Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Other People's Clothes

For everything I did understand about this books (competition between friends, the line between female friendship and obsession, art as performance, the media's fascination with female murder victims, etc) there were a lot of choices I felt distracted by, especially as the mystery is unraveling in the last 100 pages or so. However, I really haven't read anything like this ever and it's startling to me how much I enjoyed the thriller aspects of it.

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saranelson316's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

If you are a plot-driven reader…run. I nearly DNF’d after about 100 pages, but was sucked in by many positive reviews about the twists.

The book is incredibly slow paced, only picking up in the last 50 pages or so. Much of the book is endless exposition that seems to go nowhere or is loosely tied to the plot. It read like the author was trying to reach a word count and was just throwing random sentences together.

The description of the book itself is about two girls who develop an elaborate night club, when in reality, very little of the book involves the night club. Many pages are dedicated to Zoe developing bulimia, just to have it disappear with no real effort in the next chapter. To me it seemed like much of the plot just served to barely prop up the twists.

One twist is predictable, and just falls flat after the long exposition. The final twist is out of nowhere and doesn’t leave any room for Zoe or the reader to have any kind of closure. I even had to Google if the twist was actually what I thought it was because it was so random.

If you are a vibes person, you will likely love this. I am a plot person and really struggled. Even when the plot picked up it was still covered in random exposition.

I gave the book 2.5 stars because it does an excellent job at creating a vibe. The author also does a great job in making you question each character and their motive. This is part of what makes the twists so disappointing, the author sets up that the twists could really be anything, only to pick obvious or random options.

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amgarrido's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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chlomonte's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

picked up because i love berlin & will read anything set there, and i love stories about uni students and female friendships. fell flat for me, i didn't like or connect with zoe at all and thought other characters like hailey, constance, even mathias were much more interesting. i hate when the narrator is essentially just telling us about other people and that's what this whole book revolves around (suppose for a book called "other people's clothes" i should have seen that coming). hailey's obsession with law & order, amanda knox, and ivy's death made for a believable backdrop for a tense and mysterious final act. ultimately just wasn't my vibe but i can see why others enjoyed it

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callikat's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

What an amazing read! I feel like a very specific type of person will like this (20-something girls looking for their identities, mixed up in toxic friendships) but I absolutely loved it. The dynamic between Zoe and Hailey is so well crafted; the constant one-upping, the jealousy, the manic desire to be a Great Artist (mostly Hailey for that last one) creates such tension - both of the girls are like ants in a jar, as they spend a lot of their time isolated from the other students, totally co-dependent on each other.

That in itself would be an interesting novel, but the thriller elements take it to the next level - Ivy's murder in the beginning (and that mystery persists all throughout the book), the creepy elements with the apartment, and of course how unhinged Hailey becomes. I also love a novel that knows how to end; the rising actions were so great, I was worried the book wouldn't stick the landing in the end - but it did! Even up until the gut punch on the last page!

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sophafie's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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onehundredmarys's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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caleykapowski's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No

5.0

“…she is beautiful but no Helen of Troy- she’d be lucky to launch a singular kayak”
I tabbed so many funny or interesting sentences.
This was such an exciting and just unpredictable book. Loved it!
I lost count of the number of times I dramatically gasped

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