Book # 8: Good Girls Lie, J.T. Ellison

We were so honored that J.T. Ellison joined Shelf Indulgence Book Club today for a lovely discussion!! 

J.T. Ellison’s pulse-pounding new psychological thriller examines the tenuous bonds of friendship, the power of lies and the desperate lengths people will go to in order to protect their secrets.

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.

Discussion Questions:

What did you think of the setup? Where you able to initially figure out who the narrator was? 

Who was actually a sociopath and why, character wise in this book? Was there more than one? 

Is there anything you still don't get and why? 

At what point did you understand what was happening? 

Did you guess who was actually bad? 

Did you realize it was initially two people’s perspectives, Ash and Alex or did you think this was a singular person? 

Did you reread any parts? 

Did anything not make sense in a second pass, did any things really hold up solidly? 

Were you ever in a secret society or sorority? Would you join one?  

Have you ever been hazed or know anyone that has? What was the worst thing that happened? 

Was there any character you particularly liked? Were you rooting for anyone? 

Who did you dislike the most, character wise?  

Do you think this book was written more for teens or adults?

Do you feel there any where unresolved plots? Were there any things that you wanted to know more about/had questions about, but that they didn’t get answered?  

Where does this rank within the other thrillers we’ve read so far? 

What did you think about the end with the flash forward? 

Do you think there is room for a sequel about their adult lives? Where would you suspect they’d be next? 

About the Author: 

J.T. Ellison began her career as a presidential appointee in the White House, where a nuclear physicist taught her how to obsess over travel itineraries and make a seriously good pot of Earl Grey, spawning both her love of loose leaf and a desire for control of her own destiny. Jaded by the political climate in D.C., she made her way back to her first love, creative writing. More than 20 novels later, she is an award-winning New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with millions of books in print, and is published in 28 countries and 16 languages. She is also the EMMY-award winning cohost of A WORD ON WORDS, a literary interview television show, and co-wrote the “A Brit in the FBI” series with #1 New York Times bestseller Catherine Coulter. She lives in Nashville with her husband and two small gray minions, known as cats in some cultures. She thinks they’re furry aliens.