I’m going to be honest..this was a slow start for me. The book begins with Ambrosia(Amb) receiving an email to her 10 year college reunion. She is reluctant to go because something bad happened her freshman year. Something that takes a little too long to be exposed. But when it is, whoa it’s a shocker. Amb and her new college best friend Sully are the mean girls freshman year who party and sleep around. And they share many memories together, including one big (very bad) secret they don’t want anyone to know about. But someone knows, and they want them to pay for it at the reunion. Once you find out what they did, you’re going to lose sleep wanting to get to the bottom of this. And Sully makes Regina George look like America’s Sweetheart! I really hope this becomes a miniseries. Great debut! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here was a wild story about means girls in college.

The story is told by Ambrosia Wellington in an alternating timeline. We begin in the present with Amb getting an invitation to her college 10 year reunion. We also get to see what went on during her freshman year a decade earlier.

This is basically Mean Girls x10. Some of the stuff these girls did was unreal!
The characters are not like able but I get that is the point.

The book started off a bit too slow for me, it took a while to get interesting.
I should add that there are a lot of triggers in this story. Basically any you can think of, it’s in this book.

I did like the writing, it was pretty easy to read. Once the story picked up it was hard to put down. This was a darker read than I expected, at times I found myself uncomfortable with what the main characters would do/say.
I liked it enough but it didn’t wow me, it felt like many other thrillers.

I recommend it if you want a quick read that will keep you on your toes.

Dark, twisty, shock and awe! Mean girls are just so much fun to watch/read about. It's is what it is. So, The Girls are all So Nice Here is exactly what I was looking for in a guilty pleasure. Not only do I love a main character I can also hate, I love a disturbing and shocking thriller. Therefore, this novel was a hit for me!
Ambrosia and Sloane were living it up in college and making other girls' lives miserable. They aimed to shock and that they did. The story is told in dual timelines which worked for this story. We have the young version of the girls and then the grown up, decade later version. Ambrosia heads back to her old alma mater for a reunion. It's also a return to the spot where she did her worst. Someone invited her for a reason. And that someone wants to ruin her.
It's gripping storytelling. The chapters are riveting and with strong, well-rounded characters. I was blown away by the dark and trigger-worthy plot.
It's right up my alley. 4 stars!

Girls being mean to other girls for no reason is my biggest pet peeve. I need a reason for them to be like this but they were just mean for the sake of being mean and it is so frustrating I wanted a villainous background story or something but they just picked on the nice girl.

Sully and Ambrosia annoyed me and pissed me off. This felt like a high school drama instead of university students having a reunion. Even as an adult, Ambrosia still sucks. I had a feeling I wouldn’t like this one and my feeling was correct.

I felt like I’ve read a story like this. I couldn’t really get into like I had hoped so it was a DNF for me. I’ve seen raving reviews about it, so maybe at a later time I’ll pick it up again.

I enjoyed this one, although basically every character was toxic. I will definitely check out more of Laurie Elizabeth Flynn’s work in the future.

huge thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

initial thoughts: a typical story of mean girls trying to run from - and cover - their past.

this book never had me captivated or fighting to not put it down. however, it was a quick read and one that did have a bit of a fun twist in the last chapter.

definitely a story highlighting the dark side of female friendships and betrayal, lies, and manipulation.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Spoiler alert the girls are NOT all so nice in this book! The characters are very unlikeable - some of the worst in any book I have read. It was an interesting and uncomfortable take to be in the POV of one of the mean girls. To be inside her head and thoughts as things get very out of control. It is a psychological thriller and sinister college campus novel book with a twist of revenge. It follows two former college best friends who return to their ten-year reunion, mostly because they want secrets to stay hidden. Even as the plot unfolds, the reader is left with more and more questions than answers. It is a dual-timeline narrative that is action-packed and I was absolutely gripped from the get-go. Great read! I absolutely loved the ending! Highly recommended!

**This book has a lot of trigger warnings so readers should be aware before picking this up.**

I really wanted to love this story, I imagined some college debauchery that left a few marks but nothing too deep and left you scandalized in a fun way. Told in alternating time lines, Ambrosia's freshman year and now, at her college reunion, you quickly realize something big happened and someone's trying to make sure the full story comes out. But what is the full story and who's really to blame? What seemed like a college version of mean girls got a lot darker. Once you figured out what happened all those years ago, things went down hill for me. Ambrosia's character was increasingly hard to like as you learned how she behaved but when you learned what she she was fully capable of, I *hated* her. Sully is no better; shouldn't the puppet master be just as guilty as the puppet? I cared less and less about what really happened, I really wanted to finish the book and be done with it, but felt invested enough to need to know what really happened and how it all plays out. This would be a hard book for me to recommend with all the trigger warnings and how dark it is.

