I really enjoyed this book! The writing was creative, the characters compelling, and the storyline exciting. This book takes your classic cult tropes and makes them engaging for a younger, more tech-savvy audience, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of my favorite parts that really enhanced my involvement in the story was the present tense first-person POV narration.

You Belong to Me by Hayley Krischer is a chilling and thought-provoking exploration of obsession, control, and identity. Krischer’s sharp writing and complex characters create a tense atmosphere that will have readers questioning the fine line between love and possession. This gripping psychological thriller is a must-read for those who enjoy dark, intense narratives with powerful social commentary.

This is a weird damn book.

It's so well written but everyone is terrible and I genuinely don't know how to review it because everyone except Ivy kind of... sucked.

It brilliantly captures the way social media brainwashes us with silly buzzwords and makes us buy into the most RIDICULOUS things because of how glamorous the person selling it to us appears. And also how giving any man any kind of power over a group of women will go HORRIBLY wrong almost immediately and it just really made me angry, haha

I cannot recommend this enough if you want to see social media and their gross ways in a new light and probably hate men a lot more than you already do.

You Belong to Me is a book about Frances Bean, the main character, who is invited to a Femme gathering by Julia, Deena Patterson's daughter. Femme is a product of Deena's wellness brand "Deep." This invitation is the start of Bean's involvement towards Deep, and she pulls away from her friends.

The book had a nice pace, and it became thrilling halfway through, when it came to Kai's story line. Kai's character is a huge mystery which is what made the book so interesting. You had to keep reading to learn more about him and his motives. Otherwise, I felt that the book often relied on just telling you that there's something wrong with the Deep brand, rather than letting that speak for itself. Bean's investment in Deep and wellness in general in the beginning seems to be forced and it just felt like there was no natural increase in her interest. For instance, there's an emphasis on how much she doesn't believe in skincare, then she's suddenly using a product from Deep and talking about how it made her skin so clear. There's nothing wrong with that, it just feels like you couldn't progress with that character because everything was so sudden. However, the mystery deepens and that part was really interesting.

This is a unique and thought-provoking YA thriller that kept me hooked from start to finish. The author did an excellent job building tension and slowly unraveling the mystery, with a sharp commentary on the wellness industry and the dangerous allure of superficial beauty. The slow burn of the cult-like atmosphere in Julia’s world was chilling, and I appreciated how it made me question the things we often take for granted in today’s culture, like beauty standards and social media perfection.

Frances Bean's character development was one of the highlights for me. Watching her move from being an outcast to being pulled into the world of luxury and self-empowerment was fascinating, though the relationship between her and Julia felt a bit rushed. While their romance seemed too instantaneous to feel fully authentic, I think it worked in the context of the story, especially considering how young people often experience intense, whirlwind emotions. Still, I would have liked to see the connection between them develop more gradually.

Tthis was a fresh take on the YA thriller genre, with plenty of social commentary that felt relevant to today’s world. The book's exploration of the dynamics between power, beauty, and young women is both disturbing and thought-provoking. I hope it gets a lot of readers as it deserves—this is quality YA fiction with an edge.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

2.5 stars, rounded up.
This was a great look at how you can end up in over your head without noticing how deep you are until it happens. This is vague on purpose, because I'm not really sure how to review this without spoilers. I did really like this one, though, even though I figured it out well in advance. Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

i really like these creepy spas/beauty treatments/beauty standards ones. I love the cult vibes that are going on from part 1, and i found the characters VERY fun. I didn't LOVE our protag but i liked her enough, and I LOVED the other chars. 5 stars. tysm for thearc.

You Belong to Me unfortunately has the kind of writing that makes me want to slam my head against a wall. It's a not-like-other-girls, 2010, misogynistic playground. I don't enjoy anything where the main character is constantly talking about how she's so not like other girls because she wears dark clothing and isn't very girly, or anything like that. This isn't the kind of book I'd recommend to young girls because despite the interesting premise, it's surface level writing full of stereotypes and flat characters.

Will not be recommending to my audience.

First off so many characters were involved, and I enjoyed them all! With so many different personalities, what couldn’t go wrong. I could not put this book down; I finished it in 3 days! The story is very relatable and who doesn’t love a story with cult like vibes!
I have always said that with today’s influence culture, younger girls are so much more vulnerable to wanting to fit in and we as adults do not do much to save them. Beauty standards are set to high, and they are untamable.
This book does do a great job at covering multiple topics though, status, right from wrong, how to handle adults, LGBTQ+, and just how much grooming goes in cults.
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

I started this book knowing what was going to happen which would usually be annoying. However, getting a front row seat to the inner workings of what was definitely a cult was fascinating. I obviously didn’t know exactly what was going to happen but could see it coming from a mile away and yet I wasn’t bored and tired of reading the book.

It’s honestly sad because there are really businesses and people out there in the world that do similar things to “easy” targets. Even though this is just a fun thriller I picked up, it could maybe be helpful for the younger generation. Open up their eyes and make them not to easy to target!

Overall, this was a fun and interesting one to pick up!

3.75⭐️
This took me a bit to figure out my rating because overall I enjoyed it but it was still a head scratcher at times.
I figured out what I didn’t like and it was because the book was so repetitive and predictable. It’s a YA mystery/ thriller but for most of it the suspense came in the form of waiting for something to happen. When it finally did even that was predictable as to what was going to happen and who did it.

