Monday, August 24, 2020

Book Review: "They Wish They Were Us" by Jessica Goodman

High school melodrama, intrigue, and secrets? Sign me up every time. That's why I was excited for Jessica Goodman's new book, They Wish They Were Us.

It’s senior year of high school for Jill Newman and her best friends at Gold Coast Prep on Long Island. Freshman year was awful when her best friend, Shaila, was murdered, and Shaila’s boyfriend Graham confessed, but Jill and her friends have all (mostly) moved on from that tragedy.

Now they’re ready to rule the school.

Jill and her friends are Players, part of the exclusive, not-quite-secret society at school. There’s some serious hazing involved as a freshman, but when you’re a Player, your life—and in many ways, your future—are set.

When Jill starts getting texts proclaiming Graham’s innocence, she doesn’t know what to do. Her friends, who along with her were there the night Shaila was killed, tell her to leave it alone, let the past stay in the past. But if Graham really is innocent, that means someone else killed Shaila. Is it worth risking her friendships, her future, maybe even her life, to know the truth?

I don’t know why, but I really enjoy this type of book, with secret societies or cliques, the secrets and lies, one person searching for the truth. My high school experience couldn’t have been further from this, so I guess I’m just a sucker for melodrama. But this is a well-written book; it's not fluff.

This was a really good story that totally hooked me. Even though I figured out what happened early on, there still were a few twists, so I couldn’t stop reading. There were a lot of familiar elements but Goodman added her own spin to them.

I definitely think this could be a good movie!

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