‘The Grimrose Girls’ – Laura Pohl

The Grimrose Girls makes for an interesting story…death, secrets and a boarding school with a history tinged with odd events. When the book begins we learn that Ari, a student at the school, has recently died. The general consensus is that she committed suicide, but her best friends – Yuki, Rory and Ella – are convinced that she would not have done this and there is more to the story.

Upon their return to school the girls decide to try and investigate. They have to broach some dark secrets and try to address some of the things about themselves they would prefer to keep hidden. It’s unclear who can help them and who might have something to gain from keeping them in the dark.

New girl Nani is given Ari’s place in the school and it’s no surprise that she finds it hard to settle. She has her own secrets and is reluctant to trust others. Determined to find out exactly what caused her father to leave before he got her the place at the famed school, Nani offers to help the girls try to discover what happened to Ari.

Once Nani finds a mysterious book the girls start to realise that there are some disturbing links between Ari’s death and other strange deaths of students that have taken place in the last few years.

I enjoyed the natural way in which we learned about each of the girls and the details of the mystery of the school. Some of the finer points of the story weren’t always explained, but I wonder whether this might be because there’s more details to come in the next book.