Only one of us was meant to escape: BAD HABITS.

Bad Habits by Amy Gentry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Claire "Mac" Woods is now a well-respected professor in academia--making her the person she's always dreamed of becoming. But ten years ago, she was just Mac. A poor student at university: part of The Project, with her best friend Gwen Whitney. When Gwen moved to Mac's hometown, her life changed. Through the lens of Gwen's wealthy life, Mac saw another future for herself than one with an addict mom; a sick sister; and a deadbeat dad. But while part of The Project, Gwen and Mac are sucked into the power dynamics of a married professor couple, with disastrous consequences. Meeting by accident a decade later, the two are hashing things out--but will uncovering long buried secrets do anyone any good?

This was a well-done and suspenseful book, but it took me a while to get into it for some reason. Mostly by design, the characters are incredibly unlikable and nearly impossible to feel any attachment for. Even Mac, our supposed protagonist, has her irritating and questionable moments. I think of this book as dark and twisted people doing dark and twisted things. But, there's some delight in that, sometimes, right? Because Gentry gives us really twisted people and what happens can be really dark.

If you're someone who came up in academia, this book will really hit home, as most of our characters' motivations center around getting ahead in that world. Mac envies Gwen and her "easy" life more than anything. And the two professors? Well, I'm not sure I can even *explain* them without giving away any spoilers. Let's just say it's a cutthroat world out there.

There are certainly some twists here--more at the end, where things pick up. There's an "event" that we know happened, and we don't really find out what transpired until near the book's conclusions. At times this is suspenseful; at others, frustrating. Is the power grab that's happening really worth it all? Only our characters can truly say, I suppose.

Overall, this a dark and sometimes slow-moving novel, but it has its share of surprises. It will be especially intriguing if you love academia-themed novels and power-grabbing characters. 3 stars.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in return for an unbiased review. It is available 2/2/2021.

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