I have a juicy one for y’all today—They Wish They Were Us by debut author Jessica Goodman. Thank you so much to Penguin Teen for sending me the e-ARC of this novel in exchange for a review!
This is a YA thriller due out Tuesday, August 4th (tomorrow!!!) that I think a lot of you are going to want to grab. They Wish They Were Us is like Gossip Girl, but it takes place in a beach community and people get murdered. It just exudes the major Gossip Girl vibes where everything is big houses, fast cars, beautiful clothes, and exclusive cliques, and everyone acts like friends but they’re actually doing terrible things under the surface.
But it also gives off those Pretty Little Liars vibes where one of their own has been killed and the teenagers are out to figure it out on their own without consulting literally one single adult or law enforcement official at all (you know you love it).
If you’ve been loving books like One of Us Is Lying or A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, I feel like you’d really enjoy this one. They Wish They Were Us follows Jill Newman, who lives in the wealthy community of Gold Coast, Long Island, and attends an exclusive private school. But what’s even more exclusive is her friend group. They call themselves The Players, and in the eyes of themselves and their peers, they have the best of everything: the best parties, the highest grades, all the accolades you could dream of. The Players are all hand chosen and then go through a version of hazing as freshmen before gaining access to the inner circle, an app of cheat sheets for tests and exclusive contacts, and of course, the perception of being at the top of the food chain.
But when Jill and her friends were freshmen, Jill’s best friend, Shaila, was murdered on initiation night for The Players, and her boyfriend Graham, was charged with her murder. Now, three years later, as Jill embarks on her senior year, she begins getting messages telling her Graham might not have been the murderer, and she sets out on a twisted journey to find out who took her friend’s life that fateful night. The investigation ends up putting her closer to danger than she imagined, and uncovering secrets she isn’t sure she wanted to dig up. Jill puts everything at risk—her friendships, her future, and her exclusive access to Player perks—to solve the mystery once and for all.
Y’all know I love a good murder mystery, so what I really liked about this book were the plot and all the twists and turns. I enjoy plots where people kind of have their realties turned on their heads and begin to realize that the people around them may not be who they portray themselves as, and their world may not be what they thought it was. I love a good “it was one of us” plot, and this is definitely that. As you read, you’ll wonder who you can really trust and find yourself trying along with Jill to root out who’s telling the truth and who has something to hide. I guessed who the killer was and was mentally screaming it at Jill, especially at certain points where I knew she was in danger, but I will admit, Goodman threw a couple curveballs in there to keep you on your toes and give me a couple moments where I went, “Wait, am I confident in my pick for who it was?”
I also really loved the setting of this book. This is my second new release YA in a row that had a beachy setting and I enjoyed it. I liked the way Goodman described the setting and deftly wove it into the characters’ lives. The beach, the crashing ocean, the salty air, and the beach parties are as much a part of them as their expensive school and their popular status. I thought Goodman described the setting beautifully at some points, and also liked that there were a couple sojourns into NYC to really solidify those Gossip Girl vibes.
The only drawback to this book was that one or two characters were a little flat and trope-y. Robert, for example, was kind of this stereotypical leather jacket, joyride bad boy without much personality beyond that, which kind of just made him pale in comparison to the better developed characters who actually felt much more real and fleshed out. But luckily, it was only a few characters here and there, and with a cast of characters this big in a shorter work, I can kind of see how that would happen.
Was it a little bit predictable at times? Sure, but maybe that’s just because I’ve read a lot of books like this. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it was still really enjoyable. I had a lot of fun reading this one, I like the dark “seedy underbelly of an otherwise perfect community” vibes, and I would definitely recommend it! I’d give it four out of five stars. I’m a sucker for YA thrillers and just love reading them. And apparently, this book is also being turned into a TV show, which I could be persuaded to watch, considering so many of us still have a Gossip Girl-sized hole in our hearts.
So you’ll definitely want to grab this one ASAP, so that you can check it out before it comes to a small screen near you!
What do y’all think? Did anyone else read this one? Does it sound like something you want to check out? Would you watch a TV show like this? Let me know in the comments!
Purchase your copy of They Wish They Were Us