I really enjoyed this.
Much faster read than I expected.
The writing was captivating. I did find at around 30% I began losing interest however I'm glad I stuck it out. Especially as the reveal shocked me.
I spent majority of the time thinking I knew who did it. With every new thing that happened or came out I was sure I had the right person. But I was wrong. I didn't suspect this person once.

A well written novel. A great story raising many thorny issues. Many unexpected twists and turns, leading to a satisfying conclusion. Well worth reading

Even though this book comes under young adult, as a 30 something I still really enjoyed it and it would certainly have been something I would have read as a teen. Charlie Calloway has it all, a nice bloke chasing after her, an exclusive ticket to the elite group at her private school and lots of friends. But then her world starts falling down around her when she starts looking into the disappearance of her mother 10 years earlier.
There were parts that I couldn’t relate to or were just a bit too young for me but otherwise it had all the makings of an adult mystery story and the circumstances surrounding her mother were definitely well written and kept me reading until the end. Highly recommended to readers of teenage and upwards

A preppy boarding school mystery/drama I am so going to read this. This was a fun and enjoyable book to read, the characters were well written, the plot exciting I didn't want the story to end.

A good read that was perhaps a little longer than it needed to be. My interest was definitely waning towards the end as any red herrings discovered were a bit anti-climatic. But a solid holiday read for mystery fans.

This book is cleverly plotted and pulls you in by revealing secrets and connections slowly, so is quite a satisfying read. I enjoy stories about rich American high school / college kids and their secret societies, fraternities and conspiracies. This one involves a dead student and a missing mother. The present generation get involved in the same incredibly powerful secret society as their parents (the A's!) in their privileged boarding school, and in doing so unmask a conspiracy perpetrated by their parents' generation. There is the usual initiation tasks which target people who have offended the A's in some way. The college elders seem powerless to stop these shenanigans. Will lessons be learned? Possibly. The characters are not likeable but that does not matter. I found it a little confusing at the beginning to track who was who. There are some interesting names - Stevie Drew and Charlie are all girls. The ending ties some loose ends together but would like to have known what became of Dalton.

More than a mystery

This book is not average. It's different. It doesn't try to win you by having likeable characters or, by making you think about more than what is on the page. Nor, by being an original voice. And, that's okay. The story is enough, more than enough and there's nothing to distract you from it.

At first, it's told with clarity. Charlie is a Calloway. Her family name is a brand, she's innocently privileged by association. And, with great certainty and pride, she wouldn't have it any other other way. The Calloways are of the elites, but getting to the top comes with a price and no family is without its secrets... Charlie's mother left the world of privilege behind, she left Charlie. Charlie, who claims she's over it, has always thought about her mother's reasons. But more so, when she sees some compromising photographs from her family's past. She refuses to settle for anything but the truth. That is her way. But soon, Charlie has more questions than answers: whose truth is she telling?

The story is an engaging one. It reminded me of a book I read some time ago, Tradition by Brendan Kiely. Like Tradition, the story is set in a prestigious college, seeped in fictional history. Both writees describe a subculture of patriarchy, traditions, privilege. Elizabeth Klehfoth's characters were unapologetically self absorbed and arrogant (but, conscious of it). I didn't like that they were so stubbornly unrepentant but, anything otherwise would not been as plausible. Though, naturally, there was more to the story than their unlikeability.

My only gripe was that even by the end, (and what a surprising ending that was) Charlie never realises the true nature of her parents' relationship. Her father never fully confesses so if, ever, she forgives him, it wouldn't be completely meaningful. She believes she knows the full truth. Maybe some secrets are better kept unshared, but it felt unlikely that the ever-persistent Charlie would overlook this.

I know I said the writing wasn't exactly original, I did nonetheless find the style remarkable. Elizabeth Klehfoth writes mystery incredibly. She drip-feeds you the facts, excruciatingly slowly as if she were waiting to gauge your reaction. She distracts you with other smaller narratives, but ultimately builds this tense atmosphere and a world that you come to know well. The plot, very much, thickens. The characters surprise you, in their true to life unpredictable ways. Will they or won't they? You'll have to read it, there's no room for guessing.

