People Like Us was an insightful book that brought light to many of the issues in modern day society. Dana Mele paints the society as one with lack of homophobia, and has multiple openly bi/lesbian characters throughout the book. Though Kay, the main character, lacked depth at times, her inner thoughts and struggles were still very clearly portrayed, and allowed the audience to relate to their similar internal struggles.

I largely enjoyed the concept of the book, and how far Kay would go to protect her own secrets and prevent her secrets from spreading, even at the expense of her own friends. Though not many people will be trapped in such an extreme situation involving murder and death, I believe that this sort of internal struggle is relatable to many people, who do not wish to be shunned and excluded from society, no matter what the cost of maintaining popularity is.

However, I believe that the ending of this book could be improved. Though the confrontation with the murderer is a commonly used trope in murder mystery/thriller books, it feels slightly overused and always leaves us with an info-dump ending. In addition to this, rather than exposing the secret identity of Nola all at once, the author chose to info-dump it at the end, which felt lazy and uncomfortable to read.

Overall, aside from the ending, a really good murder mystery; I would highly recommend it for first time murder mystery/thriller readers!