The It Girl

Not a big mystery fan but this was super good. There were some fun plot twists at the end that made it tough to put down!

Started off slow but I did end up liking the book. Good mystery, but not making it on the favorites list

4.5

I figured it out about 1/2 way through. A little long, but ending was exciting. The MC was annoyingly meek at times to me.

This one needed editing... It was longer than other Ruth Wares and that was absolutely not necessary. With a hundred pages scraped out, it would probably have been more engaging. Probably all the parts about Hannah being pregnant and touching her baby bump and having high blood pressure; they were completely useless and if all of that had been taken out, it would have been an easy and clean cut. April was the typical annoying rich girl, absolutely nothing to like about her even though the narrator loved her, I really wonder why. The fact that April played pranks on everybody was so cliché and annoying, I didn't understand at all why the others were attracted to her orbit. I didn't care for the twist so it's a middle-of-the-road Ware for me, too bad. It didn't help that the narration was over-the-top; I generally love Imogen Church but this one really increased my annoyance at April, Hannah, Emily because all their voices were too much (too much whining, too much insecurity, too much haughtiness).

Middle of the road thriller. A bit repetitive for the main character’s drive to do things (“I can’t live knowing the killer is out there”), as well as lacking a strong conviction when trying to figure out who the killer was (too much flip flopping about who to panic about that day). Ending was not overly crazy, wanted more of a twist. Overall just okay.

I only read 9% of it, but I just didn't care. I'm pretty sure I'm done with Ruth Ware this time. The only one I really liked was The Death of Mrs. Westaway.

Very lengthy for a thriller - but I did enjoy the setting (Oxford), the friend group, ALL the red herrings, and the twist at the end. The writing was very good, intriguing, and hard to put down. I was a little disappointed with the ending, but she certainly didn’t need to make it any longer than it already was. Between 3.5 and 4 ⭐️ - I rounded up.

This book was far too long! I disliked the main character (narrator). It was not very creative and kind of predictable.

this book was super slow in the beginning but it was interesting how everything wrapped up

A roller coaster ride for sure, The It Girl was good! The plot twist was exciting, there was so much exciting mystery throughout, the book kept me anxiously awaiting the conclusion, and I enjoyed the family of characters. I have to minus 1.5 stars because the main character Hannah was a bit over dramatic for my taste but it fit the novel. Also, it felt a bit too long. There was a few times where I’d read a page and a half or so and wonder why that wasn’t taken out or what it actually added to the story. Overall, I guess I’d recommend! 3.5/5 stars

⭐️2.5 Having wanted to read this book last year, I must say it was not for me. A book with an overly character-driven plot, I didn't particularly care for the characters, which made reading tedious and unsatisfying. It was also frustrating how slowly the mystery surrounding April's death was unravelled. It was made worse by how long the book felt. You could literally finish several chapters and think that you have made a huge dent in the book or made significant progress, but in reality you haven't. The book drags and it’s very easy to lose focus. In many ways, the book was tedious and dull, especially since we are privy to Hannah's inner thoughts. Lastly, I was underwhelmed and unimpressed by the mystery and the culprit reveal; everything seemed so predictable and meh. Overall, this book was a miss for me personally, but as it was my first Ruth Ware book, I would be interested in reading another one. Hopefully, the next Ruth Ware book I read will be better.

My favorite Ruth Ware book so far!! Didn’t see it coming - genuinely shocked when the plot twist was revealed. Lots of red herrings in this book too. I kinda love that!

** spoiler alert ** Oh my god this book had me on the edge of my seat! Towards the middle I thought that we were given the blaring obvious suspect. And I wasn't mad at that because I knew there would be a plot twist and I was excited. So I was so confused and even more intrigued when it was "confirmed" that Will was the real murder but that made me want to keep reading because there was so much left. And OH BOY I was not expecting Hugh!! But I really want to know what was up with Will because he's still a little sus to me. Like was he really on campus? If not what was happening in his room? Did he really just come back early?

If you cut out all the filler, this would be a novella, but probably not a good novella. All yes, and the moral is the story is: don't report the creepy middle aged man following you around, because if there's a murder, he'll be blamed, and it will definitely be your fault when he dies in prison

I think this is the best Ruth Ware book yet. I loved the setting and the characters were well-defined. The killer wasn’t completely obvious, even if it was a little Christie-esque. The explanation did fit though.

This book was good but kind of a slow burner.

Rounded up for goodreads

This book quite literally put me in the worst reading slump of my life. I went from reading 15+ books a month to not even reading a single book in 2 months. I started this book AGES ago and finally finished it after continually forcing myself to pick it back up. It just wasn't interesting at all to me. I didn't care about any of the characters and didn't really care about the mystery presented. The only good thing about this book was the plot twist at the end, and that's only because I genuinely did not see it coming. But... a bad book can't be salvaged by one good twist. The other 98% was simply boring and impossible to get through. Take my advice and skip this one.

Ruth Ware's latest writing is much more my vibe, this book had predictable elements, but I was along for the ride. Set across a past and present split narrative, we see some of the main character's experiences at Oxford university and her current experiences; pregnant and married and investigating the murder of her best friend, ten years in the past.

Going back and forth between these two frames made the narrative fast-paced and gave us a retrospective look at the characters from the present timeline. Hannah is clearly haunted by her past and may have made a big mistake, we see her past experiences and how she came to be where she is now. I enjoyed being able to figure this out alongside Hannah and this certainly gave me a goosebumps moment, which is always a win for me from a thriller!

I like the relationships Ruth Ware writes about and how flawed and unreliable some of her characters are, it always makes for a fun and intense read.

The plot to this felt way too similar to a book I read a few weeks ago (In My Dreams I Hold a Knife). So it was really hard for me to get into this book.

This book and it’s protagonist were infuriating. Not great.

3.25 stars

Too slow, not much happens until the end