3.5 stars.
Starting off this book I felt like it was going to be one of my new favorites. The prologue is one of my favorites I've ever read. Throughout, the characters remained interesting and the writing was solid. The atmosphere/vibe of the book was also great. But this felt like the author had several scenes/ideas that she wanted to include, and included those, but didn't really know how to thread them together. All of the scenes were good but ended up feeling really disjointed.

This was an interesting and definitely unique tale of five young adults with aspirations beyond the typical college student. Clare is desperate to reinvent herself and will do just about anything to be part of Tabitha’s group. You’ll definitely want to finish this story and find out just how far these friends are willing to take things!

In the mood for something dark? Then pick up The Things We Do To Our Friends by Heather Darwent. Just pause and look at that cover, isn’t it beautiful?

This novel takes place in Scotland, it’s quite atmospheric and chilling. There isn’t much mentioned about school though it takes place at a university. I love these types of books that contain secrets and hidden pasts threatening to be discovered.

Take a look:

Edinburgh, Scotland: a moody city of labyrinthine alleyways, oppressive fog, and buried history; the ultimate destination for someone with something to hide. Perfect for Clare, then, who arrives utterly alone and yearning to reinvent herself. And what better place to conceal the secrets of her past than at the university in the heart of the fabled, cobblestoned Old Town?

When Clare meets Tabitha, a charismatic, beautiful, and intimidatingly rich girl from her art history class, she knows she’s destined to become friends with her and her exclusive circle: raffish Samuel, shrewd Ava, and pragmatic Imogen. Clare is immediately drawn into their libertine world of sophisticated dinner parties and summers in France. The new life she always envisioned for herself has seemingly begun.

Then Tabitha reveals a little project she’s been working on, one that she needs Clare’s help with. Even though it goes against everything Clare has tried to repent for. Even though their intimacy begins to darken into codependence. But as Clare starts to realize just what her friends are capable of, it’s already too late.

This is out now!

✨Book Review✨
The Things We Do To Our Friends by Heather Darwent
3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

First, I would like to thank @netgalley for my copy of this read for an honest review!

I was pulled in to this book because of the cover, I mean isn’t it beautiful! 🥰

But book itself was okay. Just a bit weird for me. The beginning definitely pulled me in, but the rest was just a slow burn and it took me a bit to want to finish unfortunately.

I was expecting more of a thrill so to speak. But all the characters were unusual and unlikeable making it hard to connect. So when I was over it was just an okay sort of feeling.

I was so excited for a dark academia read, it just fell a bit flat for me in that sense.

I understand we all have different interpretations and opinions, so I wouldn’t write this author off in the future. I’d be interested to see what is next for her.

I would recommend this to those who like a read when all the characters are dysfunctional.

This book has so many things I love:
-Dark academia
-Unreliable characters
-An outsider
-Flashbacks

All of these work together to create a deeply twisted story. Some parts are a little slower than I like, but then everything totally flips on its head each time with something wild (uh... pig carcass, anyone?! My jaw was on the floor the whole time...) Toxic friendships aplenty, this book will definitely have you second guessing and overthinking a lot of your own life. It is filled with complex characters that you will root for and against equally. And I also think this stunning cover needs to be talked about and share more!

This is like 3.5/3.75 stars for me. It started out really promising and there were times it was dark and twisted and certain chapters ended with this little blip on the edge that made you want to get to the next chapter, but at other times it just felt like it dragged and some parts could’ve been left out.⁣
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I went back and forth listening and reading and did really enjoy the narrator. She brought the characters to life which made it more enjoyable. I also find this cover just gorgeous.⁣
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This group of friends, some call the shiver, which is what they call a group of sharks . The group of friends all fit their part in the friend group and are all equally dark or disturbed in their own way and manipulate people how they choose. Clare really wants to be friends with them and will mold herself to blend in to become one of them and will do anything to keep them as friends. Except being their friend isn’t always what she signed up for.⁣
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Would you do ANYTHING to become or stay someone’s friend?

