Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Clare made some friends at her knew school, one of them being Tabitha who seems to have it all. Clare is still finding her way in a new city while learning her friends are hiding some secrets. This book was ok.

Review Copy

Edinburgh. A college girl (I hesitate to call her anything but a Girl), who is alone and non her own for the first time. So what does she want? She wants to be liked by the 'cool kids'. That alone was enough to turn me off to this snooze. Why does she perceive this group cool? Why doesn't she live in a dorm and introduce herself around? Why is she so pathetic?

The author takes a long time to tell us nothing. I like long, slow books; but they must lead somewhere. And this was going nowhere, uh not fast, but very slowly. I was bored. Give me a reason to read on, engage me, tickle me with her thoughts and secrets, please. I began to skim read. I don't feel like I missed a thing. Every page seemed the same.

The title intrigued me though. What things do YOU do to your friends? I wondered. Sounded nasty and mean. If they are your friends, don't do mean things. Period,

So, I'm somewhere at a two or three rating on this. Somewhere between I didn't like it and It was ok. And that's just because I spent so much time on it, The end didn't make up for the length imo.

Best two words to describe this book: creepy and unhinged - and I mean that in the BEST of ways! If you like dark, secrets, girl gangs, and a splash of pretty little liars wrapped up in one book, this is for you. If toxic friendships and violence aren’t for you- this book won’t be either. I feel like this is a love it or hate it book.

The characters are written so well, especially Clare who is doing her best to hold it all together. The most of the book is from her POV and it seems faulty/biased (how could she be so naive and unaware), but it’s not a bad thing, if anything it adds to her character and makes the book more interesting and real.

I love how the story developed and weaved itself into such a beautiful, haunting book. It does have a slow start, but it reminds me of walking through a foggy graveyard- slowly on winding paths, then paranoid and looking over your shoulder, till finally in one clean swoop the fog is gone and you’re home. That was the long way to say, it’s worth sticking through.

I will say romance isn’t the main premise of the book, which I also adored. Sure there are of course elements of romance, especially a darker side of marriage, but friendship, justice and secrets are the highlights for sure.

There is violence, murder, sex, brief lgbtq, assault, poisoning, blackmail, cheating, family abandonment, mental health and suicide in this book. This is not an all encompassing list of triggers, just the ones that immediately come to my mind.

I received a free ARC via net galley in exchange for a review. This review is my real personal opinion. I wrote this review on my phone, so please forgive any errors.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for a copy of The Thing We Do To Our Friends. I never connected with the writing.
The book was all from the POV of the main character, Clare. She rambled on and on about descriptions of things and kept talking about something in her past. Tabitha was a classic mean girl and also very strange. The story never lived up to its promise because ‘the project’ was a letdown. This book was not for me, but if you like a really dark story that unfolds slowly this book is for you!

Part creepy girl gang, a hint of dark academia, and a lot of rich people doing bad things. "The Things We Do to Our Friends" is about a girl named Clare, who is attending university in Edinburgh and is immediately enamored by her fellow art history student Tabitha. She is welcomed into her group (dubbed the Shiver - like a group of sharks) and it just gets more interesting from there. The group itself is very cryptic and mysterious, and Clare never exactly knows what's going on, even when she's introduced to their secret "project."

I will say, I was hoping for a more dramatic "project." I won't give any spoilers because it's still interesting, but the characters are so interesting and I was expecting the secret project to be really wild (like The Secret History, for example). I think another cool element would have been more connections to art history. I was so excited to see that they were all art history majors -- and while there are some connections to art/instances where the characters discuss art, it is only a few times. I would have loved it to be just fully baked into the plot. I sometimes forgot they were even students, so I think more balance would have been nice. Related, the setting also feels kind of disjointed - they are either at Tabitha's flat, Clare's bar, or some random location, and it's hard to picture what it all looks like.

