Nancy Luo is shocked when her former best friend, Jamie Ruan, top ranked junior at Sinclair Prep, goes missing, and then is found dead. Nancy is even more shocked when word starts to spread that she and her friends–Krystal, Akil, and Alexander–are the prime suspects, thanks to “The Proctor,” someone anonymously incriminating them via the school’s social media app.
They all used to be Jamie’s closest friends, and she knew each of their deepest, darkest secrets. Now, somehow The Proctor knows them, too. The four must uncover the true killer before The Proctor exposes more than they can bear and costs them more than they can afford, like Nancy’s full scholarship. Soon, Nancy suspects that her friends may be keeping secrets from her, too.
Students at an elite prep school are forced to confront their secrets when their ex-best friend turns up dead.
How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao
Pages: 352
Publishing Date: August 17th, 2021
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
MY THOUGHTS
Dark Academia Mystery Thriller with the majority of Asian Characters. Sinclair Prep, an elite school in the upper west side. It is famous for its high university acceptance rate. Its former students went to become President. All the rich kids study there except a few scholarship kids.
Nancy, Alexander, Akil, Krystal and Jamie are a group of friends. Nancy comes from a poor background, her father and mother are immigrants from China and worked their asses off so Nancy will have everything. They want Nancy to be the Best. So Nancy promised them to be BEST. Nancy doesn’t care what price she has to pay, she just wants to fulfil her promise in one way or another. Nancy’s mother is a part-time housekeeper of Jamie’s family.
Nancy and Jamie practically grew together. But where Nancy doesn’t have everything, Jamie has everything. She gets whatever she wants. If she can’t get something she can always steal it. Jamie’s life is just Perfect. Until her father got arrested and slowly all four of her friends estranged her. On Honor’s night, Jamie is murdered, and a hacker named The Proctor hint that her former friends are the murderer. Hacker also knows the dark secrets of all the four and threaten to leak them.
I love the whole dark academia atmosphere. I also loved the fact that no one was goody two-shoes. Everyone had a dark side and motive to do anything bad. The pace of the book was also good enough to keep me hooked. The story cleverly tackles the mental health issue and how Asian parents always want more and more from their children. Although I didn’t like the part where Proctor was revealed and the background story. It felt a bit overdramatic. The ending was a cliffhanger so I am definitely looking forward to the second book.
