The Ivies by Alexa Donne

Genre: YA, murder mystery

The synopsis

Everyone knows the Ivies: the most coveted universities in the United States. Far more important are the Ivies. The Ivies at Claflin Academy, that is. Five girls with the same mission: to get into the Ivy League by any means necessary. I would know. I’m one of them. We disrupt class ranks, club leaderships, and academic competitions…among other things. We improve our own odds by decreasing the fortunes of others. Because hyper-elite competitive college admissions is serious business. And in some cases, it’s deadly.

A thriller about teens who will stop at nothing to get into the college of their dreams. Too bad no one told them murder isn’t an extracurricular.

The review

The first thing coming to my mind when I think about this book is despicable. The characters were despicable, the school and the system too. Beginning with the characters, it was awful to see young people made this selfish by money and power and all ready to betray the others to have a spot in their university. The only character that earned a bit of sympathy was Avery, who is also the most developed one. The others are a bit too stereotypical or are really just paper beings, with just enough info to explain their role in the mystery. I enjoyed the criticism behind the behaviour endorsed by the school which cares more about its reputation than its students and ethics. When schools begin to encourage these kinds of behaviours and actions rather than correcting them, no wonder you end up with such corrupted and unhealthy systems. I also find the treatment of death and grief refreshing since Olivia wasn’t able to cry but instead went into philosophical thoughts about when a person ceases to be one for the livings…

Otherwise, I think I’m reading too many mysteries because I found this one very easy to solve. I guessed the first twist in the first chapters and the second one around the middle of the book. Even if I thought at a moment that the end would surprise me no, everything was quite obvious.

In brief: a nice page-turner with a good atmosphere even if a bit too predictable.

My rating: 3.5/5