Status Updates From She Started It

-missed opportunities to do 4v1 team-up or literally ANY deduction considering Annabelle is not only leader but also is “smart” and they mentioned it TWICE
-no character development

2*, too many missed opportunities that I think a good editor and honest feedback would’ve helped address, straight plot with no nuance nor development with a few twists that are either obvious or anticlimactic, not for adult readers

+prologue
+quick, easy beach read
-lack of distinction b/t characters, no complexity nor nuance, just outlines of a trait
-extremely predictable (idc if I can guess where it’s going, but it was so glaringly obv I thought it couldn’t possibly be what I was thinking and then it was!)
-diary entry didn’t read as one

but I do think that this author needs to take stock in a good editing team and work on their craft with character devlopement and plot progression. Hopefully, in the future they work on something I get to enjoy much better. Some problems could be ignored if it were fun which it wasn't. Unfortunately, this was not for me. I would rec this to a reader new to thrillers or possibly a YA crowd with mentioning the TWs.

Nitpick, but Poppy’s diary entries of her time in school had descriptive scene setting and included dialog, so it just came across as an italicized version of the actual book rather than an emotional diary of Poppy’s young inner monologue.

I know this was a debut so ofc there is always room to grow

Not much happened until way into the book and then it just felt repetitive: clue from the past is brought up on the island then we switch b/t 4 characters (where I get lost) to discuss why they shouldn’t believe this was intentional, then cue the flashback diary entry where we find out it’s obviously intentional -_-

The summary promised twists/secrets which either weren’t surprising or were petty drama that did not develop anyone. The prologue also notably gave away Annabelle lives and the fact that Poppy’s body was never found on the island and Annabelle is set up to be such an intellectual in PSYCHOLOGY I was like huh?? Girl. The twist was evident early on so the wait to get to it felt rly long despite a shorter book length.

Not to mention they are ADULTS now, so there’s another missed opportunity to discuss that when they were hs kids they made some huge mistakes and terrible decisions and even though they are different now they still have to take accountability for what they’ve done. But nope. None of that happened. It read as straight with no nuance nor development.

I still don’t understand why they went if they weren’t wracked w guilt, there is no way all-expenses-paid was bait enough to visit the kid they bullied after 10 years no contact. Having to fight for apology and still being targeted would’ve been a cool premise as the bad ppl are being targeted but we only slowly learn why they are bad as the story progresses so our loyalties would sway with more info

At one point I really thought they would work together to go against Poppy which is not only thematically parallel to their hs experiences, but would actually be more interesting and in-line with their poopy personalities to fight against someone we were "rooting for” (which obv we didn’t root for Poppy, and obv they didn’t team up though mentioning it not 1x but 2x to no avail).

With 4 POVs we see their own perspectives and yet we don’t actually see them try to figure out what is going on, they either dismiss it or argue to themselves or each other that it is not what it obviously is. No figuring out, no clue-finding, no deduction… The summary comparing it to And Then There Were None is insulting

Idk it wasn’t boring but it wasn't exciting. It was also extremely predictable in a way that had me keep listening to wait for a depth that never came

Despite various VAs for each of the mean girl crew, when POVs switched during the same scene I would have to stop and check who was talking and who’s secret was which. Their personalities are interchangeable that chapter titles were necessary to keep them straight

Annabelle is livid, vowing it’s not over, that Poppy killed herself over something so small. Wow.

Poppy’s sister leaves Annabelle to get arrested for the 3 murders and searches for the accomplice

Poppy watched them for yrs to see if they changed into better ppl, and when she invited them none of them brought up the past nor tried to make amends, despite Tanya feeling guilt she never apologized

Poppy killed herself, her sis has been impersonating her since, asks Annabelle for their accomplice, she says it was the guy who was waitlisted for the art uni who got in when Poppy’s admission was dropped

