They Wish They Were Us is a mystery novel that tells the story of Jill Newman during her senior year at Gold Coast Prep. During her freshman year, her best friend Shaila was killed by her boyfriend, Graham, and he was arrested with no trial because he admitted to it. She’s part of a not-so-secret secret society called the Players. They have extravagant parties and everyone else at school praises them. Jill’s really excited about being at the top of the school, but at the first party of the year, she gets a text, saying that Graham is innocent. The story follows Jill as she tries to get to the bottom of the murder. Though her fellow Player friends tell her to not worry about it, as it’s in the past, she has a gut feeling that the text she received was telling the truth.

I enjoyed reading this book, as the language was easy to read and follow. Some parts had some funny dialogue, which I thought brought light to the story, while other parts were serious and contained messages that I felt are necessary for people to understand. For example, the teenagers in the story spoke to each other very loosely and in a way that many teens today speak, but there were also earnest points made, like when Jill felt pressures in school and life about having to please others to feel accomplished. I typically like books that I can relate to, so these are some circumstances in the story that I resonated with.

I did like the mystery, although I think it was a little obvious who killed Shaila when I was halfway through the book. There are red herrings that Goodman incorporates, and I did feel like this did a good job in thickening the plot. However, I will add my opinion that there wasn’t really much mystery; I felt that the story was mostly about the Players and their parties, rituals, etc., and did not really focus much on the actual murder. It really only got into the murder towards the end of the book, and therefore I feel like the explanation of the mystery was fast paced. All in all, I liked the concept of the story, but I do feel like I would’ve been more engaged if there were truly more mystery aspects spread throughout.