They Wish They Were Us

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Sheila Arnold, Jill's best friend was killed and in solid cliche fashion, the boyfriend-Graham- was announced the killer because of course, it is always the boyfriend. I kinda feel bad about not liking this novel, but this novel annoyed me way too much for me to enjoy it. This comes about when Jill remembers a rumor that the teacher was sleeping with a student, she believes the student is Shaila, the teacher is arrested, he is later cleared as he has an alibi for the night Shaila was murdered.

Jill's best friend, Shailia died on initiation night freshman year and her boyfriend, Graham was arrested for her murder and now 3 years later. he says and slaps a piece of notebook paper against my window flashing a hastily drawn doodle of the three of us. 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. Cada escena donde la protagonista hablaba de su relación con ella me ponía más y más los pelos de punta. I wish this book would have been focused a little more of the mystery part and I wanted it to be darker, but it was still a very good book.

And another little thing, why did the author keep making Jill say "I see tiny little hairs between her eyebrows, waiting to be plucked"? She starred in every class play she could, emerging from afternoon rehearsals on a euphoric high I couldn’t understand. As we learn more about the Players and the expectations of being a Player, we see just how far people are willing to go to belong as well as to maintain a certain image.

After that dark night on the beach, Graham confessed, the case was closed, and Jill tried to move on.At this point, through Jill’s POV and flashbacks to what really happened leading up to the murder had my fingers flipping unable to put this book down. Even though I am a sucker for high school cliques and secret societies, this one was just not my cup of tea. i’m always down to read about insular cliques in academic settings that end in murrrrrrderrrrr, so i’d been looking forward to this one for a while. A murdered best friend, a secret society, I was SO excited to get into what seemed to be such an exciting read. When I climbed into the front seat, Nikki looked as if she’d already had two Starbucks Ventis and a full glam squad appointment.

The Players has a cheesy and dated feel to it like the story would have fit better in the 1980s time period rather than now. We still have to get through Shaila’s memorial and it hangs over us like a cloud, ready to rain all over the fun. I could almost forgive the non - existent mystery; it is very obvious from the beginning who the murderer is. because—although presumably these students are plucking off pieces with their fingies, so if this is a thing that exists, they all have covid now—but if you're serving raw cookie dough at lunch, i'm first in line, before it gets tainted. From the first page I was invested in the narrative even if it wasn't immediately apparent where the story was going to go.That’s all I really want to say without spoiling, but I highly recommend for anyone who thinks they would enjoy a mash up of Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl. It seemed to me she was relieved her friend died, so she could take her place in the hierarchy and be the queen of the school. Jill is now a senior Player, but during their freshman year her best friend Shaila died during the initiation ceremony.