HOW WE FALL APART is a twisty academic thriller about the children of immigrants fighting to stay top of their classes as their former best friend dies - and they're accused of the murder by an anonymous social media poster. It's is a dark academia about the pressures on high-achieving children of immigrants, and the lengths they're go to meet the expectations.

It's a very addictive read, and short enough that you can just down it in one go without feeling too bad about how late it is. You are told there are secrets the lead and her 3 friends hold very early on (five of them) and you know they'll come out. It helps create a tension and pacing as it's clearly they're come out across the book, so they're are almost like little milestones to reach. And, by the laws of narrative tension, you know that each secret will get bigger (and affect the MC more) as you go through, which helps to keep the pacing up and you reading onwards.

I liked seeing both sides of these high-achieving kids, particularly the dead girl. She has this very polished mask that the MC can see behind, as well as hints of why she's like that (beyond the extreme pressure for all of them to "be the best.") It gave them all more depth, because at first they are pretty much perfect masks as we're only in the MC's heads.

I've seen a few people say "this sounds very similar to ONE OF US IS LYING" because of the "someone is dead and now there are secrets being revealed on social media." Which I feel is a pretty common set up for a modern mystery, so I'd take the comparison with a pinch of salt.

However, the thing that bugged me a bit in both books (because it seemed unbelievable enough to pull me out early on in the book) is that the authorities and teachers just accept whatever is mentioned on the SM as fact. There didn't seem to be any effort from these groups to find out who is posting because they clearly have a desire to see the characters humiliated and punished. If they really were just trying to help with the murder investigation, they'd do so plainly, as without releasing other unrelated to the case secrets that can ruin their lives.

Instead, the focus of the teachers (in this book, there isn't much of a police investigation into it) is on these four. They seem to entirely be ignoring the fact that there's a fifth person clearly involved and manipulating things. And no explanation was given for this fact (unlike, say, ACE OF SPADES, where the deliberate ignoring of the "Aces" was an important part of the story and the book's examination of institutional racism.)

The "whodunnit" personally wasn't all that satisfying, which made the ending fall a little flat. it seemed a little contrived that it could be that person - a lot of very extreme decisions had to be made back in the past (in an emotionally fraught time) and then none of those lies could be detected for a few years. I liked that it was about that secret, but I think someone else being the person behind it wouldn't have stretched my believability so much.

How We Fall Apart is a dark academia YA thriller which is perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying. Being a fan of both One of Us is Lying and dark academia thrillers, I had to give this one a read. I have seen many different reviews of this book and wanted to share my thoughts!

This book is a fast-paced, riveting and impactful story about Asian-American students making mistakes all whilst trying to survive the pressure they are facing in their hyper-competitive school environment.

The story takes place at Sinclair Prep, an elite high school that is ranked number one in every academic race possible. The story is told by Nancy Luo whose parents are immigrants who came to American to pursue their dreams and who was given a full scholarship to the Sinclair Prep. Nancy tries hard to defeat Jamie Ruan who is the top ranked junior. It is very obvious she would do terrible things to take that rank away from Jamie. So, when Jamie is found dead Nancy is one of the main suspects.

The other three suspects are Akil, Alexander and Krystal who used to be Jamie’s best friends along with Nancy. But, after the ‘incident’ they grew apart. They all have secrets and reasons to cause harm to Jamie and reasons they could be the killer.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how all the seccrets affected the character and how each character was written into the story. Each character is unique and we watch them grow throughout the book. I don’t want to say much else about them as I feel this is a book where you need to learn about the characters as you read.

How We Fall Apart brings to light a lot of important discussions. It has a lot of discussions about different family dynamics, friendships and expectations. Although this book does heavily focus on the mystery, there are real discussions and insight into the Asian-American culture and the hopes that immigrants have of wanting a better for their children. Please check the trigger warnings before going into this book as someone of the topics are in a lot of detail.

I thoroughly enjoy Katie Zhao’s writing style and I am looking forward to reading further books from her. How We Fall Apart is a thrilling, mysterious and fast-paced YA thriller that I enjoyed and I am looking forward to the possibility of a second book in this series!

Overall, I would highly recommend this dark academia YA thriller if you are looking for something fast-paced and mysterious. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m sure many others will too.

