a trite mystery with a (half) decent plot execution that unfortunately doesn't make up for the mediocre writing or how unlikeable the characters were. others may enjoy it, but I guess it's a no for me.

thank you to PRH International for the ARC.

More than just a love triangle, the relationship among Jessica, Jake and Tegan is layered and dates back to the girls’ elementary school friendship. On the cusp of their senior year, tension in their extended network of friends is at an all time peak and culminates in both drama and tragedy at Tegan’s end of summer house party. The morning after the party finds Tegan missing, Jessica and Jake broken up, and an incriminating video circulating through the student body. Finding out who is to blame for all the betrayals and misdemeanors is an intriguing ride. The story is told through time jumps and alternating points of view and leaves the reader questioning just who is the victim and who is the perpetrator.

Nope! I couldn’t get past the first 15%. The writing was horrible. The characters were horrendous to each other. And I knew I could never share this with my customers. This is not the quality they have come to expect from me.

So it's twisty, and layered, and parts have an unreliable narrator, so I stuck it out for find out who done it. And I figured out who done it about halfway through, but it failed my "care of they live or die" litmus test so I didn't care who was dead or who did it 😂

A good story for teens to read an discuss, with many social issues being raised and personal growth for the main characters. Told in the form of a mystery, who recorded the video, what happened to the missing girls

I didn’t expect to like this so much. Fans of A Good Girls Good to Murder, Karen McManus, or The Agatha’s will love this book. The issues brought up in this book are well done. I don’t want to get into them because it’ll ruin the story but I can say that what these teens deal with make this book better than your typical YA mystery. This is one of the better YA mysteries I’ve read in some time.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC! I seem to be in the minority with my opinions of this book. Yes, the twists and mystery were pretty decent, but I found the characters really hard to like. These teenagers seemed whiny, & I have a hard time with characters like that. I found myself rushing through the book to just finish it and see “who did it.” While I appreciated the ending in some ways, I didn’t find that very realistic. I just couldn’t get into it and couldn’t care enough about the main characters. Overall, I think there will be teens who like it, but it isn’t one I would push into students’ hands because I think there’s better writing and stories out there. FYI profanity and sexual situations and some sensitive subjects that might be triggering for some readers

Friends Like These is a young adult thriller from the viewpoint of 3 high schoolers: Tegan (the missing), Jake, and Jessica. While the writing was subpar (why the random exclamation points!!), the mystery itself was pretty timely. About halfway through I guessed the ending, but I was still pretty hooked in figuring out the how and why.

I would recommend this for teenage readers, BUT there's a lot of heavy stuff in this. Consent, alcoholism, and sex are pretty major topics. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to adults who like YA suspense just because the writing was stilted, and the characters were one dimensional. However, it's a good conversation starter about consent.

Jessica and Tegan were childhood friends. Now as teens during the summer before their Senior year, they are rivals with two distinct friend groups. Jessica’s besties with gymnast Chloe, who Tegan hates, and dates Jake, Tegan’s ex who she still has feelings for. At Tegan’s last house party of the summer, things go terribly wrong. Jake cheats on Jessica, an event that is filmed and seen by all of the partygoers. Jessica drives away crying and hits something. Jake can’t remember anything that happened and now Tegan is missing. How did things spiral out of control so quickly? Who is responsible for what happened that night? The story definitely hooked me from the start. I guessed who was responsible for Tegan being missing early on in the book, but there are others who contributed to what happened in ways I did not anticipate.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

For a condensed review and more on the content (which includes some strong language, discussion of sex and rape, and underage drinking and drug use), check here: https://www.novelnotices.com/friends-like-these


We don't get a lot form the synopsis, but I always love a good thriller. I was pulled in immediately, and was falling for the main couple within the first chapter before Alvarez so brutally shredded my heart and sent me into a stressing rush to finish the rest of the book. It was fast-paced and an enjoyable read, but I was left a little empty with the ending. It felt slightly rushed and unrefined, I was frowning over a few things, though I understood they needed to happen.

