Thank you to TandemGlobal, Gallery / Scout Press, #partner, for an advanced copy of The It Girl in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Gallery / Scout Press
Published: July 12, 2022
Summary:
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of One by One returns with an unputdownable mystery following a woman on the search for answers a decade after her friend’s murder.
April Coutts-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.
Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the second, April was dead.
Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder.
My thoughts:
Ruth Ware is one of my favorite authors and The It Girl is one of my most anticipated reads not only this month, but this summer. And let me just say…it totally delivers! I had the opportunity to read an early galley of it back in May with a bunch of bookstagrammers world-wide and it was such a treat!
Give me all the dark academia books and add in a locked-room mystery and I am one happy girl! This one might give off In My Dreams I Hold a Knife vibes, which incidentally is one of my favorite books, but it definitely stands on its own. It’s so atmospheric, and it totally gets under your skin. I loved the way it moves back and forth, using a before and after format, allowing you to really get to know the characters. As we get further into the book, it becomes evident that just about everyone has reason for wanting to harm April, but who actually did it? I loved learning about all their relationships both in the past and in the present.
This is such a brilliantly plotted book, and the structure really lends itself to quite nicely to the perfect buildup of suspense and tension…so much so that you find yourself unable to walk away from the book until you get to the final resolution. And with the mini-cliffhangers at the end of the chapters…you just cannot read fast enough!
I admit, it does start off a bit slow, but I think that was necessary in order to really help set the scene and help us get in the right mindset for all that was to come. Because once that is done, things start taking off and it becomes a much faster, more action-packed read.
This is definitely a book you don’t want to miss and I’m telling you, it’s completely binge-able despite its length. It’s a story full of complex characters, where everyone is hiding something, and as long as you love a mystery that takes its time building the layers, you will love this one. I have loved all of Ruth Ware’s books but this just might be my new favorite!
