Jill is a senior in high school. Jill and her friends are in the next-so-secret secret club The Players. They worked hard to get through all the hazing and initiation to become members of this elite group of high schoolers. They also risked a lot to get chosen to be part of this group, including dealing with the murder of their friend Shaila.
Now it's time for The Players to make the rules. Jill wants it to be different but she finds herself under pressure to go along with the group. She finds herself questioning everything, her future, her relationships, and questioning who actually killed Shaila. Jill is willing to risk it all to find the truth.
This YA story is part teen angst, part mystery, and part coming of age story. The characters are bratty and entitled but despite that, you root for them to find redemption. The story is suspenseful and is a quick read. It makes you feel as though you are in the prestigious prep school as a fellow classmate of The Players, watching them self destruct, yet hoping that they turn out to be better.
Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Teen's YallStayHome Sweepstakes for the advanced reader's copy. The opinions are my own.

A girl begins to question everything she's believed in this young adult thriller. Reminiscent of "Gossip Girl," Jill goes to a posh school, Gold Coast Prep, on scholarship, surrounded by the rich and elite. She has managed to get into the exclusive Players, who's who of the school and beyond. The Players get test answers, perks and make connections into the future. Unfortunately, Jill's freshman year suffered a tragedy, the murder of her best friend, Shaila, and the confession of Shaila's boyfriend of the murder. Now during senior year, Jill and her friends are ready to rule the school and initiate a group of freshmen, including her own brother, into the Players. But when Jill starts getting messages from the murderer's sister claiming he didn't do it, she begins to question that night and everything the Players stand for. I guessed the murderer pretty quickly, which was a let down for me and I'm not a Gossip Girl fan, so it was a miss for me.

Book Review!
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Thank you to Peguin Teen for working so hard to continue to get books out for reviews during a time like this. You guys are awesome. THEY WISH THEY WERE US by Jessica Goodman comes out August 4, 2020 and everyone needs to make their calendars. This book gave me hints of We Were Liars, which has been a book that has stuck with me for years. .
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The plot follows a group of elite high schoolers that call themselves The Players. They are the elite of the elite and are given access to different resources that allow for their lives to be easier. Each year, new members are added to The Players from the freshman class. And now that our main characters are at the top of the food chain, it's their turn to pick the newbies. However, of course not everything can go as plan. The senior Players are haunted by the death of one of their friends who was killed during their initiation into The Players as freshman. With the pressure of getting into an elite college, remaining at the top of the high school food chain, and the stress of your best friend's killer coming forward proclaiming innocence, what could possibly go wrong? .
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I loved how Goodman created this elite high life society, gave it it's flaws to humanize it, and packed one moral punch by the end of the book. THEY WISH THEY WERE US has its twists and its turns, just like every good book, but what will make this book stand out is the unique plot and the amazing character development. If you liked We Were Liars, Gossip Girl, or even Lord of the Flies, nab this book ASAP! This is a five star read.
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The best way I can think to describe this book is that it somehow manages to be YA at both its trendiest *and* most timely. I can feel the teenaged version of me falling in love with these characters and reading the book late into the night, while also appreciating why it fits so beautifully into the 2020 zeitgeist. I think that teens are going to obsess over this book and I personally can't wait to recommend it to everyone I know!

I raced through this book. Even though the plot was a bit predictable, the characters were compelling and engaging and the writing was perfect for a mystery/drama set in a world of rich and elite teenagers. I highly recommend this book to teen readers who like stories like Pretty Little Liars or We Were Liars.