I am an adult who has a love of campus novels. Although I love reading these types of novels, the Ivies were just okay for me. Olivia was a character who I didn't think had many redeeming qualities, and some of the "twists" in the novel were evident from the beginning. Emma said something before her death, which gave away one of the huge twists of the novel, so I was expecting it from the beginning. I think my students would like this novel, so that I will buy a copy for my classroom library.

this was such a fun book!! i do enjoy dark academia so am i a bit biased but i had fun reading this, i cant wait to see more from the author

So, I've come to a possible theory. Hear me out. I'm starting to think that mystery/thrillers aren't really my thing. *gasp* I know, I know. I've read a handful of them and none of them have really done anything for me. This was no exception. Like the other mystery/thrillers I've read, I got pretty bored in the middle. The main hook of the book hits and then there's 100 pages of bland clues that don't hold my attention. The endings are usually okay, but I'm never excited about it. I'm just mildly curious about how the story will wrap up. The main character was okay, but there wasn't really anything special about this book. It felt average, which is a bummer.

Also, as a side note, I absolutely hate the cover of this. It looks like whoever designed this went a tad bit overboard with the shadows.

" When do you cease to be a person and start to be a body? "

⭐⭐⭐💫

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Books for Young Readers for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Content warnings: murder, blackmail, homophobia, sexism, classism (?), racism, weapons, age gap, step-sibling romance mention, eating disorder mention

The Ivies follows Olivia, one of five girls known as The Ivies at their prestigious and elite private academy. These girls are cunning and cutthroat, and willing to do anything to get themselves into their allotted Ivy League school. This includes blackmailing, reporting on, or manipulating any of their classmates they consider competition for their Early Decision slots. One of The Ivies betrays the other and ends up dead, leaving Olivia to figure out if her own friends are ruthless enough to be murderers.

I found myself highly interested in this story, and had trouble putting it down for the first 75% of it. I enjoyed the writing style and (although obviously not to this extent) could relate to the pressures of getting in Early Decision at your dream school feeling like the only important mission in the world during high school.

Unfortunately, I didn't love the conclusion of this story and found myself bored with the ending. There was nothing particularly wrong, but the actual killer felt so obvious that it took the fun out of it, and their motivations felt so unbelievable I actually laughed.

I would recommend this to fans of rich kid high school dramas like Gossip Girl and Riverdale who also enjoy a murder mystery/who-dun-it plot.

4.5 stars. Thrilling, twisty, and dark. Privilege, money, and the shocking actions of high school students vying for the Ivy League school of their choice lead to death at a boarding school. This will be popular amongst mystery/thriller teens.

I finished reading “The Ivies” today, which I really enjoyed … to some extent.

Thanks to PRHinternational I got the chance to read this book for free!

So let’s get into it: If you liked reading “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” or watching “Pretty Little Liars”, this might be the perfect book for you!

It’s about five girls, who share the same mission: to get into the Ivy League by any means necessary. But when one of them turns up dead, all of their plans get disturbed…

This YA murder mystery was definitely a page turner, but at some point, more and more aspects made me re-think my previous excitement.

They were interesting twists, for sure. And there was representation of BIPoC and queer people – but not all representation is good representation, unfortunately.

The people of colour in the girls’ friend group are not mentioned nearly as much as the others. There’s one queer girl in that group, but we as the readers only get to know that when there’s only 2% left of the book. It’s representation, yes, but that’s not good enough.

This book was trying to be feminist and I agree with a lot of messages within it and I think some of them were executed well. I just wish those would have been reflected upon concerning the matter of representation I just mentioned.

At last, there were a couple of pandemic mentions and I really don’t understand why: the pandemic was not part of 99% of the text, it didn’t make any sense to include it randomly; the students didn’t have any restrictions in their lives anymore, but somehow in the past they had? It was honestly just so confusing and didn’t make sense regarding the time line.



TW: HP references, mention of eating disorders, death, murder

I really liked The Ivies. I've been an avid follower of Alexa on youtube for over a year now, and it's really awesome to know that the great writing advice she gives online is exeplified so well in her own work! The setting of the novel was so fasinating. I loved the rich boarding school shenanigans. I loved all the drama and I especially loved that Olivia was such a flawed character (it's boring when an MC is so concerned about being good all the time). The thriller aspects weren't that intense, but I enjoyed the characters and their petty relationships with each other so much that this wasn't any issue.

The first 2/3 of the book had me hooked. And while I did enjoy the ending, it did get a bit over the top and corny. But overall, Alexa definitely had an amazing concept and she accomplished it so well. I'm excited to read her future thrillers!

This was the most fun YA thriller I’ve read in a long time! The whole New England boarding school setting created the perfect atmosphere for the story. The characters were easy to love (and hate), and the murder mystery was full of twists and turns! I can’t wait to read more from this author!

