Emily Layden's incredible debut novel 'All Girls' is a gripping and nuanced examination of the treatment of young women in modern society, presented using the backdrop of Atwater, a prestigious boarding school for girls. On the first day of school, signs are posted along all routes into the grounds claiming 'A rapist works here', immediately forcing parents and students alike to question how much they truly know about their beloved teachers and the wider school community. This mysterious vigilante continues to expose truths to the school community as we follow the characters across the academic year, marred by an allegation of rape against a current staff member dating 20 years ago back to 1995.

The story is skilfully presented almost as a series of vignettes, each chapter focused on a different student and their experiences as a young woman learning about the world. Despite an aura of privilege around this private school, each girl is battling their own demons: Layden asserts the message that this school prepares the girls for bright and successful academic futures but examines whether really know about how to handle themselves physically, emotionally and know what it is to be sexually in control of their own body. Chloe's chapter was particularly affecting driving this message home for the reader.

The weighty topics are difficult at times but the plea to educators to safeguard their students' mental wellbeing as carefully as their academic prowess is crafted in every characters' story. Some characters resonated with me more than others but each one revealed a new layer of intrigue about life in this educational establishment steeped in wealth and tradition, the façade never quite holding up however hard the school administration try to ignore the allegations plaguing their faculty.

Layden has crafted a hard-hitting and affecting novel with 'All Girls'. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This novel interested me as I love a good boarding school book, and I thought the themes of sexual assault within an all girls boarding school would be an interesting topic to explore. This debut novel follows 9 young girls and their year at boarding school, whilst allegations of a teacher sexually assaulting an ex student come to light, particularly focusing on how the school dealt with the allegations at the time ( expelling the student). These girls begin to grow up, learning about boys, friendships, relationships and their power and voice within the crisis.

I rated this book 3.5/5 ( rounded up to 4) stars as I genuinely did enjoy reading it. I liked all the characters that were created, all quite different people, with different motivations, worries and agendas. It was interesting to explore their year at Awater, the boarding school, and view their interactions from different points of view. Throughout the novel the underlying theme of sexual assault pops up in these girls lives, they watch as the allegations against a teacher unfold, and how the school deals with them, but more subtly we see how the girls are directly affected. From feeling pressure to have sex, to authority figures taking advantage and the experience of a girl who felt so connected to an adult on an artistic level, only to find out they were a monster. I really liked how the theme was so subtly placed in each girls life, whilst the more obvious event was going, I felt it represented how as a society, these things are not always as straight forward as they seem. I thought it was an important, relevant take on experiences regarding sexual assault as well as how these topics effect people not directly involved.

Despite enjoying seeing a wide range of girls experience and learn about these things, I also thought there were too many perspectives. There were elements of the story I found were never closed, like the girl in the corn maze and her experience ( The fact I cannot remember her name maybe says something about how many pov there were) I would have loved more of an in depth view of how these things effected her. However I only marked it down a bit for this as in a way, this lack of depth could represent how sometimes, you don't get closure on assault and you just have to move on with your life.

Overall I would recommend the book to anyone as I think it tackles the breadth of the topic very well, and intertwines it subtly, making it realistic and relatable. It is a relevant, deep but enjoyable novel, I would have just liked to have seen a more in depth view of the characters, as they all seemed like interesting people.

This isn’t quite what I was expecting from the blurb. I thought it was going to be filled with scandalous drama surrounding the rape and sexual assault claims. Instead it was a POV exploration of the mundane day to day boarding school experience. However each chapter served as a pivotal, life changing moment for the girl that the chapter revolves around.

I suppose that’s the point though. That in the coming of age moments in lives can come from just the normal day to day. Not much really happens in the book. But it does serve as good example of how girls (and indeed women) can be so easily dismissed when it comes to concerns about sex.

https://millmansblog.wordpress.com/2021/02/07/all-girls/

Set in an exclusive all-girl's boarding school that is rocked by the revelation of a historical sex scandal, this book offers a frank and unflinching look at abuse and abuse of power. Rather than following one character all the way through, the author cleverly builds up the story through a series of vignettes, with each chapter introducing a new character, enabling the reader to see the different ways in which the students navigate the scandal their school is enveloped in. It brilliantly captures the frustration so many women face when they do speak up, only to find themselves not being heard, and by offering multiple perspectives it gives the reader a chance to view things from many different angles.

This was not what I was expecting. But, what an amazing read. I loved each girls POV ( although does get a little confusing if you’re not careful ). Each POV is like a mini story with a main plot running through the book. Each girl skims the surface of what life is like at a boarding school, their fears, dreams and their reactions to a rape allegation made by a former student years before. The girls are ambitious, driven and switched on to all around them. Emily Layden wrote 17/18 years olds brilliantly and believable. Would definitely recommend.

All Girls follows multiple points of view throughout the story. Each one skims the surface of the life of a boarding school girl: their fears, secrets, thoughts - both happy and sad, their ambitions and dreams and their reactions to the rape allegation made against one of their teachers, the overarching theme of this novel.

