All Girls, by Emily Layden, is an ensemble novel set in a girls boarding school in Connecticut. It's more a series of interesting vignettes over an academic year than a plot with a resolution. The girls' varied experiences touch many topics -- sexual consent, stereotypes, classism, power dynamics, racism, abuse, gender presentation, and more. Too many, perhaps, because the book never quite draws a conclusion or makes a statement.

Most of the scenes were girls at a turning point or realization, with insightful characterizations and descriptions, but we rarely see the consequences of these moments. Instead, it's on to another character, creating an interesting ramble through private-school adolescence, but with way too many characters to keep straight. I liked how the young women's experiences were taken seriously and their emotions were valued throughout the book. Many of the vignettes relate to sexual consent or men "getting a little weird" as one of the alums describes it, including a whisper network of which classes to avoid, but it never really formed a narrative or led to a conclusion.

I was very interested while I was reading, but I realized at the end of the book that I'd been waiting for the meandering stories to coalesce into something more, and it never quite did.

2 of 5 stars
I really was excited to read this book based on advance praise, but I found it SO boring. Having attended an all-girls high school, albeit not a boarding school, I was hoping for a nice juicy tale about female friendships amidst a scandal. But, what I got was a lengthy, dry, novel, with characters I didn't like. The story was convuluted and took forever to make the point. It could have been so much better, in my opinion.
The novel begins with students coming to school for orientation. Along the way, signs warn of a scandal at the school, but the school hasn't dealt with the issue appropriately. The rest of the novel touches on this from time to time, but also on the lives of the female students and their relationships and goals. It missed the mark for me. ( )

*soft spoilers*

An engaging peek into the world of a private All Girls school, the reader is quickly enveloped in a mystery to solve concerning the school and its past.

The novel casts a wide grouping of characters, from the very well off to the just-so-glad-to-be-able-to-get-in girls, from the “all in” to the “when can I get out of here”. But all of the girls are loyal to the school in one way or the other and are eager to figure out who is trying to sully the school’s name and why. Poor girls, rich girls, straight girls, lesbian girls, preppy girls, pretty girls, dowdy girls – this book had them all, and frequently overlapping.

The book is mostly about a sexual assault allegation from decades prior, but there is also an interesting sub-plot about censorship in the school’s newspaper that I found intriguing. I didn’t much care for the round-robin, #MeToo movement storyline, however.

A decent read, and a decent debut. If prep schools or sex scandals interest you, this might be for you.

A big thank you to Emily Layden, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for providing an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for this review.

#AllGirls
#EmilyLayden
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So - even though the last book I read was set in an all girls boarding school and was very disappointing - somehow -- due to the strange timing of library holds I ended up reading this - a second book in a row - set in an all girls boarding school.

But I am happy to say - I really really liked this novel.

Full disclosure - I went to a co-ed boarding school in New England in the early 90's and that experience deeply colors how I react to novels that choose this setting.

Layden gets it all right. All the details, the schedules, the language that is so particular. It all feels so familiar and really built trust with me as a reader.

The characters are well drawn and believable - the overarching subject is a serious one and came at it from a different direction than I have contemplated previously.

My very favorite boarding school novel is Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. I don't think anything will be quite as perfect as that to me - but this is very very good and I felt really transported back into that world.

I will definitely look for more by this author. ( )

I had high hopes for this book at the start - students are greeted by roadway signs on their first day of school about a rapist who who had worked at the prep school that they are about to attend. A former student has a lawsuit against the school. I am interested. Then, two problems emerge.. First, we are introduced to a revolving door of characters with little continuity from chapter to chapter. Second, the book kind of trickles to it's conclusion with little of relevance happening to the original plot in the final chapters. ( )