If there’s one thing that has always been fascinating even though I know it probably wasn’t all that it was made out to be in movies and books is boarding schools. Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved reading books set in elite boarding schools and all the things that can go wrong. So, here are 11 thrilling books set in boarding schools that you need to read.
Say Her Name – Juno Dawson
Bobbie isn’t the type of person to believe in ghosts so when her friends all agree to try to summon Bloody Mary on Halloween at their creepy boarding school she decides to go along with it. So they say ‘Bloody Mary’ 5 times in front of the mirror… and nothing happens. They all laugh it off and forget about it.
Until the next morning, Bobbie finds a message saying ‘5 days’ on her bathroom mirror. It soon becomes clear that they actually did summon Bloody Mary and she won’t stop until they’re all dead. Now Bobbie and her friends must figure out how to stop her before it’s too late.
Where Sleeping Girls Lie – Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
After being homeschooled for her entire life, Sade Hussein is starting her third year of high school at Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school after her dad has died. Sade immediately befriends her roommate, Elizabeth, but then Elizabeth completely disappears on Sade’s first night at the Academy.
Rumours quickly begin to swirl about Sade, and then she captures the attention of the most popular girls at school.
As Sade begins to feel herself drawn into the drama of all of the wealthy and elite students at Alfred Novel Academy, she feels like she’s getting closer to figuring out what happened to Elizabeth. And then another student dies
Sade quickly realises that there is more to this school than she ever realised and there are secrets hidden behind every corner.
Truly Devious – Maureen Johnson
Stevie Bell has just started at Ellingham Academy, a famous private boarding school in Vermont for the best thinkers, inventors and artists. Every student is there for a reason and Stevie is there to solve a decades old mystery that happened on school grounds.
Shortly after the school opened, the wife and daughter of the founder were kidnapped and the only real clue left behind was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder from someone calling themselves ‘Truly Devious.’
But as Stevie begins to reinvestigate the cold case, Truly Devious makes a surprise return as a body is found on campus. Now Stevie and her new classmates find themselves thrust right into a real murder investigation.
This Book Kills – Ravena Guron
Jess Choudhary wants to keep her head down and make it through school without any problems. Her future at this elite boarding school depends on her ability to stay out of trouble because she’s a scholarship student and one of the only Indian students at school. But then a popular and rich student is found dead in the exact way she described a character dying in a short story she wrote so she quickly finds herself stuck in the middle of the investigation.
And then Jess receives an anonymous text message thanking her for the inspiration. Jess promises she had nothing to do with the murder of Hugh Henry Van Boren… Well, not intentionally anyway.
I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You – Ally Carter
Cammie Morgan is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, which is actually a school for girls learning to be spies. Cammie is fluent in fourteen languages and can kill a man in seven different ways, but she has no idea what to do when she meets an ordinary boy that seems to like her.
Murder Most Unladylike – Robin Stevens
Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong have set up their own deadly secret detective agency at Deepdean School for Girls. The only problem? There’s really not that many mysteries to investigate.
Until one day Hazel discovers the body of their Science Mistress, Miss Bell, lying dead in the gym. Thinking it must have been a terrible accident, she returns five minutes later with Daisy only to find that the body has disappeared. So, now the girls don’t just have a murder to solve… They have to prove a murder even happened and there’s more than one person at the school with a motive.
The Ivies – Alexa Donne
Everyone knows the Ivies: the most coveted universities in the United States. But far more important are The Ivies. These are five girls at Claflin Academy with the same mission: to get into the Ivy League by any means necessary. But they’re not just trying their best at school. They improve their own odds by decreasing the fortunes of others. College admission is a serious business and in some cases deadly.
These girls would kill to get into the colleges of their dreams… literally.
S.T.A.G.S – M.A. Bennett
Greer MacDonald is struggling to settle into sixth form at the exclusive St Aidan the Great boarding school, known to its privileged students as S.T.A.G.S. Just when Greer thinks she’ll never make a friend she receives a mysterious invitation with three words embossed on it: huntin’ shootin’ fishin’. She soon learns that this is an invitation to spend the half term weekend at the country house of Henry de Warlencourt, the most popular and wealthy boy at school.
But when Greer arrives at the ancient and sprawling Longcross Hall she notices that the only adults around are a group of eerily compliant servants. And over 3 days of bloodsports that become increasingly twisted, Greer comes to the horrifying realisation that those being hunted are not wild game, but the misfits that Henry has brought with him from the school.
All These Beautiful Strangers – Elizabeth Klehfoth
On the last day of summer, the beautiful young wife of a real estate mogul vanished from the family’s lake house without a trace, leaving behind her seven-year-old daughter, Charlie.
Years later, Charlie is now 17-years-old and still struggles with the dark legacy of her family name and the mystery surrounding her mother. But determined to finally let go of the past, she throws herself into life at the prestigious school she attends and quickly finds herself friends with the ‘it’ crown. She’s also been tapped by the school’s secret elite society that’s known for terrorising the faculty, administration and their enemies. But to become a member herself, Charlie must participate in a semester-long high-stakes scavenger hunt that may jeopardize her reputation and her place at school.
And as she plays the game, Charlie begins to learn that she may not survive the terrible truth about her family, her school, and herself.
People Like Us – Dana Mele
Despite having skeletons in her closet, Kay Donovan has reinvented herself and is determined to leave the past in the past. Now she’s a star soccer player whose group of friends run the private school she attends. But when a body is found in the lake, Kay’s carefully constructed life begins to fall apart.
The dead girl has left Kay a computer-coded scavenger hunt to complete which begins to implicate suspect after suspect, until Kay finds herself the main suspect. At Bates Academy, the truth is something you make, not always what happens and if Kay is backed into a corner, she’ll do whatever it takes to survive.
Plain Bad Heroines – Emily M. Danforth
In 1902, 2 students at the Brookhants School for Girls are madly in love and obsessed with the memoir of a scandalous young writer. A few months later, they’re found dead after a horrific wasp attack, the book lying next to their intertwined bodies. After 3 more deaths on the property, the school is closed for good.
Over a century later, a controversial horror film about the events at the school is being filmed at the crumbling and supposedly cursed school starring Hollywood lesbian ‘it girl’ Harper Harper.
