A girl's body hangs from the gates of a prestigious girls' boarding school, and Ash Carlisle's name is in the air. Readers learn quickly that she arrived at the school under false pretenses that won her a full scholarship and travel expenses from England to the United States. The Goode School is an elite institution that guarantees its graduates will gain admittance to the university of their choice. Although Ash quickly demonstrates the lengths to which she will go in order to succeed, for a time she is so overwhelmed by the arcane traditions of the school--its hazing and its secret societies--that she might appear to be no different from her classmates. But Ash is not the only one at the school with secrets. Another student dies, and rumors fly about how her secrets drove her to suicide, but it's quickly revealed not to be the entire story.
Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison (No One Knows) is an intense work of suspense, featuring a protagonist who holds her cards close to her vest. As she encounters hostile fellow students and learns about dark stories from the school's past, the audience is kept off balance, wondering who the worst villain will turn out to be. The final act's twist will send readers back to the beginning, eager to see how the pieces fit perfectly without having given anything away. Intriguing secondary characters with chapters from their points of view help to keep the story engrossing from beginning to end. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library