I was also reminded of Gossip Girl. I can't say much on the similarities as I only ever watched the first few episodes before giving up on it. But with confidence, I can say that the college society where competition is encouraged, cliques are founded, identities are forged, was integral to this storyline too. The special and exclusive group of 'As' , students banding together to make their own rules and ensure their own brand of justice was enacted and imposed, was described well. The members had all the characteristics of an in-group mentality. It was interesting to see it play out.

I love boarding school stories and I am always intrigued by class in the supposedly classless US, so I was instantly interested in All These Beautiful Strangers, a mystery set in an exclusive boarding school in New England, a Gossip Girl meets Veronica Mars via The Gilmore Girls premise - and doesn't that sound delicious?
Charlie Calloway is a junior at Knollwood, the kind of ivy covered New England privileged school populated by legacy pupils with their eyes set on prestigious universities and wardrobes that cost more than my house. Spoilt, entitled, neglected and ambitious. And, of course, at the top of the hierarchy are the As, a secret society who run the school through blackmail and other nefarious means. As the story starts Charlie is selected to join, but she has to complete three tasks first. So far so not very different, but...
Charlie may come from a rich family and take wealth and privilege for granted but she holds herself a little aloof. Her mother disappeared when she was a child and her father has always been suspected of some involvement. As Charlie starts to negotiate her Junior year she begins to start investigating the circumstances of her mother's disappearance. Who is the scholarship boy linking her parents? Why were they fighting the week her mother left? Who is telling her the truth?
Most of the book is told from Charlies' POV, but some chapters are in her mother's, others in her father's slowly building up a picture of the past and how it impacts on the present.
All These Beautiful Strangers was a tautly written atmospheric thriller. Recommended.

Knollwood prep is hiding some deadly secrets. Charlie is part of the A's, an elite group made up of generations of the same few rich various family people.



Wondering about what happened to her mum, Charlie along with the current A's, set about investigating digging up evidence from years ago which incriminates a whole past generation of the A's.



From an old love triangle to jealousy, to possible murder the secrets are deadly and the Charlie looks set to get justice for all the wrongs the former A's caused even if it does mean some of her family could be at fault but will she find her mum at last?



Well I heard the hype about the book, but didn't feel it was what I expected. The characters didn't really differentiate to me and they seemed all the same rich kids at a school for them being all they had in common and their friendship seemed inevitable and not natural. The idea of the plot about the mystery of her mum's disappearance was great on premise but the story could've been better and a lot shorter I feel. It just wasn't for me it didn't hook me in and the characters were a let down. You may still enjoy it but it wasn't for me.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this for them!

Charlie is defined by who she is – rich, privileged and a member of the powerful Calloway family – and by the disappearance of her mother a decade ago. She attends a select boarding school, where she’s determined to join a shadowy invitation-only society called the As, but is drawn into finding out more about why her mother left. As a result, she uncovers a set of disturbing and puzzling connections between the adults in her life. These lead her to a series of family secrets, put her in jeopardy and ultimately cause her to re-evaluate who she is. The setting of All These Beautiful Strangers is convincingly described, the characters are well drawn, the plot is worked out neatly and the pacing is just right. It’s compulsive and very enjoyable read, and I would recommend it.

I want to thank netgalley and penguin for letting me read this book for my honest review.

This story jumps in multiple time frames. It starts off as Charlie as a teen where she gets word that she is in the runnings for jumping into a secret society at her school. She has to prove herself to join and she is willing to do so. You jump back into time to learn that her mother has gone missing when she was a child and her father, a rich real estate mogul, was thought to have killed her. Will we find out what happened to her mother? Will she make it into the secret society? Will it ruin her to work so hard to get in?

Sorry, was not a fan of this. This was like a total rip-off of Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl, and genres much like it. The whole secret "A" society, the buried secrets of the past...it goes on and on. I'm definitely not a fan of these because it's just so unrealiztic to me. I was not attracted to any of the characters. The missing mother part was the only thing that kept me reading, and even then I just ended up skipping to the end to find out what happened. I couldn't keep reading it otherwise. I'm all about thrillers, but this was not worth it. Not my cup of tea, sorry.

