I know that this is one of those books that I am really going to struggle to put into words just how good it is.

Jess chooses her university on the basis of one its tutors Lorna Clay, author of a book that she was gifted at Christmas The Truants. Jess is not happy with her lot and she cannot wait to escape her mundane life in Milton View where she lives with her parents. When Jess reaches the university she finds out that she has not got a place on Lorna’s course ‘The Devil Has the Best Lines’, she is distressed beyond belief and she writes to Lorna and begs her to reconsider.

Her room mate Georgie is on Lorna’s second course ‘Murdered by the Campus’ about Agatha Christie and Lorna offers her a place on this course instead. As a huge fan of Agatha I really enjoyed the inclusion of this in the book and how the author weaves her into the story was really clever.

The story draws you in to the bubble that Jess finds herself in with Georgie and Alec who are in a relationship and Jess’s own relationship with Nick. I loved the way the book has a real darkness from the outset. You know that Jess’s obsession with Lorna is not healthy and she spends her life at university wanting what she can not have and in this case it is Alec and when she decides to act on this she puts everything at risk and things take a darker turn.

Jess’s actions tip her whole world and her friendships upside down.

I loved this book so much and I read it really slowly so that I could savour the writing. The characters and the story totally engrossed me and I found the love triangle element intriguing and knew that was never going to end well.

This is one of my favourite reads of the year and I was besotted by it and will be recommending this one far and wide. An amazing book!

This is a coming of age story of undergraduate, Jess. The story centres around infatuations with two great storytellers her tutor, and celebrated author, Lorna and journalist in exile, Alec. Told through the eyes of Jess, who often takes on a voyeuristic role to tell of the wilder behaviours and personalities within her social circle.
Jess's naivety and wide-eyed infatuation make her a deliciously unreliable narrator and you rather feel that you have fallen down the rabbit hole with her at times.

I found this SUCH a compelling read that I snuck off from family commitments for "just one more chapter" and stayed up far too late into the night to polish it off in a couple of days. I was second guessing the story line throughout, always sensing that something was afoot but unable to put my finger on what. The book references a lot of Agatha Christie - having never read any Christie, I wonder if I may have spotted references or enjoyed the book more with a little Christie knowledge. It turns out that pretty much all my guesses along the way were fantastically wrong (how wonderful!).

I felt the end part of the book took on a different pace and dragged a little as the reveals were made - almost as if there was too much information to stuff in to a limited number of pages.

All in all, a great character driven story - I would definitely read any future books by this authour.

Many thanks to #netgalley and #bloomsburybooks for my #arc. #thetruants

Loved it! Devoured it in only a few hours; all the great books I’m reading lately are doing nothing for my insomnia...once I start reading there’s no chance I am putting the book down to sleep!
It’s a great book, a real page turner with in-depth characters and a great story!

The Truants, a gripping tale of Love, Loss, Obsession and a healthy mix of Crime. It's an absolute page-turner. Kate Weinberg has a unique writing style, which helps to convey the story at just the right pace and keep the reader engrossed right till the end.

This book tells stories of love, loss betrayal, disappearance and ultimately death. You are lead through all this by Jess, slightly naive and easily led but ultimately likeable. We follow her as she observes, and finds herself in, triangles of love and friendship.

I thought this would be more of a thriller but the focus is actually more on storytelling with mystery intertwined. The Agatha Christie elements added another dimension to the novel and left me wanting to explore further.

A remarkable campus novel, which is also a crime thriller.
Jess, a middle class girl, hooks up with Georgie Nick and Alec, to form a rule breaking foursome, led by their teacher, Lorna Clay.
I will not do spoilers, but the reader is drawn into a deeply plotted outcome, in which things are not always what they seem to be.
In the process, Jess learns about herself, and what drives her.

The book The Truants is a Christmas gift to Jessica Walker from her uncle and this book changes her life irrevocably. Smitten with the authors work, Jess applies to the University of East Angelia so she can take the courses run by Professor Lorna Clay. These are based on the life and works of Agatha Christie which inspires Jessica and Lorna becomes her muse. Jessica makes friends with Georgie Duncan who is dating South African journalist in exile Alec Van Zanten. All these characters are misfit rule breakers and the unfolding story is of ever changing love triangles in this novel of infatuation and obsession.

The story is narrated by Jess which is an interesting choice as she initially observes life rather than partakes but through the other characters she learns to take risks which is almost her undoing. She is probably the most naive of the characters and is therefore more easily duped. At first Alec and Lorna seem likeable but as the truth becomes clear much less so, indeed Lorna seems golden but that gilding tarnishes. Alec’s journalistic stories of South Africa are shocking and demonstrate he can be very brave.

I love the Christie discussions and it makes me want to delve into her life more deeply but if you are looking for a Christie style mystery then this isn’t it. There is a mystery element for sure but this is more about the relationships between the protagonists and the intrigue therein. This is a very well written book, it’s very carefully observed and I enjoyed the journey. There are some vivid descriptions, there’s plenty of drama, a lot of heartbreak, some shame and humiliation for some characters and illusory scales that fall from eyes to see the truth beneath the lies. We learn that there are fantastical storytellers and masters of manipulation as the novel progresses. The finale is very clever and ‘Christie-esque’. My only negative is that it becomes a bit drawn out towards the end and hence four stars rather than five.

