I am a fan of Ruth Ware. Her suspense thrillers always impress and usually have a beyond-unexpected twist. The It Girl is no exception.
Told in a nebulous time frame, the plot unfolds in alternating “Before” and “After” chapters. You can read the overall plot in the blurbs, but this is a nutshell re-telling:
popular girl meets tragic end and best friend/roommate still has to deal with the emotional fallout a decade later.
Except the story is so much more than these basics.
It’s about how we must live with our conscience, even as we are positive about our actions, and how easy it is for someone to manipulate us into questioning those actions.
Trust is also a big issue in this book. Can the characters trust their individual versions of the events that occurred or are there extenuating circumstances that keep their versions just shy of the truth?
Fortunately, the author takes the entire book – literally until the very last pages – to fully answer those questions.
Hannah is a thoroughly sympathetic character. The author wisely establishes her as someone who never quite feels like she belongs, like she is fortunate to be in the presence of her classmates at Oxford.
That self-doubt, and utter lack of self-confidence compared to others, is the perfect fodder for her character arcs in both the past and the present.
As much as Hannah has doubts about her actions and who to trust, the reader is right there with her. Why did the close friends fall out of contact? Were there other issues that Hannah was oblivious to? Did her personal experiences cloud her judgment?
And is there more than one victim in all of this?
Obviously, you need to read the book to find out. But it is a mystery as much as it is a thriller. Hannah starts to doubt her own memory and is determined to uncover the truth so she can put the past to bed.
The facts she reveals allow her to put the pieces together, but in a painstaking and very un-obvious manner. Seriously, pay attention when you read because there are several easily missed clues along the way.
The only thing that I didn’t think was completely fleshed out was the focus on Instagram and of April as an “It Girl.” I know that seems like a big thing because it’s the title, but she came across more like the popular girl than the one who everybody wanted to be.
A little bit more of that would have helped the reveal along as well, although the climax is exactly what one would expect in a thriller.
But that’s minor. The It Girl is still an excellent, well-paced, thriller. Ruth Ware has done it again.
