The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Bartz, Andrea. We Were Never Here. New York: Ballantine Books, 2021.

The novel is told in the first-person past by Emily, the protagonist of the novel, which begins with Emily and her best friend, Kristen, enjoying a week-long vacation in Chile. The two women had not seen one another in nearly a year. Although they became best friends in college and spent their twenties living in Wisconsin together, Kristen had moved to Australia several years ago for work. The two women continued their tradition of spending their vacations together travelling the world to exotic and remote locations. The previous year, when they had gone to Cambodia, Emily had been sexually assaulted by a man she had met in a bar. She had taken Sebastian back to her hotel room, intending to sleep with him, but then he had become violent with her. She had fought him off, and Kristen had come in at the perfect moment to help Emily. Together, the women killed Sebastian. After, they decided that no one would believe them so they hid his body and went back to their respective homes.

Emily suffered through a year of depression and anxiety, which was only alleviated when she was reunited with Kristen in Chile. They spent the entire week having fun and feeling relaxed. Towards the end of the trip, though, Kristen asked Emily to leave her job and spend half a year traveling with her. Emily told Kristen that she had just started dating a man named Aaron and she did not want to leave Wisconsin because of him. The next night, Kristen went back to her room with a man named Paolo. Emily felt nervous about the situation, and she was horrified when she went back to her hotel and found Paolo dead. Kristen explained that Paolo had sexually assaulted her and she had fought him off. Emily immediately believed Kristen, and the duo disposed of his body, then went to their respective homes.

Emily met up with her boyfriend, Aaron, and tried to resume normal life. She was uneasy with the fact that Kristen was acting so normal and unaffected, so she stopped taking Kristen’s calls and even started seeing a therapist, though she did not tell her therapist exactly why she was experiencing so much anxiety. One day, though, Kristen showed up on Emily’s door and told her she was moving back to Wisconsin. Emily thought she should feel happy, but she was disquieted. Emily introduced Kristen to Aaron and then took Kristen to her grandparents’ house. On Emily’s birthday, she expected to spend the evening with Aaron. However, Kristen intervened and hijacked the celebration so she could taking Emily to her lake house alone. Emily tried to relax and appreciate the moment, but she was disappointed about missing time with Aaron. During the weekend, Emily learned that Kristen’s best childhood friend, Jamie, had committed suicide just weeks after Kristen’s parents had both died in a mysterious fire. Emily was shocked that Kristen had never told her anything about Jamie, and she began to suspect that Kristen was keeping other secrets.

The news released a report that said Paolo’s body had been discovered in Chile. His parents were wealthy developers in California, and they were promising reward money for any information. Emily began to panic, but Kristen remained calm and unconcerned. When Kristen discovered that Emily was seeing a therapist, Kristen blackmailed Emily and told her that she had kept evidence that would incriminate Emily if she tried to go to the police. Emily began to suspect that Kristen had killed Paolo on purpose so that she could drive a wedge between Emily and Aaron and cement the friendship between herself in Emily.

Emily decided that the best thing to do would be to go on vacation with Aaron to Phoenix. They left Wisconsin together and had a nice time, but the news revealed that someone had seen Paolo in a bar on the night he disappeared. A sketch of a woman who had been seen leaving the bar with Paolo was released.

Kristen flew to Phoenix to see Emily, who was shocked to see Kristen. The two women went on a walk down the road and argued near a cliff. The two women argued about Paolo and then Emily pushed Kristen over the cliff, but Kristen held onto the ledge. Emily felt bad, so she helped pull Kristen back up. Kristen pushed Emily in front of a car, which Aaron happened to be driving. Aaron swerved to avoid Emily and hit Kristen. Both Kristen and Aaron fell off the steep cliff.

Emily told the police an edited version of what had happened, then went to the hospital. She ran into Kristen’s godparents, Jennifer and Thomas. Jennifer told Emily that Kristen’s father had sexually abused her best friend, Jamie. Jamie had, in turn, started a fire in Kristen’s house, killing both her mother and her father. Kristen was devastated about her mother’s death and ended up in a psychiatric ward.

The doctors revealed that Kristen had passed away but Aaron had survived. The police came to talk to Emily because they had realized that Kristen was the last person to see Paolo. Emily left their meeting and told Aaron the entire truth. She promised him she was going to turn herself in so that the police would not suspect him of intentionally killing Kristen to cover up the murder. He made her promise to talk to a lawyer first. She did as requested, and the lawyer got the police to drop the case against her, though not before the media learned of her involvement and dragged her name through the press. Eventually, they lost interest in the case, and Emily moved in together, then began travelling together.