April Coutts-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.
Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate it girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the second, April was dead.
Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realises that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder.
It's such a pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for The It Girl today. Many thanks to Ruth Ware, Simon Schuster and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for my advance digital copy of the novel.
The title of Ruth Ware's latest immediately took me back to the era of the 'It Girls'. Although the 'Before' chapters are still set some time after the heyday of the 90s socialites, April Coutts-Cliveden is exactly the sort of party-loving, beautiful young woman who people loved to be seen with. She's not always a particularly likeable character but it's clear very early on that she has the sort of magnetic personality that others find hard to resist. The tragedy of this vivacious young woman's murder drives the plot of the book but she isn't actually the lead character and it's Hannah Jones who we follow in the past and present.
Ruth Ware evokes college life at Oxford beautifully and it's hard to believe Pelham College is fictional; I could almost picture the 'labyrinthine corridors and golden stone cloisters' which soon become as familiar to Hannah as her old school halls. The friendship that forms between young people from different walks of life is as intense, messy and complex as you'd expect. Hannah is the most relatable and April the more fascinating, but while Will, Hugh, Ryan and Emily are all integral members of their closely-knit group, there is always the feeling that we don't know them quite as well.
This proves to be important as the novel progresses and in the 'Now' chapters, Hannah begins to doubt whether the right man was convicted of April's murder and so questions begin to arise suggesting somebody closer to the group was responsible for her death instead. It's difficult to feel much sympathy for John Neville who is a wholly unlikeable man and so it's to Ruth Ware's credit that she reminds us that even unpleasant people deserve justice. The storyline isn't fast-paced and by constantly switching between past and present, a gradual picture forms of the events leading to the night Hannah found April.
The older Hannah is obviously still haunted by what happened and despite being deeply in love with Will as they look forward to their first child together, it becomes poignantly and unsurprisingly clear just how much April's murder has impacted their lives. I thought that the lack of support the friends received afterwards and the effect such a shocking tragedy had on their academic and personal lives was portrayed with perceptive empathy and was sadly only too believable.
The plot is as twisting as Pelham's corridors and after Hannah begins to re-evaluate her own memories and to search for the truth, I was cleverly persuaded to suspect nearly everybody! I did work out who the murderer was but that was only thanks to the process of elimination that takes place throughout the compelling pages of The It Girl, rather than any skillful deduction on my part. The denouement is terrifically tense and I loved that there are definitely a few points for readers to discuss afterwards, especially regarding the actions and motives of the killer.
The It Girl is an atmospheric and compelling character-driven mystery that moves effortlessly between past and present. It's almost deceptively addictive and though nothing feels rushed, I ended up reading it in less than two days and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The It Girl is published by Simon & Schuster, purchasing links can be found here but please consider supporting independent bookshops whenever possible.
Don't miss the rest of the blog tour, details are below.
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Thanks for the blog tour support x
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