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marvelouspyt's review against another edition
4.0
Title: Beware That Girl
Author: Teresa Toten
Format: Audiobook
Quick Take: When a scholarship girl and a wealthy classmate become friends, their bond is tested when a handsome young teacher separately influences the girls in order to further his less-than-admirable interests.
Thoughts: WTF was that ending! The book was pretty okay but that ending left much to be desired. It was a good ending but way too open-ended for me. Usually an open ending like that would work for me, because then I can "end" it how I want but there were way too many questions left unanswered for me. The ending left room for a sequel but this book was published in 2016 and its 2020 so that is obviously not happening.
The overall book had a good premise but it just kind of fell flat. It wasn't bad, wasn't great. just meh.
Ratings: 2.5 out of 5 Stars
Author: Teresa Toten
Format: Audiobook
Quick Take: When a scholarship girl and a wealthy classmate become friends, their bond is tested when a handsome young teacher separately influences the girls in order to further his less-than-admirable interests.
Thoughts: WTF was that ending! The book was pretty okay but that ending left much to be desired. It was a good ending but way too open-ended for me. Usually an open ending like that would work for me, because then I can "end" it how I want but there were way too many questions left unanswered for me. The ending left room for a sequel but this book was published in 2016 and its 2020 so that is obviously not happening.
The overall book had a good premise but it just kind of fell flat. It wasn't bad, wasn't great. just meh.
Ratings: 2.5 out of 5 Stars
libreroaming's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars. A pulpy ride that's more "Gossip Girl" than "Gone Girl," but the writing knows to keep the chapters short, the pace brisk, and that it's better to lead up to a tense or abusive scene than try to go explicit with it. It has the same pitfalls of using abuse and mental illness as catalysts for the next twist/character reveal rather than take a deep examination with them, but it's so prevalent in the genre it's more novel to find a story that deals with it otherwise.
elena_gilbert's review against another edition
2.0
This is in no way, shape, or form anything like Gone Girl. It is much closer to Gossip Girl, as many other reviewers have said. Not what I was expecting, not how it was marketed, not what I would recommend.
Everything in this book was underdeveloped. The plot felt like an afterthought, taking forever to get to the point and then dropping threads all over the place, while character development consisted of trips to Starbucks, fashion designer name drops and weird bath rituals ("After a while, she stopped replugging the tub and just let the water flow and drain at the same time. It was a metaphor, she thought, but didn't know exactly for what." SAME.) World building consisted of shallow interior decorating descriptions; Mark's apartment sounds like a late 80s/early 90s cliche that only Todd and Margo from the movie Christmas Vacation could love.
The housekeeper is originally from "Middle Europe" and she talks like zis, dahlink, when she is to be cleaning ze house or going walking of ze dog. *headdesk*
The character I thought was supposed to be a shady, unreliable narrator, turns out to be a normal person who isn't nefarious at all, and then suddenly there are all these "plot twists" that make little sense and aren't wrapped up in the end. I have little sympathy for these people's problems and dark secrets because they just aren't explained that well.
The portrayal of mental illness in this book is also kind of gross. I'll just leave it at that because spoilers.
If this had been intended as a light hearted beachy chick lit story that was never meant to make it past the final editing stages of NaNoWriMo, I would give it an extra star, but it is a published book that was intended as a YA thriller, and sadly, it isn't.
Everything in this book was underdeveloped. The plot felt like an afterthought, taking forever to get to the point and then dropping threads all over the place, while character development consisted of trips to Starbucks, fashion designer name drops and weird bath rituals ("After a while, she stopped replugging the tub and just let the water flow and drain at the same time. It was a metaphor, she thought, but didn't know exactly for what." SAME.) World building consisted of shallow interior decorating descriptions; Mark's apartment sounds like a late 80s/early 90s cliche that only Todd and Margo from the movie Christmas Vacation could love.
