Title: WE WERE NEVER HERE
Author: ANDREA BARTZ
ISBN: 9780241557655
Publisher: Penguin Fiction
Pages: 305
Source: Private Copy
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 their trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she’d been flirting with attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defence. 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 head-first 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 friend’s motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their cover-ups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend. Can she outrun the secrets she shares with Kristen, or will they destroy her relationship, her freedom–even her life?
Official Summary
16 April 2026
I went into We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz expecting a twisty, escapist thriller—and it absolutely delivered, with a dark and unsettling edge that kept me hooked throughout.
The story follows Emily and her best friend Kristen, who share a tradition of taking annual trips together to exotic locations. This time, they’re in Chile, and everything seems perfect—until Emily returns to their hotel room to find blood everywhere and Kristen claiming she killed a man in self-defence. What makes it even more disturbing is that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened on one of their trips.
From that moment on, the tension ramps up and never really lets go.
What I found particularly compelling about this novel is the way Bartz explores female friendship—especially the kind that becomes all-consuming and just a little bit toxic. The dynamic between Emily and Kristen is fascinating; there’s a constant push and pull between loyalty, fear, and suspicion. You’re never quite sure who to trust, and that sense of unease lingers throughout the story.
Emily, as the narrator, is easy to empathise with at first. She’s trying to rationalise what’s happened, to protect her friend, and to move on with her life back in Wisconsin. But as the story progresses, cracks begin to show—not just in her version of events, but in her understanding of Kristen and their friendship. I really enjoyed how the author slowly unravels Emily’s perspective, making you question everything alongside her.
The pacing is steady rather than explosive, but it works well for this kind of psychological thriller. Instead of relying on constant action, Bartz builds suspense through atmosphere, character tension, and the looming threat that the truth is going to come out. There’s a creeping sense of dread that intensifies as Kristen inserts herself back into Emily’s life, refusing to let the past stay buried.
If I had one small criticism, it would be that the story leans more into psychological tension than shocking twists, so readers expecting a fast-paced, high-octane thriller might find it a little slower than anticipated. That said, the payoff is worth it, and the final act brings everything together in a satisfying and thought-provoking way.
We Were Never Here is a clever and unsettling exploration of friendship, guilt, and how far we’re willing to go to protect the people we love—or ourselves. It’s the kind of book that quietly gets under your skin and stays there long after you’ve finished reading.
A gripping and atmospheric read that I’d definitely recommend to fans of character-driven psychological thrillers.
Also by Andrea Bartz
The Last Ferry Out
On a trip to the tropical paradise where her fiancée died, a young woman begins to suspect the death was no accident—and the killer’s still on the island—in this twisty thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Reese’s Book Club pick We Were Never Here.
When Abby decided to come to Isla Colel, she wasn’t sure what—if anything—she’d find. She only knew that she needed to see the place where her fiancée, Eszter, died, to try and make sense of everything that happened.
The island is nothing like Abby expected; though it was once a bustling tourist hub, a hurricane a few years earlier left it a shell of its former self, with only a few locals and expats remaining. Even the once-daily ferry to the mainland now only runs every week or so.
There, Abby befriends an alluring group of expats, but her sense of unease surges when one of them says he knows the truth about Eszter’s last days. Before she can see him, though, he vanishes from the island. Hours turn to days with no sign of him, and the other expats are chillingly cavalier about his disappearance.
As her quest for the truth unearths dark secrets, shady pasts, and a web of lies, Abby grows more determined than ever to find out what happened to the love of her life. And the deeper she gets in the close-knit expat community, the more she suspects one of them is Eszter’s killer—and will do anything to keep the truth buried. But will she discover who it is before she becomes the island’s next victim?
About the Author
Author bio from the author’s site
Andrea Bartz is a Brooklyn-based journalist and the New York Times-bestselling author of WE WERE NEVER HERE, a Reese’s Book Club pick. Her debut thriller, THE LOST NIGHT, was an LA Times bestseller, and her sophomore thriller, THE HERD, was named a best book of the year by Marie Claire, Crime Reads, Good Housekeeping, and other outlets. Her most recent thriller, THE SPARE ROOM, was a GMA Bonus Buzz Pick, a Marie Claire book club pick, and a best book of summer per People, Shondaland, Glamour, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, Vogue, and many other outlets, and she’s held editorial positions at Glamour, Psychology Today, and Self, among other publications.
That’s it for the week. I hope you have a good reading weekend. Until next time… Happy Reading!
