Next up to review on the Eliot Rosewater books is The Ivies. I really enjoyed this book.

The Ivies is a story of a quintet of the most popular girls in school who call themselves “The Ivies” and each are aiming for a different Ivy League school. Main character Olivia Winters is aiming to go to University of Pennsylvania, Queen Bee Avery Montfort is aiming for Harvard, Emma Russo wants to go to Brown University, Sierra Watson aims for Yale, and Margot Kim is Princeton. These girls are willing to do anything to get into college.

Olivia applies to Harvard instead of Penn like her friends told her to and when she gets in and Avery doesn’t, Olivia does everything to keep it from her. However when it is revealed Emma also applied to Harvard and got in, she ends up dead the next day. Avery becomes the top suspect. Olivia then sets on a quest to discover whether Avery really killed her while still hiding the fact that she got into Harvard so she doesn’t become the killer’s next victim.

My Review

I overall enjoyed this book. I love murder mysteries and this was one heck of one.

The main characters were the Ivies. Olivia is a poor kid only at Claflin Academy on a scholarship. Avery is the queen bee of the Ivies, Sierra is the hacker, Margot is the charmer, and Emma is the Renaissance woman. 

There were also other characters such as Tyler St. Clair who is both Avery’s stepbrother and Emma’s boyfriend. There is also Ethan Kendall who is co-editor in chief of the school paper alongside Olivia and is her crush. Emma has dubbed him “Canadian Ken”. Some adults include Mr. Joe Tipton who is Olivia’s counselor, Detective Cataldo who is investigating the murder case, and Headmistress Fitzgerald who is headmistress of Claflin Academy.

One thing I enjoyed is the equal racial representation in the story. There is Sierra who is Black, Margot who is Korean American, and Ethan who is a biracial Canadian. I also enjoyed the LGBTQ representation even if it was only at the end of the story. At the end of the book it is revealed that Avery is a lesbian and is dating a girl named Eva.

Another thing I enjoyed about this book is the realism. It portrays legal consequences and police investigation quite realistically. However, there are some unrealistic aspects such as no one wearing face masks or social distancing, people throwing parties, despite it taking place during December 2020 during COVID-19.

One thing I didn’t like about this book is that I saw the killer coming a mile away. I also found their motive to be weak. Their motive was just simple jealousy over others having better chances in college admissions. It also had the rather overused trope of “Never the Obvious Suspect”. I didn’t believe for one second that Avery was the killer and I was right.

Overall, The Ivies was a thrilling murder mystery, filled with twists, and it was just enjoyable to read. I give it four stars out of five and would recommend it to anyone