She Started It by Sian Gilbert
For fans of Lucy Foley and Liane Moriarty, She Started It is a hot, twisty summer debut thriller about a group of young women whose Caribbean bachelorette party takes a sinister turn. It’s Lord of the Flies meets And Then There Were None…but with Instagram and too much prosecco.
The party of a lifetime is nothing like what they expected…
Annabel, Esther, Tanya, and Chloe are best friends—or were, as children. Despite drifting apart in adulthood, shared secrets have kept them bonded for better or worse, even as their childhood dreams haven’t quite turned out as they’d hoped. Then one day they receive a wholly unexpected—but not entirely unwelcome—invitation from another old friend. Poppy Greer has invited them all to her extravagant bachelorette party: a first-class plane ticket to three days of white sand, cocktails, and relaxation on a luxe private island in the Bahamas.
None of them has spoken to Poppy in years. But Poppy’s Instagram pics shows that the girl they used to consider the weakest link in their group has definitely made good—and made money. Curiosity gets the better of them. Besides, who can turn down a posh all-expenses-paid vacation on a Caribbean island?
The first-class flight and the island’s accommodations are just as opulent as expected…even if the scenic island proves more remote than they’d anticipated. Quite remote, in fact, with no cell service, and no other guests. The women quickly discover they’ve underestimated Poppy, and each other. As their darkest secrets are revealed, the tropical adventure morphs into a terrifying nightmare.
Endlessly twisty, sharply observant, and deliciously catty, She Started It is sure to shock readers until the very end.
Review:
I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I love books with questionable characters, and this book is full of them, and while I’d figured out the twist very early in the book, it was still a fun ride – and I loved the ending.
The book is told from the first person points of view of Annabel, Esther, Tanya and Chloe – former BFFs and the high school mean girls – and then spattered amongst these points of view we get high school diary entries from Pappy – the poor soul these four bitches relentlessly bullied.
10-years after graduating from high school, Annabel, Esther, Tanya and Chloe are still friends. (There are very loose quotes around the word friends.) They care about one another about as much as any vapid, self-absorbed person cares about anyone other than themself. Much to their surprise, they each receive an invitation to be one of Poppy’s bridesmaids during her upcoming nuptials which means she wants to treat them to an all-expenses paid trip to the Bahamas for her “hen party” (the UK equivalent of a bachelorette party). They haven’t seen Poppy since high school, but for some reason agree to do this. After reading the book, I am certain that I would have tossed the invite and pretended that I didn’t get it simply because of the shame I would have felt over what I’d done to this poor girl. I realize, though, that I am thinking what *I* would do as me – not what I would do if I were an entitled white woman. While some of them see this as a chance to apologize to Poppy, others feel like Poppy has surely forgiven them for what they did to her, otherwise she wouldn’t have invited them on this trip, so they wipe away whatever smidge of guilt might be tickling their conscience and accept the invitation.
When they arrive at the secluded island and meet Poppy, they’re surprised at how good she looks – nothing like the nerdy Poppy they remember from high school. They’re also surprised to learn that she put aside her love of art and pursued a career in medicine. She looks great; she seems friendly – happy to see them even – and right after she takes their phones and locks them away because – as she tells them – she wants them to disconnect and enjoy the weekend (sure she does) the wine begins to flow.
But wouldn’t you know it, Poppy hasn’t forgotten so easily and it’s not long before old wounds are opened up and dirty secrets that all the women thought they’d hidden away surface, and eventually everyone is at each other’s throat. And then someone disappears, leaving nothing more than a pool of blood in their bungalow, and then another person ends up dead. Is one of them the killer, or did someone follow them to the island to pick them off one by one?
It’s probably no surprise that I figured this one out pretty early on – figuring out the twists in books is like my super power – so the big shocker at the end was nothing more than a confirmation that I had it right all along. So while there was really no big twist for me, this was still a really fun read! I absolutely hated everyone in the book except for Poppy, and the further along I went, the more I hated the “core four” and wanted to give Poppy a big hug and tell her she would be okay. I love a good book about revenge, and this one serves the revenge with a capital R. I really liked how it all played out, and the ending couldn’t have been more perfect.
