Та дівчина

by Ruth Ware, Катерина Сайко (Translator)

Ейпріл Кларк-Клівден — перша, кого Ганна Джонс зустріла в Оксфорді. Ця життєрадісна, яскрава, часом уїдлива, але так чи інак «та сама» дівчина швидко затягнула Ганну на свою сяйну орбіту. Уже в першому семестрі сусідки-нерозлийвода насолоджувались товариством вірних друзів — Вілла, Г’ю, Раяна та Емілі. А наприкінці другого Ейпріл померла.
Тепер, через десять років, коли Ганна та Вілл чекають на першу дитину, звинувачений у вбивстві Ейпріл чоловік, колишній черговий Оксфорду Джон Невілл, помирає у в’язниці. Спершу Ганна відчуває полегшення: нарешті можна залишити минуле позаду. Та вже скоро все змінюється: в її життя вривається молодий журналіст і надає нові докази невинуватості Невілла. Зустрічаючись зі старими друзями й дедалі глибше занурюючись у таємницю вбивства Ейпріл, Ганна усвідомлює: люди, яких вона, здавалося б, добре знала, мають що приховувати… І хтось із них — убивця.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, Suspense, Book Club

480 pages, Hardcover

First published July 12, 2022

About the author

Ruth Ware is an international number one bestseller. Her thrillers In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, The Lying Game, The Death of Mrs Westaway, The Turn of the Key, One by One, The It Girl, Zero Days, One Perfect Couple and The Woman in Suite 11 have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including the Sunday Times and New York Times, and have sold more than ten million copies.

Her books have been optioned for both film and TV, and she is published in more than 40 languages.

Ruth lives near Brighton with her family. Visit ruthware.com to find out more.

Reviews

[Nilufer Ozmekik · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written, gripping, action-packed dark academia thriller is my true addiction! And this book is one of the best examples to satisfy my late-night thriller cravings.

Who could say no to a smart, dark academia story set in Oxford, combined with a spine-tingling whodunnit mystery that keeps you guessing from the very beginning? Especially when it’s written by Ruth Ware! My nerdy brain screamed “hallelujah” as soon as I saw the blurb. Think Ashley Winstead’s In My Dreams I Hold a Knife meets Karen M. McManus’ Nothing More to Tell with a dash of The Maidens vibes. The book introduces us to a group of friends who are all so different from one another, each with hidden agendas, heads buried in their studies, yet still finding time for social gatherings, partying all night, and chasing their academic dreams.

Hannah, a book-smart, shy, and practical girl raised by a middle-class family, is lured into the glamorous world of her roommate April’s luxurious, flamboyant, and elegant lifestyle. April Coutts-Clieveden has everything Hannah ever dreamed of: looks, charm, intelligence, money, and power. She wraps anyone she desires around her little finger, including Hannah’s first crush, Will—a quiet gentleman from a wealthy family.

Poor Hannah has to restrain her feelings; she doesn’t want a boy to come between her and her best friend, April.

I still wonder why Hannah thinks April is her best friend. All April does is speak condescendingly and act like a spoiled brat, pulling awful pranks on people. Well, perhaps Hannah, with her kind heart, is too naïve to see it, or maybe she simply doesn’t have the energy to make more friends.

Let’s not forget the other members of their gang: the entertaining, sarcastic, and cheeky Ryan, who’s a hotshot socialist; the sharp, witty, and hyper-competitive math prodigy Emily (these two characters were my favorites); and the humble, reserved, yet incredibly smart Hugh.

But one night, as the group celebrates after April’s theater performance, Hannah grows worried when April goes to their dorm room to change and never returns. When Hannah checks on her, she discovers that April is dead, and only moments ago, she had seen the Porter leaving their shared room—the same Porter, John Neville, who she had previously filed a complaint against for inappropriate behavior. And now, he’s found guilty of killing her friend.

Then we fast forward ten years into the future (nope, no DeLorean time travel involved) to see how Hannah’s life has evolved. Hannah still misses April dearly and suffers terrible nightmares from that night, but she has managed to build a fulfilling life. She’s married to Will—yes, they found each other after the tragedy that upended their lives—and they’re expecting a baby. Hannah works at a bookshop, living a peaceful life in Edinburgh, though Will is struggling in his career as an accountant.

The rest of the group has also moved on. Emily is now a successful academic, Hugh is a wealthy plastic surgeon, and poor Ryan’s life has changed dramatically after a tragic stroke. Yet, despite it all, he’s still happy with his wife and kids.

And that’s it! The story ends with a semi-bitter conclusion. Okay, I lied! This is just the beginning!

Hannah receives shocking news from her mother: John Neville has died in prison, and a young reporter, who happens to be a friend of Ryan’s, insists there is new evidence that could clear Neville’s name. Neville had always maintained his innocence, even on his deathbed.

Hannah doesn’t want to get involved, but she still feels she owes it to April to uncover the truth. As she begins digging, she realizes that one of their close-knit group could be the real killer. Now, she’s put herself and her unborn baby in danger, and she’s at the point of no return. She has to finish what she’s started!

Overall, this is a riveting, well-developed, intelligent, and captivating read!

I was initially planning to give it 4 stars, but the fair conclusion, smart twists, and realistic characterization convinced me to add an extra half star, rounding up to 5 bright stars as a devoted fan of the author!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books/Scout Press for sharing this amazing digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

[Lisa of Troy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ruth Ware’s The It Girl is a mystery centered on two friends/roommates: Hannah Jones and April Clarke-Cliveden. The girls meet up at Oxford and quickly team up with a group of friends: Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily. However, by the end of the year, April is dead.

Now, ten years have passed. Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and April’s murderer, John Neville, has recently passed away. Then, a podcaster comes around asking questions. What is the truth? Does Hannah really know her friends as well as she thinks she does?

The It Girl was on my list of July most anticipated books, but it tanked. And it tanked hard.

To be completely honest, I might have rated this book higher if I had not just read Upgrade by Blake Crouch which was so completely awesome. Reading that book and then going to this is like eating the best meal of your life and just eating a regular meal.

Where to start?

This book is boring. It dragged over forever. I did not enjoy the ride. There are a few reasons.

One, the writing style of this book just did not work for me. It is way, way, way too long. I would read and read and read and read and I would hardly make a dent in it.

Second, the writing style of a thriller is important. Let’s go back to Upgrade for a moment, a writing style that just worked. It had short paragraphs and short sentences. This is important. When you read a thriller and you are madly flipping through pages, you have a physical experience. It actually feels that you are running and catching up to the bad guy, increasing your blood pressure, almost as if you are part of the story. In The It Girl, the paragraphs, sentences, and chapters are just too long.

Third, the storytelling needed to be refined. If the author was sitting on a corner, relaying this story, I would have walked away. It didn’t capture my attention. The ending did not surprise me at all. It also was very boring and unremarkable.

If you liked Greenwich Park, I think you will probably like this one as well. They both have main characters who are expecting babies who are working their way through mysteries set in England.

Overall, if you have to buy either Upgrade or The It Girl, buy Upgrade.

*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.

