Moody atmospheric backdrop, "The Things We Do To Our Friends" is filled with toxic friendships and devious plots. Taking place in Edinburgh, a city filled with history and mystery, it is a perfect parallel to our protagonist Claire, who herself possesses secrets from her past.

Claire moves to Edinburgh, Scotland as an enrolled student at the university to pursue her art degree. Leaving behind her dark past and the effort to reinvent herself, her life dramatically alters when she meets Tabitha and her group of friends. In Claire's desire to fit in, how far is she willing to sacrifice in the name of friendship?

The book is written in the first-person narrative through Claire's perspective. As the plot unravels, we get a brief glimpse peppered throughout the novel on Claire's unreliable psyche. The plot has its slow-burn moments halfway into the book. But it is through these moments where we delve into Claire's struggles and these awkward moments with her new friends providing realization that there's something amiss about the protagonist. Darwent explores toxic female friendships, social class differences and one's cost of obsession. Without giving away any spoilers, I truly appreciated the ending. The way it came to a full circle was innovating, imprinting a sense of haunting feeling. As Heather Darwent's debut novel, it's not perfect but it still intrigued me. A darkly seductive thriller that enthralled me at its best. I will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for Darwent's next project.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lately I’ve grown tired of the obsessive close-knit friend group who shut everyone else out and act more special than those outside of the group, with a newcomer who becomes just as obsessed trope. Not sure what the trope is called- or if it even is one, but this is the latest book I have read with this type of set up, and I just end up frustrated.

The book started off intriguing and dramatic. I though the tone would run through the book, instead it became a slog just reading the absurd things this group thought were deep and made them different than everyone else.

I felt disappointed and bored through out. By the end I was just glad it was over, not even the reveals at the end made up for how much I did not like this.

Interesting and well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. Difficult to follow at times and a little slow. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Sadly, this wasn’t for me and was a bit of a struggle. The characters were very two dimensional, without any depth. I felt like I barely knew any of them so it was impossible to connect. The first third of the book was incredibly slow and lacked direction. Only when I got to the 30% mark did I see where the story was going, but at that point it lacked real intrigue and felt fairly predictable. I did decide to listen to the audiobook and thought the narrator was fairly entertaining but not enough to keep me invested.

I really wanted to like this one. It has every element that normally makes a good book for me - takes place in the UK, college setting, wealthy characters, and forming friendships, however this one was just a bit too dark and twisty for me. The book was entirely too unorganized for me to follow and just TOO dark - which is saying a lot as someone who generally gravitates towards thriller and horror novels. I wanted to like this one so bad but I just couldn't keep up. Put me in kind of a reading funk! Probably won't be recommending this one.

I put this one aside several times and I’m finally admitting to myself I will not finish this one. Sorry. Just not for me, Thanks for the arc in exchange of an honest review.

It didn’t keep my attention enough. The cover is amazing and I was expecting more. It started off great but definitely dropped towards the middle and end for me. It was good just not love

I will admit to the fact that I was first interested in this book solely off the cover art and title. I am going to give this book 3 stars. Not because it was bad though! I did enjoy it but it felt slow-paced to me. I love thrillers and while this book had some thrill I felt it fell a little bit short in some character development. I didn’t find a lot of the characters likable. For example, Clare feels very attached to people who were treating her poorly. Overall, the main plot of the book is a great idea.

This book started out with a lot of promise, and it's hard for me to put my finger on where it fell a bit flat for me. I suspect it's a case of "it's not the book, it's me" - a combination of having read too many psychological thrillers recently, and my mood when I read it. I usually enjoy a well-written dark and twisty book. Also, I might have reached the point where I've "aged out" of reading books that center on young adults who are in or just out of college. I suspect it's a bit of "all of the above" in this instance - because I'm sure a few years ago I'd have loved it. It's well-written, it is indeed dark & twisty, it has an unreliable narrator. There aren't many likeable characters, but that's not a requirement for me. So while it ended up being a 3-star read for me, I strongly suspect it's a 4- or 5-star read for lots of other readers. I'd definitely recommend anyone who likes those things to give it a try.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House/Ballantine for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

Clare is looking for a new life when she meets Tabitha in her history class. Only things are not what they seem. I struggled to connect with this book. It's set in a university and I'm well past that time in my life. The story also just took too long to get going for my taste. If you enjoy psychological thrillers with a slow burn this is for you. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

Terrific suspense debut by author Heather Darwent. Well written, excellent settings, character development is off the chart and an overall enjoyable read. Definitely takes a hard look at covering whah others have and friendship!
Highly recommend!

LOVE this book. It was incredibly fast paced and kept me guessing from the beginning. It was extremely well written and a great quick read.

The Things We Do to Our Friends is about Clare, a young woman who is new to university in Scotland. She makes a friend named Tabitha in one of her classes. Soon she is sucked into the world with Tabitha and her group of wealthy friends. This all takes a dark turn in many ways.
I found the book to be a little bit slow, but I enjoyed the overall story. The way the author writes is very descriptive and beautiful. I can definitely picture all of the settings that she writes about. I say it’s worth it to give this book a chance, and I will more than likely read more books by this author. Thank you NetGalleyand the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions on my own.

This was not the psychological thriller I was expecting. Dark academia yes, but too slow paced and repetitious for me. I had a hard time relating to the characters and the back and forth timelines was disjointed in places making it hard to follow.
The writing was good & the storyline line compellingly but overall not my cup of tea.

Thank you #TheThingsWeDotoOurFriends, #NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, & Heather Darwent for the ARC. My review is strictly voluntary.

Clare is desperate to reinvent herself and hide from a dark secret that she is trying to keep. When she arrives at school in Scotland, she quickly falls in with a posse of exclusive friends so different from her past life. But things are not as they seem with the group, especially after Tabitha asks for Clare's help on a project that threatens everything that Clare has tried to move past. This was a dark, twisty, psychological story. I loved the setting and greatly appreciated the way that Clare's history intersected with this new group of enigmatic friends.

The cover was beautiful and I love dark academia and a good thriller, but this just fell flat for me. Unfortunately I couldn’t finish it.

A thriller with a dual timeline will always have a place in my heart. I appreciated how twisty this book is and the concept of how these women were trying to bring down men was very intriguing.

The cover and title intrigued me but I just couldn't get attached to the story enough to finish the book. I was expecting Sally Rooney characters with thriller energy--and maybe I would have gotten there--but I couldn't engage enough with the early pages to get to that point. A better-paced beginning might have helped me buy in sooner.

Not every book about psychopaths at a university needs to be compared to The Secret History!!!!!!!

This was a bad book and I did not get past 50%.

Thank you so much for the early read! THE THINGS WE DO TO OUR FRIENDS was an enjoyable thriller. I love anything with dark academia undertones and liked how the reveals of MC’s mysterious past played out.