Prepare yourself for a dark, chilling, and suspenseful academic thriller. What an incredible debut by Fiona McPhillips. The fast-paced and exciting plot of the story was something that really captivated me and left me thoroughly entertained. The dual timeline in the story was not only engaging but also extremely easy to follow. I'm eagerly awaiting her future releases!

When I tell you I was stressed an almost in tears in so many parts of this book, then I would be writing large paragraphs😂 I felt the emotions the main character was feeling an probably even more. I knew this book was going to be the one for me once I read the description.

When We Were Silent takes events and wounds from the past and reopens them in the light of the present day. This story is a take on dark academia, in a way, and an unflinching tale of assault, abuses of power, and the unfortunate who get caught in the snares of those who mean to harm. The narrative shifts between present and past, with each part taking place in huge sections rather than swapping every chapter or so. This is good in that it allows you to get invested in a particular timeline, but it also makes it difficult if you prefer one timeline over another, as you get stuck in one world for an extended period.

In the past timeline, Lou is enrolled in a private school. Her ulterior motive for this is to find out what happened to cause her friend Tina to end her life. Quickly she gets caught up in the drastic difference between the high-class school and its students and her own life as an outsider from the working class. Sports are a common thread, and quickly Lou learns everything she needs to know about what happened to Tina, but trying to find a way to bring the involved parties to justice takes a bit of a turn as she gets involved with some of her classmates and comes up against the machinery that is the school administration.

In the current timeline, Lou is a mother, trying to deal with her young daughter and the lingering effects of the past she had hoped to leave behind. But the past never stays buried. Quickly, her past is thrust back into the spotlight as new allegations surface around her old stomping grounds. Lou has to decide what to do to help current students, finally realize the full truth of what happened to her long ago, and bring everything to a close.

There is so much here that is interesting, and even the inherent darkness of the story tries to find some small sliver of light. However, the current timeline felt abrupt and jumpy, and a storyline involving Lou's daughter seemed a bit unnecessary in light of everything else that was going on. Or at least, not fleshed out enough to stand on its own. The original story of Lou's past is the one that was the most riveting, and following the aftermath of that for a longer time may have helped the present day a little better. It is almost as if there were two separate stories here that each deserved its spotlight, rather than sharing a single book. The second half felt abrupt in resolution as Lou finally got answers to exactly what had happened when she was in school all those years ago. And so many of the side characters fell flat and were there to act as foils or sources of information for Lou, with no real agency of their own.

I will also note to please check content warnings, as this book deals on page with assault, more than once. It is the basis for the entire book, so please go in fully aware of what you will be encountering. There is an interesting story here about abuses of power and the lengths some will go to avoid responsibility for said acts, however, it tends to get a little lost amid all of the time jumps and lack of urgency (and agency) from some of the characters.

This was a difficult book to read because of the topic about a swim coach abusing students and a school cover up. Although it took place in Ireland, I thought of the sexual abuse that occurred in gymnast programs across the U.S. and what it must have been like for all those young girls. The writing was a little slow or maybe it was that there were too many other issues the author tried to weave in. Overall, a successful debut novel. Thank you @netgalley for the ARC.

Thank you to Flatiron Books and Netgalley @Netgalley for this e-arc. All thoughts are my own.



Lou has rebuilt her life after the events that occurred in high school nearly ruined her. So when she gets a phone call from her old best friends lawyer to testify, she is worried.

When she was in high school, she thought the dead body would end her. But now she has a daughter to protect, and she has to move past what happened.


This is a hard book to review, because it deals with very important and tough topics, but it was a hard book for me to read, and not because of the topic. I found the writing hard for me to get into and horribly slow. I found my mind drifting, and I had trouble focusing on the story. When the story was focused on the present, I found myself getting frustrated because it didn’t have a clear point. I also found the twists to be lacking and fairly predictable. I think that had the pacing been faster I would have been able to get into the story more, and enjoyed it. I do think that this book has an important message, and it one that needs to be told, I just struggled.

Thank you NetGalley, Fiona McPhillips, Flatiron Books, and Macmillan Auto for granting me access to this book AND the audiobook as well in exchange for an honest review. I deeply appreciate the opportunity to experience India Mullen's narration. Her exquisite Irish accent and captivating voice truly enhanced the authenticity of the story, elevating my enjoyment of the novel beyond what I could have experienced through reading it in print.

