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plumpaperbacks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I’ve really been enjoying dark academia books these last few weeks, and definitely wanted to read this book after seeing so much hype surrounding its release.
Overall, I liked it. The characters were complex and well-written, and honestly, I felt bad for most of them. Sinclair Prep’s cutthroat nature kind of terrified me, as a white person that attended a public school and never truly tried to be top of my class. That and the anonymous person leaking secrets gave me Ace of Spades vibes, and it worked well.
Zhao did a decent job crafting the mystery, and an excellent job balancing the dual timelines. The main reason for my rating is that I found so much of this book’s plot predictable. Although I never imagined the culprit’s identity, didn’t even come close and was quite surprised by the reveal, I guessed almost everything else. I’m not sure if this is on the book for being predictable or on me because I’ve read a fair amount of thrillers, but nonetheless, I figured most things out early, and that took away from a lot of the story’s suspense and intrigue.
Despite that, I do still recommend the book, and I can see myself picking up more of Zhao’s YA in the future.
Representation
Overall, I liked it. The characters were complex and well-written, and honestly, I felt bad for most of them. Sinclair Prep’s cutthroat nature kind of terrified me, as a white person that attended a public school and never truly tried to be top of my class. That and the anonymous person leaking secrets gave me Ace of Spades vibes, and it worked well.
Zhao did a decent job crafting the mystery, and an excellent job balancing the dual timelines. The main reason for my rating is that I found so much of this book’s plot predictable. Although I never imagined the culprit’s identity, didn’t even come close and was quite surprised by the reveal, I guessed almost everything else. I’m not sure if this is on the book for being predictable or on me because I’ve read a fair amount of thrillers, but nonetheless, I figured most things out early, and that took away from a lot of the story’s suspense and intrigue.
Despite that, I do still recommend the book, and I can see myself picking up more of Zhao’s YA in the future.
Representation
- Chinese protagonist and side characters
- Chinese bisexual side character
- Korean sapphic side character
- Indian side character
- side characters of color
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Violence, Self harm, Racism, and Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Drug use
Minor: Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicidal thoughts
Adult/minor relationship: between a major character and a student teacher at the academy Mental illness: most major characters have depression and/or anxiety Drug use: one character uses Adderall to keep up with school and extracurricular performance, among other reasons Physical abuse: mentioned, but not actually on-page; refers to parents beating their children for not getting perfect gradesgardenroses23's review against another edition
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I LOVED IT!!! Read it as soon as I could, and as fast as I could. It was amazing!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Mental illness
booksthatburn's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
HOW WE FALL APART is a dark academia thriller where four Asian-American high school students have to find their former friend's true killer before their darkest secrets are dragged into the light.
I love Nancy as an unabashed morally grey character. She has things she wants and lines she won’t cross (at least so far), but those lines don’t seem to be dictated by other people’s expectations. It’s the difference between wanting to not be bad and not wanting to get caught. Jamie Ruan, only present in flashbacks, is a fascinating and complex character, shown in a way that makes it easy to understand why Nancy would both hate her so much and have been her friend for so long. I don't feel like I really got to know Krystal and Akil that well in the present, Alexander had much more of a presence, and Jamie's shadow loomed large over the whole thing.
I wish “The Incident” hadn’t spent so long being teased before finally being explained because I prefer feeling like I could guess what’s happening before it’s revealed and this style meant I couldn’t, but the payoff was worth it and I ended up liking the final revelation. Glancing back through the early parts of the book, it had some pretty consistent but subtle foreshadowing as to who was involved, even thought I'm pretty sure it would be tricky to guess why one a first read.
The ending begs for a sequel and it looks like one is planned. As it stands, there’s enough closure to be satisfying, but it teases potential future developments that I hope can play out in another volume.
I love Nancy as an unabashed morally grey character. She has things she wants and lines she won’t cross (at least so far), but those lines don’t seem to be dictated by other people’s expectations. It’s the difference between wanting to not be bad and not wanting to get caught. Jamie Ruan, only present in flashbacks, is a fascinating and complex character, shown in a way that makes it easy to understand why Nancy would both hate her so much and have been her friend for so long. I don't feel like I really got to know Krystal and Akil that well in the present, Alexander had much more of a presence, and Jamie's shadow loomed large over the whole thing.
I wish “The Incident” hadn’t spent so long being teased before finally being explained because I prefer feeling like I could guess what’s happening before it’s revealed and this style meant I couldn’t, but the payoff was worth it and I ended up liking the final revelation. Glancing back through the early parts of the book, it had some pretty consistent but subtle foreshadowing as to who was involved, even thought I'm pretty sure it would be tricky to guess why one a first read.
The ending begs for a sequel and it looks like one is planned. As it stands, there’s enough closure to be satisfying, but it teases potential future developments that I hope can play out in another volume.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
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