Gossip of the Starlings Book

I waffled between 3 & 4 stars on this one, because the book really grew on me. Gossip of the Starlings illuminates the friendship of two wealthy & pampered students at a prep school in the 1980's. I guess since I never went to one, I have always been fascinated with stories about boarding schools - John Knowles' A Separate Peace is one of my all-time favorites. The narrator, Catherine, explains - "In my mind, there were three worlds. The world outside - lofty and compelling, the whisper of destruction and glamour. The world inside - where rules were made for us to follow, a comforting but cumbersome straitjacket. And the world in between: a no-man's land where my friends and I could build camp and call our own. It had no past, no future, and no consequences." The author did a great job illustrating the complex friendships that girls have, particularly with the one that you know you really shouldn't be friends with because they will just get you into trouble. The plot is a little thin at times, but it really picked up towards the end where I just couldn't put it down, because I wanted to see how everything played out.