ARC Review: They Wish They Were Us

Author: Jessica Goodman

Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller

Release Date: 08.04.20

Publisher: Razborbill

Source: Publisher

My Rating: 1/5 stars DNF

Synopsis: “In Gold Coast, Long Island, everything from the expensive downtown shops to the manicured beaches, to the pressed uniforms of Jill Newman and her friends, looks perfect. But as Jill found out three years ago, nothing is as it seems.

Freshman year Jill’s best friend, the brilliant, dazzling Shaila Arnold, was killed by her boyfriend. After that dark night on the beach, Graham confessed, the case was closed, and Jill tried to move on.

Now, it’s Jill’s senior year and she’s determined to make it her best yet. After all, she’s a senior and a Player–a member of Gold Coast Prep’s exclusive, not-so-secret secret society. Senior Players have the best parties, highest grades and the admiration of the entire school. This is going to be Jill’s year. She’s sure of it.

But when Jill starts getting texts proclaiming Graham’s innocence, her dreams of the perfect senior year start to crumble. If Graham didn’t kill Shaila, who did? Jill vows to find out, but digging deeper could mean putting her friendships, and her future, in jeopardy.”

I am truly so upset about this book.

In the beginning I was really enjoying it. The elite boarding school vibes were killer and initially I was into the writing style. It kept me guessing and made the first few chapters nothing short of addicting. However, the further into the book I got the less I was enjoying it.

The plot in the middle was slow and featured extremely long chapters. On top of that the constant switching between the past and present narrative made the story hard to follow, especially since the plot/chapter lengths were causing me to lose attention.

At 57% I decided to set the book aside. While I was, and am, very intrigued by the mystery aspects I didn’t find myself enjoying the story overall. It didn’t focus as much on the mystery as I would’ve liked and it simply was not keeping my attention. At this time it’s best for me to set this down and move onto other stories.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for Providing me with an E-Arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!