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Sidekick Super Review: Where Sleeping Girls Lie (2025) by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
- 6 hours ago
- 7 min read
The Basics
Page Length: 416
Audiobook Length: ~17 hours
Grade Reading Level: 9+
Target Audience Age: 14-18+
Goodreads Score: 3.97 out of 5
Buy it HERE
Setting: Contemporary England, fictional boarding school, Alfred Nobel Academy
Genre: Young Adult Mystery Thriller, Dark Academia
Topics: Boarding School, Mental Health, Abuse, Suicide, Sexual Assault, Trauma, Grief, Family Secrets, Corruption, Privilege, Romance, LGBTQ+, Teen Sleuths
Plot: Sade Hussein has lost everyone in her life. Orphaned and sent to Alfred Nobel Academy, an elite private boarding school in England, she arrives carrying the weight of a devastating trauma. Despite her difficult circumstances, Sade quickly forms friendships with her roommate, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's friend, Baz. Before long, she also finds herself drawn into the social circles of the school's most influential students, including the charismatic Jude Ripley.
Just days after Sade's arrival, Elizabeth suddenly disappears. Looking for answers, Sade begins investigating on her own when it becomes clear that the school is not doing enough to search for the missing student. As she digs deeper, she discovers that Alfred Nobel Academy is built on a foundation of secrets. Administrators, teachers, and students alike seem to be hiding something, and Sade is determined to uncover the truth behind Elizabeth's disappearance and the mysteries hidden within the walls of Alfred Nobel Academy.
As the mystery unfolds, readers also learn more about Sade's own troubled past. Why did she really come to Alfred Nobel Academy? And could the answer be connected to Elizabeth's disappearance? The investigation forces Sade to confront her trauma and, unexpectedly, begins to help her heal. Along the way, she forms meaningful friendships and finds the courage to speak out against wrongdoing despite institutional corruption and the dangerous consequences that come with it.
Themes: Healing from grief and trauma, power and privilege, institutional cover-ups, seeking justice and taking accountability, the power of teen voices
You might like this book if you like:
True crime/murder mysteries
Puzzles, escape rooms, geocaching
Dark Academia vibes
Books like: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (also a show), The Ivies, People Like Us, Truly Devious, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, Catherine House
Shows like: Pretty Little Liars, Cruel Summer, Get Even, Elite, Veronica Mars, One of Us is Lying (also a book)
Movies like: Do Revenge, The Fallout, Promising Young Women, Cracks, Bodies Bodies Bodies, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Luckiest Girl Alive
Other books written by this author: Ace of Spades, The Heirs, Four Eids and a Funeral, The Doomsday Date, Much Ado About Persephone: A Where Sleeping Girls Lie Pride Story, Pride and Promises: An Ace of Spades Pride Story
Teaching Where Sleeping Girls Lie in Class
Content
Language: Mature language appears throughout, though not excessively.
Sex/Romance: Mild romantic content. Several characters develop relationships, and there are brief scenes of passionate kissing, but nothing explicit. The story also includes a secret group of male students who trade private photos and videos of female classmates. These incidents are not described graphically, but the subject matter is still mature and disturbing.
Violence/Scariness: The novel contains significant violent and unsettling material. The central mystery involves sexual assault, rape, and murder. Some teens are drugged. While descriptions are not graphic, the themes may be triggering. The book also includes scenes involving suicide and the deaths of animals. It also contains deaths of family members, including parents and siblings.
Drinking/Smoking/Drugs: Teens drink at a party. Some girls are unknowingly drugged. One character is referred to as a “pothead,” and another accidentally ingests Rohypnol.
Class Novel-ability:
This would not work well as a whole-class novel. The mature content is significant, the book is quite long, and it may not have broad enough appeal for an entire class. That being said, I loved this book. I was especially drawn to its themes and the compelling mystery at the center of the story.
I think many students will enjoy it as well. Dark academia is incredibly popular right now, and students who love gothic mysteries will likely find this book captivating. It is the kind of novel that stays with you long after you finish reading, which is exactly the type of reading experience that helps foster a lifelong love of books.
The Star Qualities
The protagonist is complex, layered, and deeply relatable. She has endured significant family trauma and is still grieving her losses. At the same time, she’s driven by a fierce desire for justice and revenge. She’s intelligent and relentlessly determined to uncover dark secrets, no matter the danger. Yet she remains, at her core, a teenage girl — worried about making friends, intimidated by the popular crowd, and pulled into confusing romantic moments. She feels serious, but real. I thought Sade was excellently written and is a character many students will connect with.
