Book Review: The Ivies by Alexa Donne

The Ivies are the most prestigious, highly-wanted Unis in the USA. Even me, being British to my core, knows that they exist, and are some of the most talked-about, made-movies-about schools out there. But this book isn’t just about the Ivies as academic places. No, this story quite immediately revolves around the Ivies: five girls with a common mission in life. They want to get into the Ivy League, and would quite literally do anything to get into them, no matter who stood in the way. But what they anticipate as their golden plans of ruining other people’s chances at getting in to make their applications look better, doing all the low-cost dirty work that it entails, will end in a way none of them could have planned.

Every mean girls group needs a leader, and of the five girls, Avery seems to take that position very seriously. And as the girls individually are supposed to apply to different Ivy Leagues – never the same as each other, to maximise their chances of getting in to those schools – it all goes wrong when clique-leader Avery doesn’t get into Harvard, her chosen school. But when she realises that Emma, one of the other girls, applied – and got in – she blames her for the failure. Our main character, Olivia – one of the other girls – tells the story through her eyes. She watches the whole thing unfold, secretly holding her own cards to her chest – she also applied to Harvard and got accepted, but she makes it apparent to herself that telling Avery is a big no. Only, when Emma turns up dead, Olivia’s life is thrown into chaos. She no longer trusts Avery, and after finding out the other girls have been doing a lot behind each other’s backs, doesn’t know if she can trust them, either. And when it’s obvious the police aren’t going to look into it as much as she could, she decides to dig into the truth herself with the help of the very-cute Ethan to get to the bottom of it.

Overall, The Ivies promised elite scandal, murder and edgy vibes and it absolutely delivered. Whilst it did have a slow start, as soon as the plot kicks into overdrive with the death of Emma, it picks up majorly and gets juicy. I could literally not put this down the last week of August, even though I was definitely meant to be doing other things. If you’re looking for something darker, cut-throat, and addictive to read, The Ivies will be right up your street. Huge four star read!