I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was so excited to see this book offered at BookCon and was even more excited when I was able to get my hands on it! They Wish They Were Us is part Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl. Jill Newman goes to a prestigious school where she and six of her friends are Players, a group of students who were hand picked to be apart of this elite group that has the best parties, are the most popular, and have access to things like answers to tests and easy ins with any college they want. But their freshman year when they were chosen to become Players, one of their friends was murdered and the other took the blame. But what really happened that summer night?
Just the description alone is enough to get you interested. The writing is really well done. And the plot is interesting enough, but is more of a slow burn. The author Jessica Goodman takes her time building to the suspense, which is good because you really get to know the main character Jill and understand her choices, but also bad because you’re waiting for her to get to the point, to try to solve this murder.
I liked d the book, but I wasn’t thrilled with it. I love a mystery that keeps you guessing and Goodman did that, but at a point you kind of lost interest because the murder plot was almost a weird side character you kept forgetting about until someone else brought it up.
If you don’t like to be scared by a mystery or thriller, I would recommend this book. It’s about a 3 on the thriller scale.