2025 Reading Schedule
Jan A Town Like Alice
Feb Birdsong
Mar Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
Apr War and Peace
May The Woman in White
Jun Atonement
Jul The Shadow of the Wind
Aug Jude the Obscure
Sep Ulysses
Oct Vanity Fair
Nov A Fine Balance
Dec Germinal

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[Emily May · Rating 3 out of 5]

For there are messy, wriggling, unfinished ends putrefying beneath the surface of what happened that night—things that she has refused to think about and look at for a long time.

3 1/2 stars. I was intrigued by the premise of The It Girl and mostly liked how it played out towards the end, but it's also 70-100 pages longer than Ware's other books and it feels like it.

It's been 10 years since Hannah found her friend and roommate, April Coutts-Cliveden, dead in their Oxford room. 10 years since a combination of Hannah's testimony and some pretty shoddy investigating (if you ask me) put John Neville behind bars. Now he's died in prison and a couple of ambitious journalists are eager to revisit the case. One, however, is convinced that some things don't add up, that the evidence to convict Neville was never there, that the real killer may still be out there.

The book moves between the present, in which a pregnant Hannah tries to get on with her life but finds herself unable to ignore the journalist's findings and their implications, and the past, which sees Hannah, April, and their group of friends navigating University life, with all the rivalries, bitterness and jealousies that sometimes come between competitive and horny young people.

Everyone in their group and just outside it becomes a suspect, and I did have fun moving through each one, changing my mind about who did it and why. I thought the author played it well.

Still, I'm feeling better about it now because I thought the end was quite good, but there were some really dragged out boring parts in the middle. Lots of pages of Hannah thinking over the same “but could it really be?” and rubbing her baby bump. It honestly just feels like the editing wasn't great on this book and could have done with another round to shave off some of the extra padding.

[Meredith (Trying to catch up!) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Familiar Plot and Characters

"She was the prefect friend--until she wasn't."

The It Girl is a psychological thriller about a murder at Oxford and the woman who may have been responsible for the conviction of the wrong man for the crime.

Before: Hannah Jones experiences imposter syndrome when she arrives at Oxford University to study literature. Her sparkly, rich roommate, April, has all in her thrall, but when April is murdered, Hannah’s newly crafted life implodes.

After: Hannah, now pregnant and married living in Edinburgh, receives news that the man she testified against in April’s murder has died in jail. She begins questioning whether or not she was responsible for convicting an innocent man.

The narrative alternates between “before” and “after” the crime, but both are told from Hannah’s point of view. I found both narrative threads boring, especially in the beginning. It took me a bit to warm up to Hannah. Her voice is dull, and I didn’t really care what happened to her until the end. I found the side characters much more interesting.

The plot is one I have read before. Hannah even feels like other characters I have met before. I was hoping for more of an original storyline or at least a twist to make it a little more interesting. On the plus side, it is well-written; Ware has a talent for casting doubt on all characters. I was suspicious of all at one point or another, and this element kept me turning the pages.

I hated Ware’s last book, One By One, and the good news is that I liked this one much more! Even though I was bored, I was invested enough in the plot to keep turning the pages--my inner armchair detective was piqued by all of the red herrings. I thought this book would never end, and even though it was a drag getting there, the ending finally adds some excitement.

Overall, The It Girl is a solid thriller but loses stars for lack of originality.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[zuza_zaksiazkowane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Najsłabsza Ruth Ware. Rozwiązanie jest bardzo mało solidne. Ale to wciąż wciągający kryminał

[megs_bookrack · Rating 4 out of 5]

**4.5-stars**

Meg's Ruth Ware Ratings:

1. The Turn of the Key: 5-stars
2. The Lying Game: 4.5-stars
3. The Perfect Couple: 4.5-stars
4. The It Girl: 4.5-stars
5. One by One: 4-stars
6. Zero Days: 4-stars
7. The Death of Mrs. Westaway: 4-stars
8. In a Dark, Dark Wood: 3.5-stars
9. The Woman in Cabin 10: 3-stars

The It Girl has come in strong, tied for second place on my Ruth Ware ratings list. That's not too shabby.



And before you come at me, I'm totally aware I am in the minority opinion on The Lying Game.



In this novel we follow Hannah, who is married to a charming, handsome man, Will. She's currently pregnant with their first child and working in a bookshop. So, her life is pretty sweet.

It hasn't always been as peaceful, however. A decade earlier, when Hannah was in college, her best friend and roommate, April, was murdered. Hannah found the body.



It was an absolutely terrible time in her life. One Hannah tries hard not to think about. Unfortunately, it's about to come back to haunt her.

On the night April was killed, Hannah saw a man exiting their dorm just prior to her discovering the body. Through her eye-witness statement this man was ultimately convicted for the crime and has been in prison ever since.

He has proclaimed his innocence the entire way through, but don't they all say that?



After Hannah receives the news that this man, John Neville, has died in prison, she is contacted by a young journalist who believes he has proof of Neville's innocence.

This rocks Hannah's world. Could Neville have been innocent? Did she make a horrible mistake and if she did, who really killed April?



I really enjoyed my time with this story. It is told via alternating timelines, which I always have fun watching unfold and ultimately meld together.

We get Hannah's present perspective, as she grapples with the news of John Neville's death, as well as her past perspective, which covers her time at Oxford and her friendship with April.



Both time periods were interesting, although the past perspective did draw me in more quickly than the present perspective. However, the present perspective definitely caught up.

Once Hannah starts questioning what she saw the night of April's death, she begins a little investigation of her own. She cannot let it go. It was at that point that the present perspective really grabbed me. I love some amateur sleuthing.



Ware did a great job of growing the intensity throughout this story. At the end, we were treated to some real cat-and-mouse moments, which I was living for.

It did have me at the edge of my seat, questioning absolutely everyone. What was the answer!? Who killed April!?



I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who has enjoyed Ware's work in the past. This has her classic touch mixed beautifully with subtle dark academia vibes.

If you haven't read Ware before, but are interested in trying her work, I do think this would be a great place to start. This story is captivating and well-plotted. Absolutely worth the time!



I am so excited to see Ware will deliver us next!!

[MarilynW · Rating 4 out of 5]

The It Girl by Ruth Ware
Narrated by Imogen Church

April is the It Girl. Women want to be her, guys want to be with her, she's beautiful, wealthy, smart, funny, and more. Actually, she's not always funny, sometimes, more often than I could stand, April is dismissive, cruel, and vicious. And she's jealous of anyone who takes the attention off of her. So she's this larger than life character that is loved by all for reasons I couldn't understand.

Hannah is April's roommate and being her roommate means that Hannah is one of the close friends in April's life. There is also Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily. All smart students who have ties to April, one way or another. On the outskirts of this mostly fun loving but studious group is an Oxford porter, John Neville, an awkward man who it prone to acting in ways that scare Hannah. He always seems to be around, in her room even! Is he stalking her? How can she get him to leave her alone?

