𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘
𝑻𝒊𝒕𝒍𝒆: With Friends Like These
𝑨𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓: Alissa Lee
𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘:
Whew. This book was messy—in the best way possible. With Friends Like These dives headfirst into toxic friendships, secrets, and the kind of drama that makes you need to keep turning the page. I went into this thinking it would be your typical twisty thriller, but it actually surprised me. The characters? Flawed. Complicated. Sometimes frustrating. But real.

It centers around a group of women who seem close, but as the story unfolds, you realize how deep the lies and betrayals go. And let me tell you—some of those twists? I didn’t see them coming. I was hooked, even when I wanted to shake the characters for their choices. The pacing was solid, and the tension stayed high right through to the last page.

If you like domestic thrillers that dig into the darker side of friendships, definitely add this one to your list. Just don’t expect to trust anyone while reading it.

Super slow, I stuck it out but just seemed like several plot holes. I’m typically a sucker for a quick easy read of a thriller but this was just wasn’t for me.

With Friends Like These is a compelling blend of women’s fiction and suspense, centered around a decades-long friendship and a thrilling tradition. A group of ambitious women, friends since their Harvard days, have played an annual game of “The Circus” for 20 years - a game that took a tragic turn their senior year. Now adults with careers, families, and secrets, they reunite for what will be the final round. Sara wants out, until she learns there’s a small fortune at stake. But as the game turns dangerous, the women begin to suspect that someone isn’t playing fair.


What I enjoyed most was the realistic portrayal of Sara and her friends' lives. How their goals have shifted, how they navigate the strains of aging friendships, and how ambition and relationships can conflict in complicated ways. The emotional core of the book - friendship, grief, growing apart - was relatable. However, I found myself wanting more from the suspense side of the story. The description suggested thriller-level tension, but the plot leaned more heavily into the women’s fiction genre. While there were certainly thriller elements, they never fully built into the kind of suspense I was hoping for. That said, the suspense that was included worked well alongside the interpersonal themes. Sara’s feeling of growing apart from her friends, for instance, added a layer of tension that made the game feel more high stakes. If the book had leaned just a little more into the danger and paranoia, it might’ve hit even harder.

I’d recommend With Friends Like These to readers who enjoy women’s fiction with an edge, particularly stories about evolving friendships, personal ambition, and the skeletons in the closet. Just don’t expect a full-on thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was intrigued by the premise of this one, but ultimately it just didn't end up working for me.

The book focuses on a group of five women in their early 40s who all lived together during college at Harvard 20 years ago. During their time at Harvard, their sixth roommate Claudine got them involved in a dorm-wide game they called "the Circus" (basically Assassin), in which they would be assigned targets to "kill" until all targets were eliminated and the winner was the last person standing. After Claudine's actual death during the game during their senior year of college, the remaining roommates spend the first week of every year for the next 20 years continuing to play as a "tribute" to Claudine. With a nearly million dollar prize on the line for the 20th game, the stakes are higher than ever, and it soon becomes clear that someone will do anything to win.

I had a lot of issues with this book. First, the entire book takes place during the present day, with the past recapped by the book's narrator, Sara, as memories. As a result, the entire "Circus" seems absolutely ridiculous to me. These women are Harvard graduates in their 40s - one of them is a New York City District Attorney and mayoral candidate. Another is a college professor. Another is a mother of three. And these women are roaming the streets of New York (and New Jersey) with fake weapons trying to "kill" each other? The optics of this are acknowledged when Sara indicates that in the wake of so many school shootings, she's not sure whether it's appropriate to continue this game, and Bee - the mayoral candidate - comments that if her participation became public, it would be damaging for her campaign. But the money becomes too hard to ignore or resist, and they continue with the game nonetheless. It just seemed so unbelievable to me that these Harvard-educated professionals would be breaking into each other's homes and carrying around realistic-looking guns (including, in one scene, to a school) as a "tribute" to a deceased friend... who loved the game, but died during it. I think that their motivations for continuing to play would have been much better understood by the reader had the book actually started during their Harvard years (which is what I had assumed would be the case in reading the description) and then flash forward. Only seeing them as adults just made it really difficult for me to see them as anything other than ridiculous and juvenile.

I also struggled with the characters themselves, and their relationships with each other. I never connected with any of the five women, and I was never clear on the depth of their friendship (which is another reason why I wish we had seen that developed more in their college years first). One of the women is the godmother of another's daughter -- but she's so uninvolved that she gets "replaced" as the godmother by one of the other women. Some of them didn't seem to like each other very much. Some of them were hiding major life events and changes from each other. They didn't seem to actually KNOW each other very well, which made it very hard for the reader to get to know any of them very well. And I get that to an extent - people can have friends who they don't see or talk to regularly but then they get together and pick up right where they left off. But as someone who still talks to my best friends from college regularly 20+ years out because they are still my best friends, I couldn't fathom being that out of touch with each other, especially all living or working in and around the same city. Not to mention it appears that four of them still believe on some level that the fifth was responsible for Claudine's death.

