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friendlydisaster101's review
3.0
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
(actual rating: 2.5/5)
This book had the potential to be really good, but I get the feeling that the narrative attempting to be told was ultimately lost between all of the perspectives that were used to tell it.
'All Girls' shows the aftermath of a sexual assault allegation at a Northeastern preparatory school, as told through the thoughts and experiences of nine different girls. The administration at the school desperately wants to brush the situation under the rug, but the girls and others rise up to tell their story, refusing to be silenced.
I think that part of the reason I didn't enjoy this as much as I was hoping to may have been because I was expecting too much. While there were some 'mystery' elements to this story, it's far more focused on how the girls learn to grow into themselves amidst all the happenings of the school.
Of course, that being said, I would have enjoyed it if the story and the girls' growth were told in a more meaningful way. The biggest problem I had with this book was all the perspectives that it used to tell the story. At one point, it gets to be entirely too much, and you start losing interest. I think that if this book were written with fewer perspectives, it would have made things easier to follow, but also easier to care for the characters and what they are each going through.
I also felt a bit disappointed by the pacing of the novel. It was slow and somewhat hard to get into, as far as the plot went. There was a fair amount of buildup but it never seemed to really go anywhere, if that makes sense. It was all quite lukewarm for me.
One of the best parts, however, was probably the cast of the audio production. They definitely kept things interesting enough for me to go through with the entire book.
Overall, while I think that some extremely important points were made about what it's like to grow up as a young woman with the 'system', it had a lot of potential and could have been executed in a far more impactful way. I would recommend this book to those who like coming-of-age arcs in the form of boarding school novels, but this didn't exactly make the cut for me.
(actual rating: 2.5/5)
This book had the potential to be really good, but I get the feeling that the narrative attempting to be told was ultimately lost between all of the perspectives that were used to tell it.
'All Girls' shows the aftermath of a sexual assault allegation at a Northeastern preparatory school, as told through the thoughts and experiences of nine different girls. The administration at the school desperately wants to brush the situation under the rug, but the girls and others rise up to tell their story, refusing to be silenced.
I think that part of the reason I didn't enjoy this as much as I was hoping to may have been because I was expecting too much. While there were some 'mystery' elements to this story, it's far more focused on how the girls learn to grow into themselves amidst all the happenings of the school.
Of course, that being said, I would have enjoyed it if the story and the girls' growth were told in a more meaningful way. The biggest problem I had with this book was all the perspectives that it used to tell the story. At one point, it gets to be entirely too much, and you start losing interest. I think that if this book were written with fewer perspectives, it would have made things easier to follow, but also easier to care for the characters and what they are each going through.
I also felt a bit disappointed by the pacing of the novel. It was slow and somewhat hard to get into, as far as the plot went. There was a fair amount of buildup but it never seemed to really go anywhere, if that makes sense. It was all quite lukewarm for me.
One of the best parts, however, was probably the cast of the audio production. They definitely kept things interesting enough for me to go through with the entire book.
Overall, while I think that some extremely important points were made about what it's like to grow up as a young woman with the 'system', it had a lot of potential and could have been executed in a far more impactful way. I would recommend this book to those who like coming-of-age arcs in the form of boarding school novels, but this didn't exactly make the cut for me.
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