What an intense, unsettling, and profoundly thought-provoking dark academia psychological debut novel!! It powerfully examines the impact of #MeToo, alongside themes of trauma, mental health, eating disorders, alcohol abuse, suicide, and class divisions with emotionally heartbreaking and hauntingly disturbing prose. This gripping and evocative work is empathetically written, delving deeply into the complexities of its subjects. With a narrative alternating between the past and the present, both infused with intrigue, the suspense was undeniably most palpable in the "then" storyline. While the ending wasn't necessarily what I anticipated or wished for, it did leave me breathless and contributed to the story's realism.

Let me clarify that this is far from a delightfully enjoyable read. Instead, it's tremendously painful and difficult to stomach. Even though stories like these can be heavy, I believe they are important because they shed light on the harsh realities that occur every day. While they may be fiction, it still carries powerful messages about standing up for what's right and refusing to remain silent.

When We Were Silent is about an outsider who threatens to unveil the secrets lurking within an elite private school. Louise Manson, the newest student at Highfield Manor, Dublin's most prestigious institution, discovers more than just high-arched alcoves and an oak-lined library behind its granite walls. With a dark, festering secret to expose, Lou's working-class background initially marks her as an outsider until she finds friendship among her beautiful and affluent classmates. However, her attempts to reveal the truth about Highfield lead to disaster and a shocking discovery -a dead body. Thirty years later, Lou receives a jolting phone call. A high-profile lawyer is bringing a case against the school and requires Lou's testimony. She must confront her past and uncover, once and for all, the truth behind the mysteries of Highfield.

I am throughly impressed with how the author adeptly illustrates the profound impact of trauma on the protagonist's life and relationships, emphasizing the necessity of undergoing the healing process to truly overcome the past. This portrayal underscores the idea that one cannot simply leave the past behind without actively engaging in the work required for healing. However, that we all have the capacity to move forward from our past!

In conclusion, this is a compelling, emotional and unputdownable dark academia thriller that compels readers to contemplate the ramifications of unbridled power and the extremes to which people will go to safeguard their hidden truths. I wholeheartedly recommend this book and look forward to read other books by this author!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

WHEN WE WERE SILENT is an emotional read. I felt like I was listening to a true story. It made me think of all the woman that have experienced abuse of this nature and still no one believed them. Told through past and present timelines we learn a lot about Lou and her friends when they attended Highfield Manor. There were some surprises through out the story that I didn't expect and that always sparks my interest. In the end, I do feel the author wrote a good debut, but be aware that it is on the darker side. Triggers are below.

TW: Rape, mental illness, eating disorders, and alcohol abuse.


Many thanks for my gifted copy!

This book was not what I was expecting, but was nonetheless a powerful statement on grooming and abuse in high school athletics. The protagonist is a former scholarship student at an elite Irish high school, where she encounters a predatory coach and his olympic-bound swimmers, trapped in a vicious cycle by which the school protects a dangerous abuser and perpetuates a culture of silence (hence the title). The narrative shifts back and forth from past (the 80s, during which the protagonist is a student) and the present, in which she is a professor and mother shaken by reopening of past wounds. I found the story to be an important statement on breaking cycles of abuse and believing victims, but also found the visual depictions of the abuse to be highly graphic and hard to read. Major TW for sexual abuse and violence.

This is a book that people are going to have mixed feelings and emotions about. It does have several trigger warnings for abuse, sexual violence, suicide, exploitation.
This book for me is one that is going to stay with me forever. It is a story, a raw, emotional, and thought provoking book that I felt the author did a phenomenal job writing. It is about an incredibly sensitive and emotional subject that a lot of people don’t want to hear about, are too traumatized by personal experiences, or choose to pretend doesn’t exist. However bravo to McPhillips for opening the doors to a world of how authority, privilege, and power can change some people’s lives forever and in the most extreme ways.
The main character, Louise, or Lou is a teenage girl that is thrown into a new school that is for the exclusive and prestigious. A world that she does not come from nor does she know anything about but unfortunately, she is about to learn way more than she wants to in ways that will change the course of her life and everyone in it. She does end up making friends, and eventually a very close friend, but she quickly realizes that this highly sought after school and the authority adults that work there are not at all what they seem, and there are things that are going on behind-the-scenes that no one should ever have to know about or experience, and she is now right in the middle of it. I don’t want to say too much, and give specific details away.

This also alternates between the past, and the present, and in the present, Lou is now an adult, and wants nothing more than to put the pass, and the experiences from that school behind her, but suddenly a potential lawsuit threatens to bring everything she experienced back into the spotlight, and unfortunately, for her, there are many things that she never shared with anyone, and if these things are exposed, it could create an entirely new set of traumatic experiences for her.

