I can't hold back my thoughts on the book The It Girl by Ruth Ware! I love it. Now you all get hear me gush about it. This blog is full of spoilers, so if you want a spoiler-free review go elsewhere.
 |
| Courtesy of phdiva.blog |
The It Girl by Ruth Ware is a mystery that I picked up on a whim in 2024. This review will come much later in scheduled blogs than my actual reading of it. In other words, I already read it weeks ago by the time you see this.
Let's get into the basic plot. Without getting knee deep in spoilers, here is the basic plotline. Hannah Jones, years after finding her college roommate dead, can't remember the whole encounter. The convicted culprit, who never stopped screaming his innocence year after year in the courts, died of a heart attack in prison. This starts a ball rolling mentally for Hannah. She's pregnant, fears the press swarming her like before, and was just trying to live a normal life - one not surrounded by the death of her best friend, April. You see her grief all book long. One reporter starts asking questions, leading Hannah to think that her evidence may have put the wrong man in prison. From there the snowball becomes a boulder, metaphorically, and she pursues more information despite her husband's frustrations.
Where Spoilers Begin
If you've read this much and never read the book, stop. Stop and go to the library. Pick it up off the bookstore shelves or the internet. I'm serious. Don't go further. The twists are part of the fun.
Again, spoilers abound after this sentence, and you have been warned.
Now that all the people who didn't read it left (cough, cough), we'll go on.
What I Liked
The culprit was genius. No joke, Hugh was the last person you'd expect to be the culprit, but there were clues present. Start watching Hugh from the point of the strip poker game and you'll see compressed anger and constant disrespect from April. It turns out that might have been her source of pills and he literally faked his test to get into medicine in Oxford. He's too dead to confirm the theory, but the theory fits into the facts neatly.
Hugh is like the bird watcher in the book Curtains, the last Poirot novel by Agatha Christie. Let me explain further and it will make more sense. The bird watcher not only convinces people of lies (like Hugh saying Will was at the college the night of the murder), but redirects the attention toward others (like when he mentions Emily getting pranked by a letter). The bird watcher remains invisible because he's redirecting and manipulating the people around him. Read this again and watch Hugh remain invisible. You know next to nothing about Hugh until the end. He kept contact with everyone to ensure he'd be a confidante and not a suspect. It was brilliant. He was not blindsided by Hannah's actions purely because he became her confidante.
I also loved the way the broken phone became a plot device to save Hannah in the car situation. Will was only able to come to her aid because she made a split-second decision, a decision to take advantage of the fact Hugh thought her phone was fully dead. Some writers would put in "convenience plot" to save our main character, but this was not a convenience plot. We knew she broke her phone earlier. It doesn't seem too convenient, and yet, the author clearly set up a scenario specifically for this scene. It's excellent writing.
The style of the book itself was paced perfectly. I loved seeing what happened back then paired with the present (or "after"). Hannah, our eyes and ears for the story itself, sees life in before and after because the murder shook her so hard. It works up to the revelation that Hannah saw April alive, pretending to be dead, but Hugh was the only one to see her dead. I liked that the memory gap thing wasn't a melodramatic reveal, but was revealed at just the right time. The pacing kept you reading, but fed you snippets of information as you read. The book didn't feel too long or too short.
What I Didn't Like
Only one thing didn't make sense. One thing was never explained. Who was shagging with April near her death if it wasn't Will or Ryan? The dialogue made it sound like an important detail. Personally, I theorized that it was Hugh and he was not offered a way to say no, but I think I'm wrong. He wasn't the type to even like April and she treated him horribly, not romantically. This is the only point I am confused on. If anyone can comment some explanation or theories, please do.
Aside from what I just explained, nothing else was disliked. I loved it, loved it, and loved it more. It was so worth reading I'd pick up anything by Ruth Ware now. I have another book of hers, already. I can't wait to read it.
Overall Thoughts
Keep in mind that grief and Hannah getting through her grief are a vital part of the book. At the end we see her finally get rid of the requests folder and build the crib for her incoming child. At the beginning she can't even touch the crib. It's a beautiful picture of dealing with issues head-on. The story shows a wrecked Hannah dealing with trauma and facing it, conquering it with strength she didn't know she had. If you don't want to hear about grief hallucinations (her seeing April everywhere, for example) and depression, you'll dislike this book. If you don't care about her pregnancy, you'll get bored.
I loved it. I give it five stars and then some. Go check it out for yourself. Oh, and if you hate the F bomb you came to the wrong book. It's university students talking roughly because they aren't at some private Christian college. They are at Oxford. They drink and they play strip poker. Don't think this is clean language. I'm telling you now.
For more on the concept of what an "it girl" is, see this link to my blog on the film that started the phrase.
***********************************************************
I wrote a book! I am delighted to say that I have 5 five-star reviews up on Amazon now, which is amazing. I hope you like it, too. If you're interested in buying a paperback, hardcover, or ebook version go to my website link in this blog or click here to go straight to my Amazon page.
Jack Thomas is running from a past case. He's hiding in Wrenville. Is his past case catching up with him?
Find out in my first book, Wrenville, a stand-alone suspense novel.
