Thank you for Random House for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This did not work for me. I found the narrative structure clunky and voice passive, so the story really slogged. I kept going because I was intrigued to find out what happened in the first chapter, but the action of the main story was so spaced out that it felt uneventful. And when things finally start happening, they are so weird. I’m all for messed up characters but these ones didn’t make sense. And after all that, I wished I hadn’t trudged through to get the backstory because what even was that. I wasn’t a fan, but lots of other reviewers seemed to like it, so maybe it’s just me

The blurb lead me to believe this would be a rich and emotional dark academia type thriller, but it fell short for me in both aspects. Though the descriptions of what we get of the university are amazing and beautiful, we don’t spend much time there. This book leans more into interpersonal relationships and the weight we put on friendships when we lack actual family support. The main character is understandably traumatized and desperate for a “found family.” Therefore, despite all instinct to run away, she dedicates herself to a toxic friend group. I definitely felt sorry for the main character, but because she so obviously ignored her instincts as a plot device, I had no sympathy for her. This book had a fair amount of grotesque situations, including dead animals and sexual assault against children. I would give it a 5 for its ability to make me uncomfortable. It was more ick for me than thriller. However, I don’t read horror and might be a ninny! All in all, I think the lack of a strong plot made this book just okay. I didn’t love it nor hate it. Ultimately a bit forgettable.

Excellent debut by this author who will be one to watch! Very dark and twisted psychological thriller that moves ever so slowly in the best way to keep you engaged and reading more to find out what happened (and what’s coming!) the narrator is sent to a new school in London to escape something in her past. Desperately wanting to belong, she is taken in by the popular clique and is enthralled and enraptured by their mystery and seductiveness. She soon comes to find out that her past is not truly in the past and that she has been chosen by this group for a special project. I won’t reveal more because that will ruin the twists and turns that come. get through the foreboding 1/3 of the book which is a lot of set up and carrots dropping and I promise the pay offs are worth it. There is a final twist at the end that perfectly wraps up the novel and the expert journey we have been on with these characters. While these themes have been explored before-dark academia , female obsession, etc-I can’t recall them being done so well and so fully. Excellent read and I can’t wait to see what this author does next! Pick it up when you are able or add it to your tbr! You won’t regret it.
Arc provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Edinburgh, Scotland, the perfect place for Clare to reinvent herself and find the life that she has always dreamed of. When she meets Tabitha, she knows that they were meant to be friends and jumps at the chance to become part of Tabitha's group. When Tabitha tells Clare that she has a project that she needs help with, Clare decides to help. When Clare realizes the truth of the project, she realizes that she is in too deep and wonders what will happen now?

3.75 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today.


I have really mixed feelings about this book. In many ways it’s a psychological suspense novel. In many ways it’s a story about friendship. In all ways, it is a twisted tale of psychopathy and the need to belong.

We are introduced to the novel by a prologue. A horrible rendition of seducing and then attacking a man by three unknown women. We don’t know who the women are, or the outcome of the man. We just know it is a savage and nasty incident.

Clare is attending St. Andrews in Edinburgh. She’s fled her grandmother’s home in Hull to start afresh. New image, new outlook. Anything to escape her past. But she still craves the belonging to group. She finds herself a part time job in a bar where she encounters Tabitha, Imogen and two brazen young men. Clare is immediately taken with the women and desires to be their friend. When both turn up in one of her lectures, she gravitates toward them until they start including her in their group.

Over time, Clare becomes one of their circle, though never on the complete inner side. She, like the others, completely craves Tabitha’s attention. So much so, that all of them are willing to do nearly anything to be in Tabitha’s good graces. When Tabitha concocts this business idea for the group, Clare goes along, tentatively at first, but later with gusto. After all, nothing is more important than Tabitha’s approval.

Until it all goes wrong.

It’s definitely a dark novel. Psychopathy and sociopathy abounds, but it is also a page turner, making you want to know where the story is headed. Which is why the mixed feelings. Part of me didn’t want to be entranced by this story of the darkness inside people and the lengths we might go to for revenge or satisfaction. However, it is well written and keeps you engaged with the friendship and the horrors of that friendship.

Again, not quite sure how I feel about it. But it was a good read.

The Things We Do to Our Friends was a great thriller with wonderful dark academia vibes. I liked reading from Clare's perspective, and the twists and turns throughout the book were very fun!

4-4.5 Stars. Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is The Secret History meets Bunny with some freaky twists and turns. It’s in the Dark Academia genre but a little more psychological thriller. It made me feel icky at times, but it was so interesting!

It lost a half-star because at times the plot felt slightly disjointed and not as polished as some others, but this is a fantastic debut novel and the ending had my gripping my kindle for dear life.

Grab this when it’s published next week on January 10th!

This book was hard for me to get through. It was such a slow build, the characters were not likeable, and the plot was confusing and disorienting. Sorry, I can't recommend this one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for an advanced reader copy.

Trouble pasts and new endevours. Making new friends or enemies. Came across as very YA and I found myself having a hard time getting into any of the characters or storyline.
Put down, picked up, put down. I tried but just couldn't finish. Half way through I gave up
Hope you all enjoy it

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.

