The Legacies
"Our new favorite thriller." – COSMOPOLITAN
A glitzy YA thriller set in New York City elite social circles, filled with backstabbing and blackmail, twisty secrets, and a dead body, from New York Times bestselling author Jessica Goodman.
Perfect for fans of Euphoria, Holly Jackson, and Jessica Knoll.
An invitation for membership to the exclusive Legacy Club in New York City is more than an honor. It gives lifetime access to power and wealth beyond any prep school doors, as Legacy Club members always look out for their own. That is, after you make it through a rigorous week of events and the extravagant gala, the Legacy Ball.
It’s not surprising when Excelsior Prep seniors Bernie Kaplan, Isobel Rothcroft, and Skyler Hawkins are nominated as Legacies; their family pedigrees have assured their membership since birth—even if they're all keeping secrets that could destroy their reputations. But scholarship kid from Queens Tori Tasso is the surprise nominee no one saw coming. She’s never fit in this world of designer bags, penthouse apartments, and million-dollar donations. So what did she do to secure her place?
The evening of the Legacy Ball arrives, and everyone expects a night of luxury and excess, haute couture, and plenty of hushed gossip.
No one expects their secrets to come out.
Or for someone to die trying to keep them hidden.
A glitzy YA thriller set in New York City elite social circles, filled with backstabbing and blackmail, twisty secrets, and a dead body, from New York Times bestselling author Jessica Goodman.
Perfect for fans of Euphoria, Holly Jackson, and Jessica Knoll.
An invitation for membership to the exclusive Legacy Club in New York City is more than an honor. It gives lifetime access to power and wealth beyond any prep school doors, as Legacy Club members always look out for their own. That is, after you make it through a rigorous week of events and the extravagant gala, the Legacy Ball.
It’s not surprising when Excelsior Prep seniors Bernie Kaplan, Isobel Rothcroft, and Skyler Hawkins are nominated as Legacies; their family pedigrees have assured their membership since birth—even if they're all keeping secrets that could destroy their reputations. But scholarship kid from Queens Tori Tasso is the surprise nominee no one saw coming. She’s never fit in this world of designer bags, penthouse apartments, and million-dollar donations. So what did she do to secure her place?
The evening of the Legacy Ball arrives, and everyone expects a night of luxury and excess, haute couture, and plenty of hushed gossip.
No one expects their secrets to come out.
Or for someone to die trying to keep them hidden.
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
The plot is intriguing. It starts with a murder mystery in an uptown society akin to Gossip Girl...which I loved. The characters are generally well-drawn, particularly Bernie (who has her own struggles to deal with outside of a dead body at The Legacy club). However, this is where it ends in terms of a good story for me.
Sadly, the author took what could have been a really great YA novel and turned it into an agenda narrative with so many cliches that I gave up marking them in the pages: Poor kid on scholarship is a lesbian with other standard YA issues -- but the rich kids are all heterosexual. Dress fittings for the ball became an opportunity to try out new LGBTQ+ language like "cis gender" that had NOTHING to do with the plot and it pulled me out of the story pretty fast -- not because it bothered me, but because it was jarring and didn't align with the story or the setting. No one on the Upper East Side of New York in the land of milk, honey, and money is using this language to address their children. I teach teens -- they aren't using this language to talk about each other nor are their parents. This is a media influence the author is using to feel relevant. The story was relevant without it. It was inorganic and inauthentic. Books that handle this well are One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus or If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio. Organic. Natural. And fitting.
The pacing of the novel was good and I kept turning pages. The narrative, told from three perspectives with intermediary flashback is a sound literary technique and allows an objective perspective from each character with an overarching omniscient presence.
I'd have to tell my friends to skip this one. While the book had great potential, if fell flat when it went from being about the three girls in the novel and became a platform. The ending wasn't bad -- the kid had it coming, that's for sure (is that mean to say?) -- but there are too many moments in the book where what the author knows about the Upper East Side lacks. More research, less neediness to be relevant.
Sadly, the author took what could have been a really great YA novel and turned it into an agenda narrative with so many cliches that I gave up marking them in the pages: Poor kid on scholarship is a lesbian with other standard YA issues -- but the rich kids are all heterosexual. Dress fittings for the ball became an opportunity to try out new LGBTQ+ language like "cis gender" that had NOTHING to do with the plot and it pulled me out of the story pretty fast -- not because it bothered me, but because it was jarring and didn't align with the story or the setting. No one on the Upper East Side of New York in the land of milk, honey, and money is using this language to address their children. I teach teens -- they aren't using this language to talk about each other nor are their parents. This is a media influence the author is using to feel relevant. The story was relevant without it. It was inorganic and inauthentic. Books that handle this well are One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus or If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio. Organic. Natural. And fitting.
The pacing of the novel was good and I kept turning pages. The narrative, told from three perspectives with intermediary flashback is a sound literary technique and allows an objective perspective from each character with an overarching omniscient presence.
I'd have to tell my friends to skip this one. While the book had great potential, if fell flat when it went from being about the three girls in the novel and became a platform. The ending wasn't bad -- the kid had it coming, that's for sure (is that mean to say?) -- but there are too many moments in the book where what the author knows about the Upper East Side lacks. More research, less neediness to be relevant.
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