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A review by bookish_maddie
All Girls by Emily Layden
4.0
As an All girls high school (though not boarding school) graduate and an alum of a college which had its own sexual assault accusations made and poorly handled, this book could not have gotten closer to my liver experience. This book is chock full of nostalgia for my days at my own all girls high school. The stories of each girl who gets her turn at a point of view - Lauren, Macy, Louisa, Chloe, Celeste, Abby, Sloane, Emma, Bryce, Collier, Mia, Anjali, Kat, and Olivia - felt so true to what I went through growing up as a young woman at a private, all girls school.
Lauren Miro never makes an appearance, but what she went through is felt keenly throughout, just as the scandal that took place on my college campus was felt by the student body. When I was in college, a staff member was accused of helping to cover up an assault and mishandling dozens of others. Though I was not personally a victim of these I went through in college was echoed perfectly in this book, right down the the emails to the student body and parents, the investigation, and the faculty member eventually departing.
This book had five stars until the chapter where the culprit of the various “pranks” at Atwater is revealed. Something about it rang false for me. A nice bow is rarely put so neatly on these things, and to reveal the prankster to be Bryce felt wrong somehow. I think there might have been a better way to handle this particular event, If the author felt this was a plot point that needed wrapping up.
Lauren Miro never makes an appearance, but what she went through is felt keenly throughout, just as the scandal that took place on my college campus was felt by the student body. When I was in college, a staff member was accused of helping to cover up an assault and mishandling dozens of others. Though I was not personally a victim of these I went through in college was echoed perfectly in this book, right down the the emails to the student body and parents, the investigation, and the faculty member eventually departing.
This book had five stars until the chapter where the culprit of the various “pranks” at Atwater is revealed. Something about it rang false for me. A nice bow is rarely put so neatly on these things, and to reveal the prankster to be Bryce felt wrong somehow. I think there might have been a better way to handle this particular event, If the author felt this was a plot point that needed wrapping up.