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The first book I finished in October was People Like Us. This is a YA thriller that has been on my TBR since it came out in Febraury. It was a fun read with little payoff for me, but I still enjoyed it! I definitely recommend it for your Halloween or fall TBR if you like suspense that is not too scary!
**Disclaimer: As with all of my reviews, I do post the entire plot synopsis before my review. However, I will always recommend for Thriller Thursday reviews that you skip the plot synopsis. Thrillers are better when you go in knowing little to nothing about the plot. Happy reading!
Goodreads Rating: ★★★★☆ 3.53
My Rating: ★★★☆☆
Page Count: 378 pages
Genre(s): YA thriller
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Published: February 27, 2018
Plot
Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is past, and she’s reinvented herself entirely. Now she’s a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. But when a girl’s body is found in the lake, Kay’s carefully constructed life begins to topple.
The dead girl has left Kay a computer-coded scavenger hunt, which, as it unravels, begins to implicate suspect after suspect, until Kay herself is in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. But if Kay’s finally backed into a corner, she’ll do what it takes to survive. Because at Bates Academy, the truth is something you make…not something that happened.
Review
I waited two months for this reserve at the library. And I don’t feel like it lived up to a two month wait. People Like Us takes place at an all-girls boarding school and the book starts off with a bang when a group of popular girls finds a dead body in the lake the night of a school dance. The girls assume it is a suicide. The next day, one of the girls, Kay, is sent an email from the dead girl’s account telling her to go to her blog. Once she visits the blog, she is thrown into a game of blackmail and revenge.
So the general premise is intriguing, but there is way too much going on in this book. I could not keep the different girls straight because they were not distinguishable for me at all. Kay’s big secret that she is being blackmailed over (I guess?) is not that exciting or shocking. The blog mentions ruining her life by revealing her secret, but then the blog kind of becomes an afterthought and the story shifts to Kay trying to solve the mystery of the girl’s death instead.
Final Thoughts
Now that I have sat down to write out all my thoughts, I realize the flaws with this book even more than before. I think the book should have focused on the revenge blog more.
People Like Us was a little too long and dragged in certain places, plus there is a certain point in the story where the ending becomes very obvious. So it was not a clever reveal that was well-written at all.
I was disappointed by the ending, probably because I saw it coming a mile away, but also because everything is kind of wrapped up in a nice neat bow within a few pages. The book makes a huge deal out of this big secret that Kay has, and then it turns out to be a very mediocre reveal.
Overall, I give this three stars because it was mostly enjoyable but the ending was weak. If you don’t mind a predictable ending, then give this one a shot.
Thank you so much for reading my review! Please let me know down in the comments if you plan to read this one!
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