Who We Were – B.M. Carroll
A KILLER TWENTY-YEAR REUNION.
AND YOU’RE INVITED…
Twenty years after they went their separate ways, friends and enemies are coming together for their school reunion. Katy, who is desperate to show that she’s no longer the shy wallflower. Annabel, who ruled the school until a spectacular fall from grace. Zach, popular and cruel, but who says he’s a changed man. And Robbie, always the victim, who never stood a chance.
As the reunion nears, a terrible event that binds the group together will resurface. Because someone is still holding a grudge, and will stop at nothing to reveal their darkest secrets…
My thanks to the publishers who kindly provided a review copy of Who We Were through Netgalley.
School days. Did you love them? Hate them? Would you want to go back to a 20 year reunion and meet the kids you chummed with now that they have grown up?
In Who We Were BM Carroll poses that very question and gived her readers an intense look into the lives of a core of classmates who are all being invited to attend their 20 year reunion. For most it brings back some unhappy memories from a time they were carefree and less aware of how their actions may be impacting on others. Facing up to those younger versions of themselves will cause unease and disruption to their lives.
The focus is mainly on one group of friends. The cooler kids, the pretty one, the sports star, the class clown but there are also some of the misfits in the mix too…the kid with epilepsy and mental health issues, the nerdy girl who seems too nice to be in the coolest set.
It is Katy, the carrot-haired nerd who is driving the reunion. She is now a popular teacher and still in regular contact with a few of her school friends. Katy links the different family groups and her enthusiasm to reunite them keeps events rocking along for the first half of the book.
Other characters feature frequently with new chapters looking in on different family dramas. The author has captured all of their secret problems and tribulations really cleverly, enough that we know there are issues but in the main not too dramatic to have those dramas visible for outside parties to see.
The secrecy is important as a mysterious entity is sending spiteful emails to the schoolmates mocking their high school persona and how their lives turned out. They are using these secrets to expose inner fears or past trauma and upset the recipient.
Soon friends are drawing closer together but with a wariness and insecurity which suggests they don’t really trust their old friends. Someone has a grudge and as events unfold it seems the risk of harm is increasing. Notes left on pillows, homes violated and family members threatened…as we get deeper into the lives of these people we become more invested in rooting for their safety and more worried about which of the group may be looking to harm others.
By the time we reached the endgame I had suspected all the characters and I would point the finger of blame at someone new every three or four pages.
Who We Were is an engaging drama which I could easily envisage as a tv adaptation. The characters are well depicted, given a depth and reality which made me want to read more about them. Good fun was had with this book.
Who We Were is published by Viper Books and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B081759L4M/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0