I devoured this book as quickly as I could, the writing well paced and the story of each character easy to get sucked into to.

At times I felt myself becoming slightly confused about which character I was reading as there are so many POV. However I wouldn’t change this or call it a criticism, because the multifaceted depiction of girlhood this allows for means that all girls can relate to this book.

I had forgotten the pitch for All Girls by the time I came around to reading it, and all I could remember was that it was a thriller set at elite boarding school. That pitch does not describe the book I read, but nevertheless the book was a pleasant surprise.

Like I said above, I was convinced this was a mystery/thriller novel. I even think Goodreads has it categorised as a thriller. All Girls is more a literary fiction study of how the ripples of a rape accusation from 20 years ago affects the current day students at a boarding school. The incident in the blurb is not the focus of the story and we only really learn about the event through newspaper clippings and emails from staff.

I think this was a good angle to explore. I am not interested in reading a story that uses the character’s pain as a backdrop to make the story seem like it has meaning. I’ve found that to be the case with a lot of literary fiction I’ve read. In this book the students are concerned with the case, and especially how safe they are at a school where an incident like this has happened before.

Over the course of 300+ pages, we meet a series of students who were all great to read from. They each felt realised off the page, we experienced parts of their past or daily life outside of where the plot takes the character. I enjoyed that the characters were each connected to each other through the various points of view. There was a sense of how interconnected the lives of these girls are as they live together and learn together in a small school.

The writing flowed seamlessly through the various points of view. You stay with each character for exactly as long as they are needed for the narrative, so the plot feels like it is progressing quickly as it is propelled by the POV switches. While with the characters we live their life deeply and in detail for as long as we remain with them. The characters were varied and flawed. I thought Layden did a great job of writing the characters so they were believably 17/18 years old.

This not an easy topic to read about. The layers of removal from the incident is also helped by the students disconnection from the victim. The incident happened before they were born. However, the students discover that as the accusation comes to light it stirs up questions and worries they have about their safety and life experiences. I thought Layden did a great job handling a difficult topic.

With thanks to John Murry press and Netgalley for allowing me to review All Girls

From the blurb of this book, I was looking forward to reading All girls, but it didn't hold up to what I was expecting, too many characters to keep track of and I found myself not caring about them.

A DNF for me

I requested this book thinking that the premise sounded interesting and was looking forward to seeing how the story unfolded, but I was sorely disappointed. I struggled to get into this story; it was slow-paced, there were too many characters to keep track of and almost DNFed at the end of each chapter.

Each chapter is written in a different POV, so once you're finally getting into it and starting to feel connected to a character, it switches. I carried on reading hoping to get back to that character but you never do. The characters get 1 chapter and that's it - no stories are resolved and the issues raised were only superficially dealt with. I wish the story had been approached in a different way, maybe focusing on 1 or 2 characters and going back to them multiple times, as there were some characters with interesting potential that just wasn't explored.

This book was disappointing and I would not recommend it.

This is a different kind of boarding school story. rather than follow one or two main characters the story is pieced together by many of the girls at the school. The plot is very #metoo without really saying that it is this is both good in that it doesnt overwhelm the story and bad that it makes it feel like it doesnt matter. I think overall the idea of the book is great but I kept waiting for the characters to recur so I could catch upw ith what was happening to them so it left me wanting a little.

Atwater is a prestigious boarding school for girls and prides itself on being a safe and nurturing environment. This ethos is challenged when an ex-student makes an allegation against a male faculty member, and seeks recompense from the school for their mishandling of her allegation.

I was excited to read this book as I was interested in how the question of consent and misconduct was going to be dealt with. At times I was fully engaged in the story as told by the current students of Atwater. But there were quite a few moments where I felt the plot lost its way somewhat, and superfluous details were dwelt upon that didn't move the story along, or even seem relevant. I would have been much more interested in the details and background of the allegation made by Karen Mirro, and also greater emphasis on how the school treated her at the time. I feel this book didn't make the most of the chance to say something really important about consent and boundaries.

On the flip side, it was an insight into life at an all girls boarding school, with issues of identity, sexual awakening and the cliquey nature of girls.

Whilst it was a well-written story, it just left me wanting more of Karen's story, and less of the others.

All Girls is a debut novel, set in a New England boarding school and told from the viewpoints of a range of different girls amidst the revelation of a historic scandal that the school administration wants silenced.

While I think the plot for this book was promising and powerful, I unfortunately didn’t enjoy it as much as I was hoping to. There were a few gripping and thought-provoking moments throughout the story and some specific parts that really resonated with me however my main issue is that there were just too many characters for me to be fully engaged and this caused me to lose focus. I do appreciate that the author was portraying the contrasting insights of the various girls and that this was meant to add depth and conflicting opinions to the plot, which I think it did here and there, but overall I just felt a bit lost at times with who the chapters were relating to - there were so many different girls’ names mentioned that I couldn’t remember who was who.

