The Agathas is a 2022 mystery novel written by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson. The story is told by two girls who have just begun their Senior year at Castle Cove High school. It follows wealthy, beautiful Alice Ogilvie who has just returned to school after some big drama involving a boy. Having once been one of schools most popular girls, Alice now has no friends and can only watch as her former best friends, Queen Bee Rebecca Kennedy, insecure Helen Park and traitor Brooke Donovan, describe her as crazy, even though they won’t say it to her face. Iris Adams hates living in poverty in Castle Cove. Her mother struggles to pay rent and she is unpopular at school. She and her friends, “the Zoners,” are one of the most unpopular Cliques at school. Iris desperately wants to get her mother and herself out of Town, so she accepts an offer to be Alice’s tutor. Due to missing months of school, the normally straight-A student Alice is behind on her studies. Iris just needs to teach Alice some stuff and she will have enough money to find a new home, away from her estranged abusive father. However, when Brooke disappears and is later found dead, it’s up to unlikely friends Alice and Iris to solve the mystery of who killed Brooke.
A sequel, The Night in Question, was released on June 1, 2023.
The Agathas contains examples of:
- All Girls Like Ponies: Ms Westmacott, the school Guidance Councillor, loves animals and has a Horse named Oliver at the local stables. Subverted with Alice, who’s parents bought her a Horse over the Summer while she was under house arrest as a way of her not getting angry that they were abandoning her yet again. However, Alice is afraid of Horses so she did get mad at her parents (not because they abandoned her again, but because they couldn’t even remember that she disliked Horses after a childhood accident involving them).
- Alpha Bitch: Kennedy is cruel, spoiled, ruthless and shallow. She runs the school tightly and while she does care about her friends, she’s not afraid to backstab or forget about them.
- Beta Bitch: Helen Park.
- Betty and Veronica: Alice is the Betty to Brooke’s Veronica for Steve’s Archie.
- Brainless Beauty: Brooke and Rebecca seem to be this.
- Brainy Brunette: Iris is an unpopular geek with messy Brown hair.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Alice.
- Butch Lesbian: Zora, Iris’s Goth friend who is mentioned to have dated a girl previously and is the only one in the “Zoners” who isn’t a virgin.
- Dumb Blonde: Alice is thought to be this by many. Despite having excellent grades before she ran away, people treat her like a small child because of her reckless behaviour. However, she proves herself to be very intelligent.
- Girl Posse: Rebecca, Helen, Brooke and Alice (before Alice was kicked out of the Clique prior to the start of the book).
- Jerk Jock: Inverted. Steve is a pretty decent guy, he walks Alice to her car when she goes to the party uninvited and cares about Brooke. On the other hand, while drunk, he got in a physical fight with his girlfriend. Also, it’s implied he was cheating on Brooke with Helen Park. Helen planned to drug Brooke by spiking her drink, so Helen could get intimate with Steve with Brooke out of the way. However, it backfired when Helen accidentally drugged Steve instead.
- Parental Neglect: Alice’s parents don’t care about her that much. They leave her in the care of a Nanny, Brenda, even though Alice is 17 and could live on her own. Alice loves Brenda like a mother, because her own mother neglects her. The last time Alice’s mother took Alice on vacation to Egypt after Alice ran away, her mother was away most of the time and Alice was in a hotel room reading Agatha Christie novels. Alice’s father travels a lot and doesn’t seem to have much of a relationship with his daughter.
- Popular is Dumb: Played straight with Brooke and Rebecca. Steve, Alice’s ex-boyfriend, also doesn’t seem too bright academically.
- Rich Bitch: Pretty much all the popular kids.
- Spoiled Sweet: Brooke to some extent. However, she did steal her best friend’s boyfriend.
- We Used to Be Friends: Alice was once childhood best friends with Brooke. They used to do everything together; Alice would help Brooke sneak out at night and they’d go to parties, nightclubs, places to drink. Alice was also close with Rebecca Kennedy and Helen Park. Unfortunately, Alice began dating star Basketball player of Castle Cove High, Steve. At first, Alice was pleased Steve and Brooke got along so well. Then, she realised Steve was in love with Brooke. Brooke was remorseless with stealing Steve off Alice and tried to convince Alice it was no big deal. Alice got back at them by running away from Castle Cove. People thought she was dead. They thought she had been kidnapped and murdered. Alice’s friends even did a candlelight service for Alice. Then, she returned and revealed she’d actually ran away. Then, her friends kicked her out of the Clique and Brooke sided with them.
