This was an interesting multi-perspective dive into boarding school culture.

The format reminded me a lot of Genevieve Sly Crane’s Sorority, though All Girls unfortunately doesn’t resonate emotionally quite as well.

The book is on the tamer side for the genre, and that likely made it more realistic, if somewhat less enthralling.

Layden weaves the girls stories together well and does a good job of giving each a unique personality and perspective, but in the end I felt like I didn’t know any of them all that well, and that made it difficult to invest much in their fates. Abby’s chapter was the one that captivated me most, while the others ultimately blurred together by the end.

This is an interesting and mostly enjoyable read, but in the end it’s not really anything new and doesn’t provide the type of intense character study that overcomes the quotidian feel of the material.

I love dark academia and especially stories set at girl's boarding schools/women's colleges, so even with the subject matter--which is all too real in its depiction of privilege, sexual assault, and the corresponding cover-up--I very much enjoyed this book. However, as others have mentioned it is structurally closer to literary fiction than a traditional thriller, so if you're looking for the latter that's something to be aware of going in. Thanks so much to the publisher for approving me for this book in return for an honest review!

I was really looking forward to this one because it had all the ingredients to be a compelling read, the boarding school, the cover-ups, the different POVs, but I found myself losing track of it and stopping and starting to read other books because after a strong opening that held a lot of promise, it just didn't hold my interest. I'll read other books this author writes in the future, but this one drifted for me.

Loved this book. A definite read for 2021. 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2 star rating from me. Thank you St Martin’s Press, Netgalley, and Emily Layden for this k in exchange for an honest review

All Girls was an interesting read and I definitely enjoyed it. It’s tough to categorize this book because I’ve seen it referred to as a mystery and a thriller but it’s not really either of those things. I would classify it as YA Fiction without a specific subgenre. There’s no big twist that you would find in a thriller. There’s a bit of a mystery but it’s woven into the story seamlessly and there aren’t any big “AHA!” moments. There are many characters in this and, while some of them are a bit more prominent, it’s mostly an ensemble cast.

I don’t read a ton of YA and I don’t usually gravitate toward stories without intense action but All Girls worked really well. It’s a fascinating look at the world of an all girls boarding school, which conjures an expectation before we even start reading. In addition, it shines a spotlight on consent, inappropriate relationships, status, power and reputation. How does an elite institution balance its responsibility to keep its students safe while also protecting its own reputation? It’s a story we’ve seen so many times in the media and Layden does a fantastic job of exploring all of these topics in an interesting and unique way.

All in all, this was a great book and I would definitely recommend adding it to your TBR. All Girls sparks so many discussion topics and leaves you thinking about the situations in which many of us have found ourselves, that little voice in your head saying, “There’s something not quite right here.”

Thank you to St.Martin's Press for my copy of All Girls by Emily Layden.

Unfortunatley, I really struggled with this book. I was not able to get in to the teenage angstyness and had a hard time keeping up with all the characters. I only read to about 30% before putting it down.

I will not be sharing my review anywhere outside of Netgalley.

All Girls really nails the all girls prep school environment—the claustrophobic atmosphere, the over-involvement in one's classmates'/teachers' personal lives and dramas, and the elite panic when a powerful institution is threatened by the truth. At times, All Girls was quite wrenching—it deals with sexual assault and consent in an environment defined by privilege and status. Layden manages to handle it all sensitively, but without holding back or failing to confront the complexities of this kind of story. At times while reading, I did wish we'd had fewer characters/perspectives, but the chorus of voices, of a community confronting its own reflection, is part of what makes this novel work so well.

Atwater Academy is an all girls prep school nestled in the deep and peaceful woods of Connecticut. The school’s reputation is threatened when an alumni comes forward and accuses a staff member of sexual assault. This novel traces the ripple effect of that allegation through the stories of nine current students who are struggling with various issues such as their sexuality, futures and relationships.

The format of this novel is unique. Each chapter features a different perspective from an individual student with no return to that character again after their one chapter. Due to the brevity of time spent on each character, I found it difficult to connect with them. They spanned across all four years of high school and sometimes there would be mentions of someone in another character’s narration and I just couldn’t keep track of them all. Some parts had really great character development but I struggled with the fluidity as you would get involved in one story only to have it dropped and moving on to another. There was one chapter with sexual assault depicted that was extremely graphic and I am not really sure what was gained from how it was written. To be honest, the way it was described is still bothering me as I thought there needed to be more follow-up about the aftermath. I thought the setting was well described but the format and content was bothersome for me.

I love a campus novel and one at an all-girls boarding school with dark themes? I'm in. Each chapter is set from the point of view of a new character, they may or may not be mentioned before or after. Some may have trouble with this, but I enjoyed seeing the many perspectives. The novel starts out with signs near the school accusing a staff member of sexual assault. Throughout the year, this theme is explored from different angles. If you like a dark, literary book, pick this up!

As you may know, I generally love books set in boarding schools and this one is no exception! In the vein of Prep, this book tells a bit of the darker side of an all girls boarding school in Connecticut. And yet, it felt so real, so timely and I truly believe the author let the girls and women at the boarding school become the story so that their stories are not untold. I devoured this in a day and definitely recommend it!

