This Stays Between Us forces a group of friends who met abroad to face their pasts and the death that occurred of one of their group members a decade before.The tension of the story telling is amped up, not only by the group of friends trying to discover who really killed their friend Phoebe all those years ago – a killer that the police believe to be one of them – but also by the fact that the past is being told alongside the present from Phoebe’s point of view throughout the course of the book.
This really added to the story because the reader is able to see the events leading up to her death play out in real time, showing those who might have had cause to kill Phoebe in the moment and allowing the reader to draw conclusions from the events as they took place. But at the same time, they get to see the investigation playing out in the present and the conclusions that the group of friends leap to in trying to uncover the truth from a fraught time in their life, when each of them had reason to hate Phoebe at the time.
There is also this air of mystery surrounding another member of their group, who appears in the past storyline but is only mentioned at by name and hinted at as far as what happened to him for an extended part of the book. This left me wanting to know what exactly had happened to Tomas and why the friends seem so reluctant to talk about it.
The characters themselves weren’t the most likeable which made it hard to connect to them as a reader. They all just seemed to be intent on being secretive for the sake of making them suspicious for the plot and were flawed without any real redeeming qualities. They went from unbearable young adults who only cared about partying, getting drunk, and hooking up with the person they wanted – heaven forbid anyone wanted the same person because REVENGE. Meanwhile in the present they were just kind of meh, suddenly having it all together but not really any more likeable. Even Claire, whose point of view the present storyline is being told from isn’t the most endearing character as she outright opens the book believing she is Phoebe’s murderer, and then suddenly becomes her biggest advocator in trying to find the true culprit to clear herself. Phoebe’s point of view also makes it hard to feel bad knowing her story can only end in death because she comes across as self-absorbed and good at nothing but making enemies.
Despite all this I did end up quite enjoying the story and it did keep me invested in finding the answers until the end. I found some aspects of the story and how information was presented or found as far as solving the mystery to be a bit farfetched and a stretch, but the story itself kept me invested in getting answers and I kept going back and forth with my suspicions on what really happened which made for a really quick and interesting read. It was a good book and I did blast through it pretty quickly so still recommend.
