Rating: 9/10
This book was beautiful. Beautifully portraying the social and academic pressures that are destroying its characters from the inside out, this book makes its environment of a high pressure New York private school truly come alive. While it’s exploration of class and peer pressure is captivating and poignant, it was the way the book depicted the struggle of being a woman in this world, in a society which is patriarchal and in which women are never treated equally, no matter how much privilege they have. The toxic cycles that the characters are trapped in feel relatable and realistic, no matter how far from our reality the setting of this book actually is (mind you, I’m aware that as a girl going to a specialized public school in New York City, while this book is very far from reality, it is closer to my life than that of many others). Torn between her trauma, her grief, her hopes, and the pressures of her family as well as her friends, Jill is barely staying afloat, haunted by what happened on her freshman initiation, especially Initiation Night. Part of a secret society in her school that has connections throughout all the upper echelons of the elite, granting her previously unprecedented access to an exclusive world, she is tormented by her best friend’s premature death, as she begins to suspect that her friend’s boyfriend, who confessed to the murder, is not truly guilty. As the book goes on, flashbacks allow us to see the past that scared Jill and caused the death of Shaila, her best friend, as well as how the past affects the present. While originally I was hesitant to read this book (I really don’t like horror), it is absolutely worth it. I tore through it in a matter of hours because I simply couldn’t put it down. Intricate and deeply moving, you will not regret reading this book.
Bookworm's Haven 