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Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy to read and review!
This was a very enjoyable book for me. It definitely had that Mean Girls/Pretty Little Liars vibe happening. Backstabbing, deception, and - eventually - murder in an elite boarding school? Sign me up!
The story was fast-paced and exciting. As each new bit of information was uncovered, I had to keep reading to figure out what was going to happen next. There were definitely some clichés in the book with regards to the characters, but I think they fit the story well.
By the time we get all of the answers, I realized that I was able to correctly guess only a few. I wasn't blown away by the big reveal, but the motive was absolutely unexpected. Part of me wants to say I didn't like it and thought it was too unbelievable, but the author actually wrote that character so perfectly to fit what they did that I absolutely believed it.
All-in-all, this was a super fun read. I would have probably given it five stars except for one thing that distracted me throughout the entire novel. When it starts, it mentions how they are all waiting for emails that say, "Welcome to Harvard, class of 2025!" It is also said in various ways throughout the book that it specifically means they would be graduating from college in 2025. Since these are typically four-year degrees, it stands to reason that this is the class of 2021 (also reasonable, since this is when the book will be published). The events of the book take place in December of their senior year, so that would place them at December 2020. The book mentions COVID-19 and how it happened earlier that year (particularly mentioning an SAT or ACT test that took place that February before things shut down).
So why are there so many descriptions of scowls and lips and lipstick??? If they hadn't specifically mentioned the corornavirus and put the book in December 2020, it wouldn't have bothered me at all, but it kept sticking out like a sore thumb. I know various areas of the US handled the coronavirus different, but nearly every school I knew of in most states were still virtual at that time, and the ones that weren't had strict social distancing and mask mandates in place. Olivia shouldn't have been able to see everyone's lips.
(I know that is probably a weird thing to get stuck on, but I do think we are at a point in history right now where authors need to account for things like that if they are going to acknowledge COVID-19 and place their stories in this current timeline.)
Other than that, though, I thought it was great!
This was a very enjoyable book for me. It definitely had that Mean Girls/Pretty Little Liars vibe happening. Backstabbing, deception, and - eventually - murder in an elite boarding school? Sign me up!
The story was fast-paced and exciting. As each new bit of information was uncovered, I had to keep reading to figure out what was going to happen next. There were definitely some clichés in the book with regards to the characters, but I think they fit the story well.
By the time we get all of the answers, I realized that I was able to correctly guess only a few. I wasn't blown away by the big reveal, but the motive was absolutely unexpected. Part of me wants to say I didn't like it and thought it was too unbelievable, but the author actually wrote that character so perfectly to fit what they did that I absolutely believed it.
All-in-all, this was a super fun read. I would have probably given it five stars except for one thing that distracted me throughout the entire novel. When it starts, it mentions how they are all waiting for emails that say, "Welcome to Harvard, class of 2025!" It is also said in various ways throughout the book that it specifically means they would be graduating from college in 2025. Since these are typically four-year degrees, it stands to reason that this is the class of 2021 (also reasonable, since this is when the book will be published). The events of the book take place in December of their senior year, so that would place them at December 2020. The book mentions COVID-19 and how it happened earlier that year (particularly mentioning an SAT or ACT test that took place that February before things shut down).
So why are there so many descriptions of scowls and lips and lipstick??? If they hadn't specifically mentioned the corornavirus and put the book in December 2020, it wouldn't have bothered me at all, but it kept sticking out like a sore thumb. I know various areas of the US handled the coronavirus different, but nearly every school I knew of in most states were still virtual at that time, and the ones that weren't had strict social distancing and mask mandates in place. Olivia shouldn't have been able to see everyone's lips.
(I know that is probably a weird thing to get stuck on, but I do think we are at a point in history right now where authors need to account for things like that if they are going to acknowledge COVID-19 and place their stories in this current timeline.)
Other than that, though, I thought it was great!