Then April is murdered and Neville goes to prison for her murder. Ten year later, several things happen to put Neville's innocence in doubt. A journalist who does not think Neville is guilty puts this bug into Hannah's ear and she takes off with it, running. This is where I began to not like Hannah at all. She not only second guesses the past, she third, forth, fifth, and sixth guesses it. I feel like this book could have been 100 pages shorter by cutting out all of Hannah's repetitive thoughts, waffling back and forth in the span of minutes, and thinking up every conceivable and inconceivable way that anyone else but Neville could have killed April. No one is safe from these thoughts, Hannah is willing to throw everyone under the bus and, in fact, the closer she is to you, the more likely you are going to be run over.

The story is so overwrought and the narrator voices it all. I think this would have been a good time to tone down the audiobook narration since the written story has all the angst it can stand without it being acted out so much in the narration. Poor Hannah, I might have liked her a wee bit better if she didn't sound like a raving maniac shrew. Still, I got to discuss this with friends who had already finished the book and that was fun, especially since the book was so long. I feel like I endured a torturous and frantic journey to get to the end of this story. I can't imagine having been a friend of Hannah and wanting to have anything to do with her by the time this is all over (if she lives through it all). 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. I enjoyed the mystery and wish it wasn't so swallowed up by Hannah's indecision, whining, griping, accusing and continuous run on thoughts.

Published July 12, 2022

[jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

a classic college campus murder mystery done well.

this has everything you want from that kind of story - a close group of friends that is not immune to jealousy, stalking, cheating, and scandals.

the only thing that would have made this a perfect read for me is if academia played a larger role. really, oxford only serves as the setting and a means for the characters to meet. and so, because of that, this definitely doesnt have that dark academia feel i was hoping for.

but still a very enthralling read with a compelling group of friends and an intriguing “whodunnit.”

↠ 4.5 stars

[Dorie - Cats&Books :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

***NOW AVAILABLE***

WOULD YOU PLAY STRIP POKER ON YOUR FIRST NIGHT AT OXFORD???? Apparently if your new roommate is April Coutts-Cliveden, THE IT GIRL who bedazzles all those she meets, you would!!

This novel is told from the point of view of Hannah, April’s roommate. Their backgrounds couldn’t be more different, April is rich, entitled and beautiful. Hannah Jones is a serious student who got to Oxford by working incredibly hard and comes from a middle class background.

April is very insistent that Hannah have some fun and together with new friends Will, Hugh, Ryan and Emily, they seem to spend more time partying than studying.

Things are going along alright, with some of the group forming couples and others remaining just friends. That is until one night when Hannah comes home to find April STRANGLED IN THEIR SUITE OF ROOMS!!

Hannah is sure that only one person could have gotten up their staircase before them, that is the porter, John Neville!! Hannah has been creeped out by him since she arrived, with his inappropriate questions and remarks. Neville is convicted, on very circumstantial evidence, and sentenced to life.

Forward a decade and Neville dies in prison!! At this time Will is married to Hannah and they are expecting their first child. Hannah has carried doubts in her mind all this time about Neville’s conviction and now she feels the need to revisit what happened that night. Will just wants her to move on and enjoy what they have now.

THINGS I LIKED ABOUT THIS BOOK:
The atmosphere and description of Oxford is quite engaging and well described. The hundreds year old buildings and grounds felt either inspiring or intimidating!!

The characters are well described, though Hannah seems incredibly naive for a college student. April is so over the top and at times mean, she was hard to relate to.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE ABOUT THE BOOK:
This book seemed so much like a few others I’ve read, I won’t mention the titles.

While the pace was quick, nothing really happens until 70% through the book.

I felt this book was not as intricately plotted as other books by Ms. Ware and I have read them all.

I figured out who really must have killed April, although I didn’t know how.

This book was still worth reading but I was a bit disappointed. I will always be a fan of Ruth Ware’s novels and look forward to her next offering.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss. It was my pleasure to read and review this novel.

[Michael David (on hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a name like April Coutts-Cliveden, she could be nothing other than an “it” girl…the one everyone wants as a friend. The one whose personality radiates. The one who’s living her best life…until she’s murdered.

Hannah met April ten years ago when they were roommates at Oxford. They quickly became best friends, and always hung out together with their group. Then, Hannah found April murdered in their dorm. John Neville, an Oxford porter, was found guilty and sent to prison.

In the present day, the only person Hannah really keeps in touch with from her Oxford days is Will, from their circle of friends. He’s now her husband, and they’re expecting. Hannah receives word that John Neville has died in prison. Instead of feeling relief, she feels a sense of dread as a journalist reaches out to her, saying that there may be evidence of Neville’s innocence.

If Neville didn’t kill April, who did?

Author Ruth Ware is hit and miss with me, but I’m glad to say this was mostly a hit.

Ware creates tension and atmosphere in the brilliant way the chapters bounce from past to present, and there are certainly a number of suspects. Luckily, the cast of characters isn’t too large where it’s hard to follow who each person is. Everyone’s backstory is pretty fleshed out.

I didn’t expect the ending. I found it really clever, but I have to admit I wasn’t completely blown away. Still, it’s always nice to be surprised whilst reading this type of novel.

Overall, this is a solid mystery that kept me turning the pages even if it’s one that won’t be particularly memorable for me in the years (or weeks) to follow. I’ll be curious to see what fans of Ware’s earlier books think of this one. My favorite book of hers is the newer One By One, and this follows in its footsteps as a tale that feels a bit more modern.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you to Gallery/Scout Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected Publication Date: 7/12/22.

Review also posted at: https://bonkersforthebooks.wordpress.com

[Jayme C (Brunetteslikebookstoo) · Rating 4 out of 5]

BEFORE and AFTER

Each chapter is broken down into two timelines-before and after-the first where fast friends April, and her roommate Hannah, along with Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily, learn the ins and outs of life in Oxford.

April is the quintessential IT GIRL. Beautiful and magnetic, but also spoiled and manipulative-the kind of person that everyone orbits around.

So, it’s quite shocking when by the end of the second term, she is found dead.

In the AFTER chapters, it’s a decade later, and although Hannah’s eyewitness testimony put former Oxford porter, John Neville behind bars, she has never completely recovered from her friend’s untimely death.

When Neville, dies in prison, you would think that the nightmare would finally be over, but, a reporter, Geraint Williams, presents her with new evidence that Neville may have been innocent.

If that’s true-Hannah is responsible for putting an innocent man behind bars.

One who died there.

Troubled by that thought, she reconnects with her friends from the past, to do some sleuthing of her own. Could her own husband, Will, know more than he is letting on?

At first, I felt like this was just another tale of dark academia, similar to many others I have read over the last year or so. The breadcrumbs were being dropped, and I was afraid that I was being led down a predictable path.

SURELY, the guilty party cannot be that obvious??

DON’T WORRY! Ruth Ware has something up her sleeve-and when she pulled it out-I was happily surprised! It all came together perfectly and it was plausible! Very clever, Ms. Ware! You got me!!

Although another book which was a bit too long for my taste, coming in at 432 pages, I was never bored-and enjoyed this more contemporary offering from this author.
And, it’s AVAILABLE NOW!!

A buddy read with DeAnn and Ceecee-be sure to check out their amazing reviews!

Thank You to Gallery/Scout Press for my gifted copy, provided through Edelweiss. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!

