The Things We Do To Our Friends
A Sunday Times bestselling deliciously dark, intoxicating, compulsive tale of feminist revenge, toxic friendships, and deadly secrets
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3.8 • 17 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
'Satisfyingly dark, cleverly plotted and pleasingly Donna Tarttish' Emma Flint, Little Deaths
'Seamlessly blends Gone Girl and Promising Young Woman. Smart, sophisticated, seductive' S J Watson, Before I Go To Sleep
Sunday Times Bestseller
Shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Crime Debut of the Year 2023
Longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize
One of Cosmopolitan's Best Books for 2023
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In there, them, us, it’s everything you’ve ever wanted, and you’re going to love it.
I promise. I’ll look after you.
All her life Clare has never fit in.
So when she arrives at Edinburgh University, she seizes the chance to reinvent herself.
Then she meets Tabitha who is everything she’s not: charismatic, dazzling and intimidatingly wealthy.
Soon Clare is sucked into Tabitha’s enigmatic circle of friends, and it’s all she hoped it would be. Until it’s not.
Because they are not all they seem.
And they’ve been waiting for Clare.
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
An intoxicating feminist page-turner with shades of The Secret History and Promising Young Woman, this novel will take youon a journey from Edinburgh's dazzling spires to the dripping staircases and dark alleyways of its underbelly.
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'Startlingly lovely, like a fine, dark silk shivering on your skin' Julia Heaberlin, We Are All the Same in the Dark
'Perfect for fans of dark academia stories like The Secret History and If We Were Villains' Cosmopolitan
'A deeply compelling story of friendships turned rotten' Rosemary Hennigan, The Truth Will Out
'Darwent has a great career as a thriller writer ahead of her' Sunday Times
'Dark academia and twisted friendships in gothic Edinburgh - what more could you want?' Cailean Steed, Home
'Creepy yet compulsive, this impressive novel will stay with you long after reading' Heat
'Dark and compulsive, this will have you turning the pages late into the night' Sarah Bonner, Her Perfect Twin
'Themes of obsession, revenge and desire collide in a twisty, dark and delicious feminist thriller' Big Issue
'An intriguing and complex heroine' Phoebe Wynne, Madam
'Darwent keeps the reader guessing. Any time the balance of power appears to settle, the plot takes another twist' Scotland on Sunday
'Such an immersive, surprising, impressive debut' Niamh Hargan, Twelve Days In May
'Power, privilege and the most toxic of friendships. All set against the stunning backdrop of Edinburgh' Carys Jones, The List
Sunday Times bestseller, January 2023
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Writing a thriller worthy of comparison to Donna Tartt your first time around is no easy feat, but debut author Heather Darwent has managed it with Things We Do For Our Friends, a disquieting mystery involving a group of first year students at Edinburgh University. When lonely misfit Clare is befriended by Tabitha, a magnetic, beguiling girl on her Art History course, she is inadvertently sucked in to a high stakes honeytrap scheme that rapidly turns dangerous. The first half of the novel builds the tension delicately, portraying the seductive camaraderie between Tabitha and her friends, all of whom live together in the same flat and exhibit a worldly glamour that has Clare ignoring her instincts in order to be included within their circle of influence. The group has its secrets, but Clare has been keeping one too, and as the story develops—and Tabitha’s volatile behaviour turns sinister—it becomes less and less clear where the power lies and which characters can be trusted, leading to a truly shocking conclusion. Carefully paced and thoughtful in its exploration of the sharp edge of loyalty and friendship, Things We Do For Our Friends is a page-turner to the end.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Little is as it initially appears in Darwent's deviously plotted debut. The young woman now known as Clare, who was disowned by her parents at 16 following an "episode" that isn't fully disclosed until later, arrives at university in Edinburgh to study art history and laser-focused on reinventing herself—an enterprise that gets off to a better start than she could have hoped when an encounter at the bar where she's working leads to her clicking with classmate Tabitha, the lanky blonde, elegantly louche queen bee of a circle of privileged chums since boarding school. Though Clare initially approaches every invitation to her aspirational bestie's elegant Georgian flat as something of an audition, Tabitha proves to have just as much riding on cultivating her—for a key role in the potentially life-altering but treacherous "project" she and her pals have been secretly planning and which could shatter Clare's fresh start. Despite an uneven pace, the suspense rises, and if the characters don't always ring true, they, like a nest of vipers, are tough to take one's eyes off of. Darwent is off to an auspicious start.
Customer Reviews
3.5 stars
It’s worth reading if you like this genre (I don’t really!). It’s an interesting concept and plot, but I struggled with some parts of the book as the writing could be better, and I think the plot and characters were a little thin at times.