Interesting story full of twists
Liked the skipping timeline, revealing clues piece by piece and linking to the groups past
Sinclair prep sounds like an awful place to have been a student
Nancy and Alexander have such different attitudes despite both being scholarship students, which is great to see. Characters with their own personalities despite having similar backgrounds
The friendships feel real, school friendships come from all being put in the same position and finding others who react the same as you
Gave me 'one of us is lying' vibes
Loved this, apparently YA mysteries are now my thing

Inevitably my first thought when I saw the premise was to compare it to something like One of Us Is Lying. To be totally honest, there are other books that have done the same kind of concept better. This one has a little more to say around the pressures that come with different versions of the Asian American experience in an elite prep school so that's an interesting angle. Unfortunately I did find myself knowing where it was going and it set up all of these secrets that don't really go anywhere. I just wanted more from it, the thrill was missing.

The characters in the core group were relatively enjoyable to read about and it was very easy to fly through. As I say there are versions of this story that I'd recommend before this. But if you'll generally pick up books in the Pretty Little Liars / Gossip Girl kind of worlds of high school secrets around tragedy, then it's worth adding to your list.

How we fall apart is a fantastic and tense read!

I devoured this book within hours of starting, highly recommend

HOW WE FALL APART (ARC REVIEW)

⭐⭐⭐⭐/ 5 Stars

This has been on my wishlist since late 2020 when I saw that it was going to be coming out this year so as soon as I saw it pop up to read as an ARC of course I applied!

I love a good mystery. Espeically in a school. In this case its a private school where all the rich and smart teenagers go to. An incident has happened that took place a year ago before the book and someone knows what five of the characters did and wants revenge.
They have to figure out who is spilling their darkest secrets before the big one comes out and destroys them all.

I absolutely loved this book! I was suck in and I couldnt stop reading it! I was so invested in who was the mystery person (and I never guessed who it was!) I was completely shocked and never saw it coming. I love those that you least expect so I sure got the element of surprise.
I also loved how it went back in time to tell you events that had happened during previous school years to give you more of an idea of what was going on. If you haven't picked up this book yet, please do go and check it it as it is definitely worth the read!

I was approved via NetGalley to read this wonderful book prior to it’s release date and I’m so glad I requested it! Everything about it piqued my interest; cover, title, blurb… And I’m glad to say it did not disappoint!

I’ve recently discovered that I’m a sucker for a mystery YA book so I knew I’d like this one. Described as being ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ meets ‘One of Us is Lying’, it sounded like the perfect read as the weather is starting to get colder and I have an excuse to stay inside.

The plot was built really well, I didn’t feel at any point that I was being overloaded with information to set up anything but I felt like I knew enough to know why things were happening. I really enjoyed the flashback chapters, I think this provided extra information really well about the characters and their lives.

Then there’s the characters. I loved Nancy as the protagonist – you could really feel her emotions and how she was struggling to keep up the perfect image that everyone sees of her. And you could also tell that she was hiding some dark stuff which was also effecting her. Her relationship with Jamie was tense to say the least but it felt real, the competitiveness hidden in friendliness was done extremely well I felt.

I also really liked the group of friends – each had their own secret and that’s what drew them together after being separated for a while. Again, the back stories of each characters was done effectively and there wasn’t a single one of them that I didn’t like. My heart goes out to Alexander though, I couldn’t help but just want to give him a big hug.

Then there’s Peter – everything about him had me wanting to scream at Nancy WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GET AWAY FROM THIS BOY!! I think Nancy knew this as well but she was so caught in his trap it was hard for her.

I would never have guessed who The Proctor was – I think it was really well done and left me gasping at the book as it was revealed which only shows how good this book is.

Overall, if you want a mystery that’s going to leave you constantly turning the pages to find out what’s going to happen next, this book is definitely for you. I know I’ll definitely be reading it again!

[I got a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley]

YA mystery thrillers are definitely my kind of read.
This book caught my eye and when I read the synopsis, even more so because the protagonists are Asian-American. Different perspectives!

It centres around a group of friends attending a prestigious prep school in New York, but the book is from the pov of Nancy.
A student turns up dead and accusations are thrown around, pointing the fingersh at Nancy and her friends. The victim? Nancy’s ex-bestie!

