Reviews with content warning for Rape - All Girls

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

All Girls by Emily Layden

17 reviews

delinxw's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Disappointing. The ending was dissappointing and I didn’t get the closure on the story I longed for. Maybe because it’s just not my type of writing style, but it feels like I’ve read these 300 pages to end up with 6 unfinished stories or so. It took me over a month to finish it, because I just couldn’t get through it.

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serendipitysbooks's review

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

All Girls is a novel set in a girls boarding school in Connecticut. The novel spans an academic year in which issues relating to a rape allegation by a former student against a staff member are always close to the surface.

I have something of a fascination with boarding schools so this novel ticked that box for me. The structure of the novel, where each section is tied to a major event on the school calendar, from Orientation and Initiation, through Fall Fest and Vespers, and ending with Senior Prank and Commencement, helped immerse me in the school world. Each section is told from the perspective of a different girl, which allows the author to explore the school experience of freshmen, seniors, and the years in between. This approach also allows the author to offer glimpses of many different aspects of school life - one girl runs, another plays hockey, one is on the school newspaper, some are popular, others outsiders - as well as touch on many issues faced by girls in their high school years. Plus of course the author can offer readers many different opinions of and reactions to the rape allegation. The downside of this approach - breadth vs depth if you will - is that readers don’t get to know any of the characters especially well nor see them change over the course of the school year.

I typically enjoy epistolary novels, and while this book isn’t one it does include an epistolary element at the end of each section - typically an email from the school administration relating to the rape allegations. I really enjoyed reading these since they cleverly highlighted the way the school was most concerned about its reputation and being seen to respond appropriately, rather than being honest, upfront, seriously examining its own culture, providing meaningful support, and actually taking all and any action to prevent any more sexual assaults.

While I enjoyed this book I was a little underwhelmed by the ending. The rape case wrapped up satisfactorily and the school year ended, but it is hard to say how much impact any of it had. The story seemed to peter out rather than leaving me with a big message or memorable scene. Possibly that was the point.

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hexgirlie's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective slow-paced

3.0

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morepeachyogurt's review

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

this book was really sweet! i think the author did a fairly good job at addressing the subject matter but could have been better. i loved all the characters so much!! i wish we got to see more of them though, i feel like a lot of personal issues from each character deserved more care and nuance. a lot of topics really weren’t elaborated on and the different characters didn’t all combine at the end like i would have wanted

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samants's review

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I overall enjoyed this, but you could tell it was a debut novel. The conclusion was unsatisfying, but the conclusion to these things in real life really was unsatisfying. I could have spent more time in the minds of the characters than one chapter per character.

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laurendesousa's review

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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hannamurman's review

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challenging inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

I like the concept of this book. But it wasn’t written the way I thought it would be. The main character in this book is the boarding school itself. Jumping from so many different girls’ perspective from different friend groups and grades, over the span of a year, it just got a bit boring at the end. All of the characters have similarities, they are all written in the same kind of way and soon you forget who’s who. And I guess I expected it to be more about sexual assault and victim blaming but that really wasn’t the focus of the book. The focus were these teenage girls at an all girls school where a scandal happened and how they looked at it and experienced it. That’s still really interesting and unique but just not what I was expecting. At the end of it all I was just kinda done and wanted the book to be over. I will however praise how well the author managed to portray the experience of teenage girls today, that was at times spot on!

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