I liked the Irish setting and as a British reader that was very interesting. I thought that the way the characters are bought together by staying at a summer camp to learn Irish was very skillful and again, as a British reader, that is something I haven't had the experience of. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Simon & Schuster for allowing me early access in exchange if an honest review. I will say, however, if you’re in a reading slump - give this book a go. It’s easy enough to follow along to apart from when it isn’t (like that epilogue???) and it’s a relatively short book with big writing print so you can fly through it. (Not literally, unless you are Leia in Star Wars- like what was that about?) I know my grammar isn't the best, but this was just awful! I couldn't read it for ages because of it. The writing was so incredibly childish and the use of "said" was repeated every 2 seconds. I counted about 1320 "said"s in the book. I wish I were joking. The use of "said" is fine, but not when it's used more than 1000 times!! You don't have to say "said" every time a character has spoken, you know? If it's a dialogue, you don't have to write anything at all. We get who's talking!!

The characters’ appearances weren’t even described at the beginning so I had no clue what they looked like, throughout the whole book I was just making stuff up in my head The action - and I use this term loosely - centres on a group of teens who are sent to a summer school in an old asylum to cram for their upcoming Irish exam. For the majority of the book they go to lessons and wander round this building, hinting at tension between characters but giving us little. The plot moves swiftly and neatly, as one would expect from this author (Mason is another pen name for crime writer Alex Barclay). But the characterisation feels thin, and this significantly lessens the impact of the dramatic events on the reader. No one was interesting. I'm more interested in what my neighbour's cat is doing than the characters themselves.Loved the grammar in that one (sarcastic). The prologue is just one big giant mess that I decided to ignore. It was so childish and it wasn't needed at all because...guess what?! We don't read about them walking down once Kelly dies! The prologue could have worked better. The shape it created was a mess, as well. The character of Amber was probably my favourite. She likes reading tarot cards, in fact it becomes a little obsessive, she is anxious and as a whole just very believable. I would have liked to have seen Rupert's character developed more but LB had a great story line.

I mean you may as well give it a go, to the nobody that’s reading this that hasn’t already read it (Olivia has) soooo…. I guess that’s me. which brings me on to this genre. this book is YA but reads like a children’s book. the voices were very young and not like any teenager I have experienced. I’m only twenty three so this isn’t a huge jump for me to say.Some of the death flags made me so terrified for the characters, but that was useless. Kelly was the one to die. Her death was so satisfying, but the failed symbolism made me upset. Also, what was up with the asylum stuff? Did it mean anything in the end? Everything just felt a bit pointless. This book sounded right up my street from the description. I also thought the title was killer. Unfortunately, it was incredibly boring and I really struggled to finish it. I liked the fact that Suze was in the "laundry room" this whole time. I liked Suze as a character, but I wish she was explored more; I found her very interesting. Another twist that I liked is in the epilogue. Can't believe I liked something from the epilogue! I enjoyed the use of the repetition to explain how everyone was involved in Kelly's murder. It worked okay. I really liked the fact that they were all guilty, in some way. Other than those two twists, I didn't quite enjoy the rest. Especially the asylum thing, since it wasn't a huge deal in the end. Those names were some of the most unoriginal names that I have ever heard. I really liked Réiltín, Suze, and Tadhg...but what were the rest of those names? LB's real name sounded like the name of the protagonist of a bad Wattpad fanfic. The whole story felt like a badly written gacha story, if I must be honest. It was so anticlimactic and the names made the whole ordeal even worse. They were either so incredibly basic or so funny that it was bad. There are obvious resonances with the real world here – economic inequality, energy supplies, electoral campaigning – but this doesn’t take away from the delightfulness of the 1920s-inspired setting (it’s the US, so think Gatsby rather than Michael Collins).

Even though the characters don't have a personality I did get attached to them eventually, but not really to Kelly tho. I love that this book made me question each of the characters and that it didn't give you all the answers, which just added to how chilling it was. I still don't know exactly what happened and who to blame. Or if there should be someone to blame! WHERE THE FREAK DID I GET CASEY FROM? ITS WRITTEN BY ALEXIA MASON? DID CASEY WRITE ONE OF US IS LYING? There was a vague attempt at foreshadowing but it was so brief and so subtle you'd blink and miss it. It was not nearly enough - where were our breadcrumbs to follow?Overall, this was a fantastic read. I love the fact that I had no idea who would die, no idea when they would die and no idea how until the end. It was only at 85% (I was reading on kindle!) through that I started piecing together what could happen. I got parts right but the rest I was well off! I’ve been calling this book a murder mystery when it’s really a thriller (oops!) but there is absolutely nothing thrilling about this book.

Sixteen-year-old Joan Chang-Hunt discovers she’s a “monster”, a member of one of the 12 great families of London with particular powers, including the capacity to steal time from humans. And that cute boy, incidentally, is out to kill her – he is the legendary “hero” determined to and prophesied to put an end to all of Joan’s kind. Protagonist Ingrid straddles the space between these two camps, as a scholarship student secretly dating the son of a wealthy, influential senator. Joining his presidential campaign as her senior year internship, Ingrid draws the attention of the senator’s glamorous and principled political opponent, and begins to question the purpose of the power she so desperately craves. This was the same with the freaking setting, they’re supposed to be in a old Irish building that was meant to be an asylum, yet the author described it in such little detail that I was doing most of the imagining that it got tiring thinking what everything and everyone looked like Also I told myself I’d be productive today as it’s the first day off for Easter (WE GET TWO WEEKS 🥳) but literally all I’ve done is shower (which is basic hygiene, come on Alice) and start Caraval which is class so far. Not that you asked (Whoever “you” are). I couldn't understand so many things! By the end, I was in such chaos that I didn't even bother to get what the ending meant. Actually, let's talk about that ending.

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This is only the beginning of a thrilling adventure that includes venturing into ancient times such as the 1990s (where “the Rachel haircut is a time marker”) and grappling with the seemingly immutable rules of an unfair world. Joan desperately wants to save her murdered family, even as she is told it’s impossible: “Every monster goes up against the timeline...Everyone tries to change something at some point.” One of the group ends up dead by the closing stages of the book. We know this in advance, but there’s seemingly little preparation for this stage. We’re given minimal information about the characters that could explain these later events, and some of the potential interest is glossed over. The murder happened really late in the book and leading up to it, it didn't have that much suspense. It was so addicting to read and the chapters flew by. I found myself tearing through it and near finishing it in a day. I was left reeling at the end’ – NetGalley – Nicola, Reviewer You know when the teacher is like "Let's all say something good about our classmates!" But you highkey hate everyone and can't think of anything to say? That's how I feel about this book. It was shit. I'm not going to sugar-coat it.