The Circus itself also did not play out the way I thought it would, and I don't mean the specific plot points occurring throughout, but in terms of the pacing of the game itself. I expected the game to be more "thrilling"; instead it was a bit boring to me. There was a lot of money to win, and each of the women had a reason they needed it -- so to watch it play out the way it did just wasn't what I would have expected. The "action" comes more from outside sources than the women itself, and overall it all just felt unrealistic to me.

On the upside, this was relatively short and a quick read, and even though it wasn't for me, others might find the story engaging.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It wasn't bad, it wasn't great. I struggled with understanding why they decided to play instead of just splitting the money. it didn't make any sense to me and irked me the entire time. Character development wasn't impressive, I couldn't connect with any of the characters. The premise is intriguing, but it left me disappointed. Thank you #netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sara, Bee, Allie, Dina, Wesley, and Claudine were roommates at Harvard who became more like family than friends. Bound together by tragedy in their senior year, they continued their tradition every January of playing the Circus, a week-long elimination "killing" game. Twenty years later, Sara decides she wants out. When the group meets to plan for this year's game, the rest of the group manages to convince her to play one last time; the winner taking the entire pot of money that has bloomed into a life-changing sum. As Circus week starts, Sara begins to feel that there are more sinister forces at work against all of them and time is running out as well-kept secrets and old resentments start to be revealed. A well-thought out thriller.

When I read the premise for this book I was really excited. While certain elements worked fine I feel like there was a lot of missed potential and a better story to be told. It was fairly predictable and the stakes never got high enough to keep me very engaged. The grammar and spelling issues also pulled me out of the story when I came across them. That being said, it was a decent debut and something I would recommend for people wanting a quick, easy read that won’t make you think too hard.

This was a pretty good read group of friend and school a crazy mix and friends like these you don’t need enemies thank you for this book is good great page turner

Sharp and fast paced, this debut thriller was a great read that delves into the complexities of human relationships. For relationships are not one dimensional and they continually evolve--and the author explores this and more, all with the backdrop of the pressures to succeed. The writing is witty and gives the characters a full fleshed out dimension.

I can't wait for the author's next release!

With Friends Like These by Alissa Lee is a twisty, dark-academia thriller with a strong premise—five former Harvard roommates playing a high-stakes secret game that turns dangerously real. The setup hooked me right away, and there are some genuinely tense moments.

That said, the pacing was uneven at times, and I didn’t always connect with the characters as much as I wanted to. Still, the book explores friendship, guilt, and ambition in a compelling way. A solid debut and a good pick if you like messy secrets and psychological tension. 3.5 stars.

The premise really pulled me in and made me want to read this, but unfortunately, this one did not fully deliver for me.
The plot just never captured me, and some of the characters were kind of unbearable. Don't get me wrong, it was not awful, but I just was not captivated or truly invested in finding out all of the secrets.

2.5 stars

Sara, Bee, Dina, Wesley, Allie and Claudine were cast leave roommates. It was a big room. No, they keep calling each other “roommates,” when I assume the author meant they were suitemates. This really annoyed me throughout for no good reason, except, say what you mean, people. Especially since y’all went to Harvard.

At their residence hall they played a “murder” game where people draw for a “victim,” “kill” that victim, then move on to another until someone wins the game. Then the girls like the game so much they continue to play it as adults, and even after the death of Claudine, who fell out of a window and died while they were in college. Apparently at least one witness claimed he saw Sara, the narrator, push Claudine, but he recanted after Bee got involved.

Now the women are playing the game one last time and there is a huge sum of money at stake for the winner. But Sara is seeing a ghost and it seems like someone might not be playing fair.

So what immediately comes to mind here is that group of men who had been playing tag for decades…there’s even a Hollywood movie about it. Both seem very odd, this seems creepier. The story had a few semi-large plot holes, and call me crazy, but I thought it was kind of easy to guess whodunit. I came away feeling like there was a better story buried in here somewhere. Deep. Way deep.

Thank you Atria for the ARC
I will say this was a good story to be told. Friends from college who play a game each year. You get bragging rights. 20 yrs later and they all decide that this was the last game to be played. They also find out that there is a big pot to claim thanks to one friend investing in their money. I will admit at times I was bored because there was so much information said, as in back grounds of each character. This is when Sara tries to figure out who is after her. Each group member could benefit from winning the money. However, does that call for killing someone? The one person you thought was behind all the wrong doing wasn't the person I expected. It was a short read, just took me more time to process all the extra info. Again thank you for the invitation for receiving an ARC.

Thank you to #netgalley for the ARC of With Friends Like These.

This book was not for me. While a short book at a little over 240 pages, it felt like a very, very long read. The characters were hollow, the story did not capture my attention like the cover did. I struggled through this one.

I really wanted to love With Friends Like These. The setup had all the ingredients for a gripping thriller—I mean, a decades-long secret game among Harvard alums, buried lies, and deadly stakes? That should have been unputdownable. Unfortunately, the execution just didn’t live up to the potential.

