How We Fall Apart

"Fascinating book. It leads you down so many paths. At the end I was wrong in all my theories. The ending was awesome. I think there will be a sequel. I hope so. I will be looking forward to it."

"I wish this had been a contemporary instead. I really liked the parts about the main character's pressures as a child of immigrants but I thought the mystery was kind of goofy."

"This is more of a fanfic than a novel. I love the topic of high school pressure, the importance of mental illness, and first generation American Asian families. But the whole storyline of who “killed Jamie?” Was really….meh and lost me in a lot of ways. The ending was just horrid and didn’t really make sense either. It’s an easy ready but not a good one."

"Overall, a good book. The characters were complex and well-written, the themes relevant and equally well-written, the dual timeline excellently handled. My biggest issue was how predictable I thought the book was. With the exception of the final reveal, I was able to guess everything. I’m not sure if this is because of the book itself or how many thrillers I’ve read. 🤷🏼 That aside, I truly would recommend this book, and I can see myself picking up Zhao’s future YA novels. :)"

"Dark academia has always been my cup of tea, and this read had some really great elements which gave me high hopes. Unfortunately, I was left disappointed and underwhelmed."

"lowkey sucked. i hate books where they don’t reveal the secrets even in the end. There was no alluding to what it could be too. The main character was also infuriating and acted innocent and better than everyone else even though she was just as terrible as Jamie. I was also disappointed in who the Proctor was. It simply didn’t make sense. It would’ve been a better ending if they at least revealed the secret of the Golden Trio"

"I liked the more realistic aspects of this book but the mystery aspect was disappointing and somehow I liked and disliked the ending in equal measure.<br/><br/>The main characters are a group of Asian American students at an exclusive private school, brought together through a mutual friendship of sorts with a popular girl and through what the pov character refers to as "The Incident": something that they had all participated in two years before and sworn to secrecy about. It's obvious what the thing was and the way the narrative dances around it is annoying. The popular girl dies suddenly, and suddenly the friends are being threatened via social media using secrets only the dead girl knew. The resolution to this is ridiculous and some of the secrets are a bit silly.<br/><br/>The better part of the story is the focus on the characters themselves, especially Nancy. As the daughter of immigrants who gave up everything to come to America there is immense pressure to perform, be strong, and reach that elusive American Dream. The way this plays out in Nancy's relationship with her mother was really well done. The other characters are less three dimensional but do illustrate this in various ways.<br/><br/>I liked the ending in the way that it demonstrated who Nancy was at her core - this isn't a game but she's going to win it - but it bugged me that the reader never gets to find out what the big secret is."

"THIS BOOK. <br/><br/>I’ve been scrolling through different reviews and seeing some really good points come up in the reviews, but can we please take a moment to talk about the portrayal of mental illness in this book? The “I’m never good enough” portrayal… omg. <br/><br/>This book was phenomenal."

"I liked it a lot. It's a cross between Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars with an Asian cast. I wish the ending wasn't so abrupt, but I think there might be a sequel."

"Katie ATE and left no crumbs when she made this. I literally couldn’t put it down. Probably one of my faves in 2021. I just love books like these. "