"She's an outsider desperate to belong, but the cost of entry might be her darkest secret in this intoxicating debut about a clique of dangerously ambitious students.

Edinburgh, Scotland: a moody city of labyrinthine alleyways, oppressive fog, and buried history; the ultimate destination for someone with something to hide. Perfect for Clare, then, who arrives utterly alone and yearning to reinvent herself. And what better place to conceal the secrets of her past than at the university in the heart of the fabled, cobblestoned Old Town?

When Clare meets Tabitha, a charismatic, beautiful, and intimidatingly rich girl from her art history class, she knows she's destined to become friends with her and her exclusive circle: raffish Samuel, shrewd Ava, and pragmatic Imogen. Clare is immediately drawn into their libertine world of sophisticated dinner parties and summers in France. The new life she always envisioned for herself has seemingly begun.

Then Tabitha reveals a little project she's been working on, one that she needs Clare's help with. Even though it goes against everything Clare has tried to repent for. Even though their intimacy begins to darken into codependence. But as Clare starts to realize just what her friends are capable of, it's already too late. Because they've taken the plunge. They're so close to attaining everything they want. And there's no going back.

Reimagining the classic themes of obsession and ambition with an original and sinister edge, The Things We Do to Our Friends is a seductive thriller about the toxic battle between those who have and those who covet - between the desire to truly belong and the danger of being truly known."

Labyrinthine Scotland with students up to no good!

The Things We Do to Our Friends drew me in for the beautiful cover and beguiling overall synopsis. However, the old adage of “don’t judge a book by its cover” seems to hold true. The story is an old and overused trope of someone trying to recreate themselves and escape their past only to find that one can never escape who you truly are. The story is told from the POV of Clare, a young woman with a secret, attempting to write her future as she draws herself anew on a blank slate. Clare is highly malleable and too desperate to be friends with those that she sees as lively, popular, and carefree. Pretty naïve, she is drawn to them like bees to honey. Too late though when she is stuck, immersed in their devious “project”, that she realizes one of them knows about her secret and she must think how far will she go to keep her friends and her secrets. A bit of twists and turns, and bit dark, the plot still was rather slow to keep me engaged and caring enough about the unlikeable characters. It was easy to put down and then hard to pick back up. Not as suspenseful as I would have liked in this debut novel. Halfway through, I had enough and set the book aside for good.
Many thanks to #netgalley #the thingswedotoourfriends #heatherdarwent for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Clare is an meager university student that is looking to reinvent herself. When a group of girls invite her to sit with them during a class lecture, Clare’s spot in the squad becomes cemented.
As the group continues to incorporate Clare in she is challenged to put her mysterious past behind her. But when the ringleader Tabitha creates a new plan for a future business endeavor, Clare becomes conflicted with the stories that haunt her and the drive to be a part of this exclusive new group of friends.
The Things We Do to Our Friends is mysterious, nerve-wrecking, and keeps you on the edge of your seat as each page is flipped. It took a lot of mental stamina to get through this exciting novel and I didn’t feel invested in the story until a little over halfway through; however, I was so surprised with how the last part of the novel played out!

Combine Pretty Little Liars with The Secret History or The Bequest and you have The Things We Do to Our Friends. Beyond the dark but beautiful cover is a twisty thriller about a young woman escaping a dark past and looking for a fresh start at university in Edinburgh what what she’ll do to fit in with a new fascinating group of friends. The tight-knit pack of students Clare nicknames The Shiver (a pack of sharks) - beautiful and captivating Tabitha, sly Ava, aloof Imogen, and charming Samuel - invite Clare into their inner circle. Before too long, she been drawn into their power games and dark web of lies and secrets. Before too long, Clare is out of her depth with their wicked and immoral plans, that are a shocking parallel to her own dark past. When tensions boil over and secrets come to light, who will be left standing?

I was drawn to this book because of the beautiful cover art.
This is the author's debut novel.

Clare is a college student in a new town, desperate to escape her past and to create a new future for herself. She befriends Tabitha, a rich girl who she meets in art history. Clare seeks to reinvent herself with the help of Tabitha. She becomes friends with Tabitha's friends and begins to enjoy the perks of her wealth. She becomes enveloped in Tabitha's "honey trapping" business and soon realizes they are in over their heads.

What I liked:
-juxtaposition between the haves and have nots, rich vs. poor
-how easy it is to get in over one's head when it comes to money and status
-interesting premise - dark academia
-rich people behaving badly

What I disliked:
-while the premise was interesting I felt that the story advanced slowly for a thriller
-I had trouble staying invested in the story, it took me 10 days to read while I usually am a 2-3 day book reader

Yikes! With "friends" like these.... a fast paced, what-is-going-on kind of story with interesting characters, The Things We Do to Our Friends will keep you reading to find out what will happen next!