The conflicts and themes in this book are painfully relevant and absolutely worth discussing. The story centers on sexual misconduct and institutional cover‑ups. The girls at Alfred Nobel Academy are being manipulated, assaulted, and raped. Private, nonconsensual content is being taken and illegally shared by male students. Meanwhile, adults either look the other way or actively protect the privileged boys responsible. Sadly, these situations happen all the time — and they often go unresolved. I appreciate that the book explores the complicated consequences of speaking up. It feels like an honest reflection of how victims’ voices are silenced. However, the ending offers a sense of justice being pursued, which feels both honest and hopeful for young readers.
The book also includes some fun extras at the beginning. First, maps — which I love, especially in mysteries where location details matter. I enjoyed flipping back to the map as I read; it made me feel like a true sleuth. There’s also a house‑sorting quiz, which delighted the BuzzFeed‑quiz‑loving, Harry‑Potter‑house‑obsessed part of me. I had so much fun imagining which house I’d be sorted into at Alfred Nobel Academy.
This author has written several other excellent novels. I’ve read almost all of them and enjoyed each one. Even better, both of her major bestsellers have companion novellas that highlight LGBTQ+ voices and stories. There’s plenty by this author for students to explore and connect with.
Book Talk Read Aloud Section
If you have the physical book, read pages 1-2 ("GO FISH").
If you don't, read the same pages in the reading sample here.
"Reading Like a Writer" Mentor Texts
This passage has so many cool craft moves packed inside. There’s personification, metaphor, interesting pacing and rhythm created through dramatic paragraph breaks, sentence fragments, and the use of ellipses. There’s repetition, too, along with dreamy, almost otherworldly language. All of these choices work together to create a surreal feeling throughout the passage. Definitely a lot here for students to pick apart and try to imitate in their own writing!
I think this passage is full of flavor and voice. I love the quotation at the beginning and the playful, almost humorous contrast in the next sentence. The author also uses figurative language, sentence fragments, and clever paragraph breaks that make the passage even more effective. I love how the ending adds a little bit of foreshadowing, too. It’s only a few sentences, but it’s very well written, with lots of little things for students to notice and try in their own writing.
I like the way this passage lists out the clues in the narrator’s mind. I especially like the use of parentheses—for listing and for adding little details. I also like the way the author lays out the facts of the investigation, creating a visual for the reader and giving us clues that increase the mystery instead of solving it. I love the rhetorical question at the end. I think this is a perfect example of how to write a mystery passage! And if not a mystery passage, these skills can be imitated and transferred to many other genres of writing.
Sentences for Combining and Imitation
Sentence sets for combining:
"The cat cafe was at the junction of the main road, and it looked more like a computer room than a cafe–with rows of elderly people on old desktops typing away." (Where Sleeping Girls Lie, p. 70)
The cat cafe was at the junction of the main road.
It looked more like a computer room than a cafe.
It had rows of elderly people.
The elderly people were on old desktops.
They were typing away.
"It was around dinnertime when it became apparent that (1) Sade wasn’t hungry and (2) being in her room was causing her more harm than good." (p. 236)
It was around dinnertime.
Two things became apparent.
Sade wasn't hungry.
Being in her room was causing her more harm than good.
"Lights flickered, shadows stitching up the walls as nurses and doctors and patients wandered the halls like zombies and ghouls, and the bone-chilling cold only increased the sense of impending doom Sade felt." (p. 342)
Light flickered.
Shadows were stitching up the walls.
Nurses and doctors and patients wandered the halls.
They wandered like zombies and ghouls.
The bone chilling cold only increased the sense of impending doom Sade felt.
"She sat up, her heart thumping as she quickly pushed herself out of her bed and went over to her desk to open it." (p. 373)
She sat up.
Her heart was thumping.
She quickly pushed herself out of her bed.
She went over to her desk to open it.
Sentences for Imitation:
"One building stuck out to her: newer and distinctly un-castle-like." (p. 10)
"Sade sank back into her seat and let her mind slip away–attempting (and failing) to ignore the flashes of light she kept seeing out the window, appearing and disappearing, and then getting closer as the car was propelled forward." (p. 69)
"As her body glided across the water, she remembered the thing she told her sister that she sometimes told herself on the bad days: Keep swimming. Or if that’s too hard, at the very least, float." (p. 398)
Used this book in your classroom? Tell us how in the comments!
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