I don’t want to go into too much detail because I don’t want to spoil it for those who have yet to read it, but I will say this... A semi-menacing note leads everyone to cast aside all previous knowledge of a person and suspect them capable of murder?! Its a good job that everyone in the book is so obsessed with scandal that they’ll kind of reject logic.

It was also hard to see the group as good friends, seemed more like they were sticking together whilst the accusations were flying. I guess I’d have liked to have seen more of them during their happy times, though there’s room for development in future books!
Nancy for me was a likeable character though, very real with real flaws *cough* Peter *cough*. And yet so oblivious *cough* Alexander *cough*.
I really think Katie did a great job expressing Nancy’s character: smart, down trodden, selfish, scared, but at the end of the day all she ever wanted was her parents love and approval.

The ending I didn’t see coming (bonus!) but I was a little disappointed. Not sure I’d go to all that effort for that outcome (so hard to talk about properly without spoilers!), so it was a little far-fetched and unbelievable but it did tie everything up with a nice bow.
The ending, ending? Girl, you can’t leave me hanging like that! Whatever it is, I hope it’s revealed in the next instalment!

For fans of ‘one of us is lying’ and ‘a good girls guide to murder’ you should give Katie Zhao a try!

Perfect for fans of dark academia, especially those who loved Pretty Little Liars!

I don't read much in the way of this genre, largely because it takes something special to hook me (I normally gravitate to fantasy) but this book had me immediately and the plot and pacing both kept me intrigued.

I didn't feel too strongly about any of the characters, but I felt like I didn't need to because the plot itself was so good. There was barely a moment in reading this to take a moment to breathe, because something was always happening! Even the flashbacks were intense.

The setting was brilliantly built. I love that it was such a high stress environment and that there was always so much going on in the background. It made the drama in the book so much more exciting and intense.

This was a really quick read for me and I really enjoyed it. But not sure I care enough about the characters to read a sequel if ever there is one. A really enjoyable read overall!

2.5/3 stars.

I really wanted to love this one, but ultimately too many things didn't work for me to rate it any higher. Without spoiling anything, I'll say that the main sticking points I had were:

1) the main character/book's narrator, who I found unlikable and difficult to root for. I would have preferred to see more from some of the side characters who had more layers to them. I would to read a version of this book with multiple perspectives, to get more development from them, and a break from the current main character...
2) the plot in the second half of the novel. It became very obvious to me where the story was going after a certain point--and some of the writing felt particularly unsubtle reminding the reader of information that would be important later--which made the experience of reading feel unsatisfying as I waited to be proven right.

On a positive note, things I did like were the little snippets of anonymous confessions at the start of each chapter, which made the story feel more rooted in reality. I did enjoy several of the characters, the main friendship group for example, and I especially would have loved more about Jamie, who was the most complex one.

Finally, what would push my review to three stars, and elevates the material, was the discussion of classism, racism and societal pressures which goes some way to explain motivations and tensions in the story, and went some way to explain why the protagonist is the way she is.

(Many thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.)

3.5 stars

I liked this book, but I really wanted to love it, but unfortunately I found parts were just a bit…flat. I think if I’d read this before One of us is Lying I’d have enjoyed it a lot more. As it was, I just kept thinking of that book. But with How We Fall Apart, I kept thinking it felt a little formulaic. One by one, the Proctor revealed the secrets of the main characters, but each time we knew a mew secret was coming as we’d been warned and the book gets into this repetitive pattern with the reveal of secrets, so none of them really felt like a big twist for me—until the ending. The ending is good and made me like the novel more.

But each time when one of the secrets was revealed, it didn’t really seem to have any lasting impact on the characters. The consequences shown seemed a bit flat, and then a couple chapters later, it felt like those had been forgotten completely.

What I did really like about this book though was that it has all Asian leads, and it looks at the impact of class divisions and the dark academia that appears married to wealth. Jamie was a complex character. She’s rich but unhappy. She’s entitled and expects to win everything and will do whatever it takes to get rid of her competition. Jamie is also sharp-tongued and mean, and I have to confess I was sad she was the one killed off because I found her more interesting than Nancy, the POV character.