I will admit that this book was a slow start for me, and it did take me some time to get invested in the story but once I was, I was immediately hooked and could not put the book down. I will say it was at times very difficult to read and hear the things that some of these characters had to go through and the effect it had on their lives however, this is what is so important about this book That this author was brave enough to write about these things and shed light on things that many of us don’t want to know about or shy away from reading because it makes us uncomfortable, but ultimately we are responsible for educating ourselves and realizing unfortunately we live in a world that these things do exist, and do still happen. I found myself liking Lou more and more as the book went on, and also started dealing as if I was right there with her as she was going through the ups and downs of the events of her teenage years and now her adult years. I do like how the story unraveled and how it developed it was not rushed and it was realistic and the ending was something that was very real and made me feel so many different emotions. Books like this and stories like this need to be written so it gives issues like this the justice that they so desperately need an. I thought this author did this in a very compassionate, sensitive and educated way.

Thank you so much to the Author for having the courage to write this book, Netgalley, and Flatiron Books for the ARC!

My thoughts ⬇️

On one hand I want to give this book a 5 star rating with its intense page turner story line, but other times I want to give this book a 3 star rating with how difficult it was to digest some of these pages. This is why I settled on a 4 star rating. Hear me out.

As Fiona goes back and forth between past and present I find myself it two different places. The past left me binging these chapters, page after page, but when it came to the present I found myself having a difficult time staying engaged and focused.

👉🏼 “In the end, we’re the ones who have to live with the stories we tell ourselves.”

•powerful•

I think I'm going with 2.75 stars for now.

╰┈➤ 𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓬𝓴 𝓢𝓾𝓶𝓶𝓪𝓻𝔂

In the late 80's our FMC Lou gets a scholarship to attend a very prestigious all girls school in a posh area of Ireland, Highfield Manor.

At first she finds herself having difficulty fitting in but it quickly turns around for her as she befriends the most popular girl in school and in town, Shauna, as she's from one of the most prominent families in the area- as well as the star swimmer in a town where swimming is one of the most prolific sports.

Quickly, Lou starts going to work on trying to find out information on the well known swimming coach at Highfield, who she believes is the reason her best friend committed suicide.

Lou believes her friend was pregnant before she died and was abused by one of the teachers. She is determined to seek justice for her friend, even if it means putting herself at risk against the most dangerous predator.

In the present time, Lou is now married with a young teenage girl who she is struggling to connect with. Shauna's brother contacts her about a case that has found it's way to his desk that is related to another teacher at Highfield and needs her help to provide a statement or worst case, testify.

Lou struggles with how to deal with this - all of the dark secrets long buried in her past coming to light which no one in her present life is privy to. Along with wanting to reconnect with Shauna again to get all of the answers to the night that has been haunting her nightmares for 20 years.

╰┈➤ 𝓜𝔂 𝓣𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓼

What can I really say? This started so good but at around 50% I kept wanting the timeline to revert back to the past. The present timeline was a slog and I found it boring with just breadcrumbs when it came to details connecting the story. I had to really push myself through those chapters, and the way that the author has written it- the past is a huge chunk of chapters and so is the present. It's not alternating every chapter or every other.

The past part of the story is very atmospheric and haunting. I ate those chapters up. I loved the story coming from a dark academia/mystery/thriller aspect as well as the characters from that timeline. I love a good mysterious story at an all girls prestigious private school.

Ultimately, I lost interest and had to force myself through about 40% of the book. I also found the ending really underwhelming.

🖤 Many thanks to NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and Fiona McPhillips for my complementary digital copy in exchange for an honest review. 🖤

This story takes place in a "now and then" format. Set in Ireland, is tells the story of Louise, who is determined to expose the sexual abuse happening at an all-girls school. Because she is considered an outsider from a lower class family, it is hard to make anyone believe her. So, some extreme measures will have to occur.
This was hard to read, but only because it's such an awful topic. Great story. Recommended.

From page one, When We Were Silent had me captivated. Taking place between the late '80s and present day Dublin, this book examines power structures and how the systems meant to protect innocent people often ultimately fail those same people. I found the characters in both timelines to be incredibly compelling, especially with juxtaposition between the working class Lou and her wealthy classmates and general infrastructure at Highfield. That it may feel a bit muddled, with aspects of the incidents not fully examined or explained, may be a source of frustration to some but I think ultimately for me, that worked in service of the book's overall premise.

