On the Reading List: A Thoughtful Review "They Wish They Were Us" with Aneesha Aryan
“Sometimes it's hard to know which qualities really define you, and which ones have been affixed to you by others so many times that you actually begin to believe them and claim them as your own.”” Happy Friday! We are excited to share the next installment of our mother daughter book review series, a series written by Gayatri Aryan and her daughter Aneesha Aryan. For today’s installment, Aneesha thoughtfully reviews “They Wish They Were Us”, a a young adult novel by Jessica Goodman. A must read, this is a murder mystery as well as a story of social status and modern gender roles.
Title: They Wish They Were Us
Author: Jessica Goodman
Genre: YA Fiction > Mystery
Publication Date: August, 2020
They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman is a murder mystery as well as a story of social status and modern gender roles. This story includes the clues of a mystery that you solve alongside the protagonist, Jill Newman. Jill and her friends all seem perfect and like they are living the life but as she learned her freshman year, looks are deceiving. During freshman year, Jill’s best friend, the ravishing Shaila Arnold, was murdered by her boyfriend, Graham. But Jill’s not a freshman anymore — now it’s her senior year and she wants to enjoy it. After all, she’s a senior and a Player — a part of Gold Coast Prep’s glamorous and exclusive “secret” society. Senior Players have extra privileges, have the most fun, have the highest grades, and adoration of the whole school. Jill is certain this year will be amazing. Soon Jill starts to get texts that Graham was innocent and he didn’t kill Shaila and her image of the perfect year starts to distort. Jill starts questioning if Graham really did kill Shaila and if he didn’t, who did? Are they still out there? Jill commits to finding out, but the deeper she digs, the more she puts her friendships, status, and self in danger. Her rosy image of events, her friends, and herself starts to fade and she learns things that she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
Aside from the murder of Shaila, Jill starts to question many other things. Where does she really belong in her school, with her friends — have all the decisions she made wrong? Does she take advantage of people?
The novel tackles other issues as well as self discovery and development such as the difficulty of opposition to the norm in social situations. Sometimes it’s hard to go against what everyone thinks — and what you once used to think. Jill faces this when she starts to question if Graham really killed Shaila within her school, her friends, and even strangers.
The novel is captivating and fulfilling all at once. The mystery is carefully designed so we can never put the book down. Jill is perfectly reasonable in her thinking and has great insights which make her a greatly relatable character. We learn that even when everyone else believes something that does not make it true. Jill has a strong personality that helps her, and the readers along with her, realize this. It is important to not go along with the norm and keep our individualization.
We have to pay attention to those around us because, for Jill at least, nothing is as it seems.