We Were Never Here: A Novel
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “This book is every suspense lover’s dream and it kept me up way too late turning pages. . . . A novel with crazy twists and turns that will have you ditching your Friday night plans for more chapters.”—Reese Witherspoon
A backpacking trip has deadly consequences in this “eerie psychological thriller . . . with alluring locales, Hitchcockian tension, and possibly the best pair of female leads since Thelma and Louise” (BookPage), from the bestselling author of The Lost Night and The Herd.
A Marie Claire Book Club Pick • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR and Marie Claire
Emily is having the time of her life—she’s in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of the trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she brought back to their room attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. Even more shocking: The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year’s trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Emily can’t believe it’s happened again—can lightning really strike twice?
Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma, diving headfirst into a new relationship and throwing herself into work. But when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to confront their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more Emily questions her motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their cover-ups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend. Can Emily outrun the secrets she shares with Kristen, or will they destroy her relationship, her freedom—even her life?
A backpacking trip has deadly consequences in this “eerie psychological thriller . . . with alluring locales, Hitchcockian tension, and possibly the best pair of female leads since Thelma and Louise” (BookPage), from the bestselling author of The Lost Night and The Herd.
A Marie Claire Book Club Pick • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR and Marie Claire
Emily is having the time of her life—she’s in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of the trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she brought back to their room attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. Even more shocking: The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year’s trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Emily can’t believe it’s happened again—can lightning really strike twice?
Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma, diving headfirst into a new relationship and throwing herself into work. But when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to confront their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more Emily questions her motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their cover-ups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend. Can Emily outrun the secrets she shares with Kristen, or will they destroy her relationship, her freedom—even her life?
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Community Reviews
This was a whirlwind of emotion to read. From like 6 chapters in so much happens and the author keeps you interested until the very end. This story has a bit of murder, mention of mental illness and suicide so read at your discretion.
The story starts out with two friends going on vacation together after not seeing each other for so long because one of them lives in Australia. During this vacation Kristen meet a guy and takes him back to her hotel room and then some crazy stuff happens and the girls have to hide what happens from everyone. Once back home Emily furthers her relation with Aaron and then out of nowhere Kristen shows up and decided to move back home but Emily feels that something is off with her. She starts to find out things about Kristen's parents death and the death of her former best friend when they were kids.
Emily starts to feel like Kristen in stalking her and their friendship starts to fall apart and starts to become hostile. Kristen starts blackmailing Emily for what happened during both of their vacations and starts to spread lies about her to Aaron. Emily starts to see through Kristen lies and starts to feel like Kristen is going to try to kill her because she knows too much.
The end is so crazy you will just have to read it because I don't want to spoil more. Highly recommend.
The story starts out with two friends going on vacation together after not seeing each other for so long because one of them lives in Australia. During this vacation Kristen meet a guy and takes him back to her hotel room and then some crazy stuff happens and the girls have to hide what happens from everyone. Once back home Emily furthers her relation with Aaron and then out of nowhere Kristen shows up and decided to move back home but Emily feels that something is off with her. She starts to find out things about Kristen's parents death and the death of her former best friend when they were kids.
Emily starts to feel like Kristen in stalking her and their friendship starts to fall apart and starts to become hostile. Kristen starts blackmailing Emily for what happened during both of their vacations and starts to spread lies about her to Aaron. Emily starts to see through Kristen lies and starts to feel like Kristen is going to try to kill her because she knows too much.
The end is so crazy you will just have to read it because I don't want to spoil more. Highly recommend.
Two best friends set off on their yearly adventure vacation which turns into a terrible nightmare. Can the best friends keep a secret? The story takes a few twists and turns.
This book was interesting. It started out, I thought, very straightforward. No beating around the bush, no mystery, just stating a lot of what has happened. Then, it started down a path that I thought was highly predictable and I was like, "Okay, this *is* one of those books." In the end, it took a really odd turn and ended pretty flatly and, I guess, realistically? It felt rushed though. Usually, the beginning of books are the worst part as you wait for things to build. I kind of feel like the end of this one was the worst part as it just fell apart and went nowhere.
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