Where Sleeping Girls Lie

Where Sleeping Girls Lie is a 2024 contemporary young adult mystery by New York Times bestselling author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. Sade Hussein arrives at Alfred Nobel Academy to begin her third year of high school and is hoping for a fresh start. However, when her roommate goes missing on her second day, Sade begins to worry that the bad luck that has always plagued her hasn’t been left behind. As Sade begins to investigate her roommate’s disappearance, she uncovers a dark web of violence and misogyny hidden behind layers of silence and secrets. As these secrets intersect with one of Sade’s personal tragedies, she feels she has no choice but to act and expose the perpetrators. Exploring The Intersection of Institutional Privilege and Abuse, Where Sleeping Girls Lie delves into The Lasting Impact of Trauma and the importance of Building Friendships and Social Support Systems.

This guide uses the 2024 Fewer and Friends Kindle edition of the text.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, violence, gender discrimination, racism, rape, sexual violence and harassment, antigay bias, emotional abuse, suicidal ideation, death by suicide, substance use, and mental illness.

Plot Summary

Sade Hussein arrives four weeks late for the start of her third year of high school at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy (ANA). Sade was homeschooled after the death of her mother, but when her father died of a heart attack, Sade enrolled herself in boarding school. As will be revealed later, Sade comes to ANA specifically to avenge the death of her twin sister, Jamila, who died by suicide after Jude Ripley, a popular and wealthy student at ANA, drugged and raped her. ANA’s matron, Miss Blackburn, introduces Sade to her roommate, Elizabeth Wang, who gives her a tour of campus. Sade feels like she, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s best friend Baz are on their way to becoming friends, but she also notices that Elizabeth sometimes looks worried and preoccupied. The next day, Elizabeth mysteriously goes missing.

Sade is convinced she is “cursed”: Bad things tend to happen to those around her, and she experiences panic attacks, anxiety, and visions of a nightgown-clad girl in her bedroom and in the water when she swims. She fears that Elizabeth’s disappearance was caused by her bad luck. The police investigate, but the case is closed when the school receives an email from Elizabeth’s great-aunt, claiming that Elizabeth is home and will be withdrawing from school. However, Baz tells Sade that Elizabeth’s great-aunt is dead. Suspicious, they investigate strange clues, including a music box inscribed to Elizabeth from “TG,” filled with illegible notes and a Morse code letter referencing “the Fishermen.” Before they can decode them, the box is stolen from Sade’s room.

Meanwhile, Sade is also getting to know other students, including August Owens, a passionate swimmer like Sade; Persephone Stewart, the beautiful and “intimidating” deputy head girl; and Jude, ANA’s head boy, captain of the swim team, and “resident playboy.” Jude insists that Sade looks familiar and asks her for a date, as he is initially unaware that Jamila was Sade’s twin sister. When Sade hesitates, he begins to pursue her aggressively, convinced his “charming personality” will win her over.

At the Owens twins’ Halloween party, Sade sees notifications on August’s phone from a group chat called “The Fishermen.” She investigates and finds a photo of August and Elizabeth together, contradicting his claim that he didn’t know Elizabeth. Persephone reveals that August and Elizabeth dated for almost two years. Persephone and Sade copy data from August’s phone and discover misogynistic messages in the chat, including comments about Sade. Jude’s birthday party invite, written in Morse code, matches the letter from Elizabeth’s box. Persephone warns Sade not to go, but Sade sees it as an opportunity to force a confession from Jude. At the party, Sade drugs Jude so he can understand how helpless and afraid his victims feel. In his confusion, he calls Sade “Jamila.” Sade leaves but returns for her coat and phone, only to find Jude dead.

Sade is consumed by anxiety, but Persephone reassures her they won’t be implicated. However, Headmaster Webber announces that Jude’s death is under investigation as a murder. Back in her room, Sade installs a UV lightbulb from a package addressed to Elizabeth. The light reveals Elizabeth’s walls are covered in writing, including the phrase “the Fishermen are rapists” and a list matching students’ names to usernames in the chat (289). A password is also visible, revealing that Elizabeth planned to expose the Fishermen but was stopped.