It was difficult for me to be invested in any of the characters, which is something I like to feel in any book, because the viewpoints flicked from one girl to the next so frequently. However although I didn’t absolutely love it, I do appreciate the ultimate message of the story and think it’s an important one to take away after reading it.

Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I thought that I would love this book in the same way I loved Moxie but I found it a bit of a let down if I'm honest. The ever changing and numerous perspectives became so confusing that I felt like I couldnt focus on one girl for long enough to like or care about their story at all. The writing itself made me want to go to boarding school and it touches on so many topics that are important and NEED discussing just it doesnt really go anywhere in the end.

I first heard about All Girls when it was featured in the Modern Mrs. Darcy 'Winter Book Preview'. It was described as a book that was reminiscent of the writing of Curtis Sittenfeld, J Courtney Sullivan and Sally Rooney, so I knew instantly that I wanted to read it!

I am sometimes nervous when I have such high expectations going into a book, but this one did not let me down. The elite, traditional girls' boarding school setting was such an inspired location to explore very timely issues of sexual abuse and consent (and this was done in a sensitive, nuanced and thought-provoking way).

Despite dealing with heavy subjects, the book was very 'readable', given momentum by the constantly changing narrative viewpoints. At times, I would have liked to have heard more from some of the narrators and found out where their stories took them. However, I also thought the structure was a very effective way to give voices to a range of different young women.

Highly recommended! Thank you very much to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advance review copy of All Girls in exchange for an honest review. I will certainly be looking out for what Emily Layden does next.

I wanted to love this book because the premise sounded so strong and I loved the title and package but pacing wise it never quite got off the blocks ... I think it was because we had so many points of views from various characters from the get go (Macy, Louisa, Anjali) and it was hard to engage with any one of them.
I loved the setting, the descriptions, and all the preppy stuff and I was relatively engaged with the crime aspect of it but I felt like overall the book was a little baggy and could have been streamlined to get the pacing better.

Centred in an exclusive American all Girls boarding school, we follow 9 different girls during a school year. The story looks at how their backgrounds influences how they view themselves and how they think others perceive them in this expensive school.
The new school year starts with the girls returning to find lots of flyers along the school route telling of a student's alleged rape by a teacher which was covered up. How this affects each girl is explored through various events during the year.
For me, the book didn't quite work. Each girl's story and perspective was interesting but I found myself getting muddled and they just didn't meld together enough.

All Girls begins with a series of signs on the road to Alwater, an all girls boarding school, accusing a male member of the faculty of rape in 1995. We go through a year at Alwater, from the perspective of nine different girls (each with their own chapter) as events relating to this accusation unfold.

The sexual assault allegations aren't really the main storyline, though it is definitely the thread linking all the chapters. Each girl has their own experiences with sexuality, consent, friendships, morality, racism, and mental health.

Yet somehow the book manages to be cohesive. You could read one chapter without reading the others I think, and not be too confused, but each chapter compliments the others.

For example, you read a chapter from Lauren's perspective that mentions her roommate, and other students, and then find later in the book there is a chapter from their perspective in which Lauren might be mentioned. It's this that makes me want to re read it, as by the end of the book you have new information that you didn't when you read their chapter! You don't need to read it twice though, that's just my curiosity I think.

I also really enjoyed the brief glimpses of the girls futures and how their perspectives on some of the events and conversations will change when they are older and understand more about the world.

My only quibble was that because each girl only had one chapter, it left me wanting to know more, and I had lots of things left unanswered. The ending was kind of anticlimactic because all the chapters sort of had their own endings. This didn't take away from my enjoyment, I think it was just unexpected (and when I think about it, more realistic!).

Wow!
I felt like I was a boarder at this exclusive school- it really brought to life that elitist part of American society that affords a great education but also great sheltering.
I as a bit confused at the very detailed introduction to a couple of characters who then did not really feature much compared o others introduced later down the line, but their stories neatly interwove with the theme of the book, about sexual naievity, abuse and people using their place in society to get away with unspeakable acts.
Loads going on with some really strong characters leading the battle to the truth.

I love the premise of All Girls by Emily Layden; an all girls boarding school in America with a fantastic reputation that is in the middle of a scandal because a former alum is accusing a teacher at the school of rape. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different student at the school as they move through the school year. As someone who went to an all girls school, the characterisation, the worries they have and situations the girls find themselves in is spot on. However, because each chapter is from a different perspective it feels more like a short story collection. There were a lot of character names and school specific terminology to try and keep track of and I found the overarching theme of how the school was dealing with the allegations, and who the anonymous ‘whistleblower’ type character was, not enough to maintain a connection throughout the story. There were a lot of characters and storylines I really liked but I do feel you needed to meet them again properly in order to feel emotionally invested in the overall story. I loved the diversity of backgrounds and reasons that each of the students chose to be at the school. The characterisation is brilliant but I do feel the story would have been better if we had met less students but got to know them better and returned to them throughout the school year.

A page turner, one that we all love a group of girls, a boarding school, a scandal. How the scandal effects each of the girls and ultimately their futures.