1.5/5 Stars

I read a lot so I've read meh books and good ones. This book however, is I'm trying to find the right adjective, fantastic. There was nothing that I disliked about the book. The characters were well written, the plot exciting, I didn't want the story to end. Would I recommend this book? I'd give it a 20 out of 10. It's the best book I've read so far this year.
I've given this an honest review of this book.

Yes, I enjoyed this novel, the storyline was good, plenty of twists and turns, some great characters and some interesting settings. It was very 'American' though, nothing wrong with this, but for a British reader who isn't familiar with the US school terminology it can get a little confusing at times and I did have to stop and think about which secondary character was which from time to time, lots of girls with masculine names (Charlie, Stevie, Drew) and boys generally called by their surnames to add to my confusion every now and again!

Very glad I read it, however, and I will look out for the author again - I am sure that she will have further novels. Thank you to Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for a review.

This book is full of rich people being awful to each other- which sounds like a fairly obnoxious premise for a story- and some people may find it really off putting. However I enjoyed it for the same reasons I enjoy fantasy novels-it was pure escapism and a very entertaining way to spend a couple of hours. Is it top literature? Maybe not. Is it a highly diverting beach/holiday read? Definitely.

Charlie Calloway is the privileged daughter of a billionaire. As a junior attending the exclusive Knollwood Prep boarding school, she is selected to join a secret student society, a group called “the A's”. But the initiation process is fraught with morally questionable tasks and it leads to a connection with the dark history in her family’s past, particularly the mysterious and unsolved disappearance of Charlie’s mother, Grace Calloway.

The POV jumps between Charlie in 2017 (the present) and Grace and Alistair, Charlie’s parents, in earlier years. Recently I have come to discover that I am not usually keen on this particular narrator/time frame hopping technique. It seems to be used in a great many books that I’ve read recently and I tend to find it jarring. However, for some reason I felt it worked ok in this novel, and that it contributed to rather than interrupted the narrative flow. I felt the pace of the story was about right and I was kept sufficiently engaged as the mystery unfolded. I didn't feel it had a particularly YA vibe despite the main character's age.

A couple of minor niggles- the name and back story of the secret club bothered me. What does the A stand for? What is the point of the club and why would anyone want to belong to such a nasty group? How is it Charlie can seemingly skip off campus at will and for long unaccounted for periods to go visit people/investigate things/go to secret parties? And another one I can’t ask here because it’s a spoiler but I was really left scratching my head. Also the conclusion felt a tiny bit flat to me but maybe that’s because there was considerable build-up.

There's a lot that's good about this book, and a lot that's bad and/or frustrating, too. But the fact I powered through rather than DNFing is testament to the strength of the narrative voice: despite myself, I couldn't help but like Charlie.

So, the good first:
- The depiction of characters who are ambiguous and flawed at best, sociopathic and narcissistic at worst, but who you want to read about nevertheless.
- The central mystery of what happened when Charlie's mother, Grace, disappeared a decade ago was gripping enough to keep me reading, even if I did figure out whodunnit I enjoyed being along for the ride waiting for them to get their comeuppance.
- The setting of rich kids in a rarified boarding school was fun to read about in an escapist way, although see below for problems with this.
- I wanted something I didn't have to think about too much to read in the sun this weekend, and this fit the bill really well.

Now the bad:
- The plot revolves around a secret society at Knollswood Prep but you just.... never get told anything exciting about this society? They don't seem to do anything (beyond a hazing ritual that forms the backbone of the story in the present day) and so it's hard to see why they're such a desirable group to be part of.
- The school setting is underdeveloped, as are the supporting cast (lots of interchangeable posh kids with interchangeable names like Drew, Darcy and Dalton). There was so much potential for this to be completely immersive as a setting, but it just didn't do it for me.
- It needed to be a lot more gripping than it was, but somehow - despite her investigations involving arrests and exclusions and deaths - everything Charlie got up to felt low-stakes.