Book Review: ‘How We Fall Apart’ by Katie Zhao

‘How We Fall Apart’ by Katie Zhao is a YA thriller, released in 2021, and I’ve had it on my watchlist since the pre-release buzz. There’s something about a Gossip Girl -esque narrative that I’m just so impossibly drawn to. Imagine you crossed Gossip Girl with Crazy Rich Asian and Pretty Little Liars, and there you’ll have ‘How We Fall Apart’.

If you need the summary…

“Nancy Luo is shocked when her former best friend, Jamie Ruan, top-ranked junior at Sinclair Prep, goes missing, and then is found dead. Nancy is even more shocked when word starts to spread that she and her friends - Krystal, Akil, and Alexander - are the prime suspects, thanks to "the Proctor," someone anonymously incriminating them via the school's social media app.

They all used to be Jamie's closest friends, and she knew each of their deepest, darkest secrets. Now, somehow the Proctor knows them, too. The four must uncover the true killer before The Proctor exposes more than they can bear and costs them more than they can afford, like Nancy's full scholarship. Soon, Nancy suspects that her friends may be keeping secrets from her, too.

Katie Zhao's YA debut is an edge-of-your-seat drama set in the pressure-cooker world of academics and image at Sinclair Prep, where the past threatens the future these teens have carefully crafted for themselves. How We Fall Apart is the irresistible, addicting, Asian-American recast of Gossip Girl that we've all been waiting for.”

Also, please stop on by The StoryGraph for all content warnings, but the main ones include: Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Death.

Ooh, I wanted to like this book so hard. Let me start with the positives.

It’s a very easy 350 pages, and reads quickly. I liked how easily I could keep flipping through it. The writing is smooth, if not a little basic (more on that later) and there were no hitches in the reading run.

Alexander. The one character I clung to for dear life.

It’s an interesting perspective on a well-worn scene and trope. There’s a diverse cast of characters, and I liked how everyone stood out individually.

For me, ‘How We Fall Apart’ is missing real depth. And I mean this in the sense of both character development and plot execution. The ending of this book is wild, and I love an unhinged narrative moment but this one seemingly came out of nowhere, and I struggled to accept it as a reader. I couldn’t suspend my disbelief. We talk about this at length on the podcast, which you can catch right now as it’s released TODAY!

(The Dark Academicals is available wherever you stream your podcasts from)

My main issue is that I just didn’t connect with any of the characters, and I think it could be partly because there isn’t a lot of emotional depth or reaction from the main character Nancy, or her friends. When they find out Jamie has passed away, there’s literally nothing. No moment of mourning. No reflection on the loss. Just a knee-jerk reaction of “how do we save our own hides?”. And even though the cast of characters is supposed to be wholly unlikable (I think?) surely there would be some kind of reaction? I don’t know. It just didn’t ring very true for me.

The plot holes surrounding the events leading up to, and during, the big finale, are too many to mention. But let’s just say, Em’s reasons for doing what she did make no sense. (I’m trying not to drop too many spoilers because this is supposed to be the big gasp moment).

Ay me, I think for me, ‘How We Fall Apart’ just falls flat on its face and never gets back up. From a very strong start, it trips itself up and can’t recover. Which is a shame, because as a concept I love it.

I feel like maybe the “someone knows your secret and is texting the whole school” thing might be becoming over-used, and I’m really keen to see it done in a new and more exciting way.

It wasn’t for me, but if you love YA thrilles and want a quick one to blast through, give it a go!

Written by Sarah