The Ivies was a gripping YA thriller surrounding a group of girls known as The Ivies. They are the beautiful, the wealthy, the elite, and they will each get into their Ivy league school - whether they earn it on their own merit, or not. The Ivies will stop at nothing - sabotage, hacking into school files, falsifying SAT scores, and more - but when one of their own betrays their system of school selection and ends up dead - was it one of their own who killed her or one of their many enemies they had made along the way. Alexa Donne did a great job of making none of the characters likable, but the story still engaging enough to keep my interest through the end. I think some of the twists were easily guessed, but some kept me on my toes. I really enjoyed this book and if you like reading YA thrillers, I think you will as well!

Conheça as Ivies: cinco meninas que tem como objetivo entrar em uma faculdade Ivy League. Avery Montford é Harvard, Emma Russo é Brown, Sierra Watson é Yale, Margot Kim é Princeton e nossa personagem principal, Olivia Winters, é Penn. Elas fariam qualquer coisa para entrar, mesmo que isso signifique trapacear, hackear e espalhar rumores maldosos. Olivia não se encaixa, ela não é rica como as outras meninas e possui bolsa de estudos na escola onde estudam.

Mas Olivia não quer realmente ir para Penn, ela quer ir para Harvard, mas não pode competir com Avery. Ela se inscreve secretamente e consegue entrar, enquanto Avery não é aprovada. Com medo da abelha rainha, Olivia mantém sua aprovação em segredo. Acontece que outra pessoa também se inscreveu para Harvard e foi aprovada: Emma, que supostamente deveria se inscrever para Brown. Após uma briga entre Emma e Avery durante uma festa, Emma aparece morta na piscina da escola. Tentando desesperadamente descobrir quem matou sua amiga, Olivia começa uma investigação com a ajuda de seu crush e acaba descobrindo que suas amigas não são quem ela achava que fossem.

Esse livro é como Gossip Girl na temporada onde Blair e Serena competiam pela faculdade, mas adicione um assassinato. Cheio de fofoca e falsos amigos, ele é tudo para aqueles que sentem falta de uma boa série de TV recheada de drama adolescente. É misterioso e entrega uma trama concreta que deixou minha ansiedade no telhado até o final. Pode não agradar a todos, porque estamos lidando com adolescentes, não é? Mas a escrita é muito boa e penso que realmente daria um bom filme ou série de TV algum dia.

📚 Series? No.
📚 Genre? Young Adult Mystery/Thriller.
📚 Read for? TBR and Beyond Tours.
📚 Cliffhanger? No.

⚠ Content Warnings: Murder. Blackmail. Bullying. Toxic relationships. Toxic friendships. Eating disorders.
⚠ Book Tags : Dark Academia. Boarding School. Whodunnit. Admissions.

Check out my thoughts in this Booktube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBfV-KEiVQ4


☁ FINAL THOUGHTS & RECOMMENDATIONS ☁

This book was one of my most anticipated thrillers in 2021. If we're being honest, it did not disappoint. It was a truly enjoyable whodunnit story and I'm excited for so much more from this author. Definitely recommended for people who love dark academia stories that touch on the college admissions drama in the US.

☁ THE CRITERIA ☁

🌼 Synopsis:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌼 Main Character:⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌼 Support Characters:⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌼 Writing Style:⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌼 Character Development:⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌼 Thrill: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌼 Pacing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌼 Ending: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌼 Unputdownability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌼 Book Cover:⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

☁FINAL VERDICT: 4.4/5 ☁

Holy hell this one was a fast paced ride! Jumps in from the go and you’re on a rollercoaster for the next few hundred pages. Totally bingeable even if the storylines were a bit far fetched and out there.

I am a sucker for a dark boarding school scandal story and wow did The Ivies deliver. I devoured this tale of devious, overachieving rich kids trying to one up each other to get into the Ivy League schools of their dreams. Kinda Gossip Girl but more academic, then throw a little bit of the real life celebrity college admissions scandals of a few years ago and you’ve got The Ivies. All in all, a really good time.

A huge thank you to Crown Books for Young Readers & NetGalley for the ARC of this book. It was a page-turner--I read it in a day, while at the beach. In it, five horrifying teens at an elite boarding school sabotage their classmates in order to ensure their spots at the top of the class--and therefore, in the Ivy Leage. But of course people willing to betray acquaintances in big ways are willing to betray friends too. One of the Ivies ends up dead, and another decides to investigate the death. What she finds underscores just how toxic these students and the environment they operate in is.

