In My Dreams I Hold a Knife
Ratings168
Average rating3.8
This book was another pleasant surprise. And there were so many plot twists, so I really enjoyed that part. The author was able to pull off multiple plot twists without seeming to force any of them, too.
was this book just a whole bunch of white people being dramatic and overreacting to everything because of their privilege? yes. did i still eat it up? yes.
Reminded me of They Never Learn vibes. Very twisty and almost every main character kept on blaming and jumping to conclusions. Until they found out who was the killer towards the end.
There are some Mental Health aspects and some trigger warnings. Keep that in mind. Good book overall.
3.5
i really loved the characters and the boarding school setting so i thought its going to be a 5 star read. sadly the mystery and plot twists and juicy secrets didnt really work for me, nothing surprised me or left me shocked for some reason. its still a good book and i enjoyed my time, i was just underwhelmed by how it all came out :/
3.5 stars. Probably a 2 star in terms of actual logic and depth, but the entertainment value was high enough to carry this whole book on its back in spite of the general lack of everything else that makes a book really good. I absolutely hated the main character, and though I am extremely pissed off that she got away with everything and rode off into the sunset with no consequences at the end, with her mediocre and personality-less "love interest", and all the characters (and their relationships) in general were super one-dimensional, I was very entertained the whole time – which in the end I guess is pretty much the only thing I'm looking for with books like this.
Honestly, its kind of like watching an episode of “Jersey Shore”. I never would want to hang out with these people, and if I think about it too much I hate all of them, and by extension the narrative for not punishing them in a cathartic-enough fashion – but if I switch my brain to the right setting, watching insane drama from irrational people is very entertaining, and that is worth something.
”It turns out the real you is a quilt, made up of the light and the dark. The life you've lived in sunshine and your shadow life, stretching underneath the surface of your mind like a deep underwater world, exerting invisible power. You are a living, breathing story made up of the moments in time you cherish, all strung together, and those you hide. The moments that seem lost. Until the day they're not.” This book is about six friends returning to their university after 10 years for homecoming. On their senior year one of their closest friend(the seventh member of the friend group) dies, the boyfriend of the victim was accused and released. Now, they are trying to piece together who really killed their friend. Wow. I love this. It's been awhile since I read a thriller that surprised me. The ending was not something that I expected. Jessica, one of the friends who is narrating the story, is unlikeable well to me she is. She is insecure and not a good friend/person overall. She always has to be number one but does not really succeed. The rest of the friend group are all flawed but I enjoyed reading their backstory to piece together what really happened that night. If you want to read a fast paced, whodunnit thriller you should pick this up!
I've seen quite a few people talk about this book. I wasn't sure what to expect because the reviews have been mixed. I'm not clear on if this is an official YA book or not. Whichever the case, it reads like one through the flashbacks of the group's college days.
It took me a long time to get into the plot (around 3/4 of the way through). Only after the heavy amounts of college student drama did the heart of the thriller come to light. Even then, Jessica was still an extremely unlikable character. The twist was good but the lead-up assured there would in fact be a twist. By the end, it didn't feel like much of a twist at all. I was left feeling like there was a lot of wasted potential and a glaring lack of character growth.
Overall, I didn't hate it. There were a few parts I enjoyed and there was a good intrigue to it. I was hooked enough to want to see how it all played out. In general, I'm not one for the college scene but this is the first book with this setting I've successfully read from start to finish.
Kept the reader guessing till the last chapter.
The narrator felt a bit monotonous at times. Story has 5 stars from me, but the book felt unnecessarily long, hence the 3 stars.
Extreem vermakelijke, moeilijk neer te leggen thriller. Las een beetje zoals een soap, met de onwaarschijnlijke vriendengroep à la The Breakfast Club en de tonnen drama. Fast food voor het hoofd.
Heel slim geconstrueerd, met de alternerende tijdslijnen en het sympathieke/onsympathieke hoofdpersonage Jessica met op gepaste tijden een glimp in het hoofd van één van de andere personages.
Elk puzzelstukje heeft een doel en de puzzel valt op het einde heel bevredigend in elkaar.
I enjoyed this! Is it based on Wake Forest? (I was accepted but didn't attend ;) Other than the arrest scene, I had no logic issues. I do enjoy dark academia!
Also: the audiobook is better than than the ebook (no experience with the physical book). The audio version contains more words.
Absolutely worth the hype! It took me a few weeks to get through this one but I loved the way it unravelled and we got a closer look to all the characters and how it highlighted their flaws. Also the ending!!!
How Well Do We Really Know Those Close to Us?
That is the overall theme of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and man-oh-man what a wild ride this was! I had a hard time putting this one down, and if it wasn't for this being a buddy read I would have read this in one day.
The writing is so well done with this one that I was fully engaged from beginning to end. I always say someone else's drama, especially in books, is WAY better than it being mine.
