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, seventeen-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.
"Read an excerpt from All These Beautiful Strangers, the debut novel that could be the next Gone Girl."
— Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly included All These Beautiful Strangers on their July Must-Reads list, describing it as "Donna Tartt's The Secret History meets Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep meets Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl.""Bruna Papandrea, whose Pacific Standard production partnership with Reese Witherspoon yielded the HBO series Big Little Lies and the films Gone Girl and Wild, has made the first acquisition under her newly launched solo shingle. Made Up Stories has optioned Elizabeth Klehfoth's debut novel All These Beautiful Strangers."
A gripping novel brimming with mystery, All These Beautiful Strangers is utterly unputdownable.
"If we had to take a guess, All These Beautiful Strangers will be the literary thriller of the summer. It's the perfect blend of glamour, diabolicalness, and The Secret History."
"There's real menace in this elegantly written thriller and Klehfoth is a name to watch."
ELLE UK included All These Beautiful Strangers in their "Ultimate Summer Books Round-Up," calling it "a properly beachy thriller…Cruel Intentions meets Gossip Girl."
All These Beautiful Strangers is published in North America by William Morrow/HarperCollins and by the following international publishers:
Elizabeth Klehfoth grew up in Elkhart, Indiana. She studied creative writing, earning her BFA from Chapman University and her MFA from Indiana University, where she also taught fiction writing and composition. The author published her first novel, All These Beautiful Strangers, in 2018. She currently lives in Los Angeles.