The Girls Are All So Nice Here

3,5
lack of attention, influence and jealousy are dangerous things

I liked the flashbacks and college setting but it just dragged too much. The beginning was good but I got tired of the same plot and the ending just felt flat. 

I almost didn't finish this but I wanted to know what all the fuss was about regarding the ending. Honestly the ending wasn't so much shocking as it was pulled out of nowhere and it felt as though it was tossed in haphazardly. I sped-read through most of it because there was too much fluff, and too many red-herrings.

This is a brutal, hard, hard read. Extremely well written, and absolutely blood chilling.

It has been 10 years since Ambrosia Wellington left Wesleyan college, she is now married and has put those days behind her. But when she receives numerous emails inviting her to the tenth year reunion Ambrosia's thoughts turn to those upsetting years when her behaviour and action were far from acceptable. With the emails becoming more frequent and an invitation sent in the post Amb finds herself journeying to her old college with her husband in dreaded anticipation of what lies ahead. She is determined that Adrian does not find out the truth of what happened ‘that night' and about who she was back then. From the moment she arrives Amb knows that she has been lured there and that something sinister is being planned. Payback? Revenge for what they did? Someone is out to get the answers that she has hidden for all these years.

An addictive read from start to finish. Ambrosia, the main protagonist of the story, is a difficult character to warm to. There are times when you see a glimpse of something ‘good' in her and can put the blame of her actions on her wanting to fit in or perhaps being lead astray by Sully but I could never regard her as innocent or blameless, and believe me I so wanted to find something endearing about her. Sully is a much easier character to comprehend she is pure manipulation and definitely a ‘mean girl', one that you would hope to avoid at all costs. She would definitely throw you under the bus rather than save you. It is very unique to read a book where you don't gel or particularly like the characters, I confess I didn't like any of them! However, I believe this was a deliberate ploy of the author and for me, it made the book a much more addictive read. I became emotionally involved with the girl's behaviour and was always hopeful that something would happen to change my opinions of them.

The themes running through the book were powerful, emotive and realistic. This book is enough to put you off going to college or university as we would refer to it in the UK. I think everyone has experienced the notion of a group of ‘mean girls' during their own education and this novel takes hold of that premise and intensifies it. A chilling, psychological thriller that you know will end in complete disaster but you can't turn away from. Many thanks to HQ Stories for my gifted copy; what a dark, twisted and completely compelling read, I couldn't put it down.

4.25⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A story of wanting to be accepted, seen, loved but at what cost? A true mean girls book. Obsession, destruction, lies, guilt, murder, revenge. All things I wasn't expecting but it sucked me in until the very end.

It was an interesting and uncomfortable take to be in the POV of one of the mean girls. To be inside her head and thoughts as things spiraled out of control.

I would've loved a bit more clarity at the end. But I guess that's what keeps you thinking about it even after you've finished reading it.

I enjoyed it a lot!

This is my first read by author Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, but I promise it will not be my last. I was lucky enough to get an arc of this and so happy about it. This was an edge-of-your-seat kind of page-turner. I liked this so much I bought the audiobook for my best friend because I knew this would be right up her alley. This book is so intense that it leaves you uneasy the entire time you read and you still cannot put it down.

Flynn is a wordsmith with the precise language it is crisp and clear that the words feel like a best friend that keeps you going until you get to the end. She lets you come to the party keeps you there with every page you turn and does it without missing a beat. It felt like the two main characters Ambrosia and Sully were caught in the writer's web and you needed to know if they would come out alive or come out trapped for good. This book is recommended if you want a thrill ride with a group of women who know what they want and don't want to be mixed with a bit of danger. This makes sexuality and independence and women empowerment a thing to behold. But what will keep you turning pages is to find out if the girls are nice or if some friendships are deadly. After reading this novel Ms. Flynn has made my instabuy list and for good reason. This is hands down a great dark thriller go get it! Thank you Netgalley for my arc and thank you to the author for writing a story that will stay with me.

This story is told in two time frames – primarily it's a flashback to the year Amb and Sully, the main characters, were just beginning college, (although you'd never know it from how little attention is paid to studying, papers, tests, classes). Instead, for them, their first semester consisted primarily of an endless round of parties, drinking, drug use, and casual sex. Amb has a roommate Flora, whose high school boyfriend goes to a nearby university. When he comes to campus to visit her, Amb accidentally meets him without realizing his connection to said roommate and falls hard, jettisoning any consideration of Flora and her feelings and instead desperately trying to win him for herself. Within hours, she's made him a fairy-tale prince and imagines a happily-ever-after with him, out of all proportion to their brief encounter. Her obsession leads to a tragic event and now, at her ten-year college reunion, she's getting creepy emails that threaten to reveal her role in the tragedy that occurred. So it's one part whodunit (who's sending the emails, who's after revenge) and one part mean girls at college. For me, neither Amb nor her utterly without socially-redeeming qualities flamboyant best friend Sully were appealing – their behavior was over the top narcissistic and infantile, all they cared about was themselves, their popularity, and making themselves the center of every drama. And their “victim”, poor Flora? She was a stereotype – the virginal good girl who takes everyone at face value and never suspects a thing. While the writing style itself was well done, I felt the plot was tedious and repetitive and none of the major characters seemed realistic or fully fleshed out, but were instead quite superficial and one-note. I'm not opposed to unlikeable narrators but they need to be compelling and well-drawn. Help me understand why they behave the way they do, show me something positive even if it's that they're clever, or witty or had a lousy childhood. Otherwise, they're someone ordered up by central casting – compelling free spirit, low-esteem hanger-on, clueless boyfriend, the hopelessly handsome but hapless husband. Readers nowadays want more. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC.