literary gluttony

Friendships can be complicated. They’re built on trust, loyalty, shared secrets, and sometimes, buried resentments that never truly disappear. How to Kill Your Best Friend by Lexi Elliott dives into those darker corners of friendship, blending psychological suspense with long-standing tensions between a group of women whose relationships may not be as solid as they appear.

In this thriller, a reunion among old friends quickly becomes a tangled web of secrets, lies, and simmering grudges. As past betrayals resurface and tensions rise, it becomes clear that someone may be harboring far more dangerous intentions than anyone realizes. With shifting perspectives and mounting suspicion, readers are left questioning who can be trusted and what really happened all those years ago.

I wanted to love this one more than I did.

The premise immediately grabbed my attention. I’m always drawn to stories that explore complicated friendships, especially when those friendships begin unraveling under pressure. Lexi Elliott does a great job establishing the uneasy dynamic between the characters and creating an atmosphere where nobody feels entirely trustworthy.

Unfortunately, I felt like this book took far too long to get where it was going.

For much of the story, I found myself waiting for something significant to happen. There were moments of tension scattered throughout, but the pacing felt sluggish, and I often felt like the plot was circling the same ideas repeatedly without making meaningful progress. What should have felt suspenseful instead felt drawn out, making it difficult to stay fully invested in the mystery.

Once I reached the halfway point, I also found the central mystery fairly predictable. The clues became easier to piece together, and many of the major reveals unfolded pretty much the way I expected. While that doesn’t necessarily ruin a thriller for me, it did lessen some of the suspense since I rarely felt surprised by the direction the story was taking.

That said, Lexi Elliott still managed to pull off one thing I genuinely didn’t see coming.

The final twist caught me completely off guard.

After spending much of the book feeling like I was one step ahead of the narrative, that last revelation landed in a way that genuinely surprised me. It added a fresh layer to everything that came before it and helped elevate an ending that otherwise might have felt too predictable.

The character work was solid overall, though I never felt particularly attached to any of the women. Their complicated histories and interpersonal conflicts kept the story moving, but I found myself more interested in uncovering the truth than emotionally investing in the characters themselves.

In the end, How to Kill Your Best Friend is a decent psychological thriller with an intriguing premise, a slow-burning mystery, and an ending that delivers at least one memorable surprise. While the pacing dragged more than I would have liked and much of the story felt predictable, the final twist helped leave me with a more positive impression than I expected.

Devour or Nibble?

Nibble. If you enjoy slow-burn psychological thrillers centered around toxic friendships, secrets, and betrayals, this may still be worth adding to your TBR. Just be prepared for a lengthy buildup before the story reaches its most compelling moments. The final twist makes the journey more worthwhile, but readers looking for a fast-paced thriller may find themselves wishing things moved along a bit quicker.