We Were Never Really Friends
What was meant to be a lavish high school reunion for Roger, Jerome, Ryan, and Chris quickly descends into a brutal fight for survival. Sequestered on a billionaire’s private island off the Louisiana coast, the group’s celebration is overshadowed by decades of festering resentment, infidelity, and dark secrets. When a masked killer with deadly surgical precision begins hunting them through the bayou, the friends find themselves entirely cut off from the outside world. As the death toll mounts, the remaining survivors realize the most terrifying threat isn't the hunter in the trees—it's the people they once called friends.
- Ryan - Taylor’s husband
- Taylor - Ryan’s wife
- Roger - Ryan’s brother, Stacey’s husband
- Stacey - Roger’s wife
- Chris - Hayley’s husband
- Hayley - Chris’s wife
- Jerome - Amelia’s husband
- Amelia - Jerome’s wife
- Richard - Ryan and Roger’s brother
- Captain Roger’s - Richard’s Captain in the army
- Roger invites Ryan, Chris, Jerome and their wives to spend a few days on his private island.
- Chris and Taylor are having an affair.
- Hayley and Jerome are having an affair.
- Chris sees a man in a ghillie suit in the woods aiming a bow and arrow at him.
- When he stumbles away from him he steps in a bear trap.
- The other guys free Chris’s leg.
- The boat won’t start, so they carry Chris back towards the house.
- The man in the ghillie suit shoots Chris in the neck.
- Stacey runs into the woods, Hayley runs towards the beach and everyone else runs to the house.
- The man strangles Chris to death.
- The man chases Stacey through the woods, stabs her, then pushes her over a cliff.
- Hayley finds a cave that looks like someone has been living in it.
- Jerome grabs a baseball bat and goes to rescue Hayley.
- Jerome encounters the killer who stabs him and he bleeds to death.
- Hayley makes it to the house.
- Hayley tells everyone about the cave and how there was an inflatable boat in there with a motor.
- Ryan leaves the house to find the cave and take the boat for help.
- The killer comes into the house and stabs Taylor to death.
- Hayley and Amelia run to the cave and find Ryan and Roger.
- Ryan tells the women that he brought the killer to the island.
- He wanted Chris to die for sleeping with Taylor and Roger wanted to get rid of Stacey because she was a gold digger.
- The killer shows up - it’s Richard.
- Amelia makes a run for it.
- Richard strangles Hayley to death.
- Roger chases Amelia and she hits him on the head with a rock and he dies.
- Amelia runs back to the house, finds a radio and calls for help.
- When Richard was serving overseas in the army, terrorists killed his entire squad, but he survived. Afterwards, he went to the house where he believed the terrorists were hiding and ended up killing a group of civilians. Captain Rogers convinced the army to cover it up, so Richard faced no repercussions.
- Richard and Ryan find Amelia in the house.
- Amelia slices open Ryan’s stomach and he dies.
- Amelia gets Richard’s bow and arrows and chases Richard.
- The Coast Guard arrives, sees Amelia pointing a weapon at Richard and shoots her in the chest.
- Everyone believes Amelia went crazy and killed all her friends.
- While Richard is recovering in the hospital, Captain Roger’s shows up and tells Richard that his son was killed a few weeks earlier and that he needs Richard to kill some people for him.
We Were Never Really Friends is a great mix of the horror and thriller genres. The pacing is very fast, largely due to the short chapters that made it where I flew through the book in a single evening. I found it entertaining from start to finish, though I did stumble a bit over the character roster as a lot of the names were very similar. Trying to keep track of brothers Ryan and Roger, along with women Hayley and Taylor, was confusing at times.
The identity of the killer felt very obvious to me right away but the why behind everything remained a mystery. Even with my early suspicions about the culprit, it was still a very exciting read with a surprising ending.
If you like isolated settings, toxic friends and the thrill of being hunted, then you will enjoy this book.
- Chris - Dead - Strangled by Richard
- Stacey - Dead - Stabbed and pushed off a cliff by Richard
- Jerome - Dead - Stabbed by Richard
- Taylor - Dead - Stabbed by Richard
- Hayley - Dead - Strangled by Richard
- Roger - Dead - Bludgeoned by Amelia
- Ryan - Dead - Stabbed by Amelia
- Amelia - Dead - Shot by the Coast Guard
- Richard - Alive - Recovering in hospital
- Murder
- Gore
- Infidelity
ISBN: 9798196121982
Publication Date: May 8, 2026
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