The housekeeper is originally from "Middle Europe" and she talks like zis, dahlink, when she is to be cleaning ze house or going walking of ze dog. *headdesk*
The character I thought was supposed to be a shady, unreliable narrator, turns out to be a normal person who isn't nefarious at all, and then suddenly there are all these "plot twists" that make little sense and aren't wrapped up in the end. I have little sympathy for these people's problems and dark secrets because they just aren't explained that well.
The portrayal of mental illness in this book is also kind of gross. I'll just leave it at that because spoilers.
If this had been intended as a light hearted beachy chick lit story that was never meant to make it past the final editing stages of NaNoWriMo, I would give it an extra star, but it is a published book that was intended as a YA thriller, and sadly, it isn't.
melissadelongcox's review against another edition
2.0
When I added this book on my To Read list and saw one of my favorite reviewers give it a less-than-stellar review (2 stars, in fact!), I had a moment of hesitation. I generally prefer to read things and make my own decisions about them, but seeing someone who's reviews I've more often than not agreed with give it such a low rating gave me pause. That said, the blurb was so intriguing that I really felt like this book would be worth the read.
First of all: fuck abuse - of ANY kind - as a plot device. Not only does it make me physically uncomfortable, but I also feel like it's so often used as a way to give characters some depth that otherwise wouldn't have any, and I don't like that. Make the characters important enough that they don't need abuse to be important. That really irked me.
Second: beginning this book, I was so intrigued! Between the blurb and the initial pages, I felt like this was going to be a twisty, thrilling read and that my favorite reviewer was off-base. Wrong. While mysterious Olivia, manipulative Kate, and the world they live in was interesting, I really found that adding Mark's character (and his love of abuse) just fucked it up. Instead of being interested in the story, I found myself cringing and wanting to put it down.
I finished the book wondering what I missed. When it ended, it just ... ended. They kill Mark, which didn't feel that surprising given everything leading to that scene, and then... they try to get rid of him? Their roles seem to reverse? I finished it like wait, that's the end of the book? Really? It was a disappointment, especially since in the beginning of the book, I really felt like it could be interesting.
In summary: I would not recommend this book. I gave it 2 stars because the blurb and beginning of the book really intrigued me, but couldn't rate it above that as the remainder of the story was a major let down.
Spoiler
And now, some spoilers.First of all: fuck abuse - of ANY kind - as a plot device. Not only does it make me physically uncomfortable, but I also feel like it's so often used as a way to give characters some depth that otherwise wouldn't have any, and I don't like that. Make the characters important enough that they don't need abuse to be important. That really irked me.
Second: beginning this book, I was so intrigued! Between the blurb and the initial pages, I felt like this was going to be a twisty, thrilling read and that my favorite reviewer was off-base. Wrong. While mysterious Olivia, manipulative Kate, and the world they live in was interesting, I really found that adding Mark's character (and his love of abuse) just fucked it up. Instead of being interested in the story, I found myself cringing and wanting to put it down.
I finished the book wondering what I missed. When it ended, it just ... ended. They kill Mark, which didn't feel that surprising given everything leading to that scene, and then... they try to get rid of him? Their roles seem to reverse? I finished it like wait, that's the end of the book? Really? It was a disappointment, especially since in the beginning of the book, I really felt like it could be interesting.
In summary: I would not recommend this book. I gave it 2 stars because the blurb and beginning of the book really intrigued me, but couldn't rate it above that as the remainder of the story was a major let down.
melissadelongcox's review against another edition
2.0
Abuse as a plot device is lame. This just isn't a good book, but it starts in such a way that gave me hope, hence the two stars.
kelseyoulater's review against another edition
3.0
Originally reviewed on thebasicbookbitch
Beware that Girl describes itself as being for fans of We Were Liars, The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl, a psychological thriller where the main characters are teenage girls and it takes place in the mega rich lives of New York's elite. That sounds like a pretty epic description right, which is why I picked up the book. Unfortunately I found the description of this book as a psychological thriller to be a little bit too generous.
Beware That Girl is told from two points of view, Kate who is a self confessed liar and has a very rocky history, and Olivia, a very wealthy it girl who's reliance on pills to help steady her mood makes her the perfect target to Kate who has decided to become best friends with her in order to use their friendship for Kate to get everything she has ever wanted in life, money, status etc.
