The Things We Do to Our Friends is a twisted story of toxic friendships, unlikeable characters, and an unreliable narrator filled with tons of teenaged angst.
Clare has started studying art history at a university in Scotland. A rather unsophisticated young woman, she decides to reinvent herself by becoming more calm, shouting less, not being so intrusive, improving her accent, etc. The book does an extraordinary job of showing Clare’s insecurities. She knows enough to not rush into friendships but is drawn toward a group of rich golden people: Tabitha, Imogene, Ava, and Samuel. The three girls live together in a fancy flat while Clare shares a dumpy flat with girls she doesn’t particularly like. Eventually the “Shiver,” as Clare calls the golden group, notices her and pulls her into their clutches. Tabitha is the sun around which the others rotate. The Shiver gets involved in Tabitha’s “project,” or le projet as she calls it in her poor French, which involves sinister activities rather than the party-hearty stuff college kids are known for.
Clare’s story is revealed slowly in flashbacks interspersed with the workings of the project and these gradually unfolding details reveal Clare to be an unreliable narrator scarred with psychological baggage from her family and from events that happened in her early teens. At times, the angst is over-the-top. Edinburgh is described well with atmospheric details of the various nooks and crannies of the old city versus the new.
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The Things We Do to Our Friends (Bantam, January 10, 2023) is available through:
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