The Girls Are All So Nice Here, by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, is an unsettling, dual-timeline suspense novel. Ambrosia’s keeping some secrets from her college years. Now, with her ten-year reunion looming, anonymous notes hint that someone knows what she and her friend did.

In their freshman year at Wesleyan, Sloane (who goes by Sully), says she gets bored easily. She embraces every kind of experimentation, and Amb is immediately drawn to her wild-girl ways. Amb’s already hooked on their intense friendship when she starts to realize that Sully loves experimenting on other people and playing manipulative games.  I didn’t buy this twisted-friendship dynamic in The Furies, but here it works. Sully’s a Spence girl and Amb’s from working-class New Jersey, which plays perfectly into the relationship.  Amb’s already looking to build her college identity, and there’s an unsettling mix of relatable freshman anxiety crossed with Amb’s disturbing dependence on Sully’s validation.  Throughout the novel, it’s this mix of realistically relatable and darkly twisted that makes the story work.

When the invitation to their ten-year reunion arrives, Amb’s married to a man a bit younger than she is, which adds to the feeling that her years at Wesleyan were sort of deleted from her adult life. She’s pulled into the reunion, just like she was pulled into Sully’s orbit, and at first I wasn’t buying it. There were just so many chances for her to skip it or leave early or just not engage, but over the course of the book, it becomes clear that even as an adult, Ambrosia needs that external approval and she’s still afraid to make waves or look weird. So, just roll with the whole but why would she go back there? to get to the twisty reveals about everything that really went on in their freshman year. Adult Ambrosia’s still a good liar, and she’s still worried that she won’t look good in front of others, so she could still be manipulated by someone who knows that… In this timeline, too, has that page-turning blend of blend of relatable social nervousness and twisted dark secrets.

Most of the enjoyment in The Girls Are All So Nice Here is about discovering the twists and wondering who knows what, so I’m going to try to keep spoilers out.  The dual timelines takes us through teenage Ambrosia, falling into Sully’s manipulation games in a twisted desire to be liked, and adult Ambrosia, trying to keep a lid on everything that’s happened as someone seems to be manipulating her again.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here will be out in March 2021 from Simon and Schuster. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.