While Nancy did a great job of looking at the social-economic relationships and classes and what it meant to be the only poor kid on a scholarship at a school full of dark, twisted, rich kids, I didn’t really connect to her in the way I’d hoped. Instead, I found myself connecting much more to Jamie and Krystal.

I even remember thinking at one point that I wished we got Krystal’s POV. Her secret when it was revealed was powerful and made me take note, and I wanted more on it. I wanted to see more the psychological impact this had on her.

Thinking about this book more, I think there’s a lot of places where we could’ve gone deeper, not just I’m showing subplots and impacts of reveals lasting longer, but even with the portrayal of grief. It almost feels like no one is genuinely grieving for Jamie, and I know Nancy and nearly every character fell out with her before she was murdered, but Nancy and Jamie were best friends for years beforehand. I felt there should’ve been some more genuine grief, perhaps ensnared under feelings of hatred, especially as we have alternate timelines showing they were friends—even if the relationship wasn’t equal due to wealth and class differences.

There is also a student/teacher relationship type thing in this book too. That was handled really well.

All in all, it’s a good read and it covers some important topics. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC copy

This book follows a Nancy Luo who's former best friend, Jamie goes missing suddenly. More shock ensues when Nancy and her friends are put under fire by a mysterious anonymous texter 'The Proctor'. The book follows the students as they uncover the lies surrounding Jamie's death and they attempt to clear their names.

I really liked this book, it was very engaging and fast to read. I liked Nancy as a character but I was a little disappointed in the ending as I felt she needed that little bit of happiness. Hopefully this book has a follow up as I would like to see what happens next for Nancy and her friends.

My only downfall with this book is that it was too short. It got to a point where it felt very rushed and everything was happening quickly to make up for it. Overall, I gave this book 3 stars.

Actually 3.5
A great new addition to the bookshelf of any fan of One of Us is Lying. Not quite what I’d expect from a book labelled as Dark Academia but hoping that will become more accurate in book 2.
All in all this is a fast paced, easy read and a welcome story but not one that will set the genre ablaze.
I really enjoyed reading about the Asian American experience of the so called American Dream-Here’s to more own voices stories in the future.
You can kind of tell that Katie previously wrote middle grade and I think this story would have benefitted from being skewed a little older in the YA bracket.
Overall though plus points:
Own Voices
Secrets
Twisty
Cliffhanger
Easy to read
Fast paced

Absolutely amazing. Katie Zhao has a wonder with words and she really embedded an #OwnVoices experience throughout. The perfect dark academia read!

I was expecting to like this book more than I did. Don't get me wrong, I loved the characters, the plot and everything but the execution of the story just lacked a little. I wasn't very hooked and found myself predicting a lot of it. I was immediately intrigued when I found out this book was dark academia but it just didn't feel that way to me.

This book had the typical set up of a YA school drama novel; friends with secrets, missing student, someone using technology to blast targets, and friends that all have different personal struggles (mental health disorders, family secrets, money issues, ethnicity, etc). I didn’t really get much more out of this one than any other books that are like there in the market at the moment.

The overall plot was engaging and the main group of characters were relatable, but this just came across as a very run of the mill type novel and that unfortunately is why it’s probably a 3 star read for me. I liked it, however I’ve read better books in this specific genre that I found to be a bit more involved. I needed a bit more character development in this novel in order for me to really get stuck into it, but as this novel was left on a cliff hanger I’m assuming there will be a second book to finish it up.

Thank you to Bloomsbury for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

how we fall apart was described as an asian dark academia ya thriller when i first found out about the book and also blurbed as crazy rich asians meets one of us is lying (aka two of my favorite series) and though i don’t quite agree this is dark academia, it is definitely the latter. so if you’re going to read this book in hopes of getting dark academia… honestly throw that expectation away before you get disappointed. the only reason i’m saying that is because i feel people would enjoy this book more if they weren’t expecting dark academia.

hwfa is about our mc nancy who is a scholarship student at ny’s exclusive sinclair prep. she’s a successful student with a hidden secret, and when her friend and academic rival, jamie, dies, anonymous messages point towards her and her friends who also have hidden secrets within themselves as the murderers.

i loved this book! it was definitely one of us is lying-esque and it was just a fun little mystery thriller to read. as a highly stressed out student with a lot of pressure from peers and family, this was kind of relatable in terms of their academic problems. also i like the commentary about peer pressure, class, and the academic pressure that school/family unnecessary gives us and the impact of it in ourselves.

