An all girls boarding school is something that has always intrigued me, especially as a teenager, when I thought I wanted to attend one. Because of that, I really wanted to like this book, but I found it hard to get into. It is told from the perspective of several different girls and while I understand why that was, it was hard to keep track of all the characters and their backstories. Like other reviewers, I wish the book had circled back to those stories, because it felt inconclusive at times in the same way Karen Mirro's story was.
I would have liked to know more about Karen Mirro's story. Instead, it felt like a pesky ghost hanging over your shoulder all the time, one you don't know much about, other than it's dead.
In the end, I think it was a good story, but it lacked focus for me.
Thanks to St. Martin's Press, NetGalley and Emily Layden for the review copy.

DNF. Sadly, I just couldn't finish this book. It's a good premise but the delivery feels underbaked. There needs to be editing, for sure. In the same sentence, the protagonist "cranes her head up' and then 'cranes her neck.' Things like this take me out of the story. With that said, the author can write. The novel just needs more finessing in my personal opinion. Maybe others will feel differently.

A book set in an all-girls boarding school? Count me in!

Curtis Sittenfield’s *Prep* is one of my favorite books, and those who liked *Prep* should pick up *All Girls.*

Beginning with freshman Lauren Triplett’s ride to campus, *All Girls* takes us through the 2015-16 year at Atwater from the point of view of many of the students.

Throughout the big events of the academic year, reminders of an alleged rape that took place on campus years before continue to surface. Who was the perpetrator? Could this happen to me? And, more importantly, What is Atwater going to do about it?

Sexual assault at an all girls boarding school, each chapter told by a different girl. There were so many topics covered in this book, it was just too much. I finished the book, barely and didn't find it enjoyable. My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was immediately drawn to this novel based on the premise re assault that occurs at a girls school in Connecticut, where I"m from however this story just didn't live up to the premise. In the end I think I was the wrong reader for this novel.

“All Girls” had such a promising premise but it fell flat. Each chapter is a different girls’ perspective which really muddied the entire book for me.

Trigger warning: sexual assault.

The book centers around this all girls boarding school where a student is suing because she was assaulted by a teacher and never received true justice. Each different girls’ perspective sometimes offered an interesting story involving this main premise but then some perspectives would have nothing to do with the rest of the book. There was just way too much going on. However, I will say that the book itself is well-written and there is a lot of promise here. Teenage girls are more complicated than one might think and many different issues are attempted to be tackled in this book.

A very readable debut from Emily Layden, which reminded me of Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld as an all girls boarding school is rocking by a rape that took place years ago. Layden switches perspectives between many of the girls at school, which allows various insight into their psyche but also made me slightly confused as we are not really given enough time to completely know each character (and the various WASP-ish names like Blake, Bryce, Sloane, and Collier didn't help).

The story is ostensibly about a rape and its affect on students and teachers at a school but ends up becoming about girls and how they interact at a boarding school (the sub headings confirm this) which seems like a slightly weak attempt to shoe horn in topical matters.

Having said that, it's an engrossing book and one which I finished quickly and easily.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press NetGalley and Emily Layden for the review copy.

ALL GIRLS by Emily Layden focuses on a timely subject, an elite private school is rocked by a past graduate accusing the school of dismissing rape allegations against a faculty member.

There were too many students, new students, old students, team members, faculty, etc. This book had a huge cast of characters, way too many to develop any of them. I did not feel invested in anyone or the story.

This subject was recently tackled by Kate Elizabeth Russell in MY DARK VANESSA; Russell’s book was a dark dark story filled with character development and angst. It is a story for an adult reader. At times I felt ALL GIRLS could be a young adult novel.

I think the author writes well but there were too many characters and a somewhat adolescent feel to the story. There are many readers who would surely enjoy this book

I loved All Girls by Emily Layden so much. This book had me hooked from the very start. With unforgettable characters and a great mystery plot I was up late finishing this one, I can't wait to read another book by Emily.

All Girls starts strong with the unfolding drama of a revealed sexual assault at an all girl prep school twenty years earlier followed by the righteous release of a controversial edition of the student newspaper about the school's history of assault, consent, alumnae letters. For sure, there is a strong book in the set-up. But then the book devolves into a series of brief sketches of an endless cast of characters without any development followed by pages and pages of minutiae on unimportant prep school traditions. I almost gave up. There is strong writing here and a strong premise, but the promise of both is lost.

I liked this book. I liked the premise of an allegation of sexual assault from an alumna prompting stories from the perspectives of current students. I'm glad it wasn't completely focused on stories of sexual assault, gender and sexual harassment. It was good to see the experience of an all-girls school and the traditions therein.

I'm pretty sure I know which school this book was based on. I think my mother and her sisters went there. Recently, there has been an allegation of sexual assault from an alumna who attended after my mother did. But it's an interesting and intriguing read and I liked most of the characters. I also really liked the mystery of the "vandal" and was surprised to find out who the culprit was.

Ok, I loved this book! This was one that I couldn't put down. It's one of those rare books about teens that I think would appeal equally to both adult and YA readers. As a high school librarian, I definitely can see how my female students would relate to the topics in the book, particularly the gender stereotypes that the characters experienced. As an adult reader, I found bits of my old high-school self in several characters and also wished more than once that I had gotten to go to a boarding school! Despite the issues and hardships that the girls in the story had to overcome (or were still dealing with), the story overall was a positive one and left me with an appreciation for the camaraderie and fellowship that would occur in boarding school. This is 100% a book that I will order for my library and recommend to many of my students. I can't wait to read more by this author!

