~ Bite 6 ~

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

This book is full of scandal. You’ve got harmless pranks that slowly get out of hand, backstabbing friendships, and forbidden relationships.

Characters:

Sarah Taylor: has just transferred to St. Ambrose, has a long history of struggling with her mental health and has diagnosed bipolar disorder

Greta Stanhope: self-proclaimed “queen bee’’, Sarah Taylors bully

Nick Hollis: Sarah’s dorm RA who is attractive, but don’t let that fool you

Ellen “Strots” Strotsberry: Sarah’s roomate and soon-to-be best friend

Mrs Crenshaw: Sarahs Geometry teacher

Francesca and Stacia: Greta’s followers and “close” friends

Themes/Topics Discussed: 

Mental Health: specifically addressing depression, OCD, and Bipolar disorder

Sexuality

Relationships: forbidden and illegal ( teacher and underage student)

Death: murder

Pregnancy

Plot: This book follows Sarah Taylor who has just transferred to St. Ambrose School for Girls, much to her own chagrin. Struggling with her mental health, her mother decides she needs a change. New school, new you? Enter popularity contest winner Greta—Sarah’s bully (we all have a Greta, don’t we?) who makes her life a living hell at her new school and makes her transition far from easy. What starts as a few little pranks—like ruining her laundry slowly goes to far and ends in you guessed it—murder. If Pretty Little Liars and Gossips Girl had a baby and named it Mean Girl, it would be this book.

**** Spoilers Ahead ****

Overall Thoughts:

I enjoyed reading this book. It was a pretty quick read for me, as a mystery/thriller lover. I didn’t rate it a five stars because the ending to me, was a bit predictable—meaning I guessed who the killer was and I thought it was a bit obvious. Let’s dive into the major plot points and discuss. Throughout the book, Sarah is contemplating suicide because she can’t take the bullying and more broadly life. The discussion about mental I think was very well done and well written, which is a positive note for Jessica Ward. I am someone who has also struggled with mental health, so I liked her perspective and appreciated how she talked about it. We read about her struggle and her fantasizing about the death of Greta. 

This threads us into another plot point where Greta is found out to be involved with RA Nick Hollis—who is married. Nick is fired and shortly after—Greta is found murdered by the river where she used to smoke by Sarah and to top it all of she was pregnant. Shocking. After making this discovery, Sarah panics and believes she was the murderer because of her fantasies and mental images about wanting to kill Greta. Sarah is then told by her roomate Strots that she killed Greta—because Greta threatened to go to the dean about Strot’s relationship with a girl—the horror. Considering the fact that same-sex relationships were forbidden in the school, murder feels warranted, but you didn’t hear it from me. We can all agree Greta sucks. 

Knowing she wasn’t guilty, Sarah has a weight lifted off her shoulders until RA Nick Hollis is found dead—having killed himself which gives Strots an idea. Strots tells Sarah the “real” story and plots it out— Nick killed himself over the guilt of killing Greta and the pregnancy, he didn’t even know about and he just couldn’t live with himself or even face his wife ever again. Sarah struggles with the guilt of knowing the real story, but in order to protect her roomate and friend she agrees and continues school without Greta and continues facing her mental health battle.

Overall, a good read. I would reccommend reading it during the fall spooky season like I did because of the atmospheric boarding school setting, but anytime would of course work. I also learned Jessica Ward is the pen name for J.R. Ward who has written so many romance books and even though I am not a huge romance girl, I would like to pick up one of those books because I enjoyed her fast-paced writing style.