[Joey R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars— “The It Girl” was my 4th Ruth Ware book and by far my favorite. I have always enjoyed suspense novels set in a college environment, and this one was particularly well done. The book is told from the perspective of Hannah whose roommate is murdered by strangulation. The testimony provided by Hannah results in the conviction of an individual who others begin to question. Hannah decides to reinvestigate the murder herself which leads to her suspecting everyone in her friendship circle including her husband. Ware writes brilliantly in detailing the events leading up to the murder while also relating the events 10 years later when Hannah reopens her own investigation. As you might have guessed, I really loved the book and was invested in its characters from the start. However, I have to admit,even through my Ruth Ware loving glasses, there were some pretty big plot holes and ridiculous actions by characters that could not be overlooked. I only marked it down by .5 stars even though Ware might have written the most ridiculous few pages in book history when she has Hannah attending the murderer’s, attempted murderer’s x2 funeral of the people closest to Hannah whose entire friendship with Hannah was based on a lie. I mean--really?? If you just wad up these last few pages of the book and throw them in the garbage then the book is much better. All in all I loved it and highly recommend this book if you are a “Secret History “ by Donna Tartt fan

[Paromjit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruth Ware's latest psychological thriller is fast paced, featuring the city of dreaming spires, where introvert Hannah Jones finds herself sharing her Oxford College room with the beautiful, wealthy, privileged and bright April Coutts-Clivedon. Coming from a more modest background, Hannah finds herself drawn into April's more thrilling social circles, although they come from opposite ends of the social spectrum, the two become unlikely best friends, April is a vivacious and extrovert partying girl, the centre of attention, the It Girl with a streak of cruelty and prone to being manipulative. Soon Hannah is part of the glamorous group of inseparable friends that includes Will, Hugh, Ryan and Emily. In the second term April is shockingly dead, her body discovered by a Hannah whose world splinters apart, and it is her testimony that helps to convict College Porter John Neville of murder, who is given a life sentence.

A decade later Hannah is living in Edinburgh, married to Will and pregnant, when her life is thrown into disarray. Neville has died in prison continuing to protest his innocence, and it is true that the evidence against him was rather thin and circumstantial, did Hannah put an innocent man in prison? In a narrative that goes back and forth in time, Hannah feels compelled to investigate the mystery of April's death as she reconnects with her old friends. There is plenty of intrigue and suspects in this well written, engaging and atmospheric crime read that will appeal to many of Ware's legion of fans and other crime and mystery readers. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

[Kaceey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
Hannah has been accepted into Oxford and begins settling into her new life. Her dorm-mate April, is the self-designated leader of their tight-knit pack which includes Hannah’s new friends Emily, Hugh and Will. With a whole school-year of hope and possibilities ahead she’s simply giddy to begin her journey. But everything changes when one member of the group doesn’t survive that freshman year.

Flash forward ten years, the man responsible for the death of her friend has died. Never wavering, he claimed his innocence to his final breathe. That has Hannah beginning to question everything! Was he truly guilty? Could she have pointed the finger at the wrong person all those years ago?

The stage is set…Hanna is now on a personal quest for the truth! She will soon up-root some answers she wasn’t prepared for.

I enjoyed the first section of the book as timelines shifted between the present and her Oxford days. But eventually the story came to a crawl and I found myself impatiently wanting to push it forward…

I had this one figured out quite early on as well. Perhaps that took away a bit of the suspense. Nonetheless, I believe all Ruth Ware fans will enjoy her latest release!

A buddy read with Susanne that left us both a tad disappointed.

Posted to: https://books-are-a-girls-best-friend...

Thank you to Jessica Roth @ Gallery Books via NetGalley

[Chantel · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on fertility, threats of violence, sexual abuse, stalking, psychological distress, abuse performed by a figurehead, substance abuse, & others.

Hannah Jones is the epitome of a caricature; unlike other girls, something different than she, & certainly not as luxurious as them, void of her own. Despite her self-imposed stark contrasts to every other female entity in her life, Hannah finds herself pursuing post-secondary studies at Pelham College at Oxford University; waltzing the hallways alongside other lucky students, some of whom studied for the merit of their presence on the premises & others who coat-tailed their way into classrooms where their parent’s wealth speaks to their prowess. While Hannah presents as a particularly studious & enthusiastic member of the student body, the premise of this story follows her through a third-party perspective as Ware recounts events both ‘before’ & ‘after’ the murder of April Clarke-Cliveden. Leaving Hannah to regain the role she merited, the one of insouciant Lumbricina on the cold cement.

I have read this story before & you most certainly have too. There is nothing unique, original, or inspiring about this book save for the fact that everything that happens is a complete & utter waste of everyone’s time. If you are interested in pursuing the feelings evoked in this story I should direct your attention to books such as “Big Summer” (2021) by Jennifer Weiner, “Gossip Girl” (2002) by Cecily von Ziegesar, & “The It Girl” (2005) by Cecily von Ziegesar. However, there are certainly hundreds of other books for which this single one emulates.

Having highlighted that this was an unoriginal story, I wondered why I should pursue reading an entire book without purpose for, indeed, why was Hannah doing any of what she undertook? This is a question I loath to ask myself because the purpose of reading such pieces of literature is for enjoyment. I am not seeking out thrillers, mysteries or crime novels of fictionalized accounts to tally the entirety of the holes that litter the plot. I find that most unenjoyable because it means that at some point, someone wasn’t doing their job. I want to enjoy the premise that is being presented & I want to forget that there is a disparity between myself & the angst transpiring within the pages. None of which was achieved in this story because, again, nothing had a purpose.

If we regard the main premise of this book one is left pondering the absence of the looming policing body which was said to have done an efficient job of investigating the case, this being the strangulation of April Clarke-Cliveden in her dormitory at Pelham College on the night of the final showing of the school play of “Medea”. Having returned to her room under the guise of changing her clothes, April’s roommate, Hannah, finds her lying motionless on the floor of their suits. For some reason, Hannah screams bloody murder yet, never checks to see if April still has a pulse nor does she take her cellphone & call the authorities. Why this person, in the ripe year of 2012, would have simply stood by while this person she claimed to be ‘best friends’ with was supposedly laying dead in front of her, remains a mystery to me.

An employee of the University, John Neville, is convicted of April’s murder & remains in prison until his death, 10 years later. Throughout the story, we are told that Hannah’s testimony was the nail in the coffin; the single piece of evidence that was more powerful than any others & which resulted in his conviction & sentencing. However wonderful it might be to believe, no single testimony in 2012 carries so much weight as to simply incarcerate someone for a violent crime. This introduces the character of the journalist, turned podcast host, Geraint, who believes that John is innocent.

Geraint believes John’s claims of innocence because they are from the same town; feeling a duty to do good upon those who originate from the same geographical location as he, however obvious the signs that John is a predatory offender who should have been incarcerated regardless of the final act of violence that purports the ultimate consequences of actions such as that John commits. There is never a moment when Geraint’s concerns are rational or warranted. He asks himself three (3) questions that he believes have not been answered & therefore lead him to believe that John might not be the killer:
- Why would a ‘guilty’ man repeatedly pursue appeals to his conviction?
- Why was John’s DNA not found on April’s body?
- Why did no one hear the struggle?