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The girls definitely aren't nice here.

Ambrosia goes back to her 10 year reunion knowing that someone out there knows what she did - and that terrifies her. Sully is there and that terrifies her even more because Sully was involved. A twisty read that keeps you going.

I took off several stars because OMG COME ON WHAT DID YOU DO AMB?? I kept reading to figure out exactly what happened - which took forever and by the time we knew, I might as well finish it, right?

In her adult debut, THE GIRLS ARE ALL SO NICE HERE, Laurie Elizabeth Flynn takes all the insecurities that come with being a young woman and combines them with the freedom of young adulthood and college for a combustible, hair-raising thriller about not-so-nice girls.

As a teenager, Ambrosia Wellington, nicknamed Amb, was beyond excited to leave her small town of Pennington, New Jersey, for Wesleyan College. Like all teens, she dreamed of meeting her future husband and bridesmaids in her dorm, expanding her mind and starting her career as an actress with a bang. But life did not go quite as planned for Amb. Now her 10-year reunion is here, and she knows without even looking at the scheduled festivities that she will never attend. Her husband, Adrian, five years her junior, has no idea what kind of girl she used to be, and she will do anything to erase that ambitious yet insecure young lady. But when Amb receives a note that says, “You need to come. We need to talk about what we did that night,” she knows that her past is out to get her and that she must return to Wesleyan to preserve her future.

Alternating between Amb’s freshman year and her class reunion, Flynn quickly immerses her readers in those heady first days of college life, when everyone you meet is a new friend (or enemy) and life seems nearly limitless with potential. Arriving at Wesleyan, Amb is paired with Flora, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl who radiates kindness. Flora immediately latches on to Amb, which is fine, but Amb doesn’t want to be the good girl’s best friend. She wants to befriend the loudest, crassest, most attention-worthy girl in Wesleyan’s freshman class: Sloane Sullivan. As Amb grows into her own person, shedding her Jersey girl UGGs and gaudy designer purses, she finally catches Sully’s eye, and the two begin attending parties together. With Stoli vodka filling every cup, cocaine dusting every mirror, and boys practically begging to touch them, Amb and Sully are at the top of Wesleyan’s social hierarchy --- but as we all know, fame and notoriety come with serious drawbacks.

Sully is a known adrenaline junkie, and finding other people’s weaknesses is her greatest joy. Desperate to impress Sully and stay in her orbit, Amb, too, starts to nourish a mean streak. From hookups with boys to cruel text messages and even strategic forced breakups, their friendship reads like a rollercoaster riding straight into a car crash. Tragedy seems inevitable, and when it finally comes, it changes Amb’s life forever. Although Amb eventually graduates from Wesleyan, she never speaks to Sully or Flora again, and she has spent the rest of her life trying to bury that fateful freshman year.

Now, a decade later, it is clear that someone knows about the night that ended Sully and Amb’s reign at Wesleyan. With that knowledge comes the power to destroy everything that she has worked so carefully to build, from her career to her marriage to the perfect guy. Back on Wesleyan’s campus, Amb is shocked to reunite with Sully, and even more shocked to learn that Sully is not behind the note or its threatening follow-ups --- from lipstick messages on mirrors to bloody glassware. Desperate to keep Adrian from finding out about the tragic night that changed her life, Amb is relieved that she and Sully are in it together. Or are they? Combining recollections from the past with tension-fueled encounters at the reunion, Amb starts to question that night and Sully’s role in it, all while a mysterious someone keeps threatening to reveal Amb’s secret not only to her husband, but to the entire Wesleyan Class of 2007.

I love a good dark academia thriller. Having read Flynn’s young adult novels, I expected to enjoy THE GIRLS ARE ALL SO NICE HERE, but I could not have prepared myself for how downright chilling this book is. Flynn is an expert in adolescent psychology and female friendships, and her descriptions of mean girls doing bad things are nearly unparalleled. The thriller genre has exploded with villainous female protagonists over the last few years, and though I’ve read similar premises, Flynn makes the college setting feel fresh and original. By using one of these mean girls as her main character, she ups the ante in shocking ways.

What was so absolutely tantalizing about the book was how effectively it played upon the desires that every teen girl has: to be liked, to make friends, to matter. When we meet Ambrosia, she could be any teenage girl I have ever met --- or even the one I was --- yet her choices make her something terrifying: a cold, calculating girl who can have anything she wants. By alternating between her past and present, Flynn reminds us that we all have secrets we wish we could bury, and hints at the mean streak living in each of us, dormant until it is fueled by desire.

