is really just a preference for me is that the protagonist is not a good person. I learned that I don't like trying to root for a character who essentially isn't a nice or decent person.

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annieslibrary's review

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emotional tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5


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tripwired's review

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dark funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I LOVEDD THIS BOOK! it was SO bizzare but in a good way if you know what i mean. for all my A2C people this is for you. <during tyler´s affirmative action monologue at the end i was laughing so hard.> in the beginning, i had my doubts, seeing that the tropes incorporated in this book are tired and overused, but i realized that the entire point is for the book to be crazy and impossible. once i stopped with my annoying ´this would never happen in real life´ attitude i loved it. if you´re going to read this book, make sure you´re not in the mood for a dark, intense, brilliantly plotted mystery, but more of a wtf this book is actually insane mood. 

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isabella_ramensky's review

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funny mysterious reflective tense 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

4.0

So I read this book because of Alexa’s youtube channel and was not disappointed. 

I am a little younger than the girls in this book and go to school in America so I related to them on a lot of levels. College stuff and whatnot. 
A lot of the plot twists were predictable but not in a bad way, in a everything fits together way. And figuring it out was fun. 

I thought some of the slang fell a bit flat. Considering the author is older than her characters it makes sense though. mostly I laughed and cringed a tad when something felt off. only happened a few times though. 



SPOILERS BELOW:

I liked how you still didn’t really know who it was until Olivia found Tyler’s computer. 
On that note though, I got while reading that he mentioned Emma being strangled and it was a little infuriating watching Olivia not notice. I feel like she did that a lot which makes sense as a character thing I guess but still.

Also I ended up loving Avery (which I didn’t expect) even though her getting away unscathed and going to Princeton annoyed me so much. 

I was pretty disappointed in what happened with Ethan. I mean I guess that was the point but I really liked how he and Olivia worked together. I mean he was a little cringy and the Harry Potter line was weird considering the age of the characters. Nobody talks about it super much.

I wasn’t super satisfied with Tyler’s motives and confession either. Not sure why, but something was missing. <spoiler end>

Also, I liked Olivia and the detective’s conversations. 



Overall I really liked this book.

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spookystag's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0


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patandbooks's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I really enjoyed this book! I loved all the Ivies even though they're unlikable, messed up people. They are smart, cunning and brutal. I loved reading about how they sabotaged their competitors, most of the time in the most subtle ways. There was some cringey dialogue but overall, it was a great read. The main character Olivia was great to read from. She's one of the Ivies but she is the most different in status/standing. That last chapter was so great, too. It felt like an authentic ending for Olivia.

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rexreads's review

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dark funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really like a lot of it, but after the false ending it felt to me that the author tried to do too much and while I followed what was going it felt a little all over the place. But I still LOVED the book and the situation! So creative. Wish there had been better LGBTQ rep and any disability rep at all.

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