It's definitely worth the read - it is intriguing throughout, and the foreshadowing is not too heavy-handed. I love how you can't even trust Clare, as you can tell something is wrong with her right from the beginning. She has a lot of secrets, and her mannerisms and thought patterns are just straight up weird (practicing smiling in the mirror, always trying to think of the right thing to say, her obsessive drive to belong). I think each of the other characters are also really well-written; you can hear each one's unique voice. Finally, the prose is extremely well done - you can really sense how Clare is feeling throughout the novel (which is excellent foreshadowing in itself). If you enjoy books where you never really know what's going to happen next, I definitely recommend!

Thank-you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a different type read for me. Besides the location being unfamiliar, these girls were a different type altogether. Were they sociopaths? Psychopaths? I don’t believe I’d ever want to befriend them but they were quite interesting. And isn’t that what draws us to others? Still, it made for a great read. You never know what’s going on behind closed doors but, moreover, you never know what thoughts churn behind a pair of open, guileless eyes…..Best to always keep your own eyes WIDE OPEN🥺😆. I’m interested to read this author’s next book & you will be, too, after this book. Happy reading!!

Thank you so much to Random House for sending me a advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


oh my goodness, this story was a wild ride. you have murder, toxic friendships etc and academia. What more could you ask for? I’m a huge sucker for books with unhinged main characters and that’s exactly what this gave me although I won’t clairify why. I will say that if you loved the secret history like I did. You will love The Things We do to our friends. Can’t wait for this to release!

Really enjoyed this book! It tells the story of Clare, who moves to Edinburgh to attend university, and the group of friends she falls in with. None of the main characters is particularly likeable, and usually that would be enough to turn me off. But they are so interesting, and the plot moves along so quickly, that I found myself unable to put the book down. The author does a great job of hinting at things that happened in the past and teasing them out bit by bit while making connections to the events taking place in the current day. Very cleverly done, especially for a debut author!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Beautifully written, but also very very weird. Clare is a hard character to get a read on, which is what makes her so interesting. Her life and personality are deliberately just left of normal, and you can never quite tell what's going on in her head. However, the separation between us and Clare combined with the slow pacing at the front end of the book means it takes a while to get into the story.

I did not like this book. At first I thought it would be a sort of Talented Mr. Ripley copy, of which I've read many (Tangerine, Who Is Maude Dixon, Beautiful Creatures, etc.) and it had a little of that. I thought maybe it would be a school story, like The Secret History or The Likeness, but no.... Mostly I just found it to be a very rambling narrative with characters I didn't really care about. I skimmed the last half, although I'm not sure why I finished. And I'm sorry this review sounds harsh! It just was not for me.

Heather Darwent's debut novel, The Things We Do to Our Friends, is simply fantastic. I felt like I was watching a movie, and that movie was some twisted combination of Gone Girl, Heathers, and Midsommer.
You know that feeling that something horrible is going to happen? I felt that way during the entire book. I highly recommend this book. I think this is an outstanding debut, and when you get your movie deal @ me, Heather!
I received an advanced reader's copy of this book courtesy of Goodreads. The opinions shared are my own. Thank you for the opportunity.

Layer upon layer, page after page, there is more to learn about these new friends that she meets at the university. They seem fun, but then wicked, kind and generous but then aloof and scheming. There is so much more to unpeel until you reach the exciting conclusion. Fabulous writing!

The best way I can describe this book is "odd." It's a slowly revealed story with some really strange characters. Not one of them is someone of call normal, except Clare's roommates and Finn. Even the parents are weird. And the plot? And Tabitha's fate? They both took forever to be revealed and when they were I just shook my head.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

The Things We Do to Our Friends was interesting - I can see it becoming a TV series, especially because it reminded me of Sally Rooney/The Secret History/Gillian Flynn. Like Rooney and Flynn's books, and The Secret History, this book is likely going to be really hit or miss for people - it's a dark story of a group of students all of whom are deeply unlikeable doing unpleasant things, together and alone. The plot, which I won't spoil, involves an outsider student getting involved in an odd group of friends who seem to run on charisma and family money alone.

I generally like a dark story, and I don't have a problem with unlikeable characters. However, there were many points within this book where further internal monologue from the characters or greater detail about their background would have made the book MORE thrilling, and I wish that so much hadn't been withheld for the 'shock' factor.