This book knocked me out! I love loved this book and wish that I could read this again for the first time. This book is dark and mysterious, eerie and unnerving. Dark academia is one of my favorites!!! The feels this book creates will not be for everybody but those who enjoy this genre will not be able to…not want to…put this book down. The backdrop, the setting, storyline, characters—it all was utter perfection. You get all the tropes you look for in these books—m^rder, s^uicide, coverups, grooming—please ensure to read the triggers into this book because it will not be for those who are sensitive to these things. This will surly take you away and place you right in the middle of the story. I ate this book up in a day, I was sitting on the edge of my seat, heart racing, mind turning in circles. The dual timelines was very well done but make sure to keep up and pay attention :) . This goes on my top reads for the year 2024 right away. You need to put this beautifully written read on your tbr if this sounds like something you would like. I cannot wait for the release of this book.

This one was just ok for me. I like the dark academia aspect but it was not as well done as other books I have read. It fell a bit short as the "it factor" or plot twists were just a little over done and it felt like that was all the book had going. I would love to see this reworked.

Thank you to the publisher for my arc.


This story was a bit too slow for my liking. While the subject matter was up my alley, I just felt that the story was lacking a bit. It felt like the characters had little to no development and the plot wasn’t really fleshed out enough. It was just kinda meh for me

This is a fast paced, banger of a debut novel. It takes you on an emotional journey with the story of the protagonist, Lou Manson. Set in two alternating time periods, in the 80s when she was naïve and vengeful, totally out-of-place schoolgirl in Highfield, a prestigious institution in Dublin full of girls from wealthy families, and the present day where she is an established professor with a family and a dark secret. But the nightmare she is desperately hiding from didn’t end with her and her friends in the school; everything is about to be revealed with another case. She is faced with a choice—does she fight or hide?

The entire book is told in the first person POV which is very effective in putting you right in the actions. You experience her fears and sorrows alongside her, and what she goes through—the tragedies and difficulties that she must endure and the secret with which she has to live is utterly devastating.

McPhillips’ writing is smooth and concise, taking us in the depth of the protagonist’s life and her emotions. The author handles sensitive topic with care and compassion. The book has no fat and is paced extremely well. It has everything you want in a good book. This debut novel is a must read. Pick it up—you won’t regret it.

I was provided a NetGalley copy for my honest take.

An interesting premise was bogged down here by a strange lack of clarity around so much of what was happening, ranging from secrets that never needed to be kept in the first place (why did Louise hide her past from her wife?) to characters acting in ways that felt more like hitting plot beats to create conflict than behaving like a real human (then also why was Louise's wife SUCH a jerk about all of it?) to actual location-based confusion (why was it so hard to figure out Louise's physical location so often? is the entire UK a labyrinth?) and questions that weren't necessarily important but still left me confused (where did Louise's daughter come from and why does it seem like her wife is more the kid's stepmother?) and also choices that just felt INSANE (I don't care HOW you find your 14 year old daughter's nude selfies on her phone, you bring it up even if it makes her mad at you, ohhhhh my god!).

I did appreciate how seriously the trauma of sexual abuse was treated here, as well as the honest portrayal of how genuinely life-ruining it can be, and there were some interesting plot elements in here for sure. This book just needed a hell of a lot more editing to sand down a rocky beach's worth of rough edges.

My thanks to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

thank you, NetGalley and flat iron for an arc of this Slow Burn academia novel. I LOVE a school mystery, and had high hopes for this one after seeing high good reads ratings, but it honestly fell a little short for me. The story focuses on Lou in present day who was asked to testify against her high school as a student who suffered abuse at the hand of her swim coach, and the school turned a blind eye. We then go back to Lou’s high school days where we see the horrific abuse she suffered. This story had so much potential especially in the #metoo era, and the writing was beautiful, but it landed flat for me.

A brutally honest portrayal of the effects of abuse ( both sexual abuse and abuse of power) with a dark academia setting and a dual POV timeline that further embodies the lasting effects of both.

Great character development, an engaging plot/ mystery at the core of the novel, and an expertly navigated discussion and portrayal of difficult topics. I also loved the depiction of the 80’s timeline with the music and TV woven throughout for context. It was a stark contrast of the innocence ( before abuse) compared to the modern timeline’s presentation of how youth is already started to be tarnished with social media influences.

While hard to read at certain moments, you really feel the frustration and injustice through Louise’s emotions and experience at Highfield Manor. Powerful and poignant.