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jhscolloquium 's review for:
Good Girls Lie
by J.T. Ellison
J. T. Ellison delivers a tense, fast-paced thriller set in an exclusive girls' boarding school in rural Virginia. Like many a good mystery, Good Girls Lie opens with a murder. A girl's body hangs from the iron gates at the school's entrance. She's wearing her graduation gown and her feet are mired in morning fog, enhancing the gruesomeness of the scene. Her face is "hidden behind a curtain of dirty, wet hair, dark from the rains. Even were her face visible, her identity would still be unknown because of the damage it has sustained. Beyond the iron gates, the school perches ominously in a foggy haze, full of legends, lore, deadly secrets, and, perhaps, a murderer.
Good Girls Lie is populated with complex, intriguing characters, with Ash Carlisle at the forefront of the story. She has come to Goode for a second chance following traumatic family events. "A new life. A new beginning. A new chapter for Ash. But can you ever escape your past?" She will be known as Ash Carr, sworn to secrecy about her past and assured privacy by the school's headmistress, Dr. Ford Julianne Westhaven, who has offered Ash the second chance she desperately needs. Ford wants to be a novelist, but she was pressed into duty after a scandal brought her mother's tenure as dean to an abrupt end. Her mother insisted that it was her duty to take over and run the school that has been helmed by her family since the early 1800s -- resisting pressures to make the school coed. Now Ford feels trapped, despite the fact that the school is thriving under her leadership.
Ellison relates the story through varying vantage points. Ash describes her experiences through a first-person narrative that quickly reveals disturbing details about her family's past, including the recent deaths of her parents. She wants to fit in with the other girls, desperate to keep her true identity known so that she can be "just another Goode girl, accepted because of privilege, brains, and whatever inestimable quality Ford has seen in the application and interviews."
But Goode is populated with students who are anything but good. They manipulate, compete for attention and popularity, and pull new students into long-held rituals carried out by secret societies. Faculty members are aware of the traditions, but strive to keep them from becoming deadly. Tales about a haunted arboretum, bell tower, and mysterious staircase leading into the institutions' murky underbelly contrast starkly with the school's seemingly peaceful existence in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains that surround the campus.
Ellison skillfully reveals the school's secrets, along with those Ash is harboring, as the story progresses and the tension accelerates. Ash reveals early on that she is a liar -- "I've never understood my compulsive desire to lie." But with her mother's encouragement, she came to Ash determined to change. But Ford becomes increasingly suspicious, even though she interviewed Ash via videoconference before admitting her to the school. Ash is a gifted pianist, but suddenly has no interest in pursuing her piano lessons. She has excelled in her computer course and Ford comes to believe that she is a skilled hacker. But if she truly wants to keep her past a secret, why would Ash draw attention to herself? Ellison keeps readers guessing to what extent Ash is succeeding at turning over a new leaf and, if not, the extent to which she has manufactured her past and, perhaps, very identity. Ash proves to be a deliciously unreliable narrator. And, as calamities befall Goode, the number of characters who are suspects multiplies as quickly as the number of dead students. As the dark, atmospheric mystery races to its shocking conclusion, Ellison injects surprising twists and revelations at deftly-timed intervals, making Good Girls Lie a compelling, absorbing thriller.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
Good Girls Lie is populated with complex, intriguing characters, with Ash Carlisle at the forefront of the story. She has come to Goode for a second chance following traumatic family events. "A new life. A new beginning. A new chapter for Ash. But can you ever escape your past?" She will be known as Ash Carr, sworn to secrecy about her past and assured privacy by the school's headmistress, Dr. Ford Julianne Westhaven, who has offered Ash the second chance she desperately needs. Ford wants to be a novelist, but she was pressed into duty after a scandal brought her mother's tenure as dean to an abrupt end. Her mother insisted that it was her duty to take over and run the school that has been helmed by her family since the early 1800s -- resisting pressures to make the school coed. Now Ford feels trapped, despite the fact that the school is thriving under her leadership.
Ellison relates the story through varying vantage points. Ash describes her experiences through a first-person narrative that quickly reveals disturbing details about her family's past, including the recent deaths of her parents. She wants to fit in with the other girls, desperate to keep her true identity known so that she can be "just another Goode girl, accepted because of privilege, brains, and whatever inestimable quality Ford has seen in the application and interviews."
But Goode is populated with students who are anything but good. They manipulate, compete for attention and popularity, and pull new students into long-held rituals carried out by secret societies. Faculty members are aware of the traditions, but strive to keep them from becoming deadly. Tales about a haunted arboretum, bell tower, and mysterious staircase leading into the institutions' murky underbelly contrast starkly with the school's seemingly peaceful existence in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains that surround the campus.
Ellison skillfully reveals the school's secrets, along with those Ash is harboring, as the story progresses and the tension accelerates. Ash reveals early on that she is a liar -- "I've never understood my compulsive desire to lie." But with her mother's encouragement, she came to Ash determined to change. But Ford becomes increasingly suspicious, even though she interviewed Ash via videoconference before admitting her to the school. Ash is a gifted pianist, but suddenly has no interest in pursuing her piano lessons. She has excelled in her computer course and Ford comes to believe that she is a skilled hacker. But if she truly wants to keep her past a secret, why would Ash draw attention to herself? Ellison keeps readers guessing to what extent Ash is succeeding at turning over a new leaf and, if not, the extent to which she has manufactured her past and, perhaps, very identity. Ash proves to be a deliciously unreliable narrator. And, as calamities befall Goode, the number of characters who are suspects multiplies as quickly as the number of dead students. As the dark, atmospheric mystery races to its shocking conclusion, Ellison injects surprising twists and revelations at deftly-timed intervals, making Good Girls Lie a compelling, absorbing thriller.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.