That being said I enjoyed the romance insofar as the two teens get together and it is what it is. It doesn’t have all the entanglements of not being accepted or being bullied due to being gay etc. it just is. On the other hand the relationship really isn’t based on nothing. It’s more like “insta lust”. I would have loved to see why they actually should be together.

The rest of the book is very cult like with the lifestyle brand Deep and its hold on a community and the country at large. It was very reminiscent of the real life Goop.

It was interesting to see how the teens fell for the “company” and the lengths they would go-to to fit in.
I think this will be a very entertaining book for teens as well as acting as a warning for them as well.


I am thankful to have gotten an eARC for free from Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group to enjoy which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.
This comes out April 15th 2025.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

Based on the title, I thought Hayley Kricher's You Belong to Me would be more of a relationship thriller, but it's not.
Francis Bean is a goth girl attending a fancy private school. While she seems to be happy with being an outsider she admires the Femme girls. They all wear white and meet together at parties that promote Deep wellness products. When Julia the founder's daughter invites Bean she jumps at the chance to get closer to her crush. It takes a minute but things start to take a turn at these parties. At first, this group seems great and accepting and Bean seems to be finding herself but soon she starts to see what really going on.
I find areas of the health and wellness world very creepy, and this book captures that energy well. The Femme group takes on a very cutting feel that left me feeling off center.
While it is well written I wasn't a fan of the main character Francis Bean. She starts to lose her sense of self as she explores her relationship with Julia and Deep. She ignores the warning signs that her friends bring up that her and Julia are moving too fast. I do admire that when she found something off she spoke up even as she was dismissed and ridiculed for it.
This book is well written but it's a bit disturbing and it wasn't my favorite.. I think it might be a good warning to be careful who you get involved with and learning when to speak up when things are off.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Hayley Krischer for the opportunity to read this book prior to release. I absolutely found myself enthralled with the Deep drama and the cult vibes from the very beginning - even before realizing it was actually a cult. I think what was so incredible about this book is how plausible it really was. From the patriarchal ability to victimize young girls to the sad reality of a woman allowing it to happen just to have some semblance of power to the obsession young girls have with beauty standards and being Instagram perfect. This book absolutely nailed it.

A solid view into cults through the eyes of a young woman, and the dangers of groupthink. I think back to how vulnerable I was at that age and totally see how easily this could actually happen, which makes it all the more terrifying.

If you’ve ever read Cultish, you’ll also probably connect the dots between the wellness industry, pseudoscience and cults, a prevalent topic in this book.

This is an excellent YA thriller!

This book was fantastic
I rarely come across books that are so thrilling with a good plot and characters.
I suited for the audience it's targeting but also for adults

I had no idea what I was getting into with Hayley Krischer's You Belong to Me. This disturbing tale is ripped from various headlines. But Krischer imbues it with thrilling commentary about the more heinous elements of our culture. Thoroughly enjoyed.

Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

Wow! What an interesting and disturbing book. I’ve never read anything like this but I thoroughly enjoyed it. A really well done twist on a ya thriller. Several themes explored that I enjoyed like LGBTQ+, friendships, cults.

It's only fair to state upfront that I read several titles about the "wellness" industry and cult-y beauty brands over the last year, including Glow by Jessie Gaynor, Rouge by Mona Awad, youthjuice by E.K. Sathue, and the nonfiction tale of Glossier in Marisa Meltzer's excellent book Glossy. Most recently, I read Ling Ling Huang's novel Natural Beauty, which is my favorite of the bunch.

Because I've read the books listed above, I couldn't wait to get my hands on You Belong to Me by Hayley Krischer and I was thrilled that it centered a romance between two teen girls. It seemed like the recipe for a perfect YA novel.

Unfortunately, You Belong to Me is far, far from perfect. It has an excellent premise, but the novel's issues start in the beginning when Frances Bean (yup, named after that Frances Bean) is matched with her crush Julia for a literature project. There's no tension between the girls--Julia makes it as clear as she can that she has a thing for Bean. Then Bean goes to the famous Femme party (an influencer program for teens who love the beauty products by DEEP, created by Julia's mother Deena Patterson, an obvious take on Gwyneth Paltrow.) And--tada!--Bean and Julia are girlfriends. It was too easy.

I can see where the author's plan was that the bulk of the tension be saved for when Bean was ensconced in Julia's world of Femme and DEEP, but even that tension wasn't given time to cook. It seemed like as soon as Bean went to the Femme party she was on the outs with her small group of goth friends. Then Krischer throws everything from a Goop-like company to the Manson Girls to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and who knows what else into the book. It had too many references and parts to other stories for it to be its own story.

There were too many characters, too: Bean, Julia, Bean's friends (Ivy, Brooks & Nico), Bean's mom, Deena Patterson, Kai, Harmony, and about six Femme/DEEP girls. No one had character development. Julia starts with promise but ends up being treated as a brainwashed victim. Ivy comes the closest to being a complex character, but even she seems to be defined by one thing.

If the novel had fewer elements and fewer characters, it could fantastic and really dig into the (very) juicy subject of "natural" beauty and how companies engage with/create teen influencers. The e-galley had quite a few errors in it, so maybe the published version of the novel will have gone through another edit. Regardless, I'll definitely keep an eye out for what Hayley Krischer writes next.

I struggled to get into this book. The premise was great and I loved seeing LGBTQIA+ representation, but I lost interest in the plot pretty quickly.

Thank you to Net Galley and G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for the ARC. This wasn't bad, I like the concept, it just got a bit boring and predictable in the middle and end.