This is a full on Toxic Teenage school and friendship turned murder thriller for YA fans. The story of teenage girls friendships turning sour and of course involving a boy, leads to a missing girl and then murder. You can see this coming to Netflix for sure in much the same way 'one of us is Lying' and definitely will appeal to similar audiences.
Some parts are scarily believable whilst others (I hope) are drastically unbelievable but for the young adult readers this is a good read in which it isn't too gruesome and it certainly isn't too deep but is just thrilling enough to keep you reading to see whodunnit!

Despite their falling out years ago, Jessica is dragged to Tegan Sheffield’s end of summer party by her boyfriend Jake. But a viral video event at the party leaves Jessica in tears, Tegan missing and Jake in disgrace. Then a body is found at the beach and suddenly Jessica and Jake are at the centre of the story as the media and the police close in. What really happened that night? This was a truly pulse-racing thriller with suspicion and toxic friendships everywhere. I was thoroughly gripped and intrigued by the mystery because I really didn’t trust anyone involved. The stakes were very high and I think that’s what kept the pages turning because the characters were all thoroughly unlikeable. Covered in secrets and lies, it’s a pretty twisty ride!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

What I really liked about this book was that it explored date-rape from a very different angle - that of the male victim. Jake's experience, both of the assault and of coming to terms with it afterwards, is a really important issue that doesn't get discussed much, though of course the majority of sexual assault victims are female. The 'murder mystery' element was well done although I didn't really care that much about most of the characters. Not quite up to Karen McManus standards, but a solid attempt. 3.5*

This title is fun, flirty and definitely gives summer vibes.
The multiple points or view elevate this story filled with toxic friendships and childhood traumas.
Well written and easy to read.

A twisty YA thriller.
Read in one day while on my holidays! Engaging characters and a twisting storyline.

An enjoyable book that charts the strained relationships of a group of seniors embarking on their final year of school. Old rivalries bubble up, existing ties are tested and the odd murder is discovered. Alvarez is a clever writer whose split narrator style draws you in and keeps you turning the page to uncover the truth. As with all good books, no one is reliable, all have their own agendas and personal revelations have to occur before the denouement.

Perfect for fans of Karen McManus....but a better read!

Oooohhhh this was everything that I hoped it would be and more. The suspense set me off in a reading frenzy that wouldn't settle until the closing chapters. Jennifer certainly knows how to raise the dramatic stakes and I was here for every twist and turn that this book took me on......I mean talk about holding onto your hat.

The narrative was fast paced and thrilling with characters that completely pulled you into their plight. The tension was pitched to perfection to keep you on your toes throughout and I must admit that this time my "who done it" was way off the mark.....which is a testament to the writing.

Friends Like These will pull you into it's clutches and not let you go. So make sure you're holding on tight as the ride will get messy. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what this author brings to the table next.

If you are on the lookout for a YA mystery to keep you on the edge of your seat, consume you and leave you in shock, Friends Like These is the one for you! I read Lies Like Wildfire by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez last year and it blew my away. So, I was looking forward to see if this one would be the same. It was actually more hooking, intense and heart-breaking than the author’s previous novel.

Tegan Sheffield’s annual end-of-summer party is the only way to start their senior year. At least that’s what Jake tells his girlfriend Jessica. But, when a video prank from the party goes viral and a body is discovered at the beach, Jake and Jessica find themselves at the centre of a media storm and a police investigation.

Once I started reading Friends Like These I couldn’t tear myself away from the pages. Tension is created from the very first page and it has you in a tight grip throughout the entire book.

This book really shows how toxic some friendships can be. Every single one of the characters in this book is flawed and all for different reasons. The different perspectives throughout the book works excellently as we get to see all of the events from different angles and it is almost impossible to hate any of the main characters. Even if you are desperate for them to make better choices. All of the characters have made mistakes and I found it incredibly clever that the catalysts of some of the smaller events manage to work themselves up resulting in something horrific.

This book shows sexual assault in a way that isn’t shown often enough. The victim of the sexual assault in a teen boy. The way that this is discussed throughout the book is heart-breaking, thoughtfully written and really takes you on an emotional rollercoaster.

I found it so clever that the author manages to shift what we think about each of the main characters in the matter of a few words. Jake in particular switches between villain and victim a number of times throughout the book and the reader isn’t always sure as to where he will end up. The case is similar for both Jessica and Tegan. They all have their flaws but I found myself rooting for all of them throughout the book.

Jennifer Lynn Alvarez has written another amazing story with characters that are unique, fully-formed, flawed and interesting. I cannot wait for Jennifer Lynn Alvarez to release another book as I will be reading that one immediately too.