Though these are technically important questions to ask, they are being pondered by a person who has no knowledge of the details of the case. Geraint has no leg to stand on when asking these questions because technically all the answers exist & are simply hidden from him. There is no reason why he would be given such specific details regarding the murder & for him to contact everyone who was affected by the murder in hopes of casually haranguing detectives for documentation that they most certainly probably have filled away, makes little sense. What renders his participation in this story all the more troubling is that none of the questions posed gain any resolve by the end of the novel.

A person convicted of a crime might either sit out their sentencing & wait for their parole or they will appeal the decision. These are not things that are done because a person is ‘guilty’ or ‘innocent’ these are things that are done because a person has chosen to approach the situation in that way & I would be remiss to ignore the elephant in the room that states that certainly, someone with the liberties & resources at their disposal which would safely allow them to pursue appeals, might decide to endeavour to utilize the resources to their advantage. It is ignorant to think that only an ‘innocent’ person would seek to appeal the decision concluded in a court of law. This is proven time & time again by the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have gone through the justice system.

It seems odd that DNA evidence was not found at the crime scene given that it is explicitly told to the reader that the investigators swabbed everyone who was connected to April, in any way. Knowing that Hugh planned to murder April during this moment—having planned for Hannah to find her motionless on the floor in an attempt to prank her into thinking she was dead—it is bizarre that there was no evidence that Hugh was the killer. For the same reasons that some characters believed that John could not have killed April, those same reasons are never touched on when it comes to accusing Hugh of being the killer. April was ambushed by Hugh after engaging him in the prank on Hannah. She would have certainly scratched him or knocked about the room, her very aggressive makeup & costume would have found their way to various parts of his body & clothes. Are we simply to ignore that?

When asking oneself why no one else, in the bare bones of the hallways & dormitories, was able to hear the, now apparent, struggle that was undertaken to murder April, one is left with many plausibilities. Knowing that the building was constructed with stone would lead one to understand that the noise that was being muffled would not have travelled with ease throughout the building. Given where the crime took place—an area that did not have a lot to be broken, directly beside those present—it is not unfounded to believe that had one or two items fallen or toppled, no one would have thought much of that. This is, after all, a university, things can become rowdy & as is humanly probable, & accidents happen.

These are, of course, simple explanations & rationals. There are many reasons why certain things would have played out differently during the murder than what people think might have happened. It is certainly within our habits to be curious, especially when it pertains to situations we are unfamiliar with. Though crimes do transpire, they appear almost outer-worldly when they do. However, what renders the events in this book difficult to work through is the fact that naive & often ignorant people, place themselves at the forefront of a criminal investigation under the guise of knowing better than those who are actively working in the field. This is not to say that law enforcement cannot make mistakes nor is it to say that law enforcement always approaches things with clear genuine intentions.

However, in this case, there is really no reason to question the result of the trial. At the end of the day, the stalking, assault, & all-around severely inappropriate behaviour exhibited by John were enough to conclude that this person was capable of committing violence against another. The plausibility that is put forth by Ryan that John had gone into the room thinking he might find Hannah there is disturbing but is never touched on with any true severity. None of what happens to Hannah is reflected with the weight it should have had. This is a person who was victim to her own crimes, committed by an authority figure & whom no one believed. This leads to another point, no one in this entire book believed one another.

The author has written pages & pages recounting the exact same details in repetition. We circle the same information multiple times. We did not need to read Hannah’s reasoning for working at the book shop more than once. We did not need to hear about Hannah’s experience with the press more than once & in the exact same way. We did not need to hear Hannah claim that her ‘evidence’ was what convicted John; all of this we knew from the jump yet it is all we are given throughout this entire book. What does any of this redundancy add to the story save for filling pages with useless words? By littering the story with repetitions it ignores the very real issues that were taking place. The very obvious one was that Hannah was being stalked, harassed, & assaulted by an authority figure, repeatedly.

To work through an entire series of events where nothing is given leaves me feeling frustrated. Every single aspect of the case that Geraint brings into question is hearsay. He has no substantial reasons for questioning or interrogating. He allows November, April’s sister, to sit around & recount what she thinks she might have overheard—as a child—about her sister’s autopsy. What was the purpose of that? Everything that happens means nothing because there is nothing to go on. Watching Hannah scramble around town for days thinking that one person must have murdered April because they didn’t get along with her was absurd. Lest we forget how physically difficult it is to strangle someone?

In all, there is no reason to read this book. Hannah jumps to conclusions, she scrambles to ignore her partner’s wishes & puts their unborn child in jeopardy so that she can chase after whomever she believes to be the murderer. I understand that Hannah might have held on to guilt regarding John’s situation because she was always being told that what was happening to her, with regards to the stalking & harassment, was nothing to be worried about & that she was simply overreacting. She might certainly have felt that she did wrong upon someone whom everyone chose to believe over herself.

Ultimately, I cannot rationalize what would have truly driven Hannah to confront the person she believed to be the murderer, especially while pregnant. What did it change to confront Hugh? Nothing. Rationalizing that April couldn’t have gotten access to drugs is ridiculous. The author speaks of 2012 as though it were the 1930s & no one had any connections whatsoever, it is not difficult to have access to substances if you so choose to desire them. One may also wonder where the camera footage was when running around town accusing everyone of being a violent offender.

Why are we meant to follow a wild goose chase pertaining to April's fertility when it was irrelevant? What did this aspect bring to the story except to highlight a practice that needs to be removed from stories—the plight of the promiscuous girl who has to confront responsibilities alone & for whom all consequences are to be carried, often paying for her freedom of choice with her life. Hannah had already told the reader that April was cheating on Will & near the end of the book, Hannah is suddenly certain that she was sleeping with Ryan—with what evidence, I cannot begin to know. Yet, all the while we have to hear about everyone's theories; was April pregnant or was she not? Who heard what & to whom did she tell what? None of this mattered. None of a rather great deal of the dialogue, actions, flashbacks, revelations, monologues, & events impacted the core of this story. However, the list is too long & I have little desire to extend this review in a dissertation fashion.

At the end of the day, this book could have been cut in half & would have carried more weight. With some editing, reworking & alterations, the plot could have presented an interesting twist. For example, it would have been worthwhile not to vilify the actual victims of this story & rather, have it come to a close with the understanding that it is a sticky situation to be in; entangled with folks that choose to support predators blindly, rather than believe the violence of their actions.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster Canada & Ruth Ware for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[JaymeO · Rating 4 out of 5]

HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY!

The It Girl is the “It” thriller of the summer!

Ten years after Hannah Jones’ college roommate, socialite April Coutts-Cliveden is murdered in their dorm room at Oxford, the porter convicted of the crime, John Neville, dies in prison.

Feeling guilty for providing the testimony that prompted the jury to convict him, Hannah vows to determine if he was truly guilty of April’s murder. Neville always proclaimed innocence, forcing Hannah to wonder if she signed his death sentence without merit.

If John Neville didn’t kill April, then who is the real murderer?

Told in alternating chapters from before and after the murder, Hannah must figure out who killed April before it is too late.

I was engaged in this dark academic mystery from start to finish and did not guess the murderer! This plot is very clever and includes excellent character development and fantastic amateur sleuthing.

