Bella Suartini

Friends Like These

Book by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

DETAILS

Publisher : Delacorte Press (November 1, 2022) Language : English Hardcover : 384 pages ISBN-10 : 0593309677 ISBN-13 : 978-0593309674 Reading age : 12 - 17 years Lexile measure : NP Grade level : 7 - 9 , "Sharp, atmospheric, and wildly fast-paced"—Jessica Goodman, New York Times bestselling author of They'll Never Catch Us From the author of Lies Like Wildfire comes another page-turning thriller about the little lies we all tell before the truth sets us free—perfect for readers of Karen M. McManus and Diana Urban. Mistake number one . . . Fun-loving Jake tells his girlfriend, Jessica, that they have to go to Tegan’s end-of-summer party in their tiny California beach town. Jessica doesn’t like parties, and she doesn’t like Tegan, who has an obvious, obsessive crush on Jake. But she agrees to go, to make Jake happy.  Mistake number two . . . Something awful happens at the party. Something so embarrassing that Jessica doesn’t know if she can ever get over it—and Jake will do whatever it takes to earn her forgiveness. And now a girl is missing. Everyone is a suspect. And Jake seems to have a lot to hide. . . .  When a body is discovered at the beach, friends start turning on friends, and lies start piling upon lies. What happened could destroy their lives. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Mistake number three . . . Read more

REVIEW

If someone tells teenaged you that everyone is lying, you're probably going to think, "well, duh". But then it makes for a pretty compelling story as all the characters scramble to figure out who knows or did each treacherous thing. I am a little embarrassed to admit how compulsively I read this book. I didn't guess ahead for the few twists, but they kept the ball rolling -- speeding -- toward that satisfying finish. I do have to ask if anyone else found it strange that the characters kept mentioning "my stomach loosened" or "my bladder loosened". It happened a lot, like A LOT, in this book. It made me giggle in a couple places, because first his stomach loosened (whatever that means), then in the next paragraph his stomach tightened. I get that upsetting circumstances have very real physical effects, but I'd love to know where all this stomach, bladder, and throat loosening, and then tightening, came from. Is "loosening" some new way of describing upset I've not heard until now?

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