Overall, Friends Like These is a perfect small-town YA mystery full of toxic friendships. It is fast-paced and you won’t be able to put it down. I cannot recommend it enough!

(Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Children’s UK for an eARC in exchange for an honest review)

This was a really good book! The plot had lots of layers that wove well together to create a suspense-filled mystery that had lots of twists and turns. I think the pacing throughout the book was great except for the last couple of chapters where things started to feel a little rushed and the mystery ended up being wrapped up pretty quickly. This is something I find happens in a lot of mystery novels and while it doesn’t impact the book too much, it is slightly frustrating to have all the motives etc thrown at you right at the end.

I really liked the main characters, how they were written and the different POVs as they were really easy to distinguish between (sometimes when reading multiple POVs, everything can get super confusing). As the plot develops, the perception you have of the main characters constantly switches. One chapter you think they must be innocent then the next they seem guilty and I really like how the author did this as it kept me hooked the entire time and left me questioning everything.

Couldn't put this down! Very gripping almost from the start and lots of twists to keep me coming back every time I (reluctantly) put it down!

Great for fans of murder mystery and teen dramas (think Riverdale, Pretty Little Liars) - the multiple viewpoints definitely brought in a more cinematic aspect as I wasn't limited to understanding the events from one person's perspective as can be the case in these kind of books.

Would highly recommend!

A group of friends fall under suspicion when one of them goes missing after a prank at a party goes very wrong

The crux of the story is a sex tape filmed between two students - the boy is 17 and so the FBI come to investigate the girl involved (18) as a case of statutory rape, both participants were unwittingly spiked with drugs, this all feels a bit seedy rather than scandalous as those involved are so young but likely a YA audience will find this an enjoyable read. The plot does maintain suspense and tension really well but overall ithis more intriguing than the pretty one-note characters.

A great teen whodunnit!
i read this in one sitting. i really enjoyed the characters and the plot twists.
definitely one for the bookshelf!

Decent teen murder mystery, good twists and turns. Characterisation good. But -I felt like I’d read it before. The mean girls trope, the bullying. Even tho whodunnit twist. I’d definitely suggest it to a teen exploring the genre, but for me there are better and more innovative examples.

Rating 4.5/5

After reading Lies Like Wildfire by this author last year I was excited to pick up this book and see if it had that same all-consuming energy, I didn’t think it would be possible but this book was even more intense and maddening and heart-breaking than I imagined. Honestly once I got started reading I didn’t want to tear myself away, this author manages to get that captivating tension just right and then holds you with it for the entirety of the book.

I never thought this would be a sentence I would write but this book is toxic friendships at their finest. I think what works so brilliantly about them in this book is that all the characters are flawed and because we get to see events from multiple POVs it’s hard to hate any of the main characters even when you are desperate for them to make better choices. Each one of them makes a mistake in some way and I thought it was so clever how the catalyst of some seemingly small events could work themselves up into such a horrible result.

This author can certainly send me on an emotional rollercoaster, the main cause of it in this particular book was Jake. The perception of his character switches from villain to victim a few times and as a reader, you are never quite sure where he is going to land, I was angry at him and then heartbroken for him in what felt like a cycle. His storyline was handled so well and did a great job of encapsulating the torrent of emotions that that kind of situation could cause in any young person, but especially a young man.

Friends Like These really packs a punch from the beginning and has a lot of dark and difficult subjects but is written with care. There were a lot of unexpected surprises in this book and I enjoyed that even when one answer was revealed there were still so many to uncover, also that Jake, Jessica, and Tegan were narrators that you weren’t always 100% sure you could trust.

Another brilliant book from Jennifer Lynn Alvarez with a story and characters that will stay with me for a little while, and I am looking forward to what will come next already.

A fantastic follow up to Lies Like Wildfire, Alvarez has done it again, Friends Like These is wonderfully written.

Even as all was starting to be revealed, there were still snippets left unanswered (that were gradually revealed afterwards) which I thought was very clever. It's nice not to have it all wrapped up at once and still keep some mystery right until the end of the book.

It's nice to have the book mostly from Jake's perspective for the most part, a lot of YA stories are mostly told via female voice in my experience.

My only complaint (and one I've voiced a few times in recent years) is trigger warnings. By no means do I think we need to be mollycoddled or 'pander to the snowflake generation' as some would say, but I do think that some topics in particular need to be at least mentioned or addressed in blurb or inside cover pages.
Sexual assault (particularly where drugs are involved), domestic violence and alcohol abuse are huge triggers - however sensitively handled (and Alvarez did so expertly) it's not fair to have a reader confronted with such when they're not expecting it.

I don't think it's a plot give away to mention in a small warning at the start of the book or on the back cover.

Keep your friends far away and your enemies even further away or however the saying goes, in this complex multi-pov story of toxic friendships, overwhelming grief and abusive relationships.

This story has the unusual choice of showing the effects of drug induced sexual assault from the perspective of a teen boy. Jake Healey is such a complex, needy character and it was devastating to see him slowly come to terms with his assault, initially feeling that he had cheated on his girlfriend.

The story did fall of a bit at the end as it revealed the real culprit, becoming a bit more like the standard young adult crime novels. I still think it was a good reveal though, that a lot of readers wouldn't have guessed and the story was wrapped up really well.

For fans of Karen McManus and anyone who likes twists in their tales, Friends Like These is a story where you can never wholly trust the characters who are sharing their story.
Our main focus is rich girl Tegan, former friend of Jessica and ex of Jessica’s boyfriend, Jake. Her parties are synonymous with excess, but her end of summer party becomes known for all the wrong reasons.
It’s not giving anything away to say that this group of classmates have a long and complicated history. Things come to a head on the night of Tegan’s party when she kisses her ex and ends up having sex with him…but the whole thing is filmed and shared with their classmates downstairs (including Jake’s girlfriend). When Tegan goes missing the night after the party, people are quick to judge.
Before we know it, bodies are found in the sea. There’s a lot of background to this story, that seems a little distracting but is actually crucial to our understanding of what happened. We learn that a number of people are lying about their involvement in the evening’s events, and once things are wrapped up it made me very pleased to not be a teen today.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this before publication.

An excellent young adult psychological thriller from Jennifer Lynn Alvarez taking on some emotive themes whilst also presenting the reader with a twisty mystery that is very entertaining to read.

Some excellent love to hate to l9ve characters in the mix creating a group dynamic that is hugely compelling, the writing is terrific and overall this is a wonderfully addictive read that is very satisfying.

My first book from this author won't be my last.

Friends Like These knocked me off my feet with incredible and genuinely shocking twists and turns. This is a tornado, sweeping everyone in its path off course.

I really enjoyed Lies Like Wildfire when I read it last year. It was a tangled spider web of secrets, lies and complex relationships that slowly unspins, leading you on a journey of fire and blood. Its ending is stellar and will leave you with your jaw open. Similarly, Alvarez continues that pattern of stories that slowly descend into utter chaos and bloodshed. This is a book that constantly surprises and took the story into incredibly dark and somewhat unexpected territory. The topics covered are handled with sensitivity and nuance, highlighting the gritty truth of these issues that many readers will recognise.

Once again, Alvarez’s writing has that delectably bingeable quality. I spent an evening happily getting lost within this raging inferno of a story. The way Alvarez ultimately spins the story around toxic relationships and widens the scope to show the destructive impact of this on everyone around them. This is heightened by the claustrophobia of the setting and the suffocating intensity of the sharp focus on our central characters. They are both implicated and dragged into the central mystery from very different initial emotional entanglements, only for it to spiral so much further from there. I liked how developed they were, slowly opening up other aspects of themselves to the readers. At the same time, they are deeply untrustworthy narrators, hiding their own secrets. Personally, I think I connected more with Jake and his overarching storyline resonated with me a touch more.

Friends Like These is an intricately plotted and layered story, casting a shadow over everything and everyone around it.

Jennifer Lynn Alvarez's new novel 'Friends Like These' is an immediately gripping thriller, starting with the end of summer party and descending into a twisted web of sex, drugs and murder. Jess and Jake are two of our narrators, who are a blissfully in love couple about to start their senior year. At Jake's insistence, they attend a huge end of summer party at Tegan's house, your classic popular rich girl who also happens to be Jess' ex-friend and Jake's ex-girlfriend. What could go wrong? I do not want to give too much away about what happens as the party (the blurb describes it as a 'prank gone wrong') but Tegan is missing after the party and Jake is in the frame for it...

An enjoyable feature of the narrative is that, despite being missing, we get to read chapters from earlier in the summer from Tegan's viewpoint. It certainly makes us care slightly more about her fate, even if she is portrayed as a completely horrible person. The story as a whole kept me guessing and I was surprised by the overall 'culprit' at the end of the story (even if I am not convinced that conclusion made complete sense, but it was fun). Jess and Jake narrate the majority of the story and are an interesting pair who make some pretty ridiculous decisions, but again that is half then fun!

Overall, this is a twisty thriller with some surprises along the way. I wad gripped and read it super quickly so definitely plan to look out for more novels by this author in the future. 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.