literaryhaunt's Reviews (647)

The Things We Do to Our Friends is a dark suspense novel following Clare, a student who has just reinvented herself after an "incident" caused her family and former friends to cut ties with her. Soon after Clare moves to Edinburgh for her fall semester, she meets an enthralling group of friends, led by the bubbly and magnetic Tabitha. As Clare becomes more entangled in her new friend group, she learns that you can't always escape your past.

I enjoyed the dark academia this book offered, but I think otherwise it fell flat. As I read, I anticipated a climax or a big event of some sort, and it was very anticlimactic in the end. I think the writing was great, however the plot wasn't quite there to me, it felt incredibly vague. I would have loved more details and to feel less like the plot was being kept a secret from the reader. Some mystery is appropriate, but I never got the sense that the veil was lifted here, so to speak.

Thanks so much to Random House Ballantine as well as Netgalley for an eGalley in exchange for my honest thoughts.

"Ghosts are born from trauma and violence."

Three enter the house, only two leave. The house is waiting for their reunion.

Tell Me I'm Worthless is a haunted house tale told in excess. My heart was racing as I read, it was so violent and so visceral. Rumfitt has done something remarkable and woven themes such as transphobia still going unchecked in society, antisemitism, and extreme shared trauma (to name a few) into a book about a possessed old house, and the result was one hell of a horror novel.

To give more details than I have would be to ruin the book, but I can say I was so knocked back by this one. Absolutely horrifying, completely captivating. I hope it gets all the recognition it deserves.

Thanks so much to NetGalley as well as Tor Nightfire for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book ahead of its US release in exchange for my honest thoughts.