My only issue was the book’s hefty length. It easily could have been edited down at least 50-75 pages, as there is a lot of unnecessary repetition. However, I was never bored, as Ware frequently shifts gears, constantly introducing new motives and suspects.

4/5 stars

Expected publication date 7/12/22

Thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss, and Gallery/Scout press for the ARC of The It Girl in exchange for an honest review.

[carol. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not It for this girl.

This is not really a mystery/ detective novel. This is mostly literary fiction structured around a terrible event: a melancholic, milquetoast woman who dropped out of Oxford after her best friend, the beautiful and rich April, was found strangled in their rooms. Now married and expecting her first child, the death of the accused killer restarts her PTSD. No one calls it PTSD, of course, which is probably one of the most interesting things about the story, and made me think a little about my own college days. Hannah and one of the group friends, Emily, both note that if such a thing happened now, they would have had counseling and given an auto-pass for their classes.

At any rate, it's terribly slow moving. Not until page 40 does it become apparent that there's a conflict here with someone suspecting the wrong person was accused (duh; mystery novel). Not until a couple chapters after that does Hannah decide to start talking to the people involved in that death. Until then, she suffers through flashbacks, hallucinations and medical crises as she deals with her thoughts about her friend's murder and the impact on their lives. As an exploration of psychological trauma, it's probably good, although not a character or setting I'm particularly drawn to. As a mystery novel, it's lackluster, being neither suspenseful nor fun. If I wanted moody and character-driven, I'd head to Tana French, who can at least nail the suspense while she meanders through her character's psyches.

This is one I picked up for my mom, on the strength of a number of reviews and hoping it would prove interesting for her. She found it 'alright,' without much more to say. I'll echo that conclusion.

[Tina Loves To Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Psychological Thriller/Mystery Suspense. This book took me awhile to get into the story, and the characters took awhile to learn them. Once, I got into the story I could not put it down because I needed to know what really happened. This story is told in two storylines (After the Murder-present day and Before the Murder-College years). I did not guess the reveal. I really loved the ending of this book because I did not see it coming at all. I received an ARC of this book. This review is my own honest opinion about the book like all my reviews are.

[Kim ~ It’s All About the Thrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMGGG!! I Loved it!! ❤️ Isn’t it the absolute best feeling when one of your MOST anticipated reads of the year delivers?!! 🥳🥳🥳 Thank you @scoutpressbooks for this gorgeous gifted copy!! 5 dark academia stars!! 🙌

We all know that girl…👱‍♀️… the one that everyone wants to be… hangout with… date… well this “It Girl” is April. She’s magnetic, gorgeous and very very rich. 💳💰Oh and very very dead. 🤫🤭🤭

I swear @ruthwarewriter is the queen 👸 of atmospheric reads!! She froze me out 🥶 in One by One… freaked me out 👻 in The Turn of the Key🔑 … but I hands down loved this dark… creepy… Oxford school setting. I cringed when April and Hannah would party into the night. 🥃🍸🥂🍷🍺 why you ask??? Well we have alternating timelines.. before… and after… 🤔🤔🤔 Before April was murdered and after… so I was waiting for the Jimmy Choo shoe 👠 to drop… We know it is coming.. but when??? Good thing that killer is behind bars… or is he?😳🤷‍♀️

I can’t tell you how much I loved this book. @ruthwarewriter is always a sure thing for me! ❤️I loved the alternating timelines that kept me guessing all the end! ❤️

Dark academia ✅ Murder ✅ Book hangover ✅ ☕️☕️☕️ Better have your coffee ready for the next day!! 😉😘 Pub date is July 12th!! 🥳🥳🥳

❤️❤️❤️ Is this book on your list?? What is your favorite @ruthwarewriter book?? What is your favorite setting for a good atmospheric read? I love snowed in ski 🎿 lodges ( cue One by One ) 😂 I also love boarding schools..and apparently colleges. ❤️

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve been up and down on Ruth Ware from one book to the next. Her catalogue has ranged from exceptionally fun to nearly unreadable. But with this one, unfortunately, we’ve hit rock bottom.

First, this is not, as it has been labeled, Dark Academia. It is set in part at Oxford University, but there is absolutely nothing academic about it. The college itself doesn’t really figure much into the narrative aside from as a setting in the most literal sense of the word.

The protagonist is a certain archtype common to domestic thrillers aimed at a female audience for whom I’ll never understand the appeal. This woman has absolutely NO self esteem. She can’t even get a sentence out in a normal social situation. It’s pitiable, certainly, but neither relatable (even for those who have some social anxiety) or likable.

She’s also a terrible friend, and a colossal idiot. Seriously, how did this dingbat get into Oxford? She can’t put two and two together until she’s been hit over the head with it, and she spends most of the book falsely accusing pretty much every character of being the murderer without any factual checks on what she’s thinking.

But it’s the one accusation that she makes that WAS right that made this a one star book and not a two-star, dumb but amusing thriller. For the entire narrative, we listen to Hannah bemoan that she has “condemned an innocent man to die in jail.” This is factually untrue (Hannah did not accuse this person, rather, her concrete evidence was used to support the police case against him). But far more importantly, this man was far from innocent.

Whether he was the murderer or not, a lot of women were safer with this man behind bars. He may not have been April’s killer, but he stalked and menaced multiple women and would have done the same to many more. And that includes the protagonist, who was rightly terrified of him. He sexually assaulted her, menaced her, and stalked her. And yet at the end of the book, Hannah talks about him by saying he was “just awkward and weird.”

Obviously we don’t want to put people in prison for crimes they didn’t commit, even if they’re guilty of something else. And some of Hannah’s thoughts are consistent with the guilt and shame that plagues sexual assault victims. But the manner in which all of this was presented is absolutely inexcusable. For a female author, it’s downright embarrassing.

I don’t love this kind of subject matter in a thriller even when it’s handled responsibly because it gives me the icks, but this martyring of a sexual predator to drive plot and characterization is gross and deeply unfair to assault survivors. Women have enough trouble with how they are treated by others and how the world tells them they should feel under circumstances like this. They don’t need that exacerbated by an author’s insensitive and irresponsible decision making.

TW: sexual assault, stalking, physical assault of a pregnant woman

Audiobook readers: Obviously I’m not recommending this book at all, but I’m particularly not recommending it in this format. The reader is exceptionally slow (I listen at 2x and still felt like I wanted to tear my hair out at the painfully drawn out overenunciation and absurdly long pauses). The exaggerated tone also didn’t help with unlikability of an already deeply loathsome protagonist.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[L.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruth Ware's talent for writing a compelling, riveting novel will have you convinced after reading The It Girl. The book centers around a mismatched clique of Oxford Uni students. With St Elmo's Fire vibes, the story comes in waves of past and present from finding their own identities to later adult responsibilities. Not everyone will graduate and someone will die.

Hannah and April become inseparable as roommates. Raised from different backgrounds, April is the "It" girl with her flamboyant, ritzy, plush lifestyle and is the opposite of Hannah's more reserved, practical behavior. Yet, their friendship with Emily, Will, Hugh and Ryan all meshed politely and socially....at first. As couples paired, trouble surfaced. Will and April appeared as the couple to strive to be like...until April leaves a pub one night alone and found dead in her dorm room.

