Emily Layden

It is not lost on me that although I often gravitate towards books about boarding school, I rarely enjoy them. Of course, it must be said that I also work at a boarding school, so I understand all of the nuances, strange traditions, and overall bizarreness of the bubble-world these schools inhabit. Debut author Emily Layden received a six-figure deal for All Girls, and if nothing else, she also understands these institutions and hits the details right on the nose. All Girls is being touted show more as an “ensemble” novel, and I love a book that jumps from character to character, but Layden doesn’t do enough to distinguish the voices. All of the girls blur together, and maybe that symbolizes the homogeneity of these schools, but it doesn’t make for great reading. The basic plot revolves around a decades-old sexual assault and how the school, Atwater, deals with the past and current ramifications. None of the characters stand out enough to mention, and many of them play frustratingly token roles. Layden’s writing is sharp and easy--she should have used that skill to focus more on a few of the young women to create some empathy and attachment. All Girls is an odd mix of strong writing and an interesting subject with a fizzling-out plot and poorly developed characters. The writing and subject make it worth a look by readers who enjoy an ensemble-style book and are intrigued by boarding schools.
Thanks NetGalley for an ARC of this book. show less

So - even though the last book I read was set in an all girls boarding school and was very disappointing - somehow -- due to the strange timing of library holds I ended up reading this - a second book in a row - set in an all girls boarding school.

But I am happy to say - I really really liked this novel.

Full disclosure - I went to a co-ed boarding school in New England in the early 90's and that experience deeply colors how I react to novels that choose this setting.

Layden gets it all show more right. All the details, the schedules, the language that is so particular. It all feels so familiar and really built trust with me as a reader.

The characters are well drawn and believable - the overarching subject is a serious one and came at it from a different direction than I have contemplated previously.

My very favorite boarding school novel is Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. I don't think anything will be quite as perfect as that to me - but this is very very good and I felt really transported back into that world.

I will definitely look for more by this author. show less

Students at Connecticut girls' boarding school Atwater respond to an old (1995) accusation of rape against one of their teachers, and begin to question their administration. Told in the round, from different students' perspective, the focus of this novel is not about solving or deciding an old case, but interrogating current policies, practices, and norms at their school in the present (2015). The girls also navigate their own issues, of course, from roommate relationships to romantic ones, show more from censorship to anxiety to activism to college applications and acceptances. Emails to and from the Atwater head of school and Board of Trustees are included before each section break, and the sections are marked by important events in the school calendar, from Orientation to Commencement.

See also: The Swallows by Lisa Lutz, I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

Quotes

What do people see when they look at me, Macy always wondered. What do they know? (63)

But [Chloe] will find that she has hidden the exact contours of the story deep inside a slowly shifting narrative, like a jagged rock smoothed by the tide, and it will be easier to keep the edges blunted...(134)

...so that acceptance is a matter of constant appraisal, of keeping up. (Abby, 177)

Sloane understands, now, how something can be simultaneously catastrophic and banal; ruinous but ordinary. (224)

...gives her the deep-bellied sensation of being seen, seems to fill her up and empty her out at the same time, like a meditative breath... (Emma, 239)

"This school - they say they're all about empowering us, but the truth is they have a very narrow view of what that looks like. And if our empowerment comes at any kind of cost, then we can forget about it." (Mia to Bryce, 277)

[Bryce] thinks about how you don't always see the lines until you've crossed them. (287)

It wasn't just about safety (get the rapist off campus) or justice (how do you hold a whole culture accountable?) - it was more personal than that. (288)

This is what it is to love a place....You have to want it to be better. (Bryce, 290)

"Someone told me once that it's important to pick your battles."
"Yeah," Mia says. "Sometimes I think that's just what we tell ourselves when we're exhausted." (Olivia and Mia, 307) show less

The story of All Girls is set at a fictional prep school in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut called Atwater. There are many characters and each chapter, denoted by an annual event at the school, focuses on different girls, their experiences at the school, and sometimes their backstories. The book’s first two chapters set the stage for the book’s central theme as students arrive for the 2015-16 school year. Several signs advertising that “A Rapist Works Here” are planted on the show more only road that leads to the school. The message is confusing and disheartening, especially for families with little experience with boarding schools. As the story progresses, the girls react to the danger intimated by the signs. Still, the school, steeped in its traditionalist, diehard ways, struggles to acknowledge the story behind the sexual assault victim’s message.

Each successive chapter carefully conveys the pros and cons of the time-tested ritualistic events such as fall fest, vespers, and prom. The author does this through the realistic contemporary conversations, comments, and observations of the astute female students. Each of the featured characters has an opinion. Each wants to be heard and make a statement within the confines of the rules and expectations, but sometimes those rules have to be tested when “enough is enough” of the conventional secrecy of what happens behind closed doors. Although there is some admiration for the time-honored annual events, it is clear how demeaning some of the pageantries are and how so much was designed to maintain women’s place in society as second class citizens. The many voices provide multiple reasons why Atwater and the real institutions it represents need to change.

Of course, this school year just precedes the national MeToo movement. The school year’s events describe both literally and metaphorically why MeToo’s message was so desperately overdue. The author does a great job of showing, not just telling what goes on in traditional school settings where esteemed faculty members’ reputations are treasured. She also outlines how easy it is to protect adults at the expense of students experiencing life-changing moments. Mrs. Brodie, Head of the Atwater School, responds to the former students’ accusation and current students’ concerns as though they are a mere disruption. It is incredible and deplorable, depending on your point of view, how skillfully she downplays the cries for help from the students she purports to serve. Institutional denial is alive and well at Atwater as it becomes publicly known that a faculty member accused of raping a student twenty years ago is still teaching at the school.

The strength of storytelling in All Girls is in the depictions of 2015-16 students using their access to multiple forms of social media as forums to speak their minds and stage unsettling pranks for the adults at Atwater. It becomes obvious that the students can wreak havoc and outsmart faculty and staff members living in the past and using dated means to uphold the school’s integrity and reputation. The students in this story are brilliant and driven to accomplish great things. They can see beyond the age-old expectations for “proper” upbringing, and they show how to employ modern tools to expose both the old-fashioned narrow-mindedness of the faculty and the loopholes in the social-emotional learning that is part of the school’s mission.

I found the story compelling. The author, at times, had me vacillating between sympathizing with students and adults. Many issues are raised about how schools respond to accusations of sexual assault in high school, especially when staff members and their spouses live on campus. Is it always one big happy family? What about the power imbalances? How is trust developed? These are such important questions that are not sufficiently addressed in the nation’s schools. The importance of student concerns and the danger of dismissing them is a pervasive theme. Layden creates articulate teenaged characters whose conversations with each other are replete with the typical coming of age concerns and demands that those living in ivory towers change their views about the women they serve.

Reflecting upon this book, I reacted similarly to Susan Choi’s Trust Exercise. It is tragic when adults condescend to or patronize high school students. It is a cultural travesty when those entrusted with young adults’ teaching and supervision in a boarding school shirk their responsibility to provide guidance and protection. The hopeful outcome that the students at Atwater seek, the intolerance of rape and sexual assault, is something that all modern communities must strive to attain. Ignoring sexual assaults is just not acceptable, regardless of the status of the accused and accuser. Conducting business as usual as the world finally recognizes the issues at established cultural institutions is neglectful.
I am grateful to NetGalley for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. show less