Beautifully written, but also very very weird. Clare is a hard character to get a read on, which is what makes her so interesting. Her life and personality are deliberately just left of normal, and you can never quite tell what's going on in her head. However, the separation between us and Clare combined with the slow pacing at the front end of the book means it takes a while to get into the story.

I did not like this book. At first I thought it would be a sort of Talented Mr. Ripley copy, of which I've read many (Tangerine, Who Is Maude Dixon, Beautiful Creatures, etc.) and it had a little of that. I thought maybe it would be a school story, like The Secret History or The Likeness, but no.... Mostly I just found it to be a very rambling narrative with characters I didn't really care about. I skimmed the last half, although I'm not sure why I finished. And I'm sorry this review sounds harsh! It just was not for me.

Heather Darwent's debut novel, The Things We Do to Our Friends, is simply fantastic. I felt like I was watching a movie, and that movie was some twisted combination of Gone Girl, Heathers, and Midsommer.
You know that feeling that something horrible is going to happen? I felt that way during the entire book. I highly recommend this book. I think this is an outstanding debut, and when you get your movie deal @ me, Heather!
I received an advanced reader's copy of this book courtesy of Goodreads. The opinions shared are my own. Thank you for the opportunity.

Layer upon layer, page after page, there is more to learn about these new friends that she meets at the university. They seem fun, but then wicked, kind and generous but then aloof and scheming. There is so much more to unpeel until you reach the exciting conclusion. Fabulous writing!

The best way I can describe this book is "odd." It's a slowly revealed story with some really strange characters. Not one of them is someone of call normal, except Clare's roommates and Finn. Even the parents are weird. And the plot? And Tabitha's fate? They both took forever to be revealed and when they were I just shook my head.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

The Things We Do to Our Friends was interesting - I can see it becoming a TV series, especially because it reminded me of Sally Rooney/The Secret History/Gillian Flynn. Like Rooney and Flynn's books, and The Secret History, this book is likely going to be really hit or miss for people - it's a dark story of a group of students all of whom are deeply unlikeable doing unpleasant things, together and alone. The plot, which I won't spoil, involves an outsider student getting involved in an odd group of friends who seem to run on charisma and family money alone.

I generally like a dark story, and I don't have a problem with unlikeable characters. However, there were many points within this book where further internal monologue from the characters or greater detail about their background would have made the book MORE thrilling, and I wish that so much hadn't been withheld for the 'shock' factor.

Overall, this is an interesting read - but doesn't quite hit the thriller notes or the deep character notes I would have liked to see.

I really, really enjoyed reading this book. It hooked me from the very beginning and kept me hooked the entire time.

The novel is told from the perspective of a girl dying to fit it, but it’s obvious from the beginning that she’s not the typical, awkward outsider we’ve come to expect from most novels. There is something chillingly different about Clare. Darwent’s character development of Clare is absolutely stellar. We do not find out why Clare is the way she is until we’re well invested in the story, and yet I found myself rooting for her despite her odd choices.

I think I came off Ruth Ware's new one, The It Girl, too soon to read this. Dark Academia is a hard topic to get right in my book. The ending felt a little too open for me.

Thank you to Random House - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Things We Do to Our Friends by Heather Darwent is a tale of college suspense that you won't be able to put down! The story revolves around Clare, an ordinary schoolgirl who becomes involved in the popular clique at school. The clique, including Tabitha, Samuel, Ava, and Imogen, consists of rich, posh students who seem to have everything. But what do they do when no one's watching? Is joining the clique the start of Clare's happily ever after or is her nightmare just beginning?

Here is a terrifying excerpt from the Prologue:

"Winky picks up the serving spoon. She shoves it into his mouth while Braid secures him for the feed - her fingers dig into his gums. They ignore the fact that the food is escaping and spilling down his front. He barely has a moment to think; all he can taste is mealy rice.
Blondie is laughing quite madly.
No, he wants to shout out, not me, but there will be no words to phrase an impassioned plea to the girl."

Overall, The Things We Do to Our Friends is a novel of college suspense that will appeal to fans of The Girls Are All So Nice Here or Last Night in Soho. One highlight of this book is how exciting it was. There were exciting moments that had me frantically turning the pages to see what happened next. I did take off 1 star, because it felt very, very dark. At the end of the book, I didn't feel very good. Instead, I felt sad. I'm sure that will appeal to some readers though. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of suspense, I recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in January!

I feel so fortunate to have gotten an arc of Heather Darwent’s The Things We Do to Our Friends!

The novel is told from the perspective of a girl dying to fit it, but it’s obvious from the beginning that she’s not the typical, awkward outsider we’ve come to expect from most novels. There is something chillingly different about Clare. Darwent’s character development of Clare is absolutely stellar. We do not find out why Clare is the way she is until we’re well invested in the story, and yet I found myself rooting for her despite her odd choices.

