Thank you to the author, publishers HarperCollins and NetGalley UK for access to this as an advance reader’s ebook. This is an honest and voluntary review.

 

Mourning the loss of her best friend who died before they started at the college they had chosen together, Margot is struggling to fit in. Then Lucy, charismatic, life of the party, offers her the last room in a shared house, out of nowhere. And, under Lucy’s influence Margot begins to live the life her best friend Eliza had always wanted for them. But, there’s a reason people say to be careful what you wish for.

 

There are many directions the plot of this story could go. So, many hints and suspicious behaviour. And, Margot gives off strong unreliable narrator vibes.

 

Starting with the knowledge that someone from Margot’s group of college friends and neighbours is dead and another is missing the story flips between the aftermath of that, the time at college leading up to it, and the year before with the events leading up to the death of Margot’s best friend.

 

I’ve read plenty of those time jump books and it’s often a good plot device to build up tension. But, I for me it didn’t really deliver for this book. With all time phases being told just from Margot’s perspective, I didn’t get to know any of the other characters really well, so felt distanced from their part of the story. And, my interest in the book suffered as a result. I kept finding my attention wandering.

 

It’s a reasonable thriller, I just feel like it could have been tighter, tenser and creepier, and I’m left a bit disappointed because it wasn’t.