The Things We Do To Our Friends by Heather Darwent is a psychological thriller involving some very toxic friendships that our main character Clare is trying to navigate.

Clare comes to Edinburgh to attend school, but her main focus soon becomes a group she calls, “The Shiver” that consists of three of her female classmates and one male. She desperately wants to be a part of their group and is particularly infatuated with the group’s self appointed leader, Tabitha. Soon Clare finds herself wrapped up in The Shiver’s increasingly risky schemes. Of course, Clare has some secrets if her own as well. (One that is foie gras adjacent...)

It’s a really detailed character study. Like really detailed. The writing is very descriptive and lush, but somewhere in the middle it just starts to drag a bit for me. From the jump, I felt like we were being beat over the head a bit with Clare’s true nature. Like all the signs are there in painstaking detail is you know even a little about psychology. By the time the epilogue rolled around, I felt like it wasn’t much of a surprise. Plus there were some chapters thrown in from Clare’s future life with her husband and kids that didn’t really mesh with the rest of the story.

All in all, it was a gorgeously written book that just didn’t come together for me at least in its execution.

Book Summary:

Clare is an outsider – to put it lightly. Like many people, all she wants in life is to find a way to belong. Rather than searching for people who will accept her for who she is, she's willing to change and sacrifice anything to fit in with a particular crowd.

Even if that means throwing her darkest secret into the light, naturally, everything is about to go horribly wrong for Clare. What healthy group would demand such a price for the luxury of spending time with them?

My Review:

Okay, I'll confess: half the reason I picked up The Things We Do to Our Friends is that I fell utterly in love with the cover. I mean, look at it! How could I not? But seriously, the description sounded compelling. We've all known a few toxic people/friends in our lives, and I thought this would play off that vibe quite nicely.

There were certainly times when I wanted to scream and shake Clare by the shoulders. Seriously, woman. The warning signs were everywhere! Maybe that fact is what kept me from enjoying The Things We Do to Our Friends as much as I would have liked, but what can you do about that?

Overall, I would say that The Things We Do to Our Friends is a decent read. It'll keep you happily invested on a rainy day – speaking from experience here.

Highlights:
Mystery/Thriller
Lots of Twists!
Amazing Cover

Trigger Warnings:
Dark Secrets

There was a lot I loved about this book - a dark and twisted plot, mysterious and quirky characters, an academia setting (sort of), and a sense of foreboding.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. But it took me a bit to get there. Some of the novel felt a little drawn out and often I felt like the author was telling me things more than showing them. For example, Tabitha was this charismatic, beautiful girl that everyone was instantly drawn to, however, I never actually felt drawn to her. Tabitha wasn't built enough as an individual to help me connect to her, rather, I just heard from Clare how wonderful Tabitha was.

I always love a good sense of foreboding and this novel definitely built the suspense. There were allusions to Clare's seedy past that were well placed and that storyline really held my interest.

The storyline with Perfect Pieces and the crew's business was also really fascinating and I could have used more of that. It was dark and unique and I was very intrigued.

Like Tabitha, not all of the characters were very well developed. I really never felt a connection to Clare and we never really got to know her, although some of that may have been intentional on the part of the author. The other individuals in Tabitha's crew were similarly one dimensional and all really only seemed to exist to support Tabitha.

This was a good read and an impressive debut. I'll definitely pick up another book by this author!

Thank you to Bantam and NetGalley for the copy.

This is a perfect example of a fantastic psychological thriller and what it should be EXCEPT for one thing which I will get too.

So things I like, it really really kept me on my toys and the story itself was good. I don't want to rehash it because the author does it so much better on the blurb.

