Review: People Like Us by Dana Mele

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People Like Us is a young adult book that centers around Kay Donovan. A Bates Academy student who unfortunately has a few skeletons in her closet.  After her and a groups friends, find a dead body near the school, Kay receives an email that leads her on a scavenger hunt. In the progress of making sure that her secrets stay buried, Kay gets involved in a murder investigation, love triangle, and a race to find the truth.

If I had to describe People Like Us to a random individual, I would say that it is Mean Girls with murder twist and private school twist. Sort of like Pretty Little Liars, but less complicated.

It’s a quick read, nothing overly complicated. It straddles the line of thrilling, without every crossing it. It is interesting; I especially liked how the revenge blog was incorporated in the plot.

But the book was not so interesting that I was on the edge of my seat and desperate to find out all the answers. Had this been an exciting thriller, I think I would have enjoyed it more.

I felt that the first half of the book was the strongest part. Everything flowed well and the pacing felt right. However, towards the middle, it stated to drag on and somethings started to feel unnecessary. Eventually, the book did pick back up, however, in hyper-speed especially when the mystery was solved.

Characters

I struggled with the main character, Kay Donovan. I found her unfortunately uninteresting and she made very questionable decisions. She wasn’t a good person at times, and normally I can be forgiving with morally gray characters, but there was not much to her. So it was hard to even connect with her. Who exactly is Kay Donovan, because I wasn’t sure. I also was not sure why everyone was so obsessed with her. I didn’t see the charm.

Final Analysis

Instead of being a thrilling mystery novel, People Like Us feels rushed and lacking. The supporting characters felt more exciting than the main character and it ends on a forgettable note.