The Things We Do to Our Friends by Heather Darwent – Book review by Kimberly Foreman

Genre: Dark academia / psychological thriller

In today’s edition book blogger Kimberly Foreman reviews a psychological thriller called The Things We Do to Our Friends.

Winter is well and truly here now! We’ve had some chilly nights and a whole lot of rain in recent weeks—the perfect weather for getting cosy and reading a good book. Therefore, this week I’m reviewing a wintery tale for you—a dark and sinister novel about a cult-like group of friends. The atmospheric Scottish setting is the ideal backdrop for this unsettling tale.

The book is about a twisted group of friends—Clare, Ava, Tabitha, Imogen and Samuel. Each of them is bad in their own way, each just as toxic as the mould that Clare imagines creeping up the walls of her mind. But what price does Clare have to pay to truly fit in with this new circle of friends? And has she learnt from her past mistakes? Or will she become entangled in their game of lies? I really had no idea how this story would end and I just couldn’t put it down.

I’ve read so many thrillers in recent years that it’s hard sometimes to pick up one which surprises me, but this one was so unique, and the plot was so different to anything I’ve ever read before that I was totally gripped. There were other things I loved about this novel, like the settings—Edinburgh and the French town of Périgueux. I also loved how descriptive the author was when describing both of these places and how she portrayed the characters and their interactions with each other.

“It made me want to reach out and touch her and often I did because all of us felt our way around each other with touch. Where one of us ended and the other began—the boundaries were barely there anymore.”

“The sudden sense of the maze of vaults below where screams echo. The dead are near in the city when night falls. They press against you, but I think it’s the living who come for you.”

Give this one a go if you enjoyed The It Girl by Ruth Ware!

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