one thing i would like to talk about is the friendship between these 5. although i agree w reviews saying it was poorly explained abt how they managed to be friends, i think it was pretty realistic on why they became friends, especially in such a highly pressured school environment where in my experience, the smart ones would usually become closer albeit having that toxic rivalry between each other. also the friendship between jamie and nancy was toxic, that one was obvious from the start, but i liked how katie writes the internal dilemma nancy has about being friends with jamie, hating her but also wanting to please her and love her at the same time because it was extremely realistic to a past friendship i had gone through before. also i’m glad that even though jamie’s past was written such way to give us a reason behind her actions, the author didn’t come off as making us want to sympathize with her.

the one thing that made me remove points off this book was the unnecessary age gap romance. ugh. although i understand that it was made clearly to tell us that it is wrong and shouldn’t have happened, i feel like it could’ve been avoidable from the start imo. also i wished we could’ve gotten more depth from the story but alas it was still a really great read and i enjoyed bingeing this immensely.

thank you to bloomsbury and netgalley for the e-arc!

How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao is a YA Thriller that explores issues of mental health, the impact of wealth on social status, and the impact of academic pressure in Asian American communities. One student is found dead, and someone is trying to frame four other students - her ex-friends - for her murder by exposing their secrets. It falls to that group of teenagers to prove their innocence to the school, whilst also dealing with the usual relationship drama and studying that plagues teen life. It's fast-paced and high drama, with interesting use of imagined social media throughout.

How We Fall Apart is unquestionably a page turner. I read most of it in one sitting, wanting to know the answer to the mysteries that the book set out.

This book is full of different threads that really leave themselves open to being explored in the sequel. I would love to see more of Nancy's friends in particular, find out more about them and how they work as people. Nancy also was reaching some realisations at the end of the book about her own character that would be interesting to see further reflected on by her.

The book is overall an interesting read, and although there were a few things that I still had questions about at the end of the novel, I would hope they have been left for room to delve into in future installments of this series.

The premise of How We Fall Apart isn't anything incredibly new. The concept of one student going missing, leaving behind a group of teenagers harbouring reputation-destroying secrets is a tried and tested formula for YA mysteries.

Because this is such a popular trend in YA literature, it's hard to separate the truly good from the average. How We Fall Apart fell into the former category. The main cast being mostly Asian Americans trying their best to make their immigrant parents proud adds a new dimension to the narrative, piling on the pressure and showing us the realities of their lives.

Overall: 4/5
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I think the levels of suspense were just right, and I thought Zhao did an amazing job of portraying the flaws within the education systems around the world. The emotional and real world struggles of the characters were relatable and well-written.

Plot: 3/5
I did enjoy the plot, but I must admit I was disappointed by the ending. The reveal came out of nowhere, and although sometimes that's a good thing, it seemed too random to have a true impact. Some elements of the plot were built up a bit too much in my opinion, and weren't fully delivered on.
That being said, I was on the edge of my seat for the majority of the novel. The flashbacks were well spaced and only added to the story - a tricky balance that a lot of writers get wrong.

Characters: 4/5
I really liked several of the characters in this book, but I would have loved to see more development for some. As this is the first instalment and the ending seemed to be setting up for at least one more book, I would be hopeful that we get to see this development at a later stage. Within a relatively short book, Zhao manages to bring many characters to life in a realistic way and it's understandable that not all of them have time to be fully explored in depth.

Writing: 4/5
The writing of this novel was engaging and clear. The repetition of the school motto throughout was a smart move and really added to the tone of the story. The small details really tied this book together for me, and Zhao's ability to give insight into both the school and home lives of these characters was meaningful and impressive.

Enjoyed this! A welcome commentary on the pressures we place on teens to achieve and the competition that results. This was a mystery about a mysterious figure called The Proctor who held secrets about a group of teens who were hiding a terrible secret. Set in an ultra prestigious private school competition between pupils is high and the extent some of them will go to is extremer. Whilst I enjoyed the story line and the characters I wondered if the ending was a bit too contrived and unbelievable. On the plus side it was great to have a diverse cast of characters.