The other thing, this is the first book I have read where I am actually wondering what will happen to characters who I find so unlikeable. These are some of the most toxic friendships I have ever read about in a book. Usually when a book has characters like this, I tend to not be able to finish the book because I really don't care. about them. Here it was different. I didn't like them, BUT I was still invested in what happened to them!

Thank you so much to #NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Big thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a review!

Wow, what a lush experience. The Things We Do To Our Friends has such wonderful prose that binds to the inherent rot of this story to make a beautifully unique experience. The setting completely drew me in.
Clare was a hypnotic protagonist. Despite it not being a secret that she’s a bad person, just like many disturbed individuals in real life, I found myself manipulated into rooting for her.
The only complaint I have is that the ending was a little confusing. I felt everything was tied up and I wasn’t left with questions, but I wondered why things ended up the way they did. Maybe that’s part of the appeal.
This was my first dark academia book, and it was exactly what I’d hoped for. I definitely recommend this book for anyone interested!

𝑰 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆, 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒅 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒆.

Claire arrives in Edinburgh, Scotland hungry for a fresh start. It’s university, what better place to begin anew? Believing the past can be wiped clean living in the shadowy Old Town, the plan is become someone else but “I needed the right people around me for that.” Her flatmates are too earnest, and we learn that no one is going to share her upbringing, a sign that there may be a reason why she has such a hard time fitting in and making friends, that there is something hidden in her past that makes her so ‘different’. They can’t help her in her quest to change, she is on the hunt for people who aren’t desperate and does everything she can to avoid being home. Though she has insecurities, she is discerning when it comes to other’s weaknesses. A job working at a local bar is the first step and where she is noticed by the beautiful, wealthy Tabitha and Imogen, classmates from her Art History course she labeled “The Shiver”. It isn’t long after that night in the bar before Claire is invited into their exclusive circle. Tabitha is perfection, everyone else is desperate to be in close proximity to her “chaotic energy” and shine. Imogen is her pet, the ‘follower’, and they soon become a threesome. She is invited to their lavish flat in the beautiful, ‘monied’ side of town where she meets the others- Ava, and Samuel. They all grew up together in the south and, naturally, followed each other to school. This is the night she delights in discovering she is Tabitha’s type and someone she would love to have around all the time. Her boss Finn doesn’t like them, feels they are ‘off’, this only makes the group that much more desirable. Claire’s past is a puzzle for the reader, we get the stilted conversations with her grandmother back in Hull and understand her parents are distant from her, but not why. It’s enough to know something is off about her too and her mind has a habit of bending to negative thoughts.

It thrills Claire to be one of them, even if she is insecure, always on edge early on, and in time they seek her out individually. She craves time with them, stores every revelation they let slip about themselves. She aches, feeling like she is an outsider and never fully privy to their shared history, but she improves under Tabitha’s generous hand. When she discovers they chose her carefully for their own purposes, she is proud rather than disturbed. Finally, she has found her people, who care about her, and think she is someone special. With their easy wealth, glittering world and magnetic life force, there is no place she’d rather be. Why is she so desperate for acceptance and love?

Tabitha wants to enlist Claire in a mysterious business project, she explains the details by inviting her home for vacation in France. Claire gains deeper access into her world. She even gets to meet Minta, Tabitha’s mother, but the plan leaves Claire’s own troubled past exposed. As the things she concealed about herself are being skinned off her new identity, she is naked and raw, in the clutches of “The Shiver.” Why, then, with her fresh, new start at stake is there pleasure in doing what Tabitha wants? Will she refuse? Life takes a sinister turn, but darkness may be a friend to Claire. They have their secrets, they have studied her, but in turn she has studied them and there are corners of her life that she has kept from their hungry eyes. Just what are the things we do to our friends, and what do our friends do to us?

It’s a twisted tale about power and the seduction of belonging. It is also about the fragility of identity. An interesting, dark thriller that kept me reading. I was intrigued and repelled by Claire. What an interesting tale.

