Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison

 

J.T. Ellison is a pretty popular crime fiction author and when I found out she'd written what I like to call a Fucked-Up Lady Thriller (FULT to you peasants), I was thrilled. Also, it's set in a boarding school awash with secret societies and dark academia vibes-- and hey, that's like three of my favorite tropes, right out of the gate!

Brilliant, beautiful Ash seems like a shoe-in for the Goode School for Girls. She's a piano prodigy, good with computers, and has such a charming British accent. Never mind the fact that her family's dead and she's hiding a secret. Never mind that dead bodies have started to turn up on school campus. Never mind any of that. Seriously, don't.

Less is definitely more with this one but I will say that I felt like this book was too long. 500 pages for a potboiler thriller like this? Part of that was because there were just too many POVs. Ash's narrative was great and gave this book a crisp almost-YA feel that made it really addictive and easy to read. But Ford and the cops' POVs bored me and I felt like they added way too much exposition. Don't be lazy! 

My favorite bits were definitely the secret society stuff and the mean girl hazing/bullying elements. I tried to write a book with these elements myself but this author did it way better. Seriously, I'm jealous. I felt like I was living the elite, privileged pre-college kid lifestyle. There was also some pretty fucked-up shit happening in here, too (gory murders, anyone?). It's an interesting book and I was invested enough to read to the end. I just wish the reveal had been a little less sloppy and the pacing had been tighter.

3 out of 5 stars