All Eyes on Her by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Summary: You heard the story on the news. A girl and a boy went into the woods. The girl carried a picnic basket. The boy wore bright yellow running shoes. The girl found her way out, but the boy never did….
Everyone thinks they know what happened. Some say Tabby pushed him off that cliff— she didn’t even like hiking. She was jealous. She had more than her share of demons. Others think he fell accidentally—she loved Mark. She would never hurt him…even if he hurt her. But what’s the real story? All Eyes On Her is told from everyone but Tabby herself as the people in her life string together the events that led Tabby to that cliff. Her best friend. Her sister. Her enemy. Her ex-boyfriend. Because everybody thinks they know a girl better than she knows herself. What do you think is the truth?

This taut, suspenseful story kept me up way too late several nights in a row. Flynn tumbles readers directly into the mystery of Tabby and her motivations, as seen through the eyes of the people around her, including her sister, her rival, her best friend, her ex-boyfriend, the best friend of the boy she is accused of murdering, and the internet commenters on her case. What they all have in common is that they all have their own motives for what they share – or don’t – with the reader, the cops, and the many people asking questions about Tabby. Not until the end do we hear from Tabby herself – and is it any wonder that after being claimed, labeled, pored over, analyzed, and judged by everyone who thinks they have a right to the contents of her mind, the real Tabby is a far more complicated being? Flynn’s searing novel leaves the reader with answers full of their own uneasy questions about the reductive way that our society treats girls.

Favorite quote: “The universe is always trying to split girls in half. Half angel, half demon. No wonder so many of us turn into monsters.”

ALL EYES ON HER is out now.

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