Trigger warning: sexual assault.

The premise is there for this book, but I did not love it. I love teens at boarding school with secret rituals and secrets and frenemies - like as a story concept, I just love that - but All Girls just had too much happening. It seemed as though every time you got to know a character, the POV changed to another character. It was fine but not something I'll be recommending.

All Girls, by Emily Layden, is an ensemble novel set in a girls boarding school in Connecticut. It's more a series of interesting vignettes over an academic year than a plot with a resolution. The girls' varied experiences touch many topics -- sexual consent, stereotypes, classism, power dynamics, racism, abuse, gender presentation, and more. Too many, perhaps, because the book never quite draws a conclusion or makes a statement.

Most of the scenes were girls at a turning point or realization, with insightful characterizations and descriptions, but we rarely see the consequences of these moments. Instead, it's on to another character, creating an interesting ramble through private-school adolescence, but with way too many characters to keep straight. I liked how the young women's experiences were taken seriously and their emotions were valued throughout the book. Many of the vignettes relate to sexual consent or men "getting a little weird" as one of the alums describes it, including  a whisper network of which classes to avoid, but it never really formed a narrative or led to a conclusion. 

I was very interested while I was reading, but I realized at the end of the book that I'd been waiting for the meandering stories to coalesce into something more, and it never quite did.

A sensitive and heartfelt debut novel about issues of sexual assault and consent at an all-girls boarding school. The nook confronts sexual assault in 1995, both as it was viewed then versus now in the #MeToo era.

I really enjoy the way Emily Layden writes. She really captures all the feelings and atmosphere of being a girl turning into a young woman at a boarding school.

This book’s biggest strength is the same as its main weakness. Each chapter is told from the point of view of a different student. On one hand, this allows for a really richly layered and interesting reading experience that really gives you a great sense of the school and it’s population. On the other hand, as soon as you grow to love or become interested in a girl, the story switches to another girl’s perspective. Lauren, the new student who begins the book; Macy, who has a really interesting story of being phobic of many types of food; Emma, who comes from a very traditional background but has been brave enough to be out with her girlfriend, a fellow student. These were all characters whose voices I loved. I really would have enjoyed spending more than one chapter inside their heads.

This is a promising debut on a timely subject from a really talented new writer. I’ll be looking out to see what she writes next.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley and Emily Layden for the ARC of this very well-written first novel.

I always love the claustrophobic, ominous, dark, disturbing vibes of the stories take place in boarding school. And the quick, intriguing start throughout Lauren Triplett’s ride to school, seeing the signs on the road informs them there is a rapist at her new academy, gave me hope and hooked me up from the first pages.

But after Lauren’s arrival to Atwater which is a special place of feminist intellectuals and progressive thinking , we learn more about rape allegations about a faculty member swept under the rug!

But after bombarding of too many POVS and details about different school characters( yes: unfortunately each chapter is told by different student’s third POV) I truly got lost. It was more challenging to watch Netflix’s German series “Dark” and differentiate the characters’ names and which timelines they were coming from. I couldn’t catch the direction of the story, I couldn’t remember all those names and their back stories. I started to lose my interest and I finally gave up.

It could be promising debut because the plot line and beginning was powerful but the way of story telling with nearly 100 POVs was mentally exhausting experience for me. I still want to read the next works of the author but unfortunately this didn’t work well with me.

So I’m giving three solid stars only for promising start and intriguing plot line.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this ARC with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

In ALL GIRLS, Layden beautifully captures life at Atwater, a prestigious girls' boarding school. ALL GIRLS takes us through a tumultuous year at Atwater and how allegations by a former student that she was the victim of rape and the hands of one of her professors affect the girls. Each chapter both advances the plot and gives the reader a close look to the inner workings of the boarders' psyches. There's Bryce, the legacy student, trying to live up the expectations of the women in her family who have gone before her. We also meet Macy, who has an almost crippling anxiety disorder, and Olivia a spectacularly beautiful biracial senior. We also meet her lover, Brooke, who adores Olivia but also feels overwhelmed by their relationship. Layden shows us that teen-aged girls are complex and interesting creatures who should be valued, rather than overlooked.

Not a mystery or a thriller, although it begins like one. Elite all-girls boarding school is rocked by an allegation that a teacher raped a student a decade ago - and that the teacher is still at the school. That strong concept takes a backseat to a close examination of the rituals of the school and the feuds and friendships among the girls. This seems like a world that the author knows well, but there are too many characters for their full development.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sobering and sad but still exceptionally well handled. Deeply engaging examination of patterns that are too often seen in our day to day lives. Compelling all the way through.

I am an alumnae of a private all girls Catholic high school and I could certainly relate my experience to those attending Atwater and the community it created. It is more than a school but rather a sisterhood. What fascinated me was the true variance of characters from a woman seized by anxiety and mental illness to a perfectionist that had difficulty forming friendships to those who wrote for the Heron where their words were not heard. Not until they published a newspaper about the rape that was concealed. In a school that prided itself on progression, they certainly had feminist views about keeping themselves in the past with respect to free speech. Great read and I appreciated the line that it is cool to be smart.