Psychological Thriller Review: Good Girls Lie | J. T. Ellison

I have enjoyed everything I’ve read by J.T. Ellison. Her books are dark, her characters are compelling, the settings are top tier, and I have never read a book of hers that didn’t pack at least one (if not several) good twists. Of all that I have read and enjoyed, I think Good Girls Lie is my favorite. Set at an elite all-girls boarding school, Good Girls Lie has it all—a stunning campus, a dean with secrets, a cast of students who are all competing to be the best, secret societies, and a leading character with a dark past.

About the Book | Good Girls Lie

Goode girls don’t lie…

Perched atop a hill in the tiny town of Marchburg, Virginia, The Goode School is a prestigious prep school known as a Silent Ivy. The boarding school of choice for daughters of the rich and influential, it accepts only the best and the brightest. Its elite status, long-held traditions and honor code are ideal for preparing exceptional young women for brilliant futures at Ivy League universities and beyond.

But a stranger has come to Goode, and this ivy has turned poisonous.

In a world where appearances are everything, as long as students pretend to follow the rules, no one questions the cruelties of the secret societies or the dubious behavior of the privileged young women who expect to get away with murder.

When a popular student is found dead, the truth cannot be ignored. Rumors suggest she was struggling with a secret that drove her to suicide.

But look closely… because there are truths and there are lies, and then there is everything that really happened. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

Review | Good Girls Lie

J.T. Ellison is a master at developing compelling protagonists, settings, and situations for her books. One thing I enjoy in her work is that each book is different and unique from the others. From the married authors in Lie to Me, to the wealthy interior designer in Its One of Us, to the Olympic hopefuls in Tear Me Apart, and even the talented artist getting married in Italy in Her Dark Lies, J.T. Ellison knows how to bring something new with each book.

Good Girls Lie brings a new story to life as a British teenager arrives at The Goode School in the wake of the tragic death of her parents. The Goode School is an elite all-girls boarding school in the beautiful rural hills of Virginia. The students at The Goode School are among the wealthiest and brightest, often going on to the Ivy League colleges and having great success in life.

Ash Carr (actually named Ashlyn Carlisle) has received a rare scholarship to The Goode School after her parents died in an unexpected and horrific way. The dean, Ford Westhaven, knows about her tragic backstory and has agreed that for her protection they won’t disclose it to the other students. That doesn’t stop the students from wondering why the beautiful but timid Ash has no social media presence to speak of.

The book starts with a shocking chapter, where a student’s body is found hanging from the school gates. From that scene, the story moves back in time to Ash’s arrival at The Goode School. The other students—with the exception of one—are largely side characters, meant to show how many secrets Ash holds and how brutal the relationships in high school can be if you don’t fit in.

Ash has the benefit of beauty and talent, but she’s shy and often seems a bit skittish. In hearing her narrate her chapters, she wants the other students to be nice but mostly leave her alone. Meanwhile the sophomores she is sharing her suite with are fascinated by her when it seems she has drawn the attention (both positive and negative) of the popular seniors. The leader of this group is Becca Curtis, and we get some chapters from her perspective.

I was so curious about Becca Curtis because she is hot and cold towards Ash and other students. Everyone worries about crossing her (and I don’t blame them). Her inconsistent behavior towards Ash—at times snobby and condescending, and other times vulnerable and warm—made her all the more fascinating. I wanted to understand more about Becca and eventually, we get better insight into why she acts the way she does.

Ash becomes the most popular sophomore after she is the rare younger student tapped for the top secret society on campus. But the night of initiation, Ash’s roommate Camille is pushed off the bell tower and Ash becomes under scrutiny by the police. This sort of attention is what Ash was trying to avoid—the last thing she wants is for her secrets to be revealed.

Ash isn’t the only character with secrets from her past (or present!) though. The reader learns that the gothic school grounds are filled with secrets, lies, and scandals—as any good boarding school should be! Becca and Ash fascinated me. Ash earns the respect of Becca and some other seniors when she shows her impressive coding skills that also garner the attention of her professor.

Meanwhile Becca is a polarizing character, both subjecting others to bullying while also saving them from it at other times. The more I learned about Becca, the more sympathetic I found her. Then she’d do something else awful, and I’d be back to disliking her again. And then we’d see a chapter narrated by her providing insight into her behavior, and I’d be back on her side.

Dean Ford Westhaven is another outstanding character. Ford graduated from The Goode School and was forced to succeed her mother (the former dean of the school) after a scandal pushed her out of the position. Ford yearns to write a novel that will pull her out of the life she has found herself in. As a former student of the school, Ford knows better than anyone what mischief the students get up to. Her approach is to largely leave them alone, knowing that they provide their own checks and balances and she’ll know if they cross the line.

Ford picks up on a lot about the students, but she misses a lot too. She is distracted by her desires to be a writer and by a scandalous, secret affair she engages in after dark. I was curious who the man was of the affair, and I had many theories before it was revealed. Ford is an intriguing character. I enjoyed her perspective and I found her sharp, though distracted.

The book is nearly 500 pages, but I didn’t find it drawn out or inconsistent in pacing. I was hooked from the first page to the very last. I loved the gothic setting at the school. I could picture the girls running around the beautiful building, their whole lives ahead of them, but caught up in their adolescent lives.

Nothing about the book reads as Young Adult, despite the main character being a teenager. Part of that is the writing, which switches from first to third narration and amongst characters seamlessly. The story has a sinister edge, particularly after the shocking first chapter and the death of Ash’s roommate. Ellison holds many of the secrets back until later in the book, though they are paced out so that each time a secret is revealed to the reader, it adds a layer to the broader story that pulls the reader in further.

As always with Ellison, expect some good twists and turns and a jaw dropping ending. The final chapter was perfect, in my opinion. It added the exact ending to the story that I craved (without realizing I craved it until after I read it). All of the characters are compelling, and even the secondary characters felt important to the broader story. Good Girls Lie delivers top notch suspense and is a standout in the psychological thriller genre.

About the Author | JT Ellison

J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 30 novels, and the EMMY® award winning co-host of the literary TV show A WORD ON WORDS. She also writes urban fantasy under the pen name Joss Walker.

With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim and prestigious awards. Her titles have been optioned for television and published in twenty-eight countries.

J.T. lives with her husband and twin kittens in Nashville, where she is hard at work on her next novel.

Want to learn more? Visit J.T.’s FAQ page, and check out her favorite interviews.