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A review by amelia_m3llark
The Ivies by Alexa Donne
2.75
I was so invested in this book. It was so cleverly written, twisty, and ridiculous plot-wise in the best way. The whole concept of a murder mystery set in a boarding school with Mean Girls? I was fated to like The Ivies from the beginning. Also, I loved how obviously flawed all the characters were. The MC could truly trust no one, and everyone was hiding secrets of their own.
But speaking of the MC, Olivia, she really grated on my nerves at times. The entire 2 reasons Olivia is supposed to be likeable are because she’s poorer than everyone else at the school, and she did less shitty things to secure her own coveted Ivy League spot. Yet Olivia constantly gives her peers grief for what they had done. She probably would have helped her friends do all kinds of things too, but they decided to keep her out of it. And Olivia took part in some sabotage knowingly! This girl has no right acting so high-and-mighty because she betrayed/blackmailed less people.
But the real reason this book gets 2.75 stars from me is the ending. Man, this story felt so well thought-out and mysterious until that ending.Look, I had guessed Tyler was the murderer from the beginning. He just seemed like the type. What I was really eager to know was his motive. I don’t know what I was expecting. I thought it would be really cool if Tyler had been faking his stupidity all along and was really planning to overthrow Emma’s whole SAT business scheming thing. But instead Tyler killed Emma just for a good sob story on his RD essay? Couldn’t he just have paid someone besides Megan to write it for him? And seriously, that one line from him after the big reveal is too awful not to quote: “Do you know how hard it is to be a rich, above-average white guy in college admissions?” To say that with a straight face is a level of ignorance so astronomically high, it’s just cringeworthy to put into a book. I get that the backlash from bratty, undeserving kids and their families after a college rejection can become a huge problem, but if the author was going to try and turn this into a social commentary of sorts through Tyler, that was not the way to go.
Another grievance I have with this book is the lack of character development Olivia gets. The last 20 pages or so were just confusing. What did she learn from this entire experience? Apparently, to continue lying to everyone around her, except now on a bigger scale: Olivia’s dealing with the press, basically, and by extension, the general public. You’d think after all that meddling that Olivia did these past couple hundred pages, and how it all blew up in her face, that she would learn her lesson and stop pulling stunts like that. But she finishes this absolute mess of an ending by vowing to herself to continue lying, and also to “claw her way to the top,” whatever that means. Olivia got into the best college she could, given the circumstances. She cut off all the toxic people in her life, aka literally all her peers at Claflin. She had an entire YEAR to think back and reflect on her poor decisions throughout her senior year. Essentially, Olivia has had every opportunity to turn over a new leaf, but instead she is set on returning to her old ways with pretty much no explanation as to why. And does it pay off? Does Olivia’s stubborness come back to bite her in the butt? We’ll never know, because the book screeches to a halt in one of the most unsatisfying endings I’ve ever encountered in a piece of writing.
I know that was a lot, but I really did like the writing style of this author. I’m just reeling from that god-awful ending. Maybe she had a looming deadline to meet or something, because I sincerely want to believe that I can pick up another title by Alexa Donne and enjoy it much more than I enjoyed The Ivies.
But speaking of the MC, Olivia, she really grated on my nerves at times. The entire 2 reasons Olivia is supposed to be likeable are because she’s poorer than everyone else at the school, and she did less shitty things to secure her own coveted Ivy League spot. Yet Olivia constantly gives her peers grief for what they had done. She probably would have helped her friends do all kinds of things too, but they decided to keep her out of it. And Olivia took part in some sabotage knowingly! This girl has no right acting so high-and-mighty because she betrayed/blackmailed less people.
But the real reason this book gets 2.75 stars from me is the ending. Man, this story felt so well thought-out and mysterious until that ending.
Another grievance I have with this book is the lack of character development Olivia gets. The last 20 pages or so were just confusing. What did she learn from this entire experience? Apparently, to continue lying to everyone around her, except now on a bigger scale: Olivia’s dealing with the press, basically, and by extension, the general public. You’d think after all that meddling that Olivia did these past couple hundred pages, and how it all blew up in her face, that she would learn her lesson and stop pulling stunts like that. But she finishes this absolute mess of an ending by vowing to herself to continue lying, and also to “claw her way to the top,” whatever that means. Olivia got into the best college she could, given the circumstances. She cut off all the toxic people in her life, aka literally all her peers at Claflin. She had an entire YEAR to think back and reflect on her poor decisions throughout her senior year. Essentially, Olivia has had every opportunity to turn over a new leaf, but instead she is set on returning to her old ways with pretty much no explanation as to why. And does it pay off? Does Olivia’s stubborness come back to bite her in the butt? We’ll never know, because the book screeches to a halt in one of the most unsatisfying endings I’ve ever encountered in a piece of writing.
I know that was a lot, but I really did like the writing style of this author. I’m just reeling from that god-awful ending. Maybe she had a looming deadline to meet or something, because I sincerely want to believe that I can pick up another title by Alexa Donne and enjoy it much more than I enjoyed The Ivies.