This murder mystery novel takes place at an exclusive prep school in Gold Coast, Long Island. Jill and Shaila are best friends and inseparable, until Shaila is killed by her boyfriend during a Player's initiation ritual their freshman year. After a dark night on the beach, Graham confessed to the murder and the case was closed. Jill spent the rest of her high school career trying to move on.
Now it's senior year, and she's determined to make it her best one yet. She's a member of Gold Coast Prep's exclusive, not-so-secret secret society called the Players. It's sort of a secret society. Everyone knows it exists, but no one really knows what goes on except those who are part of it. Everyone wants to be a Player, to be admired by everyone else, and to be the best at everything. Acceptance is based on rigorous criteria and after completing a great number of daunting and, frankly, terrible tasks called pops. Once a student is accepted, he or she will be the coolest, most envied person in the entire school. As Sheila put it best, "'Look around. Look at everyone else,' Shaila whispered into the huddle. 'They wish they were us.'"
Soon, however, Jill starts receiving texts proclaiming Graham's innocence and all of her hopes of having a great senior year start to come crashing down. If Graham didn't kill Shaila, who did? Jill is angry, passionate, and determined to find out the truth, even if it means putting her friendships and future at risk.
Members of the discussion group liked the novel but were a little disappointed in the characters, who were rude and arrogant. They felt the relationships between the siblings were strong and protective over each other but the friendships were toxic, filled with lies and secrets. The plot was a tad predictable and easy to devour. There were a lot of topics and situations that seemed to be thrown in more as representations than for plot furthering. The ending though, tied everything together nicely and the reader saw a different side of the characters. Just because things are a certain way, doesn't mean they can't or shouldn't be changed.
Overall, it was a great concept and well-played story, averaging a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
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