All These Beautiful Strangers

By: Elizabeth Klehfoth

Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly, Xe Sands, Greg Tremblay

Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

A young woman haunted by a family tragedy is caught up in a dangerous web of lies and deception involving a secret society in this highly charged, addictive psychological thriller that combines the dishy gamesmanship of Gossip Girl with the murky atmosphere of The Secret History.

One summer day, Grace Fairchild, the beautiful young wife of real estate mogul Alistair Calloway, vanished from the family’s lake house without a trace, leaving behind her seven-year old daughter, Charlie, and a slew of unanswered questions.

Years later, 17-year-old Charlie still struggles with the dark legacy of her family name and the mystery surrounding her mother. Determined to finally let go of the past, she throws herself into life at Knollwood, the prestigious New England school she attends. Charlie quickly becomes friends with Knollwood’s "it" crowd.

Charlie has also been tapped by the A’s - the school’s elite secret society well known for terrorizing the faculty, administration, and their enemies. To become a member of the A’s, Charlie must play The Game, a semester-long, diabolical high-stakes scavenger hunt that will jeopardize her friendships, her reputation, even her place at Knollwood.

As the dark events of past and present converge, Charlie begins to fear that she may not survive the terrible truth about her family, her school, and her own life.

©2018 Elizabeth Klehfoth (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic Reviews

"This is going to be big." (Entertainment Weekly)

“Juicy, clever, and beguiling." (Cecily von Ziegsar, author of the Gossip Girl novels)

I really liked this book!

Even though this book COULD be considered a Y/A psychological thriller, it was more than adult enough for me. The plot revolves around boarding school student Charlotte (Charlie) Calloway, whose mother supposedly ran away when she was young. Each chapter weaves the mystery of her boarding school, her mother, her family's secrets, and her personal conflicts with her own shortcomings in a way that I thought was pretty intriguing and compelling. I've listened to a lot of psychological thrillers, and they not only have to grab me from the get-go, but keep me interested all the way through. This one did. The ending was satisfying, and the narrators did a great job. I give it two thumbs up, and recommend it!

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Quick Listen

Very engaging liked the story and narration- guessed the ending but still enjoyed. Would recommend.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Don’t Expect The Secret History

I’ve seen comparisons and it’s just not nearly as interesting. Then again I’m a huge Donna Tart fan and not too many books could compare. With that in mind, it was a fun listen. Felt like young adult fiction. But good.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

I didn’t want to stop listening!

This was a wonderful book on many different levels. It keeps the listener completely engaged in the weaving and twisting of the story!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Drama, wealth, secrets and that is just the start

Oh boy, I really enjoyed this audiobook. It is filled with glamourous rich, spoiled entitled children that feed off drama. It almost seemed at times that the adults were more entitled than the children. This is a nicely woven tale of deception, secrets and family struggle. Our main character is well written and has many internal struggles but what I really liked was how she was determined to stand out among the crowd but time and time again caved in to peer pressure. It really showed a real side to her despite being lavishly rich. There are 3 different narrators each for different characters. It is written that each chapter is outlined with the year it takes place in as well as who is sharing the main point of view. There is no structure to who is speaking and it all seems random until you reach that "Ahh ha" moment in the book. For the most part Charlie speaks most and I enjoyed hearing from her. The jumping back and forth between years and POV was not difficult to follow at all and that made a huge difference in my rating. It all comes together nicely at the end and I was satisfied. The performances of the 3 narrators was just great. They fit together nicely rotating back and forth but also made their characters their own too. Each brought their strengths to this story and it really painted a great picture of each character. All of the little nuances were there, slight inflections, changes in tone, speeding up and slowing down and my favourite was the entitlement of all the students was made clear in the voice changes. Overall, I wish I had this sort of wealth but I guess I will settle for a great few hours of listening. A definite new favourite of mine!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I couldn’t stop listening

If you like a good mystery then you will love this. Great twist that you won’t see coming.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Meh

It was difficult to identify or sympathize with the main character who was a narcissistic entitled wealthy girl. Also, I didn’t feel like the characters and their relationships were all that well developed, given the length of the book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

absolutely amazing!

seriously loved the twists throughout the whole thing! it was a huge puzzle that I loved piecing together!

a bit more for younger listeners

although the story was good I felt it was geared more towards a younger listener. I felt like the author was trying to teach me life lessons and at 50 years old not my cup of tea

Pretty good

This story was pretty good, I was intrigued and it kept my attention. I will say audio wise one of the readers is difficult to understand. But I would definitely recommend