People Like Us

by Dana Mele

Overview

"Mean Girls meets Donna Tartt's The Secret History with a little bit of Riverdale mixed in. So yeah, it's epic."—HelloGiggles

"In People Like Us, Dana Mele delivers the Gossip Girl meets Pretty Little Liars young adult novel you've been waiting for."—Bustle

Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is past, and she's reinvented herself entirely. Now she's a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. But when a girl's body is found in the lake, Kay's carefully constructed life begins to topple. The dead girl has left Kay a computer-coded scavenger hunt, which, as it unravels, begins to implicate suspect after suspect, until Kay herself is in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. But if Kay's finally backed into a corner, she'll do what it takes to survive. Because at Bates Academy, the truth is something you make...not something that happened.

Debut author Dana Mele has written a taut, sophisticated suspense novel that will keep readers guessing until the very end.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781524741709
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	02/27/2018
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.40(d)
Lexile:	HL710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Dana Mele is a Pushcart-nominated writer and a work at home mother. A graduate of Wellesley College, she is a former actor, lawyer, musician, and briefly, associate producer. She prefers tea to coffee, snow to sand, and stars to sunshine, and she lives in the Catskills with her husband and toddler. This is her first novel.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "People Like Us"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Dana Mele.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Young Readers Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

This juicy prep-school thriller has queen bees, super-cliques, and hints of PLL and Gossip Girl. But if you think you’ve got every plot turn figured out, think again: the drama is just getting started.”—Seventeen Magazine
 
“[A] whirlwind, fast-paced YA mystery. . . Not only will Mele’s gorgeous, melodic writing have you entranced, but the layered mystery of it all will have you scrambling to turn the pages to see who-dun-it.”—Buzzfeed

"Steeped in scandal and profound tragedy, this is a dark and thrilling look at female friendships, the pressures of scholastic success, and mental health . . . A classic and frightening tale of betrayal and mental illness told in a fresh and contemporary way, this book is difficult to set down for even a moment. It is an intricately designed, beautifully written, and extraordinarily chilling story."—School Library Journal

"Mele creates a cast of sharp-edged, prickly students; the fluid sexuality of various characters is handled well, and themes of betrayal and bullying are front and center. An eerie, unsettling thriller with deadly consequences."—Publishers Weekly

"Mele . . .  weave[s] a tale of mystery, intrigue, and revenge in the style of Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why (2007), but with its own twists to keep readers on the their toes."—Booklist

"The characters and their relationships are nuanced, especially sexually fluid Kay, who has intimate encounters with males and females. This blend of predictable prep school elements with unpredictable suspense makes this a fizzy read for fans of the genre."—Kirkus Reviews

"This is a fun, dark whodunit with loads of twists and turns to keep readers guessing."—VOYA

"A . . . sophisticated read that is fast-paced and surprising to the last page."—School Library Connection

From the Publisher

2017-10-30
For some girls, it's a killer getting into Bates Academy. For others, attending the elite prep school means getting killed.When Kay Donovan and her popular senior classmates uphold the tradition of skinny dipping in the lake after the Halloween dance, they're surprised to find the dead body of Jessica Lane, a fellow student. But it's not the first time Kay has seen a dead body—and someone knows it. As she, her friends, and other acquaintances begin answering questions for the police, the teen also receives an email from Jessica's account that takes her to a revenge website. There, Kay receives instructions to take down all her friends—this one for doping, that one for sleeping with a professor—or her own secrets will be revealed. The debut novel has all the tropes one would expect from a prep school mystery: plenty of backstabbing, predominantly white young socialites (except for Brie with "smooth brown skin"), and frequent parties with alcohol and sex. Yet this intertwined mystery that has readers figuring out Jessica's murderer and Kay's secrets (and their possible connections) is more than these clichés. The characters and their relationships are nuanced, especially bisexual Kay, who has intimate encounters with males and females.The blend of predictable prep school elements with unpredictable suspense makes this a fizzy read for fans of the genre. (Mystery. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews