This was such an improvement from They Wish They Were Us, which aside from problematic books I read, was probably the worst book of 2021 for me. They’ll Never Catch Us was more enjoyable, the message on misogyny and sexism shone through, and the conclusion was much better. I also liked how Goodman didn’t sanitise how teenagers act. I did have three major criticisms, though. The first is that Ellie and Stella’s voices were incredibly similar. I sometimes had to check halfway through a chapter whose perspective I was reading from. The second is that the inciting incident didn’t happen until 37% through the book, so it was quite a slow start. The third is spoilery:

essentially, I wished the cold cases played a bigger part in the mystery. Because they were already technically solved before the book began, I would have liked a more definitive statement that X person definitely did do Y but the police screwed it up, rather than X person probably did Y but the police screwed it up.

Regardless of these criticisms, this book has shown me that They Wish They Were Us was probably a one-off bad book, so I’m interested in what Goodman writes next. 

Welcome to Edgewater High. A school where fellow track mates will do anything, and I mean anything to make it to State and that coveted number one spot.⁣⁣
I was a runner in high school, so as I was reading this I was thanking my lucky stars I never attended a school quite like this. But also in reality my passion was short lived so I probably wouldn’t have been on any crazy competitive persons radar! 😂😂 ⁣⁣
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I was highly anticipating They’ll Never Catch Us after being hooked on Jessica Goodman’s last novel, They Will Never Be Us. I really freaking enjoyed that book and was hoping for some of the same magic. I have to be honest friends, sadly…it did not live up to my expectations. 😢⁣⁣
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The Steckler Sisters are promising high school track stars in a rural New York town called Edgewater. The town was nicknamed Deadwater after several of the residents young runners were found murdered in the span of a year right near a secluded trail. All killed in the same way and with the laces removed from their shoes. All of the sudden after murder number 3 the killings stopped, but are not forgotten with an unknown murderer still in the loose. The sisters will do whatever it takes to come in first place and obtain a coveted scholarship to a good college and leave this small but morbid city behind. To add to their pressure and give them even more competition, Mila who is a top scoring runner, has transferred in from another school and is a new edition to the track team. Both Stella and Ellie, who are at first wary seem to start a friendship with their new teammate. And even though they make like her they always have to remember at the end of the day Mila is another top competitor and has to be held at arms length. ⁣⁣
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One morning Mila doesn’t show up for school, or work. The next day her Mom and the police are at the school questioning who had seen her last and does anyone know what happened to her. Mila was on her way to an early morning run that she never came back from. Both of the Steckler sisters are suspects, but Stella is suspect number one after what happened between her and Allison Tarley last year. Are either of the girls capable of doing something to Mila to secure the number one spot on the team? Or is it possible Mila could be a new Deadwater victim?⁣⁣
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𝐏𝐫𝐨’𝐬 ⁣⁣
-Even though most of the book was predictable The author pulled some punches and surprised me with some of the characters (can’t say more or I will ruin the book) ⁣⁣
-I liked that there was character diversity.⁣⁣
-One of the themes I noticed in this and JG’s prior book is about the problems that a lot of women, especially young ones face in a world that still caters more to men. Kudos JG for addressing some important issues! ⁣⁣
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𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬:⁣⁣
-Didn’t care for any of the characters. I hate to say it, but even Mila, the girl who goes missing. ⁣⁣
-Took too long to get the story actually going. That was my biggest problem. It just felt like I was waiting for something to happen for most of the book.⁣⁣
-As stated above this was for the most part extremely predictable.⁣⁣
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Although They’ll Never Catch Us was not what I anticipated I am optimistically and expectantly waiting on Jessica Goodman’s next book. ⁣⁣
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On to the next adventure friends!⁣⁣
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𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐮𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲, 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐞. 𝐈 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐈’𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐮𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬, 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞..𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠. ⁣⁣
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 I received an e-ARC of this novel from Penguin Teen and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Any and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Stella and Ellie are the Steckler Sisters, known in their town of Edgewater for their skills in running, big enough to get enlisted by colleges. However, when a new girl Mila threatens to take that crown from these competing sisters, the town's past of being home to a serial killer comes back as Mila goes missing. How far will these sisters go to discover the truth, and how many secrets will be revealed?

This book infuriated me in the very worst ways. Stella was one of the worst main characters I have ever read. She hated everyone and everything, including her own sister. She's extremely selfish and only worries about herself when it comes to being the best there is in running. She treated Ellie like crap half the time. I'm an only child, and Stella is the reason why I am so glad I don't have a sibling. Ellie was okay. She did some pretty bad stuff as well, but not as bad as Stella. I felt like every character except Mila was bad. Mila was probably the one character I liked out of everyone in the cast. All of the supporting cast, aka the cross country team, were all douchebags. It also didn't help that this book vamped up every high school stereotype/drama scene to 11.

Which leads me to my next point: the pacing was awful. Keep in mind here, this book is less than 300 pages. Mila doesn't go missing until around 40% in, and then it's really 70% when the real serious stuff starts happening. The build up was absolutely atrocious. Instead of giving us quality time to get to know the characters and Mila and the world, we're thrown into flashback after flashbacks that were for the most part useless. I could only name one or two off the top of my head. They just re-emphasized stuff we already knew, and it bored me. As a result, the end of the novel was poorly rushed.

This story is advertised as a mystery. It barely felt like it. There were almost no clues and they were scattered so far apart that I pretty much forgot any connections I might have made beforehand. Pretty much all of the "investigation" is done in the last 20% and the true culprit was just thrust in your face like "Hey yeah this was here the whole time, cool." No, there was absolutely no build-up! And the connection for why the culprit did what they did was just so bland and generic and overused that I was this close to throwing my Kindle out of the room. I could have come up with a better result for the true culprit and it would have made more sense than what Jessica Goodman did. And do NOT get me started on the ending.

There were also some issues when it came to development. Stella and Ellie's mom is a recovering alcoholic, but the mom is barely even present that at the end when the mom just apologizes and it's an emotional family moment, I felt nothing behind it. Same with Mila's dad, who apparently is a recovering drug addict himself. He said he recovered that quickly, but it's not ever that simple. I thought his discussion on addiction was better than the mom, however.

They'll Never Catch Us falls under the "great idea, horrible execution" and irritated me in more ways than one. This "mystery" is more of a teen drama straight out of the CW that I won't be picking up any time soon.