Overall, this is an interesting read - but doesn't quite hit the thriller notes or the deep character notes I would have liked to see.

I really, really enjoyed reading this book. It hooked me from the very beginning and kept me hooked the entire time.

The novel is told from the perspective of a girl dying to fit it, but it’s obvious from the beginning that she’s not the typical, awkward outsider we’ve come to expect from most novels. There is something chillingly different about Clare. Darwent’s character development of Clare is absolutely stellar. We do not find out why Clare is the way she is until we’re well invested in the story, and yet I found myself rooting for her despite her odd choices.

I think I came off Ruth Ware's new one, The It Girl, too soon to read this. Dark Academia is a hard topic to get right in my book. The ending felt a little too open for me.

Thank you to Random House - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Things We Do to Our Friends by Heather Darwent is a tale of college suspense that you won't be able to put down! The story revolves around Clare, an ordinary schoolgirl who becomes involved in the popular clique at school. The clique, including Tabitha, Samuel, Ava, and Imogen, consists of rich, posh students who seem to have everything. But what do they do when no one's watching? Is joining the clique the start of Clare's happily ever after or is her nightmare just beginning?

Here is a terrifying excerpt from the Prologue:

"Winky picks up the serving spoon. She shoves it into his mouth while Braid secures him for the feed - her fingers dig into his gums. They ignore the fact that the food is escaping and spilling down his front. He barely has a moment to think; all he can taste is mealy rice.
Blondie is laughing quite madly.
No, he wants to shout out, not me, but there will be no words to phrase an impassioned plea to the girl."

Overall, The Things We Do to Our Friends is a novel of college suspense that will appeal to fans of The Girls Are All So Nice Here or Last Night in Soho. One highlight of this book is how exciting it was. There were exciting moments that had me frantically turning the pages to see what happened next. I did take off 1 star, because it felt very, very dark. At the end of the book, I didn't feel very good. Instead, I felt sad. I'm sure that will appeal to some readers though. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of suspense, I recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in January!

I feel so fortunate to have gotten an arc of Heather Darwent’s The Things We Do to Our Friends!

The novel is told from the perspective of a girl dying to fit it, but it’s obvious from the beginning that she’s not the typical, awkward outsider we’ve come to expect from most novels. There is something chillingly different about Clare. Darwent’s character development of Clare is absolutely stellar. We do not find out why Clare is the way she is until we’re well invested in the story, and yet I found myself rooting for her despite her odd choices.

Clare moves to Edinburgh to attend a university, and while she is desperate for friends, it’s clear that she’s picky about what kind of friends she’ll accept. This is what makes her so interesting. The group of people, and especially the main girl (Tabitha), who pull her into their friend group, gave me Allison from Pretty Little Liar vibes. There was definitely a need to please the queen bee and be in her favor not matter what was asked.

However, what makes this book different are the levels of darkness that each character is willing to accept as their “normal” as the plot takes on each twisted turn. Honestly, I was surprised at the choices each one of them made in the end.

It seems I’m in the minority but this was just not a win for me. You know that feeling when you wake up and rub your eyes and you’re kind of groggy and you’re trying your hardest to wake up so you roll out of bed and BAM you stub your toe and that sure wakes you up and you’re like ok I’m ready for the day but you walk it off and decide no no I’m not? Don’t know it? Well maybe that’s a super exaggerated way of me explaining that the start was super sleepy then there was a moment that I thought ok finally this is where we’re going to wake up! But no. No it was not.

It was just a doozy. The characters are all horrid. And I’ve read books where I hated the characters but still loved the story. This didn’t work because I felt the story never truly went anywhere. It was all mystery of this girls past but it wasn’t strong enough. She was all engrossed in the new bad girl leader but not strong enough. It all just felt unfinished for me. Not deep enough just too surface on many levels. Womp. Just wasn’t for me.

Thank you Random House and netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

It was an okay story. Took me a bit to get into this one. I could not for the life of me get into the whole plot line for ages.