Fans of Gossip Girl may well enjoy this book as it is a very easy read about the mega rich New Yorkers and the shenanigans they get up to, they even get a dog who they call Bruce! Now don't get me wrong, I am a massive fan of Gossip Girl so for me this wasn't actually that much of a deal breaker, it's just when something sells itself as being a thriller I expected something a lot darker than what was served.
This book also relies far too heavily on stereotypes. All of the girls featured in this book are what you would expect a New York girl who attends private school to be like and just come across as very flat characters. For me though, the biggest issue was when it came to the portrayal of Mrs Chen, a Chinese lady and Olivia's housekeeper. Everything from the way their body shape is described to the speech they used is so stereotypical I found it almost offensive.
However as I mentioned, this book is an easy enough read for anyone who likes things along the lines of Pretty Little Liars etc, and although most of the twists within the book were predictable it did have a couple that were very clever that I enjoyed.
Beware that Girl describes itself as being for fans of We Were Liars, The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl, a psychological thriller where the main characters are teenage girls and it takes place in the mega rich lives of New York's elite. That sounds like a pretty epic description right, which is why I picked up the book. Unfortunately I found the description of this book as a psychological thriller to be a little bit too generous.
Beware That Girl is told from two points of view, Kate who is a self confessed liar and has a very rocky history, and Olivia, a very wealthy it girl who's reliance on pills to help steady her mood makes her the perfect target to Kate who has decided to become best friends with her in order to use their friendship for Kate to get everything she has ever wanted in life, money, status etc.
Fans of Gossip Girl may well enjoy this book as it is a very easy read about the mega rich New Yorkers and the shenanigans they get up to, they even get a dog who they call Bruce! Now don't get me wrong, I am a massive fan of Gossip Girl so for me this wasn't actually that much of a deal breaker, it's just when something sells itself as being a thriller I expected something a lot darker than what was served.
This book also relies far too heavily on stereotypes. All of the girls featured in this book are what you would expect a New York girl who attends private school to be like and just come across as very flat characters. For me though, the biggest issue was when it came to the portrayal of Mrs Chen, a Chinese lady and Olivia's housekeeper. Everything from the way their body shape is described to the speech they used is so stereotypical I found it almost offensive.
However as I mentioned, this book is an easy enough read for anyone who likes things along the lines of Pretty Little Liars etc, and although most of the twists within the book were predictable it did have a couple that were very clever that I enjoyed.
marymoth's review against another edition
2.0
“My old man was a walking, talking master class. But in the end, the main thing I learned—the best thing—was never to bring a knife to a gunfight.”
Starting off by saying I had a huge slump, due to different personal reasons I didn´t even feel like reading, back to it though, a few months back, I saw this book in my local library and got really curious by the reviews, etc. It also hyped me up more the fact that I love thrillers, I find them really entertaining and love guessing.
This however, I felt more like I was watching a TV show where everyone was just being petty to one another and horny about one guy, as if the girls in the book had never seen a boy in their lives. I´M SERIOUS. The book revolved about this guy who somehow made everyone horny except the main character. RIGHT. Okay.
Anyways, basically Kate, our main character does not come from a privileged status as all the other girls, which is fine. I thought the author would explore more this point. She had a scholarship in every school she went to, and she wanted to go to Yale. So, being in the school she currently was on, somehow helped with that, she worked and lived in Chinatown, right before she meets Olivia Sumner. Which she ultimately USES to have a better place to live in and manipulates her to have what she wants.
Kate has a "dark" and "shameful" past, I wouldn´t categorize it like that if you ask my opinion. Anyways, she skips from school to school with scholarships, and makes people not say anything about her secret because Yale would *blow* up. Basically.
Olivia also has a "dark" past. Wow. Which could also potentially not get her into Yale. So what do both of them do? They manipulate each other to get into Yale. If you ask me, a bit too much work to get there, but WAIT. Gets better as the book goes on.
