I love boarding school books and am all about mysteries and thrillers, so I’ve been super excited about this book. Was it everything I hoped for? Read my review of People Like Us below!
People Like Us by Dana Mele
Published on February 27, 2018 by Putnam
Synopsis from Goodreads: Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is past, and she’s reinvented herself entirely.
Now she’s a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. But when a girl’s body is found in the lake, Kay’s carefully constructed life begins to topple.
The dead girl has left Kay a computer-coded scavenger hunt, which, as it unravels, begins to implicate suspect after suspect, until Kay herself is in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. But if Kay’s finally backed into a corner, she’ll do what it takes to survive. Because at Bates Academy, the truth is something you make…not something that happened.
Review of People Like Us:
As I said above, I am always up for a boarding school book and always up for a mystery/thriller, so this was high on my list.
I liked the writing style and the overall set-up. Kay and her friends discover a dead body and then Kay starts receiving blackmail notes … from the dead girl. This drew me in and I appreciated the diversity of characters and LGBT angle.
However, there were other things about this book that I didn’t think worked so well:
- I didn’t get a strong enough boarding school feel from this – when I read a boarding school book, I want to be able to picture the campus and get a sense of the school’s unique traditions.
- There were a lot of characters in this book, and none of them were likable … including the main character, Kay. This felt like a Mean Girls book, but I think it helps to have a character who’s a foil for the mean girls. All the characters were pretty awful, and none seemed that well-developed to me.
- Every character had a secret, which I did like. While I thought Kay’s secret was interesting, it was also too complicated to really explain or explore. It almost felt like the premise for a whole other book.
In sum: I’m all for dark books and moral ambiguity, but I would have liked this book to have at least one character that I cared about and worried about. While this did have a cool set-up and some suspense, the characters and setting just weren’t memorable enough for me.
Have you read this or do you have other favorite boarding school books to recommend?
If you love the sound of this one, check out my list of Best YA Set in Boarding Schools!
I agree none of the characters were likable but for some reason I still loved this book. I thought they were all horrible but the mystery just kept me going.
I’m glad! I did think the suspense was good which is why I kept reading. But I wanted more!
Oof. This one sounds a bit overwhelming really!
Overwhelming yet underwhelming hahahaha
This book sounds like an episode of Riverdale – awesome! It’s a bummer that you didn’t care much for the characters.
Yes – it could have been like that. I wish it had been!!
Not for me but I was intrigued by the cover.
Karen @ For What It’s Worth
The cover was great!
Boarding school books always seem to get my attention too, especially if it’s a thriller. I agree though no one here was likable lol. This one was middle of the road for me- not great, not terrible, just kinda in that middle 3 star ground. 🙂
Nice review.
I’d agree with the three stars. It was okay; it could have been much better!
I haven’t decided if I’m going to push through or DNF this one. I like the idea of secrets and I want to know who the killer is– but also that recipe thing is just not doing it for me. And there are too many things that are happening way too easily. And A LOT of characters to keep track of. So, yeah– but I’m far enough along that I think I may push through.
Yeah, I’m sad I didn’t like this one more. I think it’s worth finishing, but I didn’t love it.
This one’s definitely an intriguing read–I love the concept. I’m pretty much okay with a la Mean Girls-type characters, but that’s if they’re well-developed. If they’re not, I’ll end up hating them for no reason, which is the worst feeling!
– Aimee @ Aimee, Always
I rarely read a mystery type book but this does sound interesting.