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courtneyk's review against another edition
5.0
Finally read this after seeing it recommended everywhere and this did not disappoint me!!! I will be thinking about this book for awhile. My heart was ripped out in the best way possible.
dreamingofspaceships's review against another edition
4.0
A good addition to the murder-in-a-tight-knit-group-of-college-students-who-arepossibly-in-a-cult genre. The obvious comparison to Secret History by Donna Tartt aside, this was mostly a very good read - if a little underwhelming towards the end. The characters are everything in something like this and the characters here are quite memorable. The prose is great, even though sometimes it gets a little frustrating to read entire conversations happen in Shakespeare quotes (for someone like me who isn't that well versed in Shakespeare at least) - it serves to... heighten the sort of alien environment and situation that the characters inhabit. But still, sometimes you just can't help but feel like this is a bit too pretentious (which even the author admits in her final note).
lieseley's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
5.0
abbieday01's review against another edition
2.0
Just not for me. Maybe I don’t get the artsy mindset of the characters. I mean I love drama, I love reading….but this is just twisty, cringy, icky…yeah just not for me. Sorry. Not sorry.
lemon2's review against another edition
5.0
every time i had a slither of hope that it might get better, it just got so, so much worse. five stars
aamontillado's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
i love this book it’s so well written n i think probably bc i took a shakespeare class n i actually did all the work for that class it was crazy watch movies answer a million questions the final was actually so fuckinf crazy but anyways i love this book i love the ending the only thing i’d say is the ending felt rushed the way the atlas six did like it felt like so much reveal so much happening the last 80 pages or so (for the atlas six it was like the last 100 150 pages) but i still loved them both so it doesn’t matter that much to me this book makes me want to mean mor w my words but i’m not educated so 💀💀💀💀 the characters i think r loveable what a shock n i don’t think this book is super similar to the secret history yes it’s like a group of weirdly specific interests in things students a death in the friend group blah blah but the approach n it all is very differnet i think this book the feeling around it im not gonna say aura bc people made the word weird now 💀 but the feeling like the air around this book is a lot lighter n a lot mor fun i guess idk the air around the secret history is very heavy n still n it’s like u must b quiet it’s very serious in this room but the people in this book r like very normal i think i was expecting them to b reallt fucking crazy bc of the secret history n how people say these books r suepr similar but like the characters r not similar at all n anywyas i loved the book 5 5 5 all the time i never thot once it wasn’t a 5 to me
sarcastic_fish's review against another edition
2.0
this book sucked like are you guys for real
this does nothing but corroborate my opinion that booktok has no taste what so ever
this had the potential to be so so good but it honestly just sucks from the moment they discover Richard’s body.
They basically do nothing bad???? like it’s all a bit grey and “oh they didn’t mean to do it or they did nothing” and I just can’t. they don’t take much agency and that’s so boring like they’re not villains at all it’s so…urgh
you wanted a tragedy?? they should have conspired against Oliver and manipulated his good will into making him sacrifice himself when really they’re pushing him to do that so that he can go to jail in their stead bc he’s the bystander in the group, and then reveal this to him as the ultimate betrayal. They’re actors…they could have made it work. that would have been shocking. it’s like the classics mistake of wanting people to like your characters so you make them good but then inadvertently boring because you let stuff “happen” to them. like this had the potential to be down right Machiavellian in its antics but was such a let down. it’s dark academia like you can’t gun for a happy ending?? the book even says the thing that makes tragedy hurt so hard is that you really think it’s all gunna be fine till the last second? why say that if you’re not gunna commit
also this whole idea that Meredith knew James did it from him reciting one line to her is absolutely ridiculous. and why would she have run off to rat him out. For him to have done that to Wren would have been so much better and conflicting.
AND WHY WAS COLBORNE IN THEIR HOUSE SO MANY TIMES. HE JUST WALKED IN. LIKE SIR. THATS DEFO NOT ALLOWED.
and for fucks sake, the thing with the boat hook??? THE LAKE. YOU CHUCK IT. IN THE FUCKING. LAKE. NO FINGER PRINTS, NO BLOOD, AND TOTALLY REASONABLE FOR IT TO HAVE BEEN THERE.
and if James felt to bad about Oliver getting convicted you would have just confessed. like come on.
the writing was also just inconsistent, sometimes gr8, sometimes using “as if” and “like” an absolutely unbearable amount. It makes the writing so clunky.
don’t get me wrong I enjoyed lots of it, esp till they discovered Richard but it kinda all went down hill from there.
I also think there are way too many instances of plot being the priority, like the whole thing of his sister having an eating disorder and then him needing to work/study?? like you wasted so many words on plot that you should have spent on character bc I was so unemotionally involved that I literally don’t care about the characters by the end. Like I literally do not care. how could I? They’re cardboard cut outs of the roles they play. Why is it critiqued upon and then just um left like that? I know NOTHING about any of the characters, you don’t know them at all, it’s so superficial, they don’t feel human
this was such a let down, the real tragedy being how there was so much potential.
this does nothing but corroborate my opinion that booktok has no taste what so ever
this had the potential to be so so good but it honestly just sucks from the moment they discover Richard’s body.
They basically do nothing bad???? like it’s all a bit grey and “oh they didn’t mean to do it or they did nothing” and I just can’t. they don’t take much agency and that’s so boring like they’re not villains at all it’s so…urgh
you wanted a tragedy?? they should have conspired against Oliver and manipulated his good will into making him sacrifice himself when really they’re pushing him to do that so that he can go to jail in their stead bc he’s the bystander in the group, and then reveal this to him as the ultimate betrayal. They’re actors…they could have made it work. that would have been shocking. it’s like the classics mistake of wanting people to like your characters so you make them good but then inadvertently boring because you let stuff “happen” to them. like this had the potential to be down right Machiavellian in its antics but was such a let down. it’s dark academia like you can’t gun for a happy ending?? the book even says the thing that makes tragedy hurt so hard is that you really think it’s all gunna be fine till the last second? why say that if you’re not gunna commit
also this whole idea that Meredith knew James did it from him reciting one line to her is absolutely ridiculous. and why would she have run off to rat him out. For him to have done that to Wren would have been so much better and conflicting.
AND WHY WAS COLBORNE IN THEIR HOUSE SO MANY TIMES. HE JUST WALKED IN. LIKE SIR. THATS DEFO NOT ALLOWED.
and for fucks sake, the thing with the boat hook??? THE LAKE. YOU CHUCK IT. IN THE FUCKING. LAKE. NO FINGER PRINTS, NO BLOOD, AND TOTALLY REASONABLE FOR IT TO HAVE BEEN THERE.
and if James felt to bad about Oliver getting convicted you would have just confessed. like come on.
the writing was also just inconsistent, sometimes gr8, sometimes using “as if” and “like” an absolutely unbearable amount. It makes the writing so clunky.
don’t get me wrong I enjoyed lots of it, esp till they discovered Richard but it kinda all went down hill from there.
I also think there are way too many instances of plot being the priority, like the whole thing of his sister having an eating disorder and then him needing to work/study?? like you wasted so many words on plot that you should have spent on character bc I was so unemotionally involved that I literally don’t care about the characters by the end. Like I literally do not care. how could I? They’re cardboard cut outs of the roles they play. Why is it critiqued upon and then just um left like that? I know NOTHING about any of the characters, you don’t know them at all, it’s so superficial, they don’t feel human
this was such a let down, the real tragedy being how there was so much potential.