Donne manages to write a book that is both incredibly creepy and horrifyingly believable. She underscores just how toxic these hypercompetitive environments can be, and shows what happens when that toxicity is taken to an extreme. I really enjoyed this book!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m complete and utter trash for anything dark academia, and The Ivies was a gripping thriller that kept me clutching the edge of my seat throughout! I love prep school drama, and scandals (the ✨ spicier ✨ the better), so this book was super fun for me! It reminded me a lot of Pretty Little Liars, in the sense that the friend group personalities were similar, they relied on secrets and blackmail for loyalty, and when one of the main characters was murdered, and one of the friends started solving the murder – they were being sent threats, and being told to back off.

I loved that the plot wasn’t too straightforward, and even though I had a slight suspicion of who the murderer could be, I never fully knew. There were twists and turns at every chapter, making me change my mind, and increasing the stakes each time. I loved the drama in the book, and I think the author being a former private-college specialist, also really helped make this dark academia all the more atmospheric.

Avery’s character arc, and how she grew from someone you loathed to someone you were rooting for, or Sierra’s character arc, and how she grows from someone you appreciate to someone you start hating were both such good examples of how everyone has their own secrets. Not only these two, however, if I say anything else, I’ll probably spoil – but each character was so much more than what they looked like at first glance, and they each were hiding their own betrayals, which I think helped develop the story so much!

Although I loved so many aspects of the story, a lot just felt flat for me. I’m going to try not to spoil too much in this section, which is why it may feel kind of vague. One of the major problems I had with this was the ending. It was underwhelming for me, and I feel the story had so much missed potential, because it could have ended so well, especially with the way things changed – but no.

Another major problem I had was the character arc of one of the characters. I didn’t have a problem with the way it was done – in fact, I rather liked that. I think the way the personality of this character developed over time, and his gradual progression was written well, however, the way he started acting towards the ending annoyed me so much, and I think taking it in another direction would also help improve the ending.

Overall, The Ivies was a slick, fast-paced thriller that had me hooked from the very first page. I’m a sucker for anything dark academia and prep school drama – so I had super high expectations for this book, and I’m really glad to say that they (mostly) delivered to my initial expectations. Yes, the ending underwhelmed me, and I got frustrated with some of the character development, but the high stakes, and interesting characters kept me invested in this world of betrayals, lies, and going as far as murder to get into your dream school.

One of my favorite parts of reading is discovering my very specific reading niches - turns out "toxic friend group murder mystery set at a private boarding school" is one of those niches.

Seriously, though, I love YA thrillers and this one does not disappoint. The writing is tight and fast-paced, the dialogue did not make me cringe, and the mystery kept me guessing until the end (with plenty of twists, turns, and red herrings along the way!). I loved/hated the characters and felt like they were well-written and complex without there just being a laundry list of characteristics or past experiences. And don't you just love a thriller that sometimes makes you laugh out loud?

If you loved Mean Girls or Heathers, if you flew through One of Us is Lying, then I highly recommend you pick this one up!

The Ivies was an enjoyable read which held my attention. Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I really enjoyed The Ivies by Alexa Donne. The plot was fast-paced, the characters flawed, and the concept super intriguing.

The Ivies is set at Claflin Academy, the boarding school that prides itself on being the premier launchpad for Seniors to enter the Ivy League. What the pamphlets (featuring almost every single BIPOC student even though they represent the smallest percentage of attendees) do not advertise is the cutthroat, hyper-focused, group of saboteurs that pride themselves on being the sole reason for their peers' failure: The Ivies. These girls are Mean Girls 3000 and they are not here to play.

Donne weaves a brilliant tapestry of deceit, tumult, plotting, with sprinkles of satire, mystery, and oh yeah, murder.

The characters in The Ivies are all fully-fleshed and captivating even though you know they are terrible. But that's kind of ingenious because you, as the reader, find yourself rooting for them, even if their success means someone else's downfall. And I believe that is pretty much the point: we will do what is necessary to survive in the current climate of our society.

The premise of The Ivies is that this group of Mean Girls 3000 has the money, resources, and connections to sweep away any potential threats to their ascension to the colleges of their choice. All of the girls, except Olivia, come from families with an ungodly amount of money. Everything is all well and good in this private-boarding school book of schemes until one of The Ivies is found murdered on campus. Then all eyes are on the friend group as primo suspects.

It's a highly engaging read and I know my students will love it.

I enjoyed this. It was an intriguing, quick read that kept me engrossed from beginning to end. I would recommend this.

I really ended up enjoying this book! I was going into it expecting sassy drama with a thriller edge and I was not disappointed. Trying to puzzle through figuring out this friend group and their dynamic was a wild ride.

There were so many ups and downs in this book and it was fun to try and piece together what you thought was happening while reading and discovering the truth and where the plot was really going to take you.

Its hard to go much deeper into a review without giving anything away because this is a thriller book. Most thrillers I read involve and older audience so it was fun to see a younger audience for this one.

One thing I know for sure. I would not be friends with the Ivies.