The Legacies

By Jessica Goodman

What it’s about?

Old money. New secrets. One killer party.

Scoring an invitation for membership to the exclusive Legacy Club in New York City is more than an honor. It gives you a lifetime of access to power and wealth beyond any prep school doors and guaranteed safety and security 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.

So 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? She’s a surprise nominee, someone no one saw coming. Tori’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 night of the Legacy Ball is supposed to be the best night of these seniors’ lives, a night of haute couture, endless champagne, and plenty of hushed gossip.

Everyone expects a night of luxury and excess.
No one expects their secrets to come out.
Or for someone to die trying to keep them hidden.

What I think:

The Legacies is Gossip Girl with murder!

The students at Excelsior Prep are rich and entitled, and the students who are nominated into the Legacy Club are the absolute elite. The Legacy Club gives you lifetime access to an exclusive New York Club and contacts that open doors.

Seniors, Bernie, Isobel, and Skyler are nominated, following in their parent’s footsteps they have prepared for this their whole lives. For wild card nomination, Tori Tasso, this is a world away from her family diner.Tori may not fit in or indeed even want to, but she does want to win. She just has to navigate the events week that culminates in a lavish ball.

The narrative switches between the female characters as they prepare for the ball. There’s romance, breakups, sex, drugs, and glamour. While it looks to the outside world that these girls have everything, they are all coping with their own demons and family secrets.

The narrative also switches between the present day Ball where someone has died and the past week. The reader has to put together the pieces of the puzzle to find out who has been killed and why, who is responsible, and what secrets did they hide.

This is a pacy, YA thriller. With the possible exception of Tori, the characters are all quite unlikeable but that doesn’t stop you from wanting to find out what happens to them all.

Thank you to Netgalley for my gifted, digital copy of The Legacies.