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All Girls by Emily Layden

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All Girls

Narrator
various
Publisher
John Murray Press
Publish Date
18 February 2021
Run Time
11 hours 40 minutes
Format
Audiobook

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What to expect

A keenly perceptive coming-of-age novel set at a prestigious New England prep school, as nine young women navigate their ambitions, friendships, and fears against the backdrop of a scandal the administration wants silenced.

'A sincere, poignant and moving story of a group of teenage girls coming to terms with the world they've inherited' Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones and the Six

An all-girls boarding school in a hilly corner of Connecticut, Atwater is a haven for progressive thinking and feminist intellectuals. The students are smart, driven and worldly; they are also teenagers, learning to find their way. But when they arrive on campus for the start of the fall term, they're confronted with startling news: an Atwater alumna has made a troubling allegation of sexual misconduct against an unidentified teacher. As the weeks wear on and the administration's efforts to manage the ensuing crisis fall short, these extraordinary young women come to realise that the adults in their lives may not be the protectors they previously believed.

All Girls unfolds over the course of one tumultuous academic year and is told from the point of view of a small cast of diverse, interconnected characters as they navigate the social mores of prep school life and the broader, more universal challenges of growing up. The trials of adolescent girlhood are pitched against the backdrop of sexual assault, consent, anxiety and the ways that our culture looks to young women as trendsetters, but otherwise silences their voices and discounts their opinions. The story that emerges is a richly detailed, impeccably layered, and emotionally nuanced depiction of what it means to come of age in a female body today.

(P) 2021 Macmillan Audio

Critics Review

  • The pages turn fast and the girls are complex, compelling and written with incredible tenderness. Layden excels at rendering the everyday details of boarding school life

    Kate Elizabeth Russell, New York Times

  • An exciting, innovative debut from a fresh and assured new voice

    Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones and the Six

  • A shimmering, intelligent portrait of young women on the cusp of adulthood

    Therese Anne Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of Z

  • An engrossing novel from start to finish, with characters who feel as real as your best friends

    Carola Lovering, author of Tell Me Lies

See more reviews
  • All Girls kept me turning pages

    Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists

  • Sexual awakening and institutional reckoning intertwine in Emily Layden's rich, kaleidoscopic debut

    Elizabeth Ames, author of The Other’s Gold

  • Incisive, astute . . . Layden succeeds at bringing the effects of an institutional cover-up into sharp relief

    Publishers Weekly

  • An important take on sexuality and #MeToo from the perspective of the young

    Library Journal

  • Astutely captures the claustrophobic and toxic culture of conformity among teenage girls

    Observer

  • Readers will find themselves thinking about the vividly and compassionately rendered characters long after their chapters end . . . Give it to grown-up fans of Gossip Girl and readers of Curtis Sittenfeld and Emma Straub

    Booklist

  • Call it a 21st-century Prep or a Litchfield County Gossip Girl, but don't miss what's sure to become a touchstone among the beloved niche of boarding-school novels

    Town & Country

  • Diving into the unprocessed underworld of adolescence, Layden creates space for a conversation about feminism and the unsung difficulties of surviving in a male-dominated world. Intelligent, evocative, and empathetic

    Kirkus

User Reviews

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Details

Author
Emily Layden
Narrator
various
Duration
11 hours 40 minutes
Release Date
18 February 2021
ISBN
9781529330120
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
John Murray Press
Genre
Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Narrative theme: coming of age, Crime and / or mystery fiction

Synopsis

A keenly perceptive coming-of-age novel set at a prestigious New England prep school, as nine young women navigate their ambitions, friendships, and fears against the backdrop of a scandal the administration wants silenced.'A sincere, poignant and moving story of a group of teenage girls coming to terms with the world they've inherited' Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones and the SixAn all-girls boarding school in a hilly corner of Connecticut, Atwater is a haven for progressive thinking and feminist intellectuals. The students are smart, driven and worldly; they are also teenagers, learning to find their way. But when they arrive on campus for the start of the fall term, they're confronted with startling news: an Atwater alumna has made a troubling allegation of sexual misconduct against an unidentified teacher. As the weeks wear on and the administration's efforts to manage the ensuing crisis fall short, these extraordinary young women come to realise that the adults in their lives may not be the protectors they previously believed.All Girls unfolds over the course of one tumultuous academic year and is told from the point of view of a small cast of diverse, interconnected characters as they navigate the social mores of prep school life and the broader, more universal challenges of growing up. The trials of adolescent girlhood are pitched against the backdrop of sexual assault, consent, anxiety and the ways that our culture looks to young women as trendsetters, but otherwise silences their voices and discounts their opinions. The story that emerges is a richly detailed, impeccably layered, and emotionally nuanced depiction of what it means to come of age in a female body today.(P) 2021 Macmillan Audio

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