The porter in their school, John Neville, considered to be socially awkward and sketchy was tried for her murder and sentenced to prison pleading for his innocence. When he died in prison ten years later, a young journalist sets out to find the truth as new evidence surfaces. When he reconnects with April's classmates, he finds Hannah married to Will. Hannah was the leading witness that sealed Neville's fate when she saw him leaving their dorm stairwell.

Memories are clouded by what Hannah believes she saw, but begins to question the other friends and the journalist. There is danger in finding the truth. They each have a different version of the real April and all are questionable in her death. This is hard to put down and frustrating when time was not on my side. The truth is right in front of you, but I couldn't figure it out. A definite twist that left me shocked and dumbfounded. I highly recommend for your TBR list as well as all of Ruth Ware's books.

Thanks NetGalley and Gallery Books for this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Lindsay L · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+ stars!

A gothic, mysterious, foreboding, dark academia thriller!

I am always drawn to mysteries involving college campus settings. This one was done extremely well. The Oxford campus is like a character in itself. The old, eerie buildings harbouring the secrets of thousands of students from previous decades. The hidden doors and stairwells known only to a select few. The sprawling exquisitely manicured lawns prohibiting students passage. All of these elements were combined perfectly, keeping me engaged and invested from start to finish.

My one critique is that the plot lost its intensity and sense of believability in the end. It didn’t ruin the book, but it definitely dropped it down a notch. My rating is based on 5+ stars for the first 70% and 3.5 stars for the last 30%. The main character takes the amateur sleuth role a little too far and the ending is dramatically unrealistic yet, I was hanging on every word. There is something about this authors writing that I so smoothly click with. However, the plot choices in the end didn’t match the amazing-ness of the rest of the book.

Overall, a great read that I highly recommend! Already looking forward to this authors next release!

Thank you to my lovely local library for the loan!

[Nikola · Rating 3 out of 5]

A byłyby 4/4,5 gwiazdki gdyby nie to okrutnie przegadane 350 pierwszych stron.

[Molly · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is full of the most eye-rolling cliches and it’s overall aggressively stupid. I’m actually angry about how bad it is.

To spoil the plot, Hugh murdered April because she knew he had paid someone else to take his entrance exams and she was blackmailing him into getting her ADHD medication.

Here are some of my complaints.

1) The dynamic between the victim (April) and the protagonist (Hannah) is stupidly cliched. The victim is always this gorgeous, spoiled, bitchy girl and the protagonist is her overshadowed friend. I’m over it.

2) The setup for Hannah to start investigating it again all these years later is that she’s not convinced of the guilt of the man (Neville) who was convicted. However, Hannah of all people would have the least reason to doubt his guilt because the man had already assaulted her! He was actively creeping on her and she was terrified if him. Then at the end of the novel, she dismisses his actions as him just being “weird and awkward.” The man tackled her into the ground and rubbed his groin into her!

3) April was murdered via strangulation. This is a method that requires a lot of strength and takes 4-5 minutes of constant pressure to fully work. How did Hugh know he’d have enough time to complete it? How long did it take Hannah to go downstairs to get help? Why didn’t she just use her phone to call emergency services? Hugh had no way of knowing how long she’d be gone or if she’d actually leave at all.

4) Hannah realizes how a murderer could have gotten away without being discovered and promises April’s sister she won’t tell anyone about it before she goes to the police. Then she immediately tells Hugh, which gives him a chance to I redirect her attention to her own husband.

5) Why would Hannah start to doubt her own husband based solely on Hugh’s word? Her husband (Will) has never shown signs of violence. Also, Will’s alibi was that he was out of town. As the victim’s boyfriend, the police are obviously going to look into that alibi pretty closely. There should have been a lot of concrete evidence to back that up. Why didn’t Hannah think of any of that?

6) Why did Will suddenly start acting in a threatening manner when he realized that his pregnant wife suspected him of murder and was afraid of him? There’s no reasonable explanation for his very sudden change in behavior if he’s innocent.

7) Why would Will just go out to the cliff where Hugh is trying to murder Hannah on his own without at least calling the police first?

8) How did Hugh get a handgun in the UK?

9) The author pulls another extremely eye-rolling cliche. There’s a confrontation between Will and Hugh and the gun goes off. The scenes then abruptly changed to Hannah at a funeral. It’s Hugh’s funeral of course, but the author wants us to be in suspense for a bit first. Why is she even at the funeral of the man who murdered her friend and tried to murder her (and her husband)?

10) The police apparently took what must have been a very poor-quality recording of a conversation as proof of not only how Hugh died, but also of what really happened to April. There wouldn’t have been any other actual evidence at this point. Apparently this recording was enough to overturn a previous conviction too! That’s not really how the legal system works.

11) The author wants us to believe that it would have been almost impossible for college kids to get drugs in the 2010s without a prescription.

12) The author wants us to believe that it’s actually really easy to cheat on the med school entrance exams in the UK and that the entity responsible for administering the test would never have thought of the possibility of an applicant paying someone else to take the exam for them and therefore would not require an ID at the time of the exam.

Those were my main complaints. I regret wasting time a book that insults readers’ intelligence so much.

[Melissa (Semi Hiatus Until After the Holidays) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally knocked this one off of the TBR. I generally like Ware's books but this one offered nothing new.

The main character, Hannah, was at Oxford ten years previously when her roommate, April was murdered. Now, she's pregnant and married to Will, who was April's boyfriend at the time. The man who was convicted of April's murder has died in prison while still claiming his innocence. Hannah was the witness who saw this man leaving that night, could she have been wrong?

There was nothing I liked about Hannah, besides her love for books. She is flighty, indecisive, doesn't stand up for herself, jumps to conclusions, is whiny and hysterical. And this doesn't improve even ten years down the road. I have no idea why she was this way, as we really didn't get any background on her despite the meanderingly slow pace of this novel. In fact, we never get any background on anyone really.

This glacier-slow pace continues for about 75% of the novel when a few things finally happen. But again, Hannah gets hysterical and jumps to conclusions and puts herself and her baby in danger. As I mentioned, this storyline is been there, done that, and nothing really surprised me at all. You can call the culprit long before they are revealed, although the motive was a bit interesting, it didn't make up for the plodding pace and lack of originality.

If you want dark academia with some surprising twists, go get In My Dreams I Hold a Knife instead.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

[Alex.andthebooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

To nie będzie najukochańsza Ruth, ale wciągnęła mnie jak czarna dziura — CHCĘ WIĘCEJ!

[Sydney Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5* I actually really liked this story! The academic setting, the unsolved murder mystery, the before/after timelines, I even thought the ending was clever and well explained. But absolutely NO thriller needs to be 400+ pages. I feel like it took me a year to finish this and if I hadn’t had the audiobook to help speed things along I’m not sure I would have stuck with it.

[Susanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can You Say Ruh Roh?

The It Girl started out strong and petered out at the end.

I had such high hopes for this one! I adore Ruth Ware and admittedly love character driven novels. In the beginning I was all in and that excitement carried on until about 70-75% and then I lost it.

