Laurie Elizabeth FlynnReseñas
Autor de The Girls Are All So Nice Here
Reseñas
The Girls Are All So Nice Here por Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Flynn is a wordsmith with the precise language it is crisp and clear that the words feel like a best friend that keeps you going until you get to the end. She lets you come to the party keeps you there with every page you turn and does it without missing a beat. It felt like the two main characters Ambrosia and Sully were caught in the writer’s web and you needed to know if they would come out alive or come out trapped for good. This book is recommended if you want a thrill ride with a group of women who know what they want and don’t want to be mixed with a bit of danger. This makes sexuality and independence and women empowerment a thing to behold. But what will keep you turning pages is to find out if the girls are nice or if some friendships are deadly. After reading this novel Ms. Flynn has made my instabuy list and for good reason. This is hands down a great dark thriller go get it! Thank you Netgalley for my arc and thank you to the author for writing a story that will stay with me.
This wasn’t my favorite, the characters all felt a little flat to me, like there wasn’t much else beneath how they were described at first. I dunno. It got better as it went on, but not by much.
The girls are definitely not nice in this book! But wow, did Laurie Elizabeth Flynn do an excellent job crafting this mystery and making me question everything. I didn't expect the ending until about two-thirds of the way through and I did enjoy every second of my theorizing.
Two best friends, Ambrosia and Sully, are invited back to their college reunion... but things weren't so pretty back in their college days. They ruined the lives of some people and someone is sending them menacing messages to make sure the girls know someone is onto them.
The book breaks down the story into the present, the reunion, and the past, their college days. The story slowly unfolds and lets you in on the dark secrets that happen and eventually unveil about 98% of the truth by the ending. The dark and twisted minds of these women are analyzed and we learn a lot about the kind of people they are. I mean, we all know mean girls that we think would act this way (or we know they did), so it feels REALLY on point. It's a unique take on a classic trope - those dreaded mean girl bullies, except we watch the bullies this time.
I did feel bad for the girls but also wanted to smack them in their college sections. I felt so connected and hoped they were better people, but... yeah, they are pretty darn messy.
Regardless, I enjoyed this book! I wanted a thriller in my life and I got it!
Four out of five stars.
When I first heard about this book, I was completely intrigued. It was recommended to me by a friend, and then the publisher contacted me about the blog tour, and I was SO feeling it. I couldn't believe that there would be a YA book coming out that was willing to center on high school sex. I love a book that goes for the hard issues, and this one was no exception!!
Mercedes is a girl who (for reasons) has sex with virgin guys who want to be able to give their girlfriend's a great first time without all the nervousness and awkwardness. She teaches them the tricks of the trade (by doing the sex) and then helps them plan out the most special night possible for their girlfriends. With a premise like that, I totally wondered where this could go?? I was cringing all over the place because I just knew that this would not end well. While Mercedes thought (however misguidedly) that she was HELPING these guys, anyone who really takes a look at the situation can see that sleeping with someone else is NOT the way to give a girl a great first time. Not just the cheating, but also the whole idea that these girls believe it's going to be BOTH of their first times... something that they're BOTH going to be going through together... and yeah, most people can see just how wrong on so many levels that is.
As Mercedes goes along with her helping plan, she starts getting lazy with her own rules. Rules that she designed to keep everything on the DL and to keep her from getting too close. Her screening process became completely blasé, and it started to become pretty clear that she was doing this whole thing for herself and not for the joy of helping. As things started to blow up, I couldn't help but feel relieved because this shizz just could not keep going on this way. The way it blew up became really heartbreaking though. I wanted to hug Mercedes and shield her. Luckily she has 2 amazing friends that do that for me. Zach (the only non-virgin guy in her bedroom) and Faye (the new girl that latches on) both go above and beyond in ways that bordered on unbelievable. While I really loved Zach and wanted to squish his face, I felt like he was too good to be true. And Faye was total stalker-vibe. But without them, I don't know how Mercedes would have made it through.
This book centers so much on sex and control. Mercedes thinks she's in control of her sex life, but it becomes pretty obvious she's not. And that's before her religious BFF's boyfriend blows up her spot. Once that cat's out of the bag, some pretty extreme bullying goes on. It's very sad to read a girl being treated the way Mercedes gets treated, even if what she did was wrong. She wasn't the only one rolling around on those sheets. The guys were just as much at fault, but they didn't get "Whore" written on their locker. Or physically assaulted in the hallways. I kept wondering where the hell the cops were, because a video gets leaked and it's pretty obvious that it's child porn. The person who made the tape and posted the video should be facing some hardcore jail time.
In the end, I wished things didn't wrap up quite so cleanly. This was a messy book, I thought it wasn't as true to the story to have things so HEA. Although, there was a part of the ending that my heart just wanted to BURST of happiness from. I had SO many feelings reading this book... not all of them good. A lot of those feelings were frustration and anger at the situations, but I still HAD to know where this crazy-train was going. I loved that it explored family issues and friendships and letting people "in". I loved that it was a teen sexuality book, but I also kind of wished that the sex didn't have to lead to a whole big lesson thing. On another topic- I would LOVE to read a book about teen sexuality where the teens don't have a giant lesson to learn. Where it's healthy, happy sex and the teens are fine with it. Sometimes sex is just sex. Sometimes.
