Good Girls Lie

Good Girls Lie is about the secrets of the privileged young women at the Goode Academy in rural Virginia.  This has so many elements that make a great private school story: There’s the headmistress, who just wants out of the school, but who’s been tapped into running her ancestors’ academy after her mother resigned in disgrace over mishandled murder of a student. The school’s handyman/driver/pot dealer is the son of the murderer, because no one can ever leave this town, and also, what’s a good private-school story without a ghost or two? There’s a horrible bully who’s also the Head Girl and a secret-society leader, with all the secrets, hazing, and general rich-kid meanness one would expect.

Ash arrives, after the tragic and mysterious deaths of her parents, at the start of term and is immediately subjected to new classes, new classmates and obscure prep school traditions. (Slightly spoilerish note: I thought Ash’s slang  and speech patterns were a bit odd for an upper-class girl with a titled father, and at first I thought the author had lumped all British phrasing together, but the reveal makes it all make sense.)

One thing I really enjoy in prep school gothic stories is that any creepy clue could be ghosts, silly pranks or evil classmates. Here, though, it was definitely evil classmates. Boredom and academic pressure, combined with their priviledged protection from any real consequences, leads the students to endless social manipulations, ranging from seniors-only areas and hostile seating arrangements to twisted hazing rituals.  I thought the yes-mistress and general cruelty of secret hazing went a bit too far, and I wasn’t totally sure why anyone put up with it. Like in The Furies, I wasn’t quite compelled by the toxic friendships and I just wanted our protag to ditch the mean girl(s).

Still, there are so many unrelated secrets at this school, and so many characters with developed, hidden agendas to make this a great pageturner. The minor characters pursued their own goals, and weren’t just foils for the main plot. I really liked it, until the last bit of the book. I found the ending unsatisfying, where the novel changes from a thrilling pageturner with an unreliable narrator who’s probably keeping something back, into a soap opera where EVERYTHING IS LIES. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted the prep school secrets, and I enjoyed most of it, I just wasn’t quite on board with level of drama in the finale.