A review by siobhanward
The It Girl by Ruth Ware
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I love Ruth Ware and own all of her books, so I'm definitely a bit biased, but I have to say I was happy to read this after being underwhelmed by One by One .
I love a good boarding school mystery, so the setting was a lot of fun for me. Some of the twists I saw coming, but others kept me guessing, as Ware's twists often do. I appreciate that she creates real-feeling protagonists who aren't miserable or helpless (as is common in thrillers). I also like that her characters have real jobs and that they come up in the plot. I find that too many thriller protagonists do not have real-sounding jobs (shout out to the character who was a full-time cupcake baker), or jobs that exist briefly and then they somehow never mention again, despite presumably missing a ton of work for plot reasons.
Anyway, this was a lot of fun, I thought it was well-written and clever. Things did get a bit dry in the middle and I definitely chalk this up to the book being a bit longer than Ware's other books - she hasn't quite perfected the length, but the story was good.
I love a good boarding school mystery, so the setting was a lot of fun for me. Some of the twists I saw coming, but others kept me guessing, as Ware's twists often do. I appreciate that she creates real-feeling protagonists who aren't miserable or helpless (as is common in thrillers). I also like that her characters have real jobs and that they come up in the plot. I find that too many thriller protagonists do not have real-sounding jobs (shout out to the character who was a full-time cupcake baker), or jobs that exist briefly and then they somehow never mention again, despite presumably missing a ton of work for plot reasons.
Anyway, this was a lot of fun, I thought it was well-written and clever. Things did get a bit dry in the middle and I definitely chalk this up to the book being a bit longer than Ware's other books - she hasn't quite perfected the length, but the story was good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Toxic friendship