Entertaining read.

filled star filled star filled star filled star star unfilled
dg_reads Avatar

By

THEY WISH THEY WERE US by Jessica Goodman has had me intrigued since it first came out, so when I saw a buddy read come up for it in October when I was trying to fit extra thrillers into my schedule, I jumped on the chance!

THEY WISH THEY WERE US follows a group of high school students called The Players, the in crowd full of secrets and darkness and advantages. We’re hearing the story from the perspective of one of their own Jill. Now a senior, Jill’s best friend Shaila was killed back in their freshman year. Shaila’s boyfriend is behind bars after confessing, but the death still haunts Jill.

As a senior, Jill is determined to make changes in The Players. She’s enjoyed the advantages of their secret society from easy grades to amazing parties, but she’s also seen the darkness at the core and that is what she wants to eliminate. When she starts to get some messages which indicate that Graham might not be guilty after all, she calls into question everything she knows of The Players and her own history.

I wound up reading this one on audio and it was a fun read for the most part. The secret society Goodman develops is as dark and twisted as I was hoping and possibly a bit more. Those in power certainly know how to abuse their power! If you need to like the central characters in the story, I don’t know that I would recommend this one.

While the story is an entertaining read, I wasn’t entirely sucked into it. It was pretty easy for me to figure out what direction the mystery was taking from early on and it didn’t have me questioning my theory at any point. I wanted a bit more out of the final show down as well. Given that this is written entirely from Jill’s perspective, there are key parts of the story that we don’t see first hand.

Overall a fun read, but not a favorite new YA thriller!