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A review by poppyjessica
Friends Like These by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
4.0
Jennifer Lynn Alvarez's new novel 'Friends Like These' is an immediately gripping thriller, starting with the end of summer party and descending into a twisted web of sex, drugs and murder. Jess and Jake are two of our narrators, who are a blissfully in love couple about to start their senior year. At Jake's insistence, they attend a huge end of summer party at Tegan's house, your classic popular rich girl who also happens to be Jess' ex-friend and Jake's ex-girlfriend. What could go wrong? I do not want to give too much away about what happens as the party (the blurb describes it as a 'prank gone wrong') but Tegan is missing after the party and Jake is in the frame for it...
An enjoyable feature of the narrative is that, despite being missing, we get to read chapters from earlier in the summer from Tegan's viewpoint. It certainly makes us care slightly more about her fate, even if she is portrayed as a completely horrible person. The story as a whole kept me guessing and I was surprised by the overall 'culprit' at the end of the story (even if I am not convinced that conclusion made complete sense, but it was fun). Jess and Jake narrate the majority of the story and are an interesting pair who make some pretty ridiculous decisions, but again that is half then fun!
Overall, this is a twisty thriller with some surprises along the way. I wad gripped and read it super quickly so definitely plan to look out for more novels by this author in the future. 4 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
An enjoyable feature of the narrative is that, despite being missing, we get to read chapters from earlier in the summer from Tegan's viewpoint. It certainly makes us care slightly more about her fate, even if she is portrayed as a completely horrible person. The story as a whole kept me guessing and I was surprised by the overall 'culprit' at the end of the story (even if I am not convinced that conclusion made complete sense, but it was fun). Jess and Jake narrate the majority of the story and are an interesting pair who make some pretty ridiculous decisions, but again that is half then fun!
Overall, this is a twisty thriller with some surprises along the way. I wad gripped and read it super quickly so definitely plan to look out for more novels by this author in the future. 4 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.