OVERALL: LOVED that a book dealt with teen sex so unashamedly. I could not stop reading it because there was so much going on that kept me NEEDING to know!! I am so happy I read this and hope you guys will all give it a chance too!
My Blog:
I liked the main character and the mystery. The ending kind of killed it for me.
The twists were great— the things in-between got a little draggy, but I liked the realness and emotion this book brought.
This book obviously has a lot of sex, but it works it. It shamelessly attacks the stigmas that society often projects and I absolutely love that. Instead of getting too philosophical, however, it perfectly melds this into a very teeny young adult plot that makes it a lot of fun to read and easy to follow.
I've been waiting forever for a character like Mercedes. She's spunky but really kind hearted and a lot of what she does is genuinely to help other people. Underneath her exterior we get glimpses of the self she's not letting others see. She works hard, but isn't single minded. She's dynamic. I love her, and more importantly, I love reading about her. She's interesting. The science element was very well played, and added to Mercedes's character while showing the way she thinks and adding to the plot.
Faye added what I thought was going to be a more interesting dynamic than it was, but provided a great inspiration for Mercedes to work with. Angela, too, was, in addition to a great friend, a fabulous foil. Of the whole book, Zach was probably my least favourite part as his character did feel rather flat, and I would have liked to see him expanded more.
I loved the way the story worked around and led up to the final revelation. I wasn't surprised by that point, just sad, but the way it had all cumulated was very effective as I initially had an entirely different and incorrect theory.
The topics this book works with are important, and this is the beginning of what could be a great forum.
For challenging stigmas that society has set alone, this story would be worth reading. However, with a fantastic lead and an interesting plot, I highly recommend this inspiring book.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Mentioned in a blog post at https://booksbeyondbinaries.blog/2020/01/06/how-i-learned-i-love-thrillers/
www.booksbeyondbinaries.blog
This book just charmed me. It deals with some rather large subject matters that many try and fail at but it was damn near perfect. The characters were beautifully flawed and real, storyline crisp and well paced. I highly enjoyed it. A bit of the decisions might've left me feeling slightly meh, or a side charater I felt kinda got the short end of things but still great read, would definitely recommend.
I went to a small country community college. I always dreamed of going to the University of Michigan, but I just haven't made it there... yet...
Ambrosia went to fictitious Wellington and her class reunion has arrived. She'd totally avoid going except her husband is all about the weekend get-away and forces her back onto campus.
None of this would be a problem if she had admitted what happened her freshman year to her husband long ago. Instead, she's kept the secret and her guilt bottled up and forgotten.
If you're a fan of "mean girls" this is right up your ally. And the only thing I have to complain about is the ending - no part of that was really thrilling, if I'm being honest. It was more of a let down. Overall, I did enjoy the book and I definitely recommend it. I was sucked into the Wellington world and couldn't wait to keep listening!
Oh, did I mention that it's narrated by one of my favorite female narrators - Erin Mallon? She doesn't a phenomenal job reading books and I could listen to her read me stories all day long!
This one is out now so go grab your copy and get reading!
3.5 stars but I'm rounding up because I think a lot of the things I disliked about this were personal preference things and not necessarily the books fault. This is a dark book so I'm putting some trigger warnings in the spoiler tag at the very end of this review.
To start with what I liked, the setting of this book is really strong. It has two timelines and the one in the past is set at Wesleyan and that part was very well written. It really sucked me and really made reading the more gruesome parts of this book difficult. I could vividly picture everything and while this story was incredibly dissimilar to my own freshman year experience, it all felt very grounded. Like every character in this book was such a stereotypical WASPy person at small college in Connecticut, with names like Ambrosia, Flora, Sloane, and others. This could have made the world seem flat but I think it really added to the setting by really driving home what kind of world these characters are in.
I also thought the character building was excellent. These main characters are not people I think you're supposed to like and I did not. I think this book does a good job presenting the reader with scenarios and having the reader figure out what they think about some action while still presenting the events of the book as horrifying overall. The thing I would have liked to see a bit more of was some other sides to some characters but especially Sully and Amb. Though there was a couple of times I felt some sympathy for Amb, such as the different feeling she had with her husband when it came to children, most of the time, I just didn't like her. I don't think there's anything wrong with having purely unlikable characters and that can be really interesting. I think it was interesting to read in this book and this seemed more like a fall from grace story where the characters get less and less sympathetic but I think if I had liked Amb more when she started college, that decline would have been more impactful.
There were a few things I didn't like. I just generally do not enjoy mysteries with a dual timeline. This one had both a present and a past timeline. The big event happened in the past and the characters in the future reflect on it and the past chapters slowly lead up to what happens. This isn't a bad format, I just don't like it. My other problem with that timeline is this book is written in the first person so it always breaks immersion for me because it's hard for me to really feel like I'm in that characters head when they're actively not thinking about the big thing that happened. I saw a different reviewer once say that you can't keep secrets in first person and I think that's true. I also wasn't completely satisfied with the ending.
