Challenge Corner discussion

A sharp and twisty exploration of female friendship from the New York Times bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things.

Lucy Sharpe is larger than life. Magnetic, addictive. Bold and dangerous. Especially for Margot, who meets Lucy at the end of their freshman year at a liberal arts college in South Carolina. Margot is the shy one, the careful one, always the sidekick and never the center of attention. But when Lucy singles her out at the end of the year, a year Margot spent studying and playing it safe, and asks her to room together, something in Margot can't say no―something daring, or starved, or maybe even envious.

And so Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with three other girls, Lucy, the ringleader; Sloane, the sarcastic one; and Nicole, the nice one, the three of them opposites but also deeply intertwined. It's a year that finds Margot finally coming out of the shell she's been in since the end of high school, when her best friend Eliza died three weeks after graduation. Margot and Lucy have become the closest of friends, but by the middle of their sophomore year, one of the fraternity boys from the house next door has been brutally murdered... and Lucy Sharpe is missing without a trace.

finally started this one today!

ch 1-16 (view spoiler)[ I couldn't imagine what it'd be like to lose my best friend 3 months into a life changing event... especially with them both planning it for so long.

it was a bit messed up for margot to leave Maggie like that after a difficult first year...

curious to see how Levi plays a role in the book and brings up the past. (hide spoiler)]

more slower as the book introduces all the characters and the relationships between each one

ch 17-32 (46%) (view spoiler)[ oh gosh, I wonder if Levi was forced to do something to Nicole or bare witness to how Trevor treats her...

Lucy is such a fishy character, she's so sneaky. I wonder if the story about her almost killing a guy is true, hoping to find out at some point. especially since her past is catching up to her with daniel (hide spoiler)]

ch 33 - 47 (70%) (view spoiler)[

her name isn't even Lucy?? who is this girl...

It'd almost be too easy if it was lucy behind killing Levi. my guess is either all three were in on it OR Nicole after the night of Halloween (hide spoiler)]

up to ch 56 (81%) (view spoiler)[ WHAT LUCY HAD the picture!! I truly wasn't seeing that coming.

she's so nonchalant about Levi's death, it's so disturbing (hide spoiler)]

finished (view spoiler)[
jealousy... wow to think that is what killed Eliza by her own best friend, no wonder the grief has weighed so heavy. Margot really wanted to be the only one for Levi... the only one

lucy the manipulative friend... but also the half sister to Eliza and she knew??

Sloane took action though and now they are all implicit in the murder. I have to say, this book had a few shocks and gasps out of me, because I really didn't expect Lucy to be a half sister nor did I think Margot killed her best friend *although that last one didn't throw me off guard toooo much (hide spoiler)]

happy I listened to the audiobook, because it was more on the slower build up side, so found it was easier to read that way.

I'm running a little behind but I hope to read this one sometime this week.

no worries! I look forward to reading your comments!

Read this one tonight.

Chapters 1-16
(view spoiler)[
This is interesting so far. So based on the present chapters, it looks like Levi is dead and Lucy may have had something to do with it? Did the girls all come up with this plan after Margot told them about Levi being responsible for Eliza's death?
(hide spoiler)]

Chapters 17-32
(view spoiler)[
Ok I think Levi raped Nicole at the party when Lucy and Margot saw him coming from their house. It would make sense with how Nicole is now acting. And I definitely think the girls planned killing Levi.
(hide spoiler)]

Chapters 33-48
(view spoiler)[
Alright so it doesn't seem like they came up with a plan to kill Levi together with Lucy, but then maybe Lucy isn't actually the one who killed him? Maybe it was the other 3 girls? And who is Lucy if she's not actually a student at the college?
(hide spoiler)]

Chapters 49-67
(view spoiler)[
Wow, this had a few twists I did not see coming. I wasn't expecting Lucy to be Eliza's half-sister at all. It makes a lot of sense now why they were so alike with Lucy watching Eliza and copying her. Also didn't expect to learn that Margot was the one who killed Eliza even though it was an accident. And Sloan killing Lucy to stop her from finding out it was Nicole who killed Levi was crazy. This was actually really good and I liked how everything was wrapped up.
(hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[ the ending seemed wild with the half-sister!! It was nicely wrapped in a bow and the ones responsible, I didn't anticipate them being ... (hide spoiler)] glad we both liked it!!

although nothing compares to the author's first book I've read of Flicker in the dark