Students at Lycroft Phelps are marked for success.
As a straight-A student and girlfriend of the school's star rower, Charlotte believes in what the school has to offer. Meanwhile, scholarship student Max is struggling. Until he's asked to join the rowing team offering him popularity - but at what cost?
Then there's Quinn, a sixth-generation legacy student, who should be able to lay claim to the school in a way others can't. Who instead must watch the boy who assaulted her continue to play at the top of the school's food chain.
Only in the dead of night does Q realize the solution to her suffering: Colin Pearce must die. But Lycroft Phelps has more than one dark secret at its heart, and as the three students uncover just how far the school will go to keep those ugly truths hidden, there's a lot more than reputation at stake...
A tense and timely thriller with a revenge plot that'll have you on the edge of your seat.
Perfect for fans of Kathleen Glasgow, Chelsea Pitcher and Louise O'Neill.
(Trigger warning: this book contains descriptions of sexual violence that some readers may find upsetting.)
| ISBN: | 9781471413476 |
| Publication date: | 11th April 2023 |
| Author: | Cameron Kelly Rosenblum |
| Publisher: | Hot Key Books |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 473 pages |
| Suitable For: | |
| Other Genres: |
A powerful, disturbing and thought-provoking read.
Given the deeply-disturbing and harrowing themes of this novel, and warnings of 'descriptions of sexual violence and self-harm that some readers may find triggering’, my expectation was that it promised to be a thought-provoking rather than an enjoyable read. However, what I couldn’t have been prepared for was just how disturbing I would find it, or how effectively the author’s powerfully evocative prose would draw me into the emotional lives of the three main characters. Their narrative voices, heard through alternating chapters, gradually exposing a culture of privilege, entitled status and toxic masculinity in an elite American private school, where any idea of challenging norms which had been established over generations appeared doomed to failure.... Read Full Review
A powerful, disturbing and thought-provoking read.
Once I started reading this disturbing story it wasn't long before the author’s powerfully evocative prose drew me into the emotional lives of the three main characters. Although Quinn’s voice and narrative thread was the most upsetting to follow (it's poignant, heart-breaking authenticity a reflection of how effectively the author had used her personal experience of being sexually assaulted when she was sixteen), I appreciated how she used the voices of Max and Charlotte to add layers of nuance to the complexities and contradictions of the situation these young people found themselves in. She really captured the ongoing, see-sawing struggles each had with trying to balance decisions based purely on self-interest, with a need to listen to their consciences and find the strength to ‘do the right thing’.... Read Full Review