Published January 10, 2023

Random House

Ballantine

Bantam

First off, thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book could be described as an atmospheric thriller, but with undertones of what women do to each other, what we know about our friends and ourselves, and how far we will go to be accepted.

In all honesty, the middle of this book DRAGGED on and I really struggled to push through. It felt like a lot of build up for a pretty predictable “twist” ending. I did like the unreliability of all the characters, and I enjoyed the more exciting plot points, but I felt like the characters all sat around Tabitha’s flat being pretentious for like 2/3 of the book and I wanted them all to stop talking about how special they were. Maybe that was part of the point, but it didn’t land how I wanted it to.

Also, why was Finn even a character? Why didn’t we learn anything about the dynamic with Granny beyond two short chapters about Christmas? It somehow felt like the book was too short and too long. It was a good concept, but predictable.

I didn’t finish The Things We Do to Our Friends. I tried. But the story just kind of dragged on. Foreshadowing what was to come, yet nothing really happened. Our narrator is Clare and she sounded as unreliable and unlikable as all the characters introduced.

The only thing I enjoyed was the location and it made me want to visit Edinburgh.

A miss for me, but probably would be better liked by those more into the “outcast joins the cool kids” trope.

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for my review copy.

When we first meet Clare, I feel sorry for her. She is new at University and is dying to meet friends. Now, that doesn’t mean she’ll be friends with just anyone, and she makes that clear. But really, a girl has to be discerning, right? Fall in with the wrong crowd and it can be social suicide…or worse!

Luckily, she secures friendships with a circle that is extremely exclusive and sophisticated. Most of the group has money, or at least comes from the type of money that allows for a summer home, even if it’s not fully staffed. But when it comes out that Clare may not have been the one who picked them, it gets interesting.

The Things We Do For Our Friends is a twisty tale with definitely vibes of Donna Tart’s The Secret History. Special Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced e-galley in exchange for my honest review. This one is out now and perfect for snuggling with under a blanket on a snowy day:)

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this ARC!

This novel was not what I was expecting at all. The writing is a bit all over the place and sometimes hard to follow, but it gives the disjointed sense of time that seems to tie in the story and series of events that happens. The writing can be a bit much to get through, but it paints the character Clare in the light that I think the author was going for. Clare, Tabitha, Imogen, Ava, and Samuel are all students in Edinburgh, and seem to have formed a clique that is odd and centered around Tabitha. Not all is at it seems though within the friend group and each person starts to show their cracks more than Clare initially expected to see.
I’m going to be honest, I didn’t love this book. I can appreciate it for what it is and to show how people are not all that they portray to be, how it can be easy to be someone else if you are starting over somewhere new, but you never really lose who you are. Parts of this story dragged out too long for me. I didn’t love the characters; they all seem to be not great people and are okay to turn a blind eye to things that happen unless it’s happening to them.

(My review to my Instagram page will post on 1/31)

This was fine, nothing spectacular. It was a little too surface-level to be anything more than fine. A lot of telling, not a lot of showing. The epilogue squashed any intrigue that was there by giving it all away. I wanted more from this that just wasn’t there. That being said, it’s fine enough and I’d say read it if you so desire.

As someone who loves thrillers and dark academia, I was excited to read The Things We Do to Our Friends by Heather Darwent. Clare is drawn to the rich kids from her art history courses, but can't figure out why they've adopted her into their group. She starts to realize that they are capable of more than just regular rich-kid bullying and tricks, but at this point she's committed and into the group.

This novel started out a bit slow for me, but I found myself coming back to catch up here and there. The overall themes were creative and kept me reading to the end. I'm always thankful for my uneventful friend group when I read about these intense friendships that often end with secrets and disasters.

This story started with a bang and I was totally invested, then it slowed down and dragged until the last quarter of the book. I liked the writing but it was just too slow for my taste.

I read a review that compared this to Heathers and The Secret History.
Blasphemy!
After audibly groaning repeatedly, I had to give up.