Thanks to Edelweiss and G. P. Putnam’s Sons for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Release Date: Available Now
384 Pages
Synopsis: Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is the past, and she’s reinvented herself entirely. Now she’s a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. But when a girl’s body is found in the lake, Kay’s carefully constructed life begins to topple.
The dead girl has left Kay a computer-coded scavenger hunt, which, as it unravels, begins to implicate suspect after suspect, until Kay herself is in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. But if Kay’s finally backed into a corner, she’ll do what it takes to survive. Because at Bates Academy, the truth is something you make…not something that happened.
As soon as I laid eyes on People Like Us, the cover and the premise of a killer loose at a boarding school, immediately grabbed my attention. Add in a twisted scavenger hunt left by the deceased girl, and I knew I had to read it. While the theme isn’t unique, the author added in enough of her own original flourishes to make it stand out from the somewhat crowded field. The main character, Kay, was deeply flawed, yet still garnered my sympathy. I also liked that she was bisexual which gave some welcome diversity to the story. The secondary characters weren’t quite as well developed though and there were a couple in particular that I wished I had gotten to know more. While I guessed the identity of the killer early on, I wasn’t completely sure what their motivations were. There were also some additional twists that kept me guessing. And finally, the big reveal concerning the killer at the end was a bit of a letdown, but there was one related to Kay that did take me by surprise.
Overall, despite having a few issues, I still enjoyed People Like Us, and I will definitely try Dana Mele’s next book.
*For another perspective, please take a look at my lovely friend Dani’s 5 star review over at https://touchmyspinebookreviews.com
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