Overall, this is a book that demonstrates the dramatic consequences of recklessly crossing lines, of deceit and lies, of love and obsession and just how deadly that can be. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Press PLC for the ARC.

Definitely more on the character study/ examination of character interaction end of the psychological thriller spectrum. I can see why it's compared to The Secret History in terms of obsession and partial resolution, maybe even in terms of unreliable narrators, but it's definitely nothing like Tartt's work plot wise. A strange, compelling story that sets your brain whirring long after you've finished it.

I think this book was overhyped and therefore I was disappointed with it. As a thriller with an unusual setting, I would have found it ok but it doesn't live up to comparisons with The Secret History. I didn't find that the characters were real, they didn't ring true in any way and it was all rather unbelievable. I know, this is how all thriller work, but this one didn't engage me enough to take me with it on the journey.

This book didn't really offer what it said on the tin. There was no real mystery to solve, the involvement of the Agatha Christie element seemed shoehorned in, just because. It all seemed very slow, a rather dull introspective look at a young girl's life, where nothing much seemed to happen in any depth. All the startling events were somehow diluted down, I didn't really feel what Jess was feeling. The characters were rather one-dimensional, and I certainly didn't engage with any of them.

The final denouement was unbelievable. I just don't get how Lorna would have known. Maybe I just wasn't reading it carefully enough. It all seemed rather contrived.

Having said that, there were patches of writing in the middle section that were excellent, that really gripped the reader and swept us along, but sadly this was not sustained throughout the book.
Sorry not to be more positive for a first book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing PLC for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This coming of age story was a refreshing read. I loved the Agatha Christine references which were sprinkled through and the books whimsical and slow meander through the plot was something that I personally enjoyed.

I'd guessed the overall outcome to a certain extent but was pleasantly surprised at how well it was all revealed. Whilst Jess's near obsession with Lorna was at times strange to read, I found Lorna's obsession with Jess even stranger. The characters were well written, flaws and all, I especially liked Georgie; and I would definitely be recommending The Truants to others.

I wonder just how much of an unreliable narrator Jess herself is? Really got me thinking, that's for sure.

What an unusual book!

I really enjoyed this twisty memorable book.

The characters are solid and believable, the plot wooshes along, so much so I had to stop to draw breath sometimes!

I look forward to reading a lot more of Kate Weinberg's books.

Even if it's well written I found that the plot is a bit confusing and it doesn't deliver. I couldn't connect to the characters and the story fell flat.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

If I had seen the U.S. cover and read the comparisons to The Secret History, I would have better understood what this book was aiming for, and that it wasn't a book for me. Instead, I thought I was getting some Agatha Christie-inspired thriller and a bit of a first love story.

This is the kind of book that is trying very hard to elevate itself above the level of a standard fun thriller into the realm of literary fiction. By doing so, it is made dry and unengaging. Jess is such a forgettable protagonist and both the guy and professor she is obsessed with don't actually seem half as interesting as she constantly tells us they are.

Outside of my personal distaste for books like The Secret History, I can still see why Tartt is lauded as a writer. There is a density and complexity to her writing and plot that books like this one try and fail to emulate. I found this neither engaging enough to finish, nor smart or well-written enough to really push toward The Secret History fans.

It’s been some time since I read a book in just one sitting, but this is one such book. The characters are so vivid, with the plot twisting and turning around them, I felt almost as dazed as Jess would have been by the last page. Clever, without feeling like it was trying too hard to be so. I’m so looking forward to recommending this one!

University mystery with added Agatha Christie? This sounded like just the thing for a damp lockdown read. And things started well, but then ...

This is a book that follows some well- trodden literary tropes: main character with possible secret in her past, the attractive new best friend, the attractive boyfriend of best friend - with whom you have a crush - with his own secrets, and an obsession with lecturer who also – of course - clearly has secrets. Yes, The Secret History springs to mind. But, it leaves the mind not long after.

The first half of the book is promising enough and it rattles along setting things up quite nicely, but the second half of the book just doesn't deliver on this. It limps along and the various reveals are either blindingly obvious or just a little meh. It's still an ok read, but sadly not much more.

Fans of campus novels are sure to enjoy The Truants, a novel following a young woman finding her place among her new friends, contemporaries and esteemed lecturers at university in East Anglia, but unfortunately it wasn't my cup of tea. Reviewers have described this as a mystery combined with romance, but I unfortunately found it to be lacking on both fronts. The writing is what I'd label as literary-lite and I found the style to be readable; with many complicated relationships involving the main protagonist, Jess, including a love triangle. The story itself was what failed to grab me, and I didn't feel invested in the outcome of what was taking place.

If this seems from the blurb like it might be your kind of thing I'd suggest giving it a try, as I think this was a case of the reader not being right for the book.

I have mixed feelings on this one as overall I enjoyed reading it but I can’t say that I actually liked any of the characters. I know that indicates a certain skill of the writer that she created a group of folk that I just didn’t take to, but I prefer to have a character that I can root for. An interesting read and one that I think would be good for group discussions.

This was an interesting cross-genre read that had a bit of mystery, coming of age, fiction, etc. I loved that mix. It was a bit hard to get into the story and the characters weren't all that likable.

However, I found it an interesting book to read, so I enjoyed it in the end.
Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

Could not get on with this book. The characters just came across as obsessive (with no real explanation what was so amazing about their idols) towards their teachers and friends and there was no real plot twists that really engaged me.