All Girls came out last week on February 16, 2021, and you can purchase HERE. If you want a new, great book about boarding schools, this one is for you!

All week, Chloe had been secretly hoping he'd text her. She'd leave her phone unattended for extended periods of time, imagining that the longer she went without looking at it, the surer she'd be to return to a message from Aidan. At Brie's urging, she'd drafted (and then deleted) dozens of messages to him, alternatively flirty and casual and sometime both flirty and casual. "If you want something, what are you doing to make it happen?".

The novel had so much potential, but All Girls fell short in providing a compelling story. I dreaded reading the paragraphs going on and on about one of the characters, to finally feel like maybe it was relevant, to then realizing none of those drawn out stories had anything to do with the story itself. The author spent too much time dealing with 9 girls backstories and less on the actual plot itself. I really thought I’d love this book, but it is extremely disappointing.

I very much enjoyed this book, and it's grappling with the #MeToo movement in a New England private-school setting. For all the boarding school books I've read, it also may be the first to have a normal, non-controversial lesbian relationship depicted. The plot was slow at points, but I enjoyed each girl's perspective and the resolution was a little more "real world" and less dramatized.

An alumna of Atwater, an exclusive girl’s prep school, has accused a teacher of rape when she was a senior at the school twenty years ago. The scandal jolts the administration, staff and students, but adding to the tension is the apparent involvement of a current student in amplifying the scandal on campus with flyers, pamphlets, unauthorized newspapers, and other “pranks”.

The novel unfolds from the perspective of students at the school, girls whose development into their own sexuality is influenced, contrasted and raised to heightened awareness by the rape accusation.

Its hard for a woman *not* to find herself in at least a few of these stories. The insecurities of high school friendships, the ambivalence of sexuality and gender identity, the fear of change and the unknown of growing up and leaving home, are all stories that we know by heart. For some, perhaps many, there will be triggers in this book that may make it difficult to read.

The pace of this story, and the parallels between the school coming to terms with the rape accusation and their need to change, and the development and maturation of the students, were really well done.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Lauren Tripplet’s highly anticipated first days at boarding school Atwater are marred by an old scandal brought back to the forefront. After a teacher was accused of rape in 1995, the victim was dismissed from the school immediately, but the teacher got to stay in his position for the next twenty years. Atwater’s 2015 school year is marked by the events of the past coming to the forefront, and the faculty’s continued mishandling of the situation. Time marches on for students in different stages of their time at Atwater, who grapple with their school’s response while simultaneously living up to the school’s high expectations.

This book was different than I expected, but I think in a good way. Instead of focusing on the main players in the resurfaced rape case, All Girls is narrated by current students. These young women are very much on the periphery of old events, simultaneously unaffected directly, but still very shaped by their school’s reaction. My favorite characters were Macy, a freshman who struggles with mental health issues and Emma, a lonely senior in a high profile and all-consuming relationship. This book did a really good job capturing certain high school vibes – feeling like an outsider while also feeling like a part of something bigger than yourself.

A promising debut but just WAY too may characters and points of view to keep everyone straight. Might be worth it if you’re craving a good look at an all-girls boarding school (especially if you’ve been to an all girls school, I saw a lot of the same traditions and perspectives from my time at a women’s college) — but be prepared to work at keeping track of the characters and storylines.

This was a good read that addresses the issues with being a teenage girl today.

There were some parts of this that I thought were great, but overall it felt too fragmented. There were too many POVs and we never really get the opportunity to fully know any of the characters before we move onto someone else. Perhaps that was the point but it didn't quite work for me.

I had to DNF this book at 38% I found it very boring and did not connect with the characters at all. The formatting of the chapters drove me bananas. I do not like when chapters aren’t numbered. And the switching of POVs without any type of alert as to who was speaking was very confusing.

This makes for an interesting, but rather hard to categorize debut novel. It's set in a small, all-girls, Connecticut boarding school - set over the 2015-2016 school year (but feels a bit more timeless in some ways with no real mention of anything other than email dates firmly placing this during that time). The book opens with signs posted on the way to campus proclaiming that a rapist lives there. And this sexual violence and education relationship remains a constant theme throughout the whole book... but the book itself doesn't really build anywhere. There are no main characters, instead vignettes broken up by different students lending their perspective to the various milestone events across the year. It covers all four grades and while each student comes across pretty fully from a character development stance, the disjointed perspective leaves the book feeling a bit ungrounded.

I think that this will definitely work well as a discussion starter, but it never really builds the plot and the character arcs are often left dangling, never to be picked back up. It just made this one easy to set aside and I never found myself rushing to pick it back up. Maybe those who attended boarding schools, or even all-girl institutions would connect more with this, but unfortunately, it just didn't resonate with me.

Fascinating and compelling. I couldn't put it down. Timely storyline in the perfect setting. Looking forward to more from this author.

A coming of age novel born of #MeToo movement.

When their prestigious all girls boarding school attempts to cover up a rape allegations, the girls of Atwater are left to processes how this will impact their lives as women. Told in the POV of nine of the young women attending the school, the novel tells nine different stories of girls at the school over the course of the school year.

More literary fiction than a true mystery or thriller, All Girls is poignant reflection on the reality of growing up as a young women.