Review of How We Fall Apart

Do you love YA mysteries set at private schools (or any schools)? Then you should definitely check out my review of How We Fall Apart, a YA mystery that really kept me guessing!

What Is How We Fall Apart About?

How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao.

To be published on August 17, 2021 by Bloomsbury YA.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review.

Synopsis: Nancy Luo is shocked when her former best friend, Jamie Ruan, top ranked junior at Sinclair Prep, goes missing, and then is found dead.

Nancy is even more shocked when word starts to spread that she and her friends–Krystal, Akil, and Alexander–are the prime suspects, thanks to “The Proctor,” someone anonymously incriminating them via the school’s social media app.

They all used to be Jamie’s closest friends, and she knew each of their deepest, darkest secrets. Now, somehow The Proctor knows them, too.

The four must uncover the true killer before The Proctor exposes more than they can bear and costs them more than they can afford, like Nancy’s full scholarship. Soon, Nancy suspects that her friends may be keeping secrets from her, too.

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Review of How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao

I’m always a fan of thrillers set in boarding schools or private schools. While I wouldn’t really call this book Dark Academia – you can read my defintion and book list here – it was a fun and twisty mystery in an academic setting.

Nancy is a scholarship student at Sinclair Prep whose mother used to clean the lavish apartment of Jamie Ruan, a wealthy classmate. The two were friends until some sort of dramatic disagreement happened. Then Jamie turns up dead.

What I really liked:

The setting of this one (a co-ed Manhattan private school) is familiar to me and felt spot-on. The characters were well-developed into more than the old Breakfast Club stereotypes. And though the mysterious person (The “Proctor”) who broadcasts secrets about all the other characters is a familiar YA trope (seen in One of Us Is Lying, Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Ace of Spades, Get Even, and probably a lot more I haven’t thought of) it is still a fun plot element and one I don’t get tired of.

What I struggled with a little:

In addition to the individual secrets that the mysterious Proctor has on the four murder suspects, there was yet another mysterious secret that the entire group was involved in a few years back. This is hinted about until the very end, when it’s very quickly explained. I think the ending would have been easier to puzzle out and the suspense would have been every higher if we’d known what this big secret was a little sooner. The ending was also a little outlandish, but that also meant I didn’t figure it out.

Overall:

How We Fall Apart was a good addition to the YA high school thriller subgenre. I really liked that the characters were more than just high school stereotypes and the ending did keep me guessing! Katie Zhao has written a second YA Mystery, The Lies We Tell, and I’ve reviewed it here.

Do you have favorite YA boarding school/high school thrillers? Tell me in comments!