Five high schoolers walk into detention. Only four walk out. Each have their own secrets and lies they want to keep hidden from the world, but is murder amongst them? 

I did like the premise of this book, and I felt the set up was a very clever start to a murder mystery. The fact that the characters are 'teen-movie stereotypes' starts off as a great plot device as it makes each of the suspects so easy to conjure up in you mind, and of course you immediately make judgements about them. In a lot of ways, the plot reminded me of 'The Dead Queens Club' (see book #8 of 2023), with malicious internet postings playing a central role in the story and the predictable behaviour of a teenage student body to juicy gossip or rumour. 

However, as things went on I found myself frustrated by the use of so many standard tropes; even with the murder, it felt like I was reading something quite generic. And even the 'transformations' of each of the suspects are fairly predictable. 

I did find it difficult to follow, as we switch between four narrators. Although the changes are clearly marked, for the most part there are two or three POV changes per chapter, which does make it quite choppy to read. Each does add to the story, but for me Bronwyn took the 'main character' role and almost the whole book could have been written from her perspective only (perhaps saving a few key moments). 

I also didn't find it that engaging as a read. While I cannot claim to have fully worked out 'whodunnit', because of the set up you are only presented with a limited number of options, and there's just not enough intrigue within the comments of each suspect to create any deliberate red herrings, or to really make it feel like you're investigating alongside the police. It needs more depth to make it a properly enthralling mystery. I wouldn't even say there's a satisfying twist leading to the revelation - it's more that you're down to a couple of possibilities and it's just blind luck whether you guess right or wrong. It's not poorly written, but I had hoped for more. 

I will say I haven't seen the Netflix series yet, but I can imagine this would make a good film if done properly... I'm just not sure there's enough to stretch out into a full length TV series, unless they've added subplots etc.

I won't be rushing to read the sequels in this case, I'm afraid, but it was good to read this just so I know what people on Bookstagram etc are talking about when this pops up!