So anyways, horny gets better of all of them, which well, is to be expected after all of them just *drool* after him for the entirety of 300 pages.
This is when our sexy, manipulative, rich and educated boy comes into play. He complies to every one of them and things start going downhill after that. Now, if you have not read this book, spoilers ahead, I will have some SPOILER signs soon so you can click safely away if you haven´t read this.
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
You´ve been warned, seriously go if you plan on reading this book.
“Waiting was a tragicomedy. There was this whole absurdist, endless, excruciating quality to it. We distract ourselves in a million different ways to delude ourselves into thinking that we're not "waiting", because waiting is unendurable. Waiting has demands. It percolates with fear and potential rejection, and threatens you with despair... There's always a wisp of hope in the hopelessness...”
So, as I was saying, things start to go downhill with this dude. Why? Well he uses all of them. Basically "too sexy" to turn down. He uses the director, the head of administrations, the girls, all of them to get what he wants. He gets the information in regards to both, Olivia and Kate, which he uses to control them.
Olivia falls in love with him, by this point, Kate tries to warn her about him, to which she replies she is jealous. OML. *face palm* anyways, things continue to go on like that until Kate sees Olivia naked one day and sees hes been giving her scars and bruises. Olivia is still in love with him anyways, so things don´t end well with Kate.
In this point of the book is when we realize Mark is using Olivia to get to Kate his "ultimate obsession" and is threatening her to expose her secret to Kate, so she complies. Kate finds out about Olivia´s secret by herself so, not much of a surprise when she finally opens her eyes and refuses to give him Kate.
They both create a master plan which ends going to hell and Olivia accidentally kills Mark, which obviously means trouble for them, how do they solve it? They try to make it look like a perfect murder although, in my opinion and with the information i still have fresh, that wouldnt have been possible for a number of reasons. Meaning, DNA was all over him and the scene just wasn´t well planned, it was rushed. So basically? They make it look like a car crash, but: here´s the catch: he also goes into the river? how? did his corpse walk? Anyways! The last sloppy part, she calls the ambulance, which brings police, firefighters etc. Again, sloppy. Police would find out in real life. And then: gold pin. Turns out he had been investigated the whole time, which means: *drumroll* you guessed it! They did all that for nothing ( not that killing someone is excusable but you know what I mean).
So Kate end up hospitalized, and Olivia being the person that was the manipulator all along. WHAT?
So yeah, my final thoughts: I wouldn´t do all that just to get into Yale. The good news is though, they did get into Yale, still so much work just to get into Yale. I mean, the people I know, would not just kill someone to get into college. Anyways.
SERIOUS FINAL THOUGHTS: Marketing people did a good job, but ultimately its not what it promises. Too much drama, and tbh, not much of a thriler to me. Try The Girl On The Train or Sharp Objects if you want a good thriller. I didnt hate it, but well, its also and obviously not my favorite.
Starting off by saying I had a huge slump, due to different personal reasons I didn´t even feel like reading, back to it though, a few months back, I saw this book in my local library and got really curious by the reviews, etc. It also hyped me up more the fact that I love thrillers, I find them really entertaining and love guessing.
This however, I felt more like I was watching a TV show where everyone was just being petty to one another and horny about one guy, as if the girls in the book had never seen a boy in their lives. I´M SERIOUS. The book revolved about this guy who somehow made everyone horny except the main character. RIGHT. Okay.
Anyways, basically Kate, our main character does not come from a privileged status as all the other girls, which is fine. I thought the author would explore more this point. She had a scholarship in every school she went to, and she wanted to go to Yale. So, being in the school she currently was on, somehow helped with that, she worked and lived in Chinatown, right before she meets Olivia Sumner. Which she ultimately USES to have a better place to live in and manipulates her to have what she wants.
Kate has a "dark" and "shameful" past, I wouldn´t categorize it like that if you ask my opinion. Anyways, she skips from school to school with scholarships, and makes people not say anything about her secret because Yale would *blow* up. Basically.