So what happened you ask? Well let’s get to it!

The day Hannah enters Oxford she meets her new roommate April Clarke-Clivedon. Affluent, bright and completely wild, April changes Hannah’s life forever. The two become besties, even though they are from different worlds. Enter Will, April’s boyfriend, who Hannah can’t help but crush on. Surrounding them are a group of friends, Ryan, Emily and Hugh. Then something goes awry. Tragedy strikes April and everyone’s life is shattered.

Ten years later, Hannah’s life is very different. The day she receives news of past events, everything stops and Hannah realizes that she must go back in order to move forward.

So when the big reveal finally happened, well, it wasn’t so big. Then it carried on way too long. To be perfectly honest, it was a snoozefest. The how and why frankly, didn’t matter at all. Everything leading up to that point had me. I was wholly intrigued by the life and times of Hannah, Will and April and then not so much. Such is life.

I am only one reader however, thus I encourage you all to read other reviews as this one seemed to be a hit with everyone else.

This was a buddy read with Kaceey.

Thank you to Jessica Roth at Gallery Books for the arc via NetGalley

Review published to blog https://books-are-a-girls-best-friend... and to Goodreads and Twitter.

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

NOW AVAILABLE!!

in the vast churning sea of academic thrillers centered around the murder of a beautiful and magnetic young woman, what shocking twists does an author need to devise in order to stand out?

in this case, the answer is "none," really.

in the rankings of Ruth Ware Books I Have Read, The It Girl is sandwiched alongside One by One in the "perfectly fine" territory between the great: The Turn of the Key, and the terrible: In a Dark, Dark Wood.

it's a very familiar setup: a close-knit group of college students satellite around a beautiful, wealthy, selfish roman candle of a young woman, and after she gets murdered, everyone's secrets are revealed.

here, many of those secrets don't come out until a decade after april's murder, when her former bestie/roommate/narrator hannah is married to april's college-sweetheart will, when she is pregnant with his child, when john neville—the college porter hannah's testimony implicated in april's murder—dies in jail, when a reporter approaches hannah with information exonerating neville, when she becomes wracked with guilt over possibly ruining an innocent man's life, wracked with anger over april's unavenged death, and wracked with terror that a killer might still be on the loose. it's a whole lot of wracking.

the story alternates between adult hannah—pregnant, living in scotland, and working in a bookshop, and her student days at oxford, when she met the larger-than-life april and was engulfed into her clustering clique: april, will, emily, hugh, and ryan.

april is...the way all aprils are in books like this:

There was something otherworldly about her—some indefinable quality Hannah could not put her finger on. She felt almost as if she had seen her somewhere before...or watched her in a film. She had that kind of beauty that hurt your eyes if you looked at her for too long, but made it hard to tear your gaze away. It was, Hannah realized, as if a different kind of light were shining on her than on the rest of the room.

but after her death, she became a symbol—a promising life cut short, reduced to tragedy in the media:

How dare they—the journalists, the public, the vultures who have picked over this case for years like they care, like they have a right to the truth just as much as Hannah does. They've stripped April of her identity, of her uniqueness, of everything that made her real and compelling and fascinating—they've reduced her to a cardboard cutout of a girl and a series of Instagram pictures. The perfect victim, in fact.

the ten-year-gap permits hannah enough emotional distance to revisit her past with different eyes, to consider that the creepy porter was maybe just creepy, and not necessarily a killer, and to perceive the cracks in april's shine; see the way her vanity, her carelessness with other people's feelings and her mischievous pranks may have driven someone to kill her—someone she considered a friend.

it does what thrillers do—a mad scramble of suspicion and doubt, red herrings, remembered details given new emphasis, etc etc, and it's a compelling, if conventional, page-turner. i figured it out before the grand reveal, but i enjoyed the ride nonetheless.

honestly, the best parts for me were hannah's working-in-the-bookstore bits, which were very relatable, both the comfort in feeling "safest surrounded by books," and the joyful challenge of readers' advisory work:

...an elderly lady, who comes in every Tuesday and buys a book, and then comes back the following Tuesday and tells Hannah how many marks out of ten she would award it. She has never, ever given ten. Hamnet got 8.75. This week Razorblade Tears got 9.2. The first Bridgerton novel got 7.7. Lord of the Flies got a surprising 4.1. Hannah finds it impossible to predict what will score high—some of her most confident recommendations bomb, but she lives in hope of finding something that will hit the magic jackpot.

i've read far too many campus thrillers in my life, and i will read many more before i die (knock wood), so this was more of a comfort-food read for me than a mind-blowing experience, but it's a fun summertime thriller to escape from the real world, and i'm taking my comforts where i can these days.

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[Ceecee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The It Girl is April Clarke-Cliveden. She’s got looks, brains and money and is a glittering, golden young woman. There’s a bit of resentment that family money MAYBE helps her get into prestigious Pelham College, Oxford but she’s definitely no airhead. Most people find her a magnetic personality though she is a practical joker, so you’d better watch out! Fast forward to the present day to April’s former roommate Hannah Jones, now Hannah de Chastaigne. Hannah’s time at Pelham defines her life, she feels guilt, it haunts her and she can’t move on. Why? Towards the end of her first year at Oxford Hannah finds April dead, the case becomes a national obsession with college porter John Neville being convicted. Now the ‘Pelham Strangler’ is dead, resurrecting the past and reopening barely healed wounds. This leads to the inevitable questions about whether Neville is guilty.

There’s much to praise in this latest novel by Ruth Ware. First of all, it really captures the Oxford vibe as Hannah, from a state school background, moves amongst the ‘exotic, clever, glamorous creatures’ from a much different background and world to her own. Many of these ‘creatures’ attended equally prestigious private schools prior to Oxford and so those hallowed walls perhaps inspire their awe slightly less than they do for Hannah. The group that forms ‘gel’ over a game of strip poker which makes you smile at their boldness so soon into their acquaintance! The newly formed dynamics come across strongly and the characterisation is really good. You warm to some, are puzzled by others but April’s is the strongest presence even after death she overhangs all.

John Neville gives me the heebies, you get odd vibes from him right from the start. He’s patronising, creepy and weird but is he a killer? That’s the burning question. Hannah is forced to address her certainly and even in death his presence lingers like a poisonous miasma.

As the novel progresses, the atmosphere between characters becomes stranger, even questionable and there’s anger too. It builds well, there’s plenty of tension and you cast your eye over several characters but the dramatic climax of the book blindsides me. I so don’t see that one coming but equally it is very plausible. It is exciting, very tense and you read with bated breath.

For me this is the best novel by RW I’ve read. It’s a good slow burner which absolutely keeps my focus throughout and it’s very hard to put down and I do so extremely reluctantly. My only criticism is that it’s a tad too long and on occasions it does feel as if the author is squeezing every last drop out but nonetheless it is still very enjoyable.

It’s very atmospheric especially in Oxford which feels like a character in its own right, with all the characters lucky enough to attend this elite institution dancing right off the pages especially the It Girl. It has a little bit of everything but it’s mostly just a really good mystery with a dollop or two of much appreciated humour.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Simon and Schuster for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.