Sade immediately contacts Persephone, and they use the password to open a folder of “personal photos” from girls at ANA, which are subject to “vile” comments. Worried that Headmaster Webber won’t take them seriously, Persephone suggests they make the information about the Fishermen public. The next day, the school holds a memorial for Jude. Afterward, Persephone and her friends April Owens and Juliette de Silva come to Sade’s room, where Juliette asks Sade for some paracetamol. Sade directs her to her top drawer but is distracted by a text from August asking her to meet him. August is drunk in the pool when she arrives. He accuses Sade of being the last person with Jude before he died and threatens to turn her in. Sade leaves without responding and returns to her room, where she is shocked to see paramedics circled around an unconscious Juliette.

At the hospital, doctors detect traces of Rohypnol in Juliette’s system. It is the same drug found in Jude’s body, and Persephone approaches Sade back on campus, telling her that Juliette took the pills in Sade’s drawer and demanding to know if she did something to Jude. Sade confesses that Jude drugged and raped her twin sister, Jamila, causing Jamila to enter a depressive episode that led to her suicide. Sade only wanted Jude to feel as vulnerable as his victims but never meant to kill him. Persephone assures Sade that she didn’t kill Jude because she overheard the police telling Headmaster Webber that Jude was strangled.

By the end of the week, Sade and Persephone have publicized the Fishermen’s chat on a website called NotSoNoble. However, instead of punishing the boys, Headmaster Webber threatens the website’s creators with “repercussions for their disruptive behavior” (355). That same night, Sade receives an urgent text from Persephone. Sade rushes to April’s dorm room, where an unconscious Elizabeth lies on April’s bed.

Once stabilized, Elizabeth reveals the truth: She dated August for nearly two years, but he kept it a secret. When private photos of her circulated around school, she broke up with him and sought revenge by hooking up with Jude. However, Jude drugged and raped Elizabeth at a party. When she reported it, Headmaster Webber dismissed her. August and April—Elizabeth’s roommate and Jude’s girlfriend at the time—accused her of lying. Elizabeth moved out and investigated the Fishermen, planning to expose them. Before she could, she was lured to Newton Sports Center, where Jude attacked her. August intervened, but Elizabeth fell into an unfinished pool and hit her head. August took her to April, who hid Elizabeth in a secret bunker while feeding Sade hints about the Fishermen. Elizabeth remained hidden until her deteriorating health forced her to emerge.

To amplify their message, Sade and Persephone create a space on NotSoNoble for anonymous testimonies. Soon, various media outlets pick up the story, making it impossible for the school to ignore. To everyone’s shock, April confesses to murdering Jude and takes credit for publishing NotSoNoble. Looking for answers, Sade examines the pictures in the Fishermen chat more closely. April is in some of the photos, and Sade realizes that April’s eyes are glassy and “barely conscious”: Jude was also drugging April. Sade suspects that April’s boyfriend, Francis Webber—the headmaster’s son—killed Jude. April is taking the fall for him because she will get off easily due to her well-connected family. April won’t confirm Sade’s suspicions nor admit that Jude drugged and assaulted her, but Sade runs into Francis, who admits he would “kill again for April Owens” (386).

Sade is finally traced to NotSoNoble, and Headmaster Webber expels her. However, at the last minute, the usually cantankerous Miss Blackburn tells Sade that “sometimes traditions should be disrupted” (395): Headmaster Webber has been removed, and Sade will be allowed to stay if she finishes the term with good grades. Sade wonders for a moment if she even wants to stay after everything, but she thinks of her new friends and realizes that she is happy at ANA, despite everything.

The following year finds her at ANA, dating Persephone, and still best friends with Baz. Elizabeth decided not to continue her studies at ANA, and few of the Fishermen faced true consequences, creating “a mixed bag of disappointment and triumph” (396). Sade sometimes still feels the “heaviness” of her trauma and sadness, but she no longer feels alone or “broken.” She is “learn[ing] how to live, in spite of it” (398).