It’s no secret that women can be every bit as brutal as men, and teenage girls even more so. But in THE GIRLS ARE ALL SO NICE HERE, Flynn forces readers to confront the mean girl in all of us and decide if we want to nurture or punch her. Full of razor-sharp writing and keen psychological insights, her adult debut hopefully is the first of many outstanding novels to come, a pitch-perfect thriller for fans of NECESSARY PEOPLE, THE HERD and THE DIVINES.

Review for The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Whew. What a ride. This is a tale of jealousy, of envy, and of hatefulness and I was all in. I read this book compulsively and hated to put it down.

Ambrosia (Amb) starts college at Wesleyan and immediately is wary and jealous of her seemingly perfect roommate, Flora. Once she meets wild, mean Sully the games start. Sully encourages her to be cruel to their fellow classmates and they party excessively together. Soon, Amb meets Flora’s long term, long distance boyfriend Kevin. And she decides she wants him all for herself. Many mistakes occur and someone ends up dead.

This book covers the past college years as well as the present time as Amb and her husband journey to Wesleyan for a reunion. Amb receives letters prior to this explaining that the writer knows what happened and she needs to come to the reunion. Once there she receives more creepy messages and she races to figure out who is behind the terrorizing.

If you love a juicy, shocking novel this is one for you!

When I first started reading this one, I couldn't decide if I liked it or not. Things seemed a little cryptic, I couldn't quite figure out what was going on. Then, the book took a total 180 and I was IN IT. Invested. Then the ending blew me away. I literally could not put it done. What happened? Who did it? Why? Definitely pick up a copy if you haven't already. This was one too good!

With the promise of losing sleep, because you'll want to finish this book and talk of it already being in the works as a TV show due to the hype this book already has surrounding it, I went in with high expectations. But even with the hype and excitement of reading this book, I am shocked by how much that statement was true!

Some thrillers can be a bit repetitive or predictable, but this book had a unique take, had me on the edge of my seat, and I did not know where it was going! At times I'd think I had it figured out, but then a plot twist would come along and I'd realize I have no idea!

I loved the back and forth between past and present time leading up to the conclusion. And oof! They weren't lying the girls were not nice. I'd cringe from the mean girl antics, the protagonist was icky, but I wanted to keep reading to discover how this all played out and it did not disappoint!

Trigger warnings: bullying, rape, drugs, & suicide

**Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an advanced copy of this book!

I felt kinda meh about this one. Not really connected with the story, even though I did read the whole thing. I would read further books by the author. This one to me is bland.

3/5 Stars

I loved the whole college reunion premise which kept the story entertaining, and the writing was excellent. However for me it ended up just being kind of a standard thriller.

Soooo this was a decent book. It wasn't the best but wasn't the worst. I liked everything but the ending.

The characters were very unlikeable though. It was weird. They all made bad choices and were slutty and as some have mentioned, lots of TW.

I liked the back and forth in timeline and how you learn more of the past as you progress in the present. I do think the ending has been done before, even if I didn't really guess who was behind the letters.

I also had a few things that didn't get answered or explained. But it's okay.

ALSO! Lots of triggers!!!

This dark, atmospheric book takes the concept of a mean girl to another level. The slow pacing might put some readers off, but the near-constant ramping up of the tension means that the book becomes almost impossible to put down even as readers race to a conclusion that isn't likely to offer a happy ending. Sharp and incisive, with characters that get under your skin whether you want them to or not.

The girls are NOT so nice here! 😳 This book was hard to put down and is like a darker twist on Mean Girls told in dual timelines with an unbelievable ending. 4.5 stars for me!

“People thought girls' bodies were our deadliest weapons. They had no idea about the mountains our imaginations could move.”

3.5 stars

"The Girls Are All So Nice Here" is a dark, twisted, fast-paced female-driven thriller. Ambrosia Wellington has been hiding from her past but when there's a 10 year reunion for her college, a secretive note: "We need to talk about what we did that night" finally brings her back to it. The storyline flips between "now" (the reunion) and "then" during the college years.

I loved that this was told from the perspective of the "mean" girl - it was equally fun and horrifying to see it through that lens. Amb and Sloane are bffs, they're party girls who like to mess with boys but find it even more fun to mess with girls. Their fun and games hit a peak one fateful night but who knows the truth?

I really enjoyed it and downed it in basically one sitting, like I already mentioned, having the story from the mean girls perspective was just so FUN. Amb and Sloane are messy as hell and there are so many characters intertwined. I think this book was really well written and a wonderful debut.

It was reminiscent of "The Guest List" and "Whisper Island" for me in many ways (despite the narrative being different). I didn't quite know what the twists/what happened was for a while but I did figure it out before it was 'reviled' and I didn't quite love the ending I was hoping for more of a twist.

All in all, I enjoyed it and would read Flynn's work in the future. If you're looking for a dark, fast-paced, girl-driven thriller this is a great choice.

* I received an arc in exchange for an honest review*