They Wish They Were Us

Jessica Goodman

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They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman

Released: August 4, 2020

Pages: 336

Publisher: Razorbill

Overall: 3/5

Plot: 3/5

Characters: 4/5

Setting and World-building: 3/5

Emotional Investment: 2/5

They Wish They Were Use is a fast-paced Gossip Girl, murder mystery type of book. With an elite hierarchy friend system and a classic murder, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, a bit. First of all the murder mystery aspect of the book was a letdown. Who the actual murder was pretty predictable and I guessed it way too early, kind of ruining the suspense. The murder itself and the history of the person who died was very interesting. How the story progressed and got to finding the murder was pretty dry. Jill's moods tend to change super fast which was low-key confusing but I could kind of get it. The character's stakes and reactions to situations seemed very accurate for their age. So I liked the authenticity of the characters, it's just sometimes friends got over things really fast, or the emotional development of some characters seemed way to fast. OF course, this could be totally normal for teenagers, it's just if I applied this to my life I would probably be a bit pettier.

Other than those few critiques it wasn't a horrible read. It was fast-paced and I wasn't counting down the pages till I could finish the book (in like the book is boring way) which is a good thing. I liked Jill and Jared's relationship in this book and I actually wanted to find out more about that. They seemed like decent siblings other than the few questionable things that occurred. Quinton and Henry seemed like genuine sweethearts other than the whole ignoring thing. That also made me mad. The relationships in this book were interesting and when many of the characters finally snapped it felt truly authentic to the character.