And I was really surprised by the outcome! All the loose threads tied up, though some of them left me wanting.

The character I liked most was probably Jake. His character development was the best and he was sort of a mess, but he managed to pick himself up in the end. I admire the change we see in him from the beginning to the end far more than I admired Jessica, who had me palming my forehead half the time.

(Like, no, why would you do that? YA-book teenagers really do make the worst life choices sometimes.)

Friends Like These also handled some important topics, like underage drinking, drugs, sexual assault, and the consequences of your actions and how they affect the rest of the people around you. Some of the topics are heavier, but they were all handled well and with respect.

So overall, I really enjoyed the journey of the book, but the destination left me a little wanting.

**SPOILER**
(Did anyone else hope that Jessica and Jake would end up back together? I know, they both made terrible mistakes, but it would have been nice to see them grow and move forward together. That was one of the threads that felt most unresolved to me. Everything jerked a bit too fast.)

Friends Like These is a young adult suspense novel. A young girl has been missing ever since she threw a big party while her parents were out of town. As the police question the last people to see her alive, the reader discovers that all of her alleged friends may have a reason to make her disappear. I enjoyed this novel very much. I think it did what most YA novels fail at- the author wrote realistic teenagers without making them too annoying. The novel jumps around in time and from point of view which can be confusing if you are trying to rush. Overall I thought it was suspenseful and interesting I would recommend it!

It took me a while to get invested in this book. I felt that most of the characters were selfish and unlikeable. For me, that's often a dealbreaker, as I want characters I can root for. For the plot of this story, though, that ended up working. Eventually the pace picked up, and I found myself wanting to know what happens next. Told from the POV of multiple characters, no one has the whole story, including the reader. The aftermath of a prank gone wrong at a party has consequences that affect everyone in the story.

Great twisty YA novel. Every time you think you have the mystery figured out a new clue is discovered. Have to read all the way to the end to get it all. Another hit for Alvarez.

This is definitely a mature and compelling mystery from start to finish. The pacing is great and the multiple perspectives keep it fresh. I did guess one of the major reveals, which was deflating to me as a reader, but I was still entertained. I’ll buy this for my collection, but it’s too mature for our Battle of the Books.

This book is about a small town toxicity. A missing girl, and a girl who’s trying to solve the mystery. I stayed up all night to get to the end of this book just to find out the ending.

From the first page, the stakes were very high in this twisty YA novel. I loved the plot and I loved the characters. This book is an exciting weekend read.

I have to be honest and say that this book was a slow go for me. Yes, this is a slow burn mystery, but wow, was it slow.

I knew I was in trouble after two chapters and nothing really happened to make the story stand out.

The characters are well defined, maybe too well defined at the expense of the plot.

Thrillers like this are a hot trend and this book will be included in OverDrive's Fall essentials for school libraries.

I really enjoyed the author’s first book, Lies Like Wildfires, and found Friends Like These to be even stronger. The many twists and turns were exciting and logical (which is not always the case!) and continually ramped up suspense. The device of telling the story from multiple points of view worked well. Often when that’s the case in a thriller it’s easy to write the point of view characters off as innocent, but here Alvarez balanced the dynamic of likability and suspicion in each character to keep the reader on their toes. My only critique is the final reveal happened incredibly quickly and seemed to jump over a big moment before the confrontation, but it was still an exciting and revelatory turn. Overall, it’s a fast read in the best of ways with an exciting plot and deep character development. Sexual assault is also addressed in a meaningful and realistic way, but for this reason and others the book does read for older teens due to the many difficult topics addressed.

The story is okay, even occasionally compelling (though the last page was a smidge off putting), but Alvarez periodically used exclamation points in the narrative, as though I needed a clue about when something should be suspenseful of exciting. It took me out of the story every single time.