SuitabookKeep Your Friends Close
Cynthia Murphy
- Reading
- Read alongside the young person rather than revealing the culprit. Pause after major suspicions to separate evidence from rumour, then revisit Chloe’s choices and the ending to discuss accountability, loyalty and revenge.
- Themes
- Status, ambition and belonging: Chloe loses the Head Girl position to Nikhita while remaining connected to the secret Jewel and Bone society at Morton Academy. The setting places personal worth and opportunity alongside competition and privilege, but the overall judgement of the school system is not clear.
- Friendship, betrayal and accountability: Nikhita sabotages Chloe’s Head Girl bid and takes Theo; Chloe later recognises that she has also treated other people badly. The book presents competing or mixed signals about this.
- Punishment and revenge: Students record perceived wrongs and imagined punishments in the Book of Crime and Punishment; later entries appear to match deaths among society members. The book leaves its stance open to more than one reading.
- Worth knowing
- Murder and deaths are central, alongside a record of imagined punishments and an atmosphere of suspicion. Friendship betrayal, romantic rejection and social cruelty may deserve attention if these themes could feel personally difficult.