Heather Darwent’s “The Things We Do to Our Friends” is a psychological thriller primarily told from the point of view of Clare, a university student ready to leave her dark past behind and start a new life and identity in Edinburgh. While bartending, she meets fellow art history students Tabitha and Imogen and is eventually invited into their world of privilege and eccentricity. She meets Tabitha’s other companions Samuel and Ava and becomes further involved in the “shiver of sharks” and their toxic relationships and wild business schemes.

Clare longs for friendship, but there are two sides to it in Tabitha’s beautiful, enigmatic circle. On one side, there is companionship, a feeling of belonging, and a sense of self-importance; on the other, co-dependency, deference, and personal debts. Clare slowly starts to realize the darkness she was trying to escape has entered her life once again... or maybe it’s always been there.

Darwent has come up with a very intriguing premise and is good at describing environments, however the characters fell a bit flat for me. For example, it’s difficult to get a sense of Clare’s true personality—even when she’s doing terrible things, she seems oddly passive. Other characters aren’t fleshed out well either so their words and actions sometimes come off as hollow. I feel like this novel would be best suited for new adult readers wanting to try the genre, as overall it’s an interesting enough novel.

Thank you to to NetGalley and Bantam for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. My review was posted online to Goodreads on January 2, 2023 here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4846942535.

I thought this was going to be another by-the-numbers rip off of The Secret History - an outsider comes to college and gets swept into a clique of fascinating yet sinister students - but, to its credit, The Things We Do To Our Friends forged its own literary path.

I’m just not sure I liked the direction.

It took me at least the first third to really get into the story because there is way too much exposition. Once the scheme at the center of the plot started to unfold I was hooked, but the ending took such a sharp turn, it lost me again.

I’m all for unlikeable characters and unreliable narrators, but I was never interested in any of the characters all that much and the dynamics between them were told much more than shown.

Read if you like: unlikeable female characters, revenge, Heathers, foie gras

I wanted to love The Things We Do to Our Friends -- the cover is gorgeous, and it utilizes some of my favorite tropes in fiction: a dark academic setting, toxic and obsessive female friendship, a dangerous clique of invincible, gorgeous people.

What we have here is a familiar story: A young woman with a dark, secretive past moves to a new place for a fresh start, only to be drawn in by an intoxicating group of people with devious ambitions that swiftly spiral out of control. When Clare arrives at the University of Edinburgh, her intention is to keep her head down, stay invisible, and focus on her art history course. But when a classmate named Tabitha takes an interest in her, Clare can't help but be captivated and flattered, and it isn't long before Clare is firmly enmeshed in Tabitha's sophisticated, glamorous, carefree world. When Tabitha enlists Clare's help on a "special project" that could ensure a secure future for Clare in her new life, Clare reluctantly agrees. But Clare's new friends may know more about her past than they're letting on...and as the project goes further, Clare must decide how far she will go to keep her secrets.

The Things We Do to Our Friends is a gorgeously written book. Debut author Heather Darwent's prose is hypnotic, intimate, and evocative, with a flow to the writing that made me want to keep reading, even though this one is definitely a slow burn. But unfortunately, there isn't a lot of substance behind the stylish storytelling, and a book that had so much potential fell flat.

The prologue was incredibly uncomfortable and disturbing, and I thought I was in for a treat. But for a book that takes on several scandalous topics and includes a handful of graphic scenes, I was missing an edginess, a seediness, a willingness to really go there in the narrative. The way everything unfolded felt very passive and sanitized to me. A narrative that should have felt forceful and full of rage instead came across as lifeless and lacking an emotional punch.

This novel felt like it had no beating heart. Although they are well-described, I never felt like I got a sense of who any of the characters really were -- including Clare herself, who narrates the book in the first person. I love an unreliable narrator, but I felt like Darwent held too much of Clare back -- and so when Clare finally does start to reveal some hidden truths, it doesn't feel realistic or organic to her character. And speaking of unrealistic -- the entire "special project" itself came across as absurdly unbelievable.

Darwent explores several relevant themes in her debut: toxic and co-dependent friendship, reinvention of the self, ambition, obsession, vulnerability and the incredibly human need to belong. The Things We Do to Our Friends is well-written and sophisticated, but uneven pacing, some unrealistic plot elements, and the lack of a cohesive narrative arc made it just an okay read for me. Thank you to Bantam Books and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

It took me quite a bit to get into The Things We Do To Our Friends. For the longest time, I couldn't figure what the book was about--was this dark academia (yes though not too much really happens in the setting of the university)? Was this about toxic friendships (certainly yes but what was up with all these power dynamics?)? What did Clare do in the past (this was told too late in the book for my liking)? It mostly confused me until maybe the last quarter of the book when everything finally unfolds. It had the potential to be the moody dark academia thriller I expected it to be but it ended up being strange and a little bit flat.

I came for the dark academia vibes, toxic friendships, and gothic Edinburgh location and was not disappointed. Though the beginning is disturbing to the point I almost didn't continue, I soon got sucked into Clare's story and struggle. Full of unlikeable characters (something I personally love) and a slow burn plot (also love), this psychological thriller may have taken me a little longer to read that I might normally like but the payoff really worked for me. I will absolutely recommend this book to readers interested in psychological creeps and dark academia.