Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Girls Are All So Nice Here

Before the ending, i was thinking this book was gonna be a 4-4.5 star read, but the ending fell so flat for me.

I loved the exploration of toxic female friendships and the feeling that you’re competing with the group or person that you want to be friends with. The uncomfortable thought of “do i hate this person or do i love them? do i want to be friends? is this an enemy?” Mean girls come in so many different shells, and the fact that Amb couldn’t admit that she was mean is one of the biggest types of mean girls there is. The quote earlier in the book where sully tells amb “flora is a mean girl, she’s a bitch. at least i can own it” felt like a subtle stab at Amb, because amb did the same thing. she hid behind her moral high ground. destroying Flora and her relationships because Flora had something she want. She had to make flora the villain in her fantasy. </ I think it’s really a bad choice to have ambrosia go to jail and have Poppy basically take over her life. it didn’t feel like justice to me. It felt like just another generation of mean girls, where poppy is hiding behind her moral high ground of “she did this to my sister so i’ll do this to her” the last chapter made me angry. Killing off Sully and Kevin and having Amb go to jail made me feel like the author didn’t know really how she wanted to end the story. I also feel like killing Kevin was just Poppy’s way to get rid of him. He was an asshole, sure, but he didn’t have anything to do with Flora’s death. it was completely Sully and Amb. killing Kevin was a vendetta because she never liked him. getting rid of these characters was lazy and honestly boring. Also it wasn’t revealed or clear what actually happened to Flora. Did sully kill her?>

I was invested in this story and the way the story was told. i’ve come to enjoy dual timelines because it adds so much depth to the story. I enjoyed the story, again, up until the last chapter. it’s a quick read so i do recommend it.

Content Warnings

charlotte_luise's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The description “dark and twisted” fits perfectly. I couldn’t stop reading it and it had a lot of twists I didn’t see coming. It illustrates very well how toxic and manipulative friendships can be and how easily one can fall victim to that. The only thing I didn’t particularly like was the ending.

Content Warnings

iuliaq's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

Content Warnings

hesticht's review

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

thewoodlandbookshelf's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

jholt2899's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

[TL;DR]
Ambrosia never wanted to go back to Wesleyan. Someone else has different plans, though, and after a series of mysterious letters and emails, Ambrosia is drawn back to Wesleyan. Too bad her former best friend, Sloane, is also back under the same pretenses. The past has a way of coming back and there is nothing that either Ambrosia or Sloane can do to stop it.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a decent enough thriller. The first half was certainly entertaining, and I love characters that are easy to hate within this genre. Ultimately, the flaws of this book came from the pacing and lack of climax. The pace was just a bit too slow by the end, and I needed things to start progressing. Thrillers follow a formulaic pace traditionally, and there wasn't that speedy, racing end that we have come to know.

The climax came just a little too late for it to make sense, and I felt that the last 15 pages were a rushed madhouse comparatively. The character reflection was wonderful. I adored reading about how terrible everyone was because it created this nice juxtaposition. Who doesn't love a shady b trying to run from her horrible past?

Rating: 4/5 stars
TW/CW: blood, murder, suicide, rape, sexually explicit scenes, cheating, substance abuse, drinking

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