Clare moves to Edinburgh to attend a university, and while she is desperate for friends, it’s clear that she’s picky about what kind of friends she’ll accept. This is what makes her so interesting. The group of people, and especially the main girl (Tabitha), who pull her into their friend group, gave me Allison from Pretty Little Liar vibes. There was definitely a need to please the queen bee and be in her favor not matter what was asked.

However, what makes this book different are the levels of darkness that each character is willing to accept as their “normal” as the plot takes on each twisted turn. Honestly, I was surprised at the choices each one of them made in the end.

It seems I’m in the minority but this was just not a win for me. You know that feeling when you wake up and rub your eyes and you’re kind of groggy and you’re trying your hardest to wake up so you roll out of bed and BAM you stub your toe and that sure wakes you up and you’re like ok I’m ready for the day but you walk it off and decide no no I’m not? Don’t know it? Well maybe that’s a super exaggerated way of me explaining that the start was super sleepy then there was a moment that I thought ok finally this is where we’re going to wake up! But no. No it was not.

It was just a doozy. The characters are all horrid. And I’ve read books where I hated the characters but still loved the story. This didn’t work because I felt the story never truly went anywhere. It was all mystery of this girls past but it wasn’t strong enough. She was all engrossed in the new bad girl leader but not strong enough. It all just felt unfinished for me. Not deep enough just too surface on many levels. Womp. Just wasn’t for me.

Thank you Random House and netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

It was an okay story. Took me a bit to get into this one. I could not for the life of me get into the whole plot line for ages.

This was a very difficult read for me. I kept waiting for the real meat of the story to come out. Clare is a university student in Scotland studying Art and some find her "weird" but still she is able to fool people and make friends. We find out early in the book that she has a very dark secret in her past. Unfortunately, wading through this tale frequently left me disgusted and I could not get over all the psychopathic characters in the book. They were all quite "weird", except for Clare's bartender boyfriend Finn.. But, I digress, I feel the author had an interesting plot but the writing just dragged on and on. I kept reading because I felt that maybe there could be some redeeming quality somewhere.. but all that I was handed was likely the worst "epilogue" ever. I am sorry for the scathing review but I wish I had known to expect a slow read before I started this one as the other reviews are extremely praise worthy and I feel this book is very overhyped.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for a chance to read and review. .

I really struggled with this one as I do not really feel it went anywhere. There was so much about the friendships and the incremental interactions between them and never ventured into actually telling moving a plot along and tying in the past and present. It was hard to understand why Clare even cared to be friends with this strange group of people in the first place. I think that the premise was good. It just really lacked execution. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

After reading the prologue, I knew this book would be for me. Reader beware, this book is dark and twisted but boy, is it good. Thank you netgalley & the publisher for the arc, in exchange for an honest review.

Great writer! Very disturbing cast of characters that I couldn't look away from. One event after the next all left me quite shaken but seemingly like everyone else involved the story just snags you in.

Wonderful writing and characterization but a very strange book. It’s like “The Secret History” meets weird, weirder, and creepy feminine rage.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60880813

This is a bit of a departure from the books I primarily read but I am a sucker for a dark academic focused mystery that involve a clique of friends keeping secrets. The story focuses on Clare, who comes to college in Scotland after escaping a secret of her own, and becomes enamored with the gorgeous Tabitha and her group of friends. When Tabitha comes up with an odd “project”, Clare goes along with it in an effort to fit in, but of course things get complicated from there.

The book was written beautifully with language that felt very literary but not hard to understand (if that makes sense). I was engaged in the story even though the author did make me work for it a bit sometimes. As others have said, the characters weren’t really likable, but that was ok because they weren’t meant to be. Clare was the moat unlikable of them all, in my opinion, and I do wish I had gotten a bit more to understand what made her the way she was, even before the incident she escaped. The book flowed well and the ending felt satisfying to me.

Overall, a unique and interesting read that was a nice break from the more commercialized psychological thrillers that I usually pick up. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This novel was unlike anything I've read before- on its surface, a mystery involving a group of college friends, but it was so much more. The characters are delightfully unlikeable, the plot engaging and confusing in a good way (until the end), and the prose lyrical but accessible. Greatly enjoyed this one!

Thanks Netgalley for an early read.

This was so fun, 4.5 for me.

Do you like shows like Killing Eve?
Did you have THAT friend group in college?
Is whimsical dark literary your vibe?
Than this for you.

Our slightly unreliable narrator Clare yearns to be apart of this friend group she sees in her art history classes. Little by little she is lured into the high of their strange closeness. When things get interesting in their planning, Clare’s own history sparks inner conflict.

I love whenever there isn’t always a good guy, maybe just Nana 😂