2.5 ⭐ because I have difficulty enjoying a book that relies on shock value instead of realism or convincing writing.

Girl Gone Mad has a compelling and dark storyline. It also deals with some very heavy subjects.

Unfortunately there are too many plot holes and corny, stereotypical characters for me to rate this book any higher.

However, this book has received quite a few high ratings so I'd say that if you're considering reading it.... go for it! Especially if you enjoy YA books like One Of Us Is Lying as there are a lot of similarities.

Thank you to NetGalley for approving me to read an advance copy of this book.

”What’s the worst that can happen?” Maybe Emily shouldn’t have asked that question. Maybe she shouldn’t have befriended the new girl Grace.
It was scary to read about peer pressure, bullying and real evil. It shows that, when it comes to bullies, there is no difference between boys and girls. Girls do things more subtle and it can be hard to spot what’s really going on. But in the end it’s the same. People get hurt. Lives get destroyed.
The twist in the story was really good. I had to read the last few pages twice to understand the last words of Grace. ”I guess now we know the answer.”

3.5 stars

“Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”

I remember reciting that Nursery Rhyme as a child, and “Once Upon a Time”...that was true...

But, in today’s World of Social Media and Cyber Bullying, I think we have all learned that names can hurt worse, than sticks and stones, because the body heals faster than the mind.

Fourteen years ago, Emily Bennett was part of middle school clique called the Harpies.
Six popular girls, until there were SEVEN.

Grace Farmer was a new girl who they bullied to her breaking point-by convincing her that if she would just do what she was told, she would be accepted as one of them.

Yeah, right.

Now, Emily Bennett is a therapist working with children who are struggling, and engaged to a wonderful man.
Until the past comes back to haunt her.

Why are the Harpies committing Suicide, one by one?
The deaths seem suspicious and Emily must figure out what is happening before she is next.

I don’t usually choose books about kids “coming of age”, or those with the “mean girls” theme, and rarely like books where adults are brought back together because of a secret they shared in the past, as the childhood chapters feel to YA to me, and this was no exception.

But, this time, I wasn’t bored, and found the author’s writing style very engaging!

I just wished the book had more complexity as their was so much potential in the sub plots which were never developed! Emily had only one therapy session with new patient, Chloe and her relationship with her Fiancée was failing...two things which could have set this book apart from the “other” mean girl stories-but neither was fleshed out!

Instead the entire focus remained on what the Harpies did back then, and the remaining Harpies, trying to figure out if Grace is back for revenge, leaving the book a bit one dimensional. When it could have been so much more!

Thank you for my gifted copy!
It was my pleasure to provide an honest review!
Available now!

4 Stars!

Meet the Harpies...they're the mean girls of Benjamin Franklin Middle School and you want to avoid their wrath at all costs! This one brought me back to the terrible days of middle school and gave me a glimpse of what it was like to be a mean girl. Emily Bennett was barely a Harpy and was holding on to being in the clique 14 years ago, now she's a therapist and has found out that two of the Harpies have committed suicide.

This ends up being quite the adventure! Emily teams up with Courtney to try to find out what happened to their two friends and it appears that someone is out to get the former clique. It will keep you guessing until the last page. I was a little disappointed at the big reveal, but the journey there was quite epic.

A special thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Avery Bishop for providing me with an ARC.

Actual rating 2.5/5 stars.

On the outside, Emily Bennett has the perfect life. She dedicates her days to working as a therapist and aiding her clients to heal from their trauma and goes home to spend her evenings with her perfectly nice fiancé. Emily has many skeletons cluttering her closet though and when she finds out that two of her former school friends have recently died they become increasingly more persistent in their attempts to resurface in her life, bringing the remnants of her former friendship group, the self-titles Harpies, back with them.

This was entirely engrossing and unguessable thriller... right up until the final grand reveal. I spent almost every single page formulating a new theory and list of suspects only to have them obliterated a chapter on. I suspected everyone and, with so many despicable individuals littering these pages, it was easy to formulate a reasoning for why these many crimes would be undertaken.

