Spoiler-Free Review

If you’re one to gasp at every reveal, secret scandal, or surprise twist, you’ll like She Started It. The audiobook felt like listening in on hot gossip while also wondering if they’d get viciously murdered.

What’s She Started It about?

Four women receive an invitation to a tropical bachelorette getaway. There’s just one problem: the hostess is Poppy Greer, an old schoolmate they bullied as teenagers.

I really enjoyed this, despite predicting the twist.

I don’t read many thrillers (at least not compared to the number of fantasy books I read), and often that’s because I predict the twist. Depending on the story though, this part alone doesn’t necessarily become a negative for me. Partly because I want to know if I’m right, but also because if the rest of the story is entertaining, then being right is more satisfying.

So that said, despite knowing where the story was headed most of the time, I had a great time. The audiobook was perfect – it balanced five POVs, and each had their own narrators. So it was easy to keep up with whose chapter I was in. I’m not quite sure it would have been so easy reading the physical book.

There were so many secrets these women were hiding from each other, so the slow leak of reveals kept the pacing steady while it crescendoed toward the biggest reveal at the climax. This combined really nicely with the mounting tension as things heated up.

Spliced between the POVs of the four main bullies, we would get Poppy’s flashback diary entries from her school days. These were often really sad, and sometimes long, as she recounted the things the others did to her. Which makes sense, given the themes. However, as these entries went on, they became increasingly hard to stomach. I had to skim her last few diary entries because it was just a lot. However, I can’t imagine it being any other way.

Should you read She Started It?

If you enjoy the kind of thrillers in which a mysterious figure lures a group of people to a remote location for unclear reasons, And Then There Were None style, you’ll probably like this one. If themes around bullying and revenge are your thing, definitely check it out.

It has multiple narrators, but all the POVs are told in first person. It relies on a sort of expository writing style that works better for me on audio than eyeball reading, so keep that in mind, as well.