I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Everyone's Thinking It by Aleema Omotoni Published by Balzer + Bray on 9/5/23
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Young Adult
Pages: 368
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Within the walls of Wodebury Hall, an elite boarding school in the English countryside, reputation is everything. But aspiring photographer Iyanu is more comfortable observing things safely from behind her camera.
For Iyanu’s estranged cousin, Kitan, life seems perfect. She has money, beauty, and friends like queen bee Heather. But as a Nigerian girl in a school as white and insular as Wodebury, Kitan struggles with the personal sacrifices needed to keep her place—and the protection she gets—within the exclusive popular crowd.
Then photos from Iyanu’s camera are stolen and splashed across the school the week before the Valentine’s Day Ball—each with a juicy secret written on it. With everyone’s dirty laundry suddenly out in the open, the school explodes in chaos, and the whispers accusing Iyanu of being the one behind it all start to feel like déjà vu.
Each girl is desperate to unravel the mystery of who stole the photos and why. But exposing the truth will change them all forever.
Short and Sweet Review
At Wodebury High, reputation is everything. Iyanu is a photographer and she’s able to capture a lot of moments and observe everything around her behind the safety of her camera. Kitan is Iyanu’s cousin but they don’t really talk. While Iyanu is almost like an outcast, Kitan is apart of the popular group. When someone steals Iyanu’s photos and puts everyones secrets on the back of them and distributes them around the school its chaos. Iyanu is being accused of releasing the photos and she’s determined to figure out who did it.
This book was addicting and really did have a mean girls feel, when Iyanu’s photos are stolen and spread around the school with secrets on them, it reminded me of Regina George passing out copies of the burn book. The only difference is Iyanu wasn’t behind this. Photography is her life and she needs those pictures for an opportunity for an article. Kitan is used to hanging out with the popular group and her best friends are Heather and Sarah. There’s a bit of a disconnect with her friends though seeing as they’re white and Heather seems to think culture appropriation is okay and Kitan is too afraid to say anything. We get both girls POVs and I enjoyed them equally, Kitan and Iyanu are going through different things that it was easy to get invested in their lives. High School is rough but I think going to a school like Wodebury where it seems like everyone knows each other and everyones business makes it worse. Iyanu ends up working with Quincy an old childhood friend and someone she’s drifted away from after something happened. Anyway these two basically set off to investigate who could have taken the pictures and I loved seeing them try to figure out motives and follow their classmates. Kitan on the other hand is dealing with figuring out if her friends are really her friends and also realizing that sometimes you do need to let your “friends” know when they’re in the wrong. I think this book covered some important topics and one of them would be embracing your culture and not shying away from it because others aren’t accepting. The ending was great and I feel like I knew who was behind everything but there was also a few false leads that through me off.
Overall, this was an addictive book. I loved the plot and the characters, this book reminded me about how crazy and drama filled high school could be but I also enjoyed the mystery aspect that was involved. If you like Mean Girls and also mystery novels then this book is for you!
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