Poppy asks Annabelle why they did that to her and ruined her life? Annabelle was so petty b/c her bf really was into Poppy at prom, Chloe recorded them destroying her painting; Poppy knew one of the girls had an insider give them a key card to the room and she asks Tanya who won’t turn over the video nor tell them who let them in, she even had the audacity to say that Poppy deserved to die

Annabelle stabs Esther and poppy emerges from the shadows (obviously… for such an intellectual, Annabelle did not stop to examine the facts)

Poppy’s art exam was sabotaged by the girls, ended up failing and couldn’t get into the art uni b/c she believed their bf’s were into her at the after prom party (tho they told them to flirt w her) but b/c the art exam room was locked no one believes it wasn’t her

When the storm calms the 2 keep searching for Chloe, find her washed up on beach dead from head injury, Esther brandishes knife blaming Annabelle for everything and A brings out her own knife

Both are blaming each other I’m lost tbh cuz like didn’t Esther say in her pov that she killed?

At prom Poppy goes all out transformation and everyone compliments her, Annabelle is acting off she’s a little underdressed for her normal attire and couldn’t afford the limo w the other girls

She gets invited to Esther’s after party where Chloe’s bf almost kisses her and Annabelle’s bf touches her lip, also I think Annabelle spiked her drink idk

They finally address all the bruises on Esther and it’s her husband

Esther’s missing necklace falls out of Annabelle’s pocket cuz she’s a klepto…. Ok

Feeling absolutely patronized by the other girls for her low intelligence dumb blonde persona she storms out into the well… the storm. So maybe you really are just a dumb blonde

Esther and Annabelle go looking for her in the huts

Esther dreams she stabbed Poppy in bed but isn’t sure if it’s real or not, she sees Tanya in bed w knife in her chest

Esther thinks she could never let Tanya leave the island she knows too many secrets

Chloe says when her laptop got stolen earlier in the year she thinks it was poppy, a certain video was on it idk what yet

The girls stick together to survive one more day but power goes out in the predictable storm

They theorize that the alcohol they all drank was laced w something cuz no one remembers the night before

Chloe searches all the girls’ rooms and finds a bloody knife underneath Tanya’s mattress and blood on her window

Esther knew about Chloe’s affair w Annabelle’s husband, she caught them by accident and kept it a secret for a year, Annabelle storms off despite Esther’s threats that she knows stuff about A too

They go into her room and there’s blood all over the sheets and her bloody top is found in the water

Ether thinks to herself that she has to hide poppy and the knife

Poppy applied to the best art school in England and threw away her tool to cut herself, saying she has to move on and the girls won’t follow her to school

With their chargers thrown into the ocean and the landline destroyed by Poppy the girls have 2 days left stranded before Rosie comes back, they decide to take action 4 v 1 (again…?) dam are they really going to kill her?? They get drunk

Esther wakes up with bxtch written on her stomach in lipstick, Chloe has scratches on her neck, and there’s blood on the back door and under poppy’s doorframe

For Esther, Poppy sent all her coworkers the video of her streaking in the ocean from truth or dare night, she gets fired for sexual harassment

For Tanya, she’s already fired and her bf left her so Poppy decided to post publically her addiction to coke (Esther already told her clients at Tanya’s last party she organized and it got her fired)

The next morning poppy brings their phones back, she posted on Annabelle’s Fbook album of 50+ women her husband cheated on her with, and she says so what she has his money and he goes home to her every night but the last woman is Chloe (who is almost more surprised about the cheating than Annabelle, wrongfully thinking she was special)

She posted a vid of Chloe being homophobic on the first night to her 1M followers

The girls decide to not roll over and take it but face Poppy head on, 4 v 1 tho it doesn’t seem like that when they play truth or date and poppy knows Tanya and her bf broke up , Esther is a nepo baby

They get drunk and dance and eat the 5 of them

The objects found are a birthday hat (Tanya ditched her 12th birthday to be w the girls), red lipstick (when they pretended to be the most attractive guy in school giving her lipstick wear for their first date and posting online the makeup fails and he ended up dating Esther), capri sun (juice they spilled on her) and a canvas painting w black all over