4.5 ⭐️ fun page-turner! note: required some flipping back and forth at the beginning when being introduced to characters, but worth it :)
Was pleasantly surprised by this book - the plot was compelling AND the writing was strong (I feel like with many thrillers, the writing is so clunky or overwrought it takes me out of the story). In this sense, it reminded me of Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll. The twists and turns made sense, but I didn't see them coming. I really enjoyed the experience of reading this - I started and finished in the same sitting.
Yes! That is what I'm talking about! I feel like I've been stuck in mediocre thrillers lately and I am so ecstatic that this one totally blew me away! The only reason it took me longer to read this book is because I wanted to savor it, I wanted to fully feel every single page deep in my soul. Also, this is the only book in a school setting that left me feeling somewhat anxious and a bit nostalgic for my own school days, that's something I've never gotten from a book before this. I just think this is as close to perfect as a thriller can get for me- from the atmosphere to the pace of the plot and the twists and turns, I will be recommending this book to anyone and everyone that will give me the time of day!
To begin with, In My Dreams I Hold a Knife is about a girl, Jessica, who is going back to her college homecoming reunion, 10 years later, and she is desperate to prove herself as a woman who got it all, even though ten years prior a lot of messed up things happened on campus and her roommate was killed. Things take quite a turn, when her old roommate's brother corners Jessica and her old college friends, desperate to find answers about who really killed his sister all those years ago. I freaking loved this plot! School settings tend to not be my favorite tropes in thrillers and yet this one proved just how good that trope could be if done right. I thought the pacing was masterfully done and I was literally anxious to find out what actually happened all those years ago, and yet I also couldn't stop reading the book. The dual timelines are also masterfully crafted and I loved going between the now and then skipping around between all their four years in college. We also got a few chapters from the other friends' perspectives and I really appreciated that, since I grew attached to every single one of them. I will definitely be reading all her future works, she has instantly become an auto-buy author for me, that is for sure.
Further on, the characterization in this book was beyond superb. All the friends from the friend group had complicated backgrounds and I loved seeing how these backgrounds were able to come together into a rather messed up friend group and the dynamics that formed as a result. We are really able to dive deep into the psyches of these complex individuals and understand why they acted the way that they acted at certain times and what really drove them to end up in the place where they were now, in the present moment, at the reunion homecoming. There were so many layers to each of them and quite frankly, I would have been ecstatic if this book would have been made into a series or if we even got books from any of the other characters that we have read about in here.
Finally, the writing style was top notch, at least in my opinion. It was a bit sophisticated but not overly complex and definitely gave of a rather charming and dramatic vibe, but that's what I find I love in my thrillers. Each and every chapter flowed so smoothly and even though the chapters weren't the shortest I've ever read, the pages felt as if they were flipping themselves, effortlessly. Also, the end of every chapter left with a bit of a cliffhanger and I was hooked! There were also so many deep thoughts and pondering in this book that it's one I would like to reread in the future, to catch what I didn't catch the first time and I NEVER reread books. This book literally moved me that much!
In conclusion, I would recommend this book to EVERYONE! I think that thriller lovers would love it but so would most other readers as well because it left a lasting impression on me and moved me to the point of tears. I believe that anybody can benefit from delving into this story because at the root of it, there are tons of psychological aspects and life truths all throughout it. This is the kind of book that could really make for some profound discussions and conversations. If you haven't read this book yet, what are you waiting for?!!
Excellent character studies in this thriller. I need to re-read to catch all the nuances.
4.5 star“Wanting is dangerous. The less you want, the safer you'll be.”One of my fav thrillers for this year!! A great book with amazing character development. Most of the books I have read which are character-driven don't take the time to properly describe each character but in this, everyone was perfectly portrayed, we got to see their strengths, weaknesses, flaws, etc...What I loved about the book;-The setting(who doesn't love a good dark academia setting?) -Flashbacks.-Even though the MC was Jessica we got chapters from the other characters' pov as well, so it was very interesting to read.-This has happened only once before with a thriller([b:The Au Pair 51200711 The Au Pair Emma Rous https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1565535897l/51200711.SX50_SY75.jpg 59174124]) but the scenes toward the end nearly had me in tears.-And last but not least the love triangle, it's been a while since I've read a good love triangle and I was a huuugee fan of the love triangle in this book, maybe even more than the plot lolWhat I didn't like;Not much really, I didn't like Jessica at first but in the end, the reasons as to why she was acting like that were explained and that made me feel sorry for her.“I studied myself the way I'd done my whole life, searching for what others saw whenthey looked at me.”Overall this was a really good book and I think you will love it if you are a fan of dark academia, alternating timelines, and multiple povs.Go into this with no expectations and you might end up loving it:)
Definitely a page turner, I just didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I found the MC really unlikeable, and while that is definitely an intended part of the tension I didn't always find her behavior or that of the other characters believable. I liked the twist, and I super like the fact that my college friends are not toxic and/or murdery like these ones.