Olivia also has a "dark" past. Wow. Which could also potentially not get her into Yale. So what do both of them do? They manipulate each other to get into Yale. If you ask me, a bit too much work to get there, but WAIT. Gets better as the book goes on.
So anyways, horny gets better of all of them, which well, is to be expected after all of them just *drool* after him for the entirety of 300 pages.
This is when our sexy, manipulative, rich and educated boy comes into play. He complies to every one of them and things start going downhill after that. Now, if you have not read this book, spoilers ahead, I will have some SPOILER signs soon so you can click safely away if you haven´t read this.
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
You´ve been warned, seriously go if you plan on reading this book.
“Waiting was a tragicomedy. There was this whole absurdist, endless, excruciating quality to it. We distract ourselves in a million different ways to delude ourselves into thinking that we're not "waiting", because waiting is unendurable. Waiting has demands. It percolates with fear and potential rejection, and threatens you with despair... There's always a wisp of hope in the hopelessness...”
So, as I was saying, things start to go downhill with this dude. Why? Well he uses all of them. Basically "too sexy" to turn down. He uses the director, the head of administrations, the girls, all of them to get what he wants. He gets the information in regards to both, Olivia and Kate, which he uses to control them.
Olivia falls in love with him, by this point, Kate tries to warn her about him, to which she replies she is jealous. OML. *face palm* anyways, things continue to go on like that until Kate sees Olivia naked one day and sees hes been giving her scars and bruises. Olivia is still in love with him anyways, so things don´t end well with Kate.
In this point of the book is when we realize Mark is using Olivia to get to Kate his "ultimate obsession" and is threatening her to expose her secret to Kate, so she complies. Kate finds out about Olivia´s secret by herself so, not much of a surprise when she finally opens her eyes and refuses to give him Kate.
They both create a master plan which ends going to hell and Olivia accidentally kills Mark, which obviously means trouble for them, how do they solve it? They try to make it look like a perfect murder although, in my opinion and with the information i still have fresh, that wouldnt have been possible for a number of reasons. Meaning, DNA was all over him and the scene just wasn´t well planned, it was rushed. So basically? They make it look like a car crash, but: here´s the catch: he also goes into the river? how? did his corpse walk? Anyways! The last sloppy part, she calls the ambulance, which brings police, firefighters etc. Again, sloppy. Police would find out in real life. And then: gold pin. Turns out he had been investigated the whole time, which means: *drumroll* you guessed it! They did all that for nothing ( not that killing someone is excusable but you know what I mean).
So Kate end up hospitalized, and Olivia being the person that was the manipulator all along. WHAT?
So yeah, my final thoughts: I wouldn´t do all that just to get into Yale. The good news is though, they did get into Yale, still so much work just to get into Yale. I mean, the people I know, would not just kill someone to get into college. Anyways.
SERIOUS FINAL THOUGHTS: Marketing people did a good job, but ultimately its not what it promises. Too much drama, and tbh, not much of a thriler to me. Try The Girl On The Train or Sharp Objects if you want a good thriller. I didnt hate it, but well, its also and obviously not my favorite.
bookslifeandeverythingnice's review against another edition
4.0
Beware that Girl isn't exactly the story that I thought it would be when I started the book, but it ended up being really good. The premise is intriguing. Kate and Olivia are the main characters. Both are mysterious and have secrets upon secrets. Which girl should we beware of? Initially I think I know who is "bad", but then subtle things made me question myself. And the introduction of a school staff member completely turns the story upside down. I liked that the setting was the rich entitled private school world without completely focusing on the money, but rathe the secrets, mystery, and dramatic suspense. I also really enjoyed all the twists and turns thrown at the reader. The writing was much more dark and intense than I expected from a YA psychological thriller. But since it was young adult, it made for a very quick read. I couldn't put down this intriguing yet slightly horrifying book. The ending is fitting, but I'm not sure if I liked it. Also, trigger warning for sexual assault and manipulation/ coercion. Overall, I recommend Beware That Girl for it's dramatic psychological thriller atmosphere set in an elite private school.