thriller

Slow moving, kept waiting for something to happen. Biggest issue for me: didn't like the characters. None of them developed enough for me to either like or hate them. ( )

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

This book was a conundrum. On one hand, the setting was full of promise: a Gothic prep school filled with overachieving rich girls. On the other hand, we have lots of internal dialogue and chapters that switch POV’s rapidly, causing confusion. There was also a slow start to the book, and it seemed to drag on towards the middle. This was almost a DNF for me, but I kept going.

The last 20% of the book is filled with rapid-fire twists and turns, and all the questions (and there are plenty!) are answered. There are some (more) deaths but I felt the conclusion was satisfactorily drawn. Ellison’s characters are typical boarding-school-with-money types, and there are a lot of familiar tropes (secret societies, girl drama, rich girls behaving badly) that will warm the heart of the reader that loves this type of thing.

I am unsure how to classify this book – is it YA or not? I feel it fits either category; the writing style is easy to read, if a little drawn out. I think each chapter would have benefitted from naming the narrator right at the beginning so the reader would immediately know who is speaking. However, this may have been done deliberately by the author to cause confusion and increase the intrigue.

My favorite character was Becca – she was an apt Head Girl, hiding her loneliness under a harsh and demanding exterior. I also felt sorry for the Dean, who was constantly under the thumb of the previous Dean (who just happened to be her manipulative mother).

All in all – an uneven but mildly pleasant read. Stick with it through the slow portions and you will be happy you did. ( )

Wow! I finished this book in one sitting. I love a good dark academia thriller and this one does not disappoint! Amazing that sociopathy is evident in 16 year old girls. This book had me hooked from the beginning and kept churning out twist after twist, until the Ultimate ending.
Do not skip reading this one! ( )

Good Girls Lie. J.T. Ellison. 2019. The Bad Seed in a private prep school! Goode School is a spiffy boarding school for smart daughters of the rich and famous. Secret clubs, secret tunnels, secret attics, secret hazing abound. All is well until the mysterious Ash Carlisle from Oxford, England, shows up, and people start to die. Even though the plot is far-fetched to be real, I enjoyed this book. ( )