This is this authors debut book and I think she did a really good job the first time out. This book is genuinely upsetting at parts and I think the author finds the balance of tension and release pretty well in this story. I look forward to seeing what this author does next.
Content Warnings
I really enjoyed the plot of The Girls Are All So Nice Here, and the pacing was perfect. To say I devoured this book is an understatement. I had to know more. I had to know more about Amb, Sully, and Flora. I was totally invested in this story. I will say that most of the book is predictable with a few unpredictable plot twists. It's quite obvious, for the most part, how the story will end and who the guilty party is. However, the execution was done very well that knowing what was going to happen didn't put me off reading the book. I wanted more backstory for my theories, and the author did not disappoint. I enjoyed that the story alternated between Amb in college and Amb in the present time. One thing I didn't predict was what happened to Sully and Amb at the end of the book. I will say the ending was a tad rushed and a bit unbelievable with how easy it was for one such character to get away with what they did. However, this book does try to convey the lesson of be careful how you treat people.
I found the characters in The Girls Are All So Nice Here to be fleshed out enough to feel more like real people instead of just some random characters in a book. I really, really did not like Sully and Amb, not because they weren't written very well (which they are written amazingly), but because they were just so mean and selfish. They were the total mean girls at college. I think everyone knew at least one mean girl at some point in their life. I enjoyed reading about Sully and Amb then and now. It was fun to learn how much they had (or hadn't in some cases) matured. I really loved Flora and how much she genuinely seemed to care about everyone even those she never met. I wanted to be friends with Flora, and when I read about how mean Amb and Sully were to her, it broke my heart. Flora did not deserve any hate.
Trigger warnings for The Girls Are All So Nice Here include profanity, promiscuity, many sex references though not super graphic, rape, murder, mentions of suicide, underage drinking, drugs, and gaslighting.
Overall, The Girls Are So Nice Here is an intriguing read that will pull its readers in from the very first page. With characters the reader will love to hate and a story line that sucks you in, this is one novel that you won't soon forget. I would definitely recommend The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn to those aged 18+ who are after a well developed story that will leave you gasping by the last page.
Overall this was a solid read. I found this through an HPB e-mail; the synopsis caught my attention and decided to give it a go. The author did an excellent job of switching back and forth between time periods. Many times it can get confusing or events can get muddled, but she did a great job keeping everything separate. The characters didn't turn out to be annoying which I was praying they wouldn't be when I found out it was going to be 99% women.
One thing I did not like was the husband. He reminded me too much of my ex, lol. Lazy! Get a job brah, you know you aren't ever going to finish that book. He just upset me. Another thing that I took points off for is that I figured out the twist too soon. I like to be left in suspense up until the very end.
The biggest thing that got me was the ending. I didn't like it at all. Amb definitely wasn't the best person, but I feel like her punishment didn't fit the crime (both jail and never being able to see her baby girl :(, which I do believe she actually wanted at the end), hence the 4 stars.
Would recommend, and honestly, even though it took me like 2 weeks to read, someone who really ends up liking this could probably read it faster since the font is on the larger size and towards the end the book moves pretty fast.
“We need to talk about what we did that night.”
It seems that the secrets of Ambrosia’s past—and the people she thought she’d left there—aren’t as buried as she’d believed. Amb can’t stop fixating on what she did or who she did it with: larger-than-life Sloane “Sully” Sullivan, Amb’s former best friend, who could make anyone do anything.
At the reunion, Amb and Sully receive increasingly menacing messages, and it becomes clear that they’re being pursued by someone who wants more than just the truth of what happened that first semester. This person wants revenge for what they did and the damage they caused—the extent of which Amb is only now fully understanding. And it was all because of the game they played to get a boy who belonged to someone else, and the girl who paid the price.
Thank you, Goodreads and Simon and Schuster for the chance to read The Girls Are All So Nice Here!
“{We have to stick to the same story}”
{“I wanted to run, but she wasn’t done moving her pawns}”
I just finished reading this last night and let me just say WOW! This book was dark and disturbing. I’m wondering if I am just as bad or if I have a lose screw {well yeah, I probably do!} because I liked this book. I mean liked it so much that once I started to read it, I couldn’t stop. This book is full of betrayal, lies, relationships, friendship, manipulation, some seriously twisted mind games, and oh so dark and deadly secrets.
“{Our reign was short and bloody. What came after it was worse.}”
Talk about mean girls getting some karma later in life. With Ambrosia you will probably feel everything under the sun when it comes to her. She is one of the mean girls. How mean you'll have to read to figure it out. But then everything that starts to happen you almost feel bad. For the most part she has basically lived a dull life to try and stay off the radar. Then there is Sloane she is just MEAN. And last but not least you have flora and she is the exact opposite of Sloane. The dark and the light The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn was a good dark fast twisted read. Happy reading everyone!
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