The It Girl

Ruth Ware is an auto-buy author for me; I’ve loved her first six novels, and I’m always ready for whatever is next! Her latest release is The It Girl, a dual-timeline, dark academia thriller about uncovering who really murdered a best friend all those years ago. Because the guy who went to prison for it may have actually been innocent all along… meaning the killer is still out there.

Summary

A decade ago, Hannah Jones started university at Oxford and quickly became part of a tight-knit group of friends. She had Emily, Will, Ryan, and Hugh, but her best friend was the charming, popular, sometimes cruel April. By the end of the school year, April had been murdered, and a man was convicted and sent to prison. But now, years later, that man has died in prison, and there’s new evidence that he may have been innocent after all. If that’s true, who killed April? And is Hannah—pregnant with her and Will’s first child—in danger?

Review

The It Girl marks Ruth Ware’s second foray into dark academia, following her 2017 thriller, The Lying Game. This one, too, follows a group of friends and is presented in dual timelines: then and now.

In thrillers, I sometimes struggle with back-and-forth timelines; it can break up the momentum, and the past sections in particular can feel tedious as you work your way up to the big crime. Indeed, The It Girl is a bit slower paced than Ruth Ware’s other books. It’s not quite as heart-racing, at least not until the final third of it. Even so, it is still a page-turner, especially with its short and snappy chapters.

The “then” chapters unfold gradually, introducing us to the friends, the different dynamics among them, and the rifts that could potentially be enough motive for murder. Meanwhile, adult Hannah is combing through her memories and revisiting old friends, and trying to piece together what really happened that fateful night.

I admit, I didn’t want any of the friends to be guilty. I liked them enough to be rooting for their innocence. There are also enough red herrings to keep you guessing and revising your guesses up until the end. This is quite twisty! Could it be this friend or that friend? Could it have been Hannah’s husband, Will?? He and April had been dating during that first year of university… did a lover’s quarrel turn deadly?

Unlike many of Ruth Ware’s books, the main character here isn’t an unreliable narrator. She’s not an alcoholic and she’s not hiding secrets from us readers. Instead, she’s as in the dark as we are, and her fear is gradually ramping up as the days pass. I found Hannah to be more relatable, and her being pregnant only adds to the stakes in the present day chapters.

Despite the slower start, The It Girl ends with a shocking, heart-pounding final act. That final reveal!! The danger!! I can’t say more, but the ending makes up for the patience it took to get there.

Final Thoughts

Although The It Girl isn’t my favorite Ruth Ware book, it does still have her magic combination of page-turner and climatic ending. It takes more time to get into, but if you stick with it, the payoff at the end is worth it.

Get the Book

You can buy The It Girl here – it’s available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

The It Girl by Ruth Ware
Audience	Adult
Genre	Thriller
Setting	England; Scotland
Number of Pages	432
Format I Read	Hardcover
Original Publication Date	July 12, 2022

Official Summary

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the “claustrophobic spine-tingler” (People) One by One returns with an unputdownable mystery following a woman on the search for answers a decade after her friend’s murder.

April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.

Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the year, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder.

“The Agatha Christie of our generation” (David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author) proves once again that she is “as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime” (The Washington Post) with this propulsive murder mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat.