The It Girl
Gallery/Scout Press
July 12, 2022
432
April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford. Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the year, April was dead. Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder. “The Agatha Christie of our generation” (David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author) proves once again that she is “as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime” (The Washington Post) with this propulsive murder mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Ruth Ware always delivers on suspense and shocking discoveries. It’s why I don’t need to know the synopsis of her next book before buying it. Readers will believe they have the murderer pinned right away. Then within a few chapters, sometimes only a few pages, the suspicion shifts to someone else. Throughout The It Girl, we are suspicious of everyone. That is what makes this one of Ware’s best books to-date.
College is meant to be a place of new beginnings, not a shocking end.
Hannah is a bright young woman ready to prove her worth at Oxford. She doesn’t expect to find a best friend in her new dormmate April. The two girls are quite opposite which keeps the balance in their friendship. April comes from “new money” and her wealth and privilege are very apparent from the moment they meet. The bold and entitled personality of April can rub everyone around her the wrong way, yet they all stick around as friends. Sometimes Hannah senses serious tension between her best friend April, and worries of what will come next. It always manages to be ok, until the night she finds April dead in her dorm.
Chapter by chapter, we go back and forth between college life, and Hannah’s post-trauma life ten years later. The back and forth creates a constant tension while reading. I found myself wanting to rush through a chapter in college so I could quickly return to Hannah’s current state of investigation. She lived with the worry and guilt of potentially dooming an innocent man to prison for killing April. His conviction hinged on her testimony, and ten years later she’s finally on the path to finding the true killer. The problem is, her likely suspects are all part of her circle from college. At every chapter we’re just as suspicious as Hannah is of her friends, her husband, and even herself.
The It Girl will keep you reading well into the early hours of the morning. I try really hard not to read books in one sitting, but I couldn’t resist this time. If you like the whodunnit trope, make sure to start reading when you don’t have to wake up for work the next day. ?
Kristin lives in the PNW with her husband, and three kids. She loves to read YA fiction, fantasy, and romance. She enjoys a few side-hustles, including creating bookreels/booktoks for authors. The only shows she watches are re-runs, and if she’s not reading a book, she’s listening to one.