The true conclusion left me feeling a little mind-blown. It fell into the realm of unbelievability and eradicated much of the former tension that had dogged the entire book preceding it. There was both too much explosive drama and long-winded explanations on the final pages for me to find realistic or satisfactory closure.

This Novel is about Emily Bennett who works as a Therapist, helping children deal with there troubled pasts. Emily has her own struggles with her past that she tries to forget.

In middle school, Emily was part of the Harpies a clique of six popular girls who liked causing trouble and bullying others. But there bullying got out of control with the new girl Grace. The girls took a blood oath to never tell anyone what they did to Grace Farmer.

Now, fourteen years have passed, karma has caught up to the girls when one of the Harpie's has committed suicide. But when a second Harpie is discovered, also from suicide, everything is starting to look very suspicious. Then Emily starts seeing a woman who looks a lot like Grace Farmer in the shadows, she’s forced to wonder: Is Grace back and wanting revenge Or is Emily going mad. Will more Harpy's died? Is Grace really back? Will revenge be served. You just gotta read to find it.

Wow, this book was soo good. It gave me the vibe of Pretty little liars meets Mean girls meets Gossip girl but like 100% Upgraded and much much darker. The story plot was soo good very dark and a heavy subject. I couldn't stop reading, I was addicted. I loved that things were not predictable in this book. I loved how this book was dark and kept me wondering if Grace was really back. I will give you a warning they are lots of talk of bullying so be warned it can be a trigger for some people it is pretty heavy.

I would like to say thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for giving me the chance to read and review this book.
#GirlGoneMad #NetGalley

I almost DNF’ed this, it started out generic and predictable but THEN it started throwing some really great twists and turns in there and I was hooked.

Emily is going through a rough spot in her life. She is in a relationship with her fiance Daniel that is unfulfilling and is not how she wants it to be. She is seeing a therapist and trying to work through her issues. Out of nowhere, she starts being faced with her past and has to deal with it. She reconnects with her old friends and things quickly get out of hand. I really liked that this book went back and forth in time and identifies what had happened as it connects to the present. I like that it kept me guessing until the end. I would really like to read more from this author and enjoyed this book. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

About 20% of the way into this book I was rolling my eyes thinking it's going to be another dull and predictable mean girls type thriller, oh was I wrong.
This book is nasty, gritty and full of twists and turns. I spent most of the book hating the characters but loved doing so. It was great seeing how each of the girls lives went after such a dramatic event in their teens. Even better was seeing karma come slap a few of them right in the face.
I really had thought I had this one figured out but was pleasantly horrified by the ending. ALL of these girls are deviously wicked.
TW for self harm, bullying, suicide.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3/5 Stars!

First - some content warnings: suicide, harm, bullying, abuse. Overall Girl Gone Mad is a fast-paced psychological thriller about what happens when the past isn't really over and might just be back to haunt you. Emily seems to have it all, a great life, a great partner, and a great job - until her past comes back in a brutal way. Emily is a therapist, helping teens deal with bullies and emotional abuse, all while hiding the person she once was, A Harpie. When one of the Harpies commits suicide, soon followed by a second Harpie, it's clear that someone is trying to send a message and take revenge. There is so much to follow in this book that it sometimes feels overwhelming: who is good, who is bad, is this the past or the present? Overall a good story that will keep you entertained the whole way through.

Gripping, terrifying, and impossible to put down. was a fanstatic read.. Was an awesome read. twist and turns all the way through from beginning to end. Loved It.

Girl Gone Mad kept me on my toes as the girls uncovered more about what happened to their former friends and if the past was coming back to haunt them. I got Mean Girls meets Pretty Little Liars vibes from the female relationships and the deadly consequences of their actions. The story shows the long lasting effects of bullying and how the scars of adolescence can carry over into adulthood. It's scary to think that an incident that happened in middle school, as awful as it was, caused the series of events that took place and the lengths people will go for revenge. While I was entertained, the conclusion felt rushed with a lot of information revealed quickly at the end.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a free copy of this title. What a crazy rollercoaster of a story. It meandered a bit in the middle, but the last 100 pages were a breakneck pace to the end. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a good psychological thriller!

Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Avery Bishop for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I won't lie, what originally drew me to this book is that the main character shares the same name as one of my closest friends, and it is set in Pennsylvania, the state I grew up in. And I am very glad I requested this, as it was an engrossing thriller that I couldn't put down.

Emily Bennett is in her 20s and working as a therapist, mainly with children. She chose this role in part to the guilt she felt for being one of the mean girls in high school - a Harpy. As a Harpy, Emily and her friends were the queen bees of school up until nearly the 8th grade, when something terrible is done to newest Harpy, Grace Farmer. This event is what has lead her to to an appointment with Chloe, a young girl who is depressed and has been cutting. After their intake appointment is completed, Emily checks her phone to see multiple messages from her mother, alerting her that a former Harpy, Olivia, is dead. Her mother also gave Emily's details to another former Harpy, Courtney. Once a Harpy, always a Harpy, so Courtney and Emily go to Olivia's funeral, where here sister tells the women how Olivia died, saying that she'd seen "A Ghost"' - a description that triggers them both.

Through many twists and turns, we are taken on a twisting thriller as Emily and Courtney try to figure out who, after all these years, seems to be set on taking out the Harpies, one by one. Bishop writes a highly engrossing thriller that I took every moment of my free time to finish. There may be more twists than an M. Night Shyamalan film, but the path they weave brings the story along so satisfyingly, you won't even notice. A quick read, and well worth if for fans of an intriguing thriller. I would definitely recommend this!

What an ending. There were parts of the book that just didn't do it for me and I started to skim ahead but the ending was mind blowing.

Always refreshing to read an original and suspenseful novel in this genre. Think Pretty Little Liars, with a splash of 13 Reasons Why, and finish off with Mean Girls. If that sounds appealing, that's exactly what Bishop has to offer with Girls Gone Mad (with less plot holes, of course). The novel is well written, the pace feels great, and it really keeps you interested twist after twist.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an e-book version of Girl Gone Mad.

‘Once a harpy, always a harpy.’ Girl Gone Mad by Avery Bishop was a wild ride. This story follows Emily Bennett and her group of friends. When Emily was younger, she was involved with the popular girls at school, who called themselves ‘The Harpies’ and they were the mean girls of the school. Without giving anything away, one of the girls stunts goes to far and the girls all disband. Now an adult, Emily has learned that two of her friends from the group have committed suicide and she is determined to figure out what is happening.

I thought I knew where this book was going, but the third act twists and turns were really well done and I was completely wrong and pleasantly surprised about being wrong. I look forward to reading more books by Avery Bishop in the future.

I would first like to thank Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this one. It possesses so many things I really love in thrillers. It is face paced, it had a lot of psychological elements, it has flashbacks to a different timeline and lots of twists I did not see coming. It certainly is not predictable and keeps you guessing until the last page!

Several elements of this book were really dark and really hard to read in regards to bullying, suicide and abuse so those are some trigger warnings for you.

I also really love how relatable this storyline is. At some point in our lives, we've all encountered mean girls and this book just felt so raw and real while being terrifying at the same time because it is clearly an extreme case. I really loved and related to the main character and how she found light in her situation and wanted to make a change and a difference. I was rooting for her throughout the book.

Overall, I would say if you like really dark, twisty psychological thrillers, you need to give this one a try!

Ho-oh-oh-oh-oh-ly crap!

There are mean girls and then there are these besauches.

Back in middle school Emily and her friends, The Harpys, bullied Grace Farmer so viciously that the ripples in the water continue years later. But now The Harpys are committing suicide one by one and the twists just kept coming!

I loved how deliciously different this was!

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing for gifting me a copy. It was my pleasure to write and honest review.

Wow! This book was a truly unexpected find. I’ve never heard of the author before, but had seen a few reviews for it on Instagram. So glad I followed my gut and requested it. It was so good. I love twisty crazy books. It kept me deeply interested the whole time. A little gruesome, but I love that stuff. Highly recommended! Thanks to the publishers and netgalley for the advanced copy.