seen from Brazil
seen from Poland
seen from Ireland
seen from Malaysia
seen from Maldives
seen from Peru
seen from Poland
seen from Hong Kong SAR China
seen from Türkiye
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Maldives
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from Russia
seen from Poland
seen from Russia
books i read in 2026:
"the things we do to our friends"
heather darwent
"being with them made me feel like i was part of something. craved them when i wasn't there with them. when i saw them look towards each other and share secret glances, i was desperate to be involved. when i heard someone talking about them, i felt almost drunk on the sense of superiority that came with being who we were. we were so special."
Review: The Things We Do to Our Friends by Heather Darwent
When a book promises to be as dark and mysterious as this cover suggests, I am definitely going to want to pick it up. I was expecting some dark academia mixed in with some kind of fairytale-esque wickedness (although I knew it wasn’t a fantasy) but I’m afraid I found it to be a bit of a slog.
Clare arrives in Edinburgh with a desire to reinvent herself. So, when she meets Tabitha, a rich art student and university Queen Bee, she feels that she may have found her place amongst Tabitha’s circle. But Tabitha has a business idea that she needs Clare’s help with. A business idea that might put Clare back in trouble, similar to the type of thing she’s already running from. But these friends are capable of anything and they won’t let anything get in the way of what they want.
University is often seen as a fresh start and clean slate for everyone, so relating to Clare is easy at first. We know she has a dark past and we expect that we’ll discover it at some point. As the story developed, I guessed part of Clare’s secret but I don’t think I could have imagined the true extent of it. This isn’t some run-of-the-mill teenage drama and I did find it hard to suspend my disbelief. I thoroughly disliked Clare by the end of the book, causing me to do a U-turn quicker than I’ve ever done before with a character.
Clare is a victim of sexual assault within the book, so please be aware of this, if you intend to read it. It’s a horrific scene but her ‘friends’ display almost complete indifference in its wake. We already know that they’re toxic as hell by this point but I couldn’t get over how it was almost brushed over. Perhaps the author was trying to make a point that this kind of thing is normal in the lives of privileged teens, so they didn’t see it as that big of a deal. It was a turning point for Clare’s involvement with the group but they continued to haunt her.
Tabitha is very much the Queen Bee stereotype. If you know Regina George, Heather Chandler and Blair Waldorf, you know Tabitha. She comes from money, relishes her adoring fans and is prepared to cut anyone who tries to take her crown. I think Clare’s motivation for befriending her came from the idea of ‘it’s better to be her friend than her enemy’ but in a normal society, I don’t think Tabitha would have been interested in Clare at all. I never really understood the connection between them but it eventually transpires that perhaps it wasn’t actually Tabitha’s decision.
Ava is another girl in the clique and it’s her who insists that Clare belongs with them. I wondered whether it’s Clare’s secret past that makes her interesting to these smart, ruthless characters but I had a feeling that Ava was up to no good. She has a very questionable vibe about her and she appears to know things that she shouldn’t. She’s a very interesting character but I question the plausibility of her actions and wasn’t entirely convinced by her authenticity.
Tabitha’s business idea made me laugh at first. She has a very pessimistic view of marriage and love in general, which clearly comes from her broken home life but her drive for revenge felt quite misplaced. I wasn’t sure why she was so hell-bent on proving to herself (and to the world presumably) that all marriages are loveless and all men cheat, purely because that was the case for her own parents. I couldn’t really understand why this was the approach she chose to take rather than simply learning from her parents’ mistakes.
The Things We Do To Our Friends was an interesting read. It has echoes of The Secret History and a twist that I didn’t see coming -although I’m not sure I liked it. Other than Clare, the characters really didn’t feel all that original and the plot in some very strange directions. I would have loved to have been able to have a greater attachment to the characters, so that my interest could have been held a bit better. I think dark academia lovers will lap it up though, as it has all the features of that sub-genre but for me, not a lot of the grip.
The Things We Do To Our Friends by Heather Darwent
Such a well done and amazing, engaging book. I tore through this book faster than any I think I have done recently. The story follows Clare, a young woman attending a university in Edinburgh for an arts degree. Clare meets some very clique-y and interesting individuals, who take her under their wing. But these "friends" are not like most friends are in college. They have secrets, and so does Clare. The story twisted and turned at all the right moments, and the characters were hopeless in only the way that true thriller/dark academia fiction characters can shine. This book brought to mind an updated, more female oriented, version of The Secrety History by Donna Tartt. Dark academia, dark deeds, and engaging writing? This book will be for you.
This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Things We Do To Our Friends: Book Review
The Things We Do To Our Friends: Book Review
I must be a feminist because this new novel is described as a seductive feminist thriller, because it places significant, albeit dubious, power into the hands of its largely female cast (and I say cast because it has movie rights written all over it) as they exact retribution on bad men, very bad men. It’s also described as The Secret History-esque, which is actually why I bought it It’s…
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WWW Wednesday: January 11th, 2023
WWW Wednesday: January 11th, 2023
WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. The Three Ws are: What are you currently reading?What did you recently finish reading?What do you think you’ll read next? Personal: I hope you all had a wonderful week last week. Mine went ok. I started getting to the school at 2:30, and you know what? My anxiety dropped a ton. Plus, I was getting home by 3:30 instead…
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BOOK REVIEW: The Things We Do to Our Friends by Heather Darwent
BOOK REVIEW: The Things We Do to Our Friends by Heather Darwent
The Things We Do to Our Friends is a twisted story of toxic friendships, unlikeable characters, and an unreliable narrator filled with tons of teenaged angst. Clare has started studying art history at a university in Scotland. A rather unsophisticated young woman, she decides to reinvent herself by becoming more calm, shouting less, not being so intrusive, improving her accent, etc. The book does…
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