2/5 stars! This book just felt like every other prep school mystery novel. There's a poor scholarship student who gets bullied and the rich kids that taunt her. I need something more original in my books. The pacing was also a drag, which made getting through the book difficult.

A dark academia book for a mixed audience (both YA and adult). I loved the time-period setting in the 90s, and found the claustrophobic nature of the girls in the school incredibly bleak and relatable. Sarah is a great main character, with a thoughtful and honest take on suicide ideation and coming to terms with mental illness. I loved Strots too. A fab book, which maybe went on a little long, but I liked it anyway.

Sadly this one failed to live up to expectations. A dark tale of bullying, bipolar disorder and social standing which promised so much yet, partly due to characters it was hard to get behind, left me skimming the pages. May be better suited to a YA audience as it fell short in terms of the contemporary gothic style it promised.

A new book from Jessica Ward. And I was excited to see what it's was about. And it didn't disappoint, great narrative on like in school and the pressure we faced.

I won’t lie, I spent the first 50% of this book fighting the urge to DNF but once the pace picks up, it became a really enjoyable read.

I felt like most of the characters were well written and easy to invest in which was key in keeping me intrigued with the exception of a few (eg Ms Crenshaw and Sarah Taylor’s mother) that felt a bit superfluous at times.

All in all, not quite the dark academia thriller I had anticipated but worth a read!

Not the type of read I was expecting as it felt very much YA, instead of general fiction, I feel like this made it take a while for me to get into it and then once I had, I felt the pacing was quite slow. However it was still a decent read.

DNF around halfway through. This is much more YA than the description makes it out and it's not very chilling. Might be more enjoyable to others!

When Sarah Taylor meets Greta Stanhope on her first day at St. Ambrose School for Girls, she knows only one of them will survive the semester. The girls are complete opposites: Sarah with her biploar diagnosis and her black clothes, always a social outcast no matter the setting, and Greta, from a wealthy family, with her bright clothes and Queen Bee status at the school. The predictable thing happens: Greta doesn't waste a moment to start picking on Sarah. It's good that Sarah has Strots, her roommate, and soon she discoveres that not everyone at St. Ambrose is as polished as they seem.
This was brilliant! This book was so well written and captivating. I loved Sarah both as a character and as our narrator, especially because not only could we not trust her version of events, but also because she herself couldn't. This makes for very intriguing layers in an already well-layered story. I loved Strots and I really enjoyed how the two interacted. Sarahs growth throughout the book is realistic and hopeful. The way Greta's viciousness is portrayed also mirrors reality in a precise way. I thoroughly enjoyed myself while reading this, even on the edge of my seat.

Wasn’t a huge fan of this unfortunately. Slow start and kind of predictable? It almost felt YA to me.

Unfortunately, I really didn't like this book. It started in such a typical way and took too long for anything interesting to happen.

A dark, troubling tale of jealousy, lies and betrayal. A juicy read for those who are familiar, as I am, with New England's private school scene. Ward really captured the essence of these girls and the people around them, and just how high the stakes are when it comes to looks, academics and extra curricular. Certainly recommend.

I enjoyed this more than I expected. An interesting look at life as a teenager with mental health struggles (bipolar). At points it felt like more of a Young Adult novel than general fiction.

I found this book a bit hit a miss, I do love a good 'dark academic' story but I do think, the mean girl trope is overdone and the constantly comparing any book that within the realm of dark academic to 'the secret history' equally overdone and untrue.


Jessica Ward does a good job at setting up the story well - St Amrbrose School, is a preppy all-girls boarding school and Sarah our narrator a new girl at school. Swiftly singled out to be the 'mean girls' target of the year. The book goes quite heavy into mental illness, and I cannot comment on the accurate portryal of Sarah's bipolar but Ward does a good job of making the audience/reader connect with the MC, but I found the overwhelming amount of description for minute details overbearing and made me switch off. I am unsure how i feel about the ending, I do not think i expected it to pick up towards the end but it was just depressing overall. I don't mind depressing books i am just not sure, i expected this book to be one.

I would reccomend the book, to a certain audience - in the mood for a sinister, depressing and rather triggering book about mean girls and wealth? (This is coming from someone who reccomended A little life, to a customer for them to come back and ask for a refund because it was so depressing she could not read it).

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I love its premise, but I found the first half incredibly slow and I couldn't really connect to the characters. Some elements felt heavy handed and the atmosphere never built up to anything.

Really liked the sound of this, but unfortunately I just don’t think it brought anything completely original to the genre of ‘antics at all-girls schools’ that is so popular at the moment.

I usually love a book about awful teenage girls set in a boarding school and whilst this one had promise it was just way too slow for me to ever really connect to sadly.

It seems like i’m in the minority though so definitely just personal preference.

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING


St Ambrose school for girls is a slow paced dark academia novel dealing with heavy themes regarding mental health.

I loved the characters so much. Sarah's inner turmoil and struggles with depression were written so well, I literally cried while reading this

The characters interactions all feel so realistically portrayed as well, I was OBSESSED with this out and quite frankly couldn't put it down.

Overall I 100% recommend as a great autumn read

A dark twisty coming of age story. If you loved The Secret History, then this is for you. Devastating. Deadly.

This is a wonderfully written coming of age story set in a secluded boarding school. The complicated relationships between the girls drive this story in which the school feels like another entity in a way, with a very gothic feel to it. Highly recommended!

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book. I liked the slow build and how it was gradually getting more sinister.
However, this book really just didn't build to anything. The slow build turned out to just be an overly slow paced book and after about 40% I just lost interest.

Far too slow paced for me.