Pop-Culturalist.com

Trigger Warning: abuse, self-harm, parental neglect, panic attacks, drug use, racism, and suicidal thoughts.

How We Fell Apart by Katie Zhao is a dark academia thriller that is ideal for fans of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. Nancy Luo’s former best friend Jamie Ruan is a top student at Sinclair Prep. Things take a turn when Jamie is discovered dead. What makes matters worse is that Nancy and her friends are the main suspects. They all used to be Jamie’s friends and she knew all the secrets they had. Their deepest, inner secrets that they hope no one would ever find out. Nancy and her friends need to find the real killer before The Proctor exposes their dirtiest secrets. Should her secret be exposed, it will cost Nancy more than just her scholarship. Nancy’s not sure who’s on her side and thinks that her friends might be hiding something from her too.

Highlights

• This book shows that friendships are not perfect and no one is nearly as perfect as they appear to be.
• It’s a fast-paced thriller and the texts from The Proctor will make you feel like the OG Gossip Girl.
• Nancy’s friends’ privilege is brought to light.
• Nancy’s family situation is explored throughout the book.
• I loved reading about Akil and his character.
• The Proctor’s messages made it fun to guess what was going to happen next.

Lowlights

• I guessed the plot twist in the beginning. There were a few things that I didn’t guess.
• I was waiting for a moment where I’d be like, “Oh my god!”, but that didn’t happen for me.

Final thoughts: This is a fast-paced thriller with a dark academia book that has Gossip Girl vibes. The characters are not meant to be likable, but strangely enough, that’s what I adored about this book. I would’ve liked to see an epilogue scene of where the characters end up in the future. Overall, I really enjoyed this, but the ending felt a little flat.

Thank you to Bloomsbury for this copy of How We Fell Apart by Katie Zhao!