The plot fell flat for me almost from the start. While the idea of "the Circus" was intriguing, the suspense never really built in a satisfying way. The pacing felt uneven—stretches of dull exposition followed by bursts of drama that didn’t land with the impact they should have. By the time the real danger started creeping in, I found it hard to care.

The writing style didn’t help matters. It often felt awkward and clunky, with dialogue that didn’t quite ring true and overly long internal monologues that slowed things down rather than adding depth. The characters, despite their elite backgrounds and shared history, never felt fully fleshed out. I struggled to connect with any of them, including Sara, whose motivations often felt murky or inconsistent.

And as a thriller? It just didn’t thrill. I never got that edge-of-my-seat feeling. The twists were either predictable or underwhelming, and the big reveals lacked the punch I was hoping for.

It’s clear the author had a strong concept and a lot of ambition for this debut, and I can appreciate the attempt to explore themes like loyalty, grief, and ambition. But in the end, With Friends Like These just didn’t deliver the suspense or emotional depth it promised.

Thank you Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Harvard promised them everything.
Ambitious futures, peers who pushed each other toward their absolute best, and an education that would open doors for the rest of their lives. And though they started out as roommates, Sara, Bee, Dina, Allie, Wesley, and Claudine soon became family. They had their whole bright lives ahead of them—until their senior year, when a shocking tragedy changed everything.

Twenty years later, five of the roommates still indulge in a secret tradition they’ve kept alive since their campus the Circus, a harmless elimination-style “killing” game played across the private rooms and hidden alleys of New York City. The game is a nod to their younger selves and a tribute to the sixth roommate they lost too young. But this year, Sara wants out of the game—until she discovers there is a small fortune awaiting the winner of this final round.

Reviews are pretty split between liked and didn't and maybe it has to do with the writing style. I did not enjoy this one and found myself skimming and my mind drifting. This was almost a dnf but since it was short, I powered through. While the synopsis sells the story, the story did not hold up to the summary for me. All the characters annoyed me and the circus seemed juvenile for a group of Harvard grads.

Expected Pub date 11/4/25
⭐️⭐️

Friends Like These sounded like it might be extremely similar to some other thrillers set in reunions post college campusus. Fortunately this was fresh & unique. The book is extremely well-written. I read many passages that I would stop and let them sink in. I also jot many quotes down which I haven't been doing much while reading for pleasure this year.

What if this is all this is?

5 Harvard college roommates made a pact decades ago on a Montauk beach to live their lives unconditionally. The 20th year of the Circus kicked off on New Year's Day. Main character Sara learned from the game that little goes according to plan.

There were times where The Circus seemed a bit ridiculous for successful, well-educated women to still be playing in their forties. Sara's up against "four smart. Capable women pouring everything into winning" close to $1 million dollars during the final year of the game.

At 46%. I thought I had figured it out and while twists and turns continued, I was thrilled to learn my prediction was correct!

I'm not going to say anything else so I don't reveal any spoilers. High recommend this book if you like reading about academia, college students, female friendships. And/or trying to make in NYC. Also for fans of the book. They Were All So Pretty.

Easily rate this 4 stars.

With Friends Like These follows a group of women who were college roommates at Harvard who still get together each year to play their own "killing" game that they call The Circus. It's a pretty innocent game that they like to play just to keep up the college fun tradition and it's a way for them to honor the friend that they lost tragically during their senior year, Claudine.
However, this year's round seems to be a little on the risker side- the friends are no longer playing by the rules, and there's a prize that each one of them could use, one that they may be willing to play a little harder for.

This is classified as a thriller, but it doesn't fall into that category in my opinion. It's pretty slow paced and minimal excitement. There are suspenseful moments but it's nothing that has you holding your breath waiting to see what is going to happen next. It fell flat for me- I was just expecting more of a gripping, edge of my seat, type of story. I did enjoy the friendship aspect of the story- how far a group of friends will go to protect each other and their loyalty to one another. Even though this wasn't the thriller for me, I do look forward to trying other work by this author!

Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books and Alissa Lee for this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This felt very amateur. Long and boring. Unrelatable characters and a BB gun contest that has lasted 20 years. Come on

Harvard alums Sara, Bee, Dina Wesley, and Allie have been playing an elimination style “killing” game once every year in the 20 years since graduation. Part of it is a way to hold onto their youth, and part a homage to their lost 6th roommate Claudine. This year, Sara has had enough and wants out until she discovers a small fortune awarded to the winner of this game. Reluctantly, she plays along only to find the others aren’t quite playing by the rules this year. As she seeming gets closer to the prize, she also starts to realize the danger is very real and those she thought she knew are harboring secrets she could have never imagined.

“With Friends Like These” is a great concept for a book with a very quick pace and set well in New York City. Author, Alissa Lee does a great job of providing intricate backstories for all the girls that keeps the reader engaged throughout. Unfortunately, the final twist fell flat and the ending was a bit lackluster. 2/5 stars