The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman

October 27, 2023

The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman

Sage Winters has always known that her twin sister Rosemary died of pneumonia when they were children. But at age 16, Sage learns that her sister didn't die and is living at the Willowbrook School, a school for children with special needs. She learns that Rosemary vanished from the school a few days earlier, and Sage is determined to go to the school to find her twin.

Based on a true story. My hair stylist's oldest sister was a resident at Willowbrook in the 1970s, which was how I originally heard about it. The first third of the book is mostly about how terrible the conditions were at the school, and it takes a while for the plot to get moving. The main character is pretty dense for someone who is supposed to be street smart. I started with this novel as an audiobook, but I switched to the ebook version because I could skim over the slower parts. The story moves a lot slower than in Wiseman's earlier books. Geraldo Rivera did a prize-winning expose about living conditions at the school, which were truly horrible, with most of the residents contracting hepatitis and other diseases due to the filthy living conditions and lack of care. Definitely has a YA feel to it. Meh.

Willowbrook State School, New York

Murder Your Employer: the McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes

September 19, 2023

Murder Your Employer: the McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes

Tucked away in the idyllic countryside of somewhere (not even the student body is sure exactly where they are) is the McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts. The applied arts that the students study are how to get away with murder. The three characters that the story focuses on all want to murder their employer, a feeling that most of us have had at one point. But in order to graduate, the students must successfully complete an all-night hunt where they are hunter, prey, or both.

The Hunger Games meets Hogwarts and Naomi Novik's Scholomance series. Not really a mystery since we know from the start who the targets are and who wants to murder them. The format is clever, since it is written in the form of a textbook with student evaluations included. It had humorous moments and held my interest until it got to the all-night hunt. The second half started to drag and would have benefited from having at least 50 pages edited out of the second half. 

Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue

August 8, 2023

Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue

Anne Lister met Eliza Raine when they were both attending boarding school outside York. Eliza is half-Indian, the daughter of a doctor with the East India Company, sent to England with her sister to be educated. When Eliza and Lister (as she prefers to be called) are forced to share a room, Eliza finds herself unexpectedly enchanted by the unusual girl. They are also physically attracted to each other and the two become lovers and inseparable. Ten years later, Eliza is confined to a psychiatric asylum near the school. She writes to Lister, imploring her to write back and come and rescue her. 

Fascinating historical fiction based on the real lives of Anne Lister and Eliza Raine, who became entangled in a forbidden relationship during the Regency period. Lister lived and dressed as a man, preferring to be called either Jack or by her last name, and had several women lovers. I learned about Lister when I read Gentleman Jack by Sally Wainwright, a biography of her unusual life. Well-research historical fiction, fluid writing. Highly recommended for readers of historical fiction or those interested in the history of LGBTQ.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Anne Lister (the real one, not the one from the BBC series)

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

October 31, 2022

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

Galadriel Higgins, known as El to her friends, has escaped the Scholomance, the school for magically gifted children. Usually only 10% of the graduating class gets out alive, but El and her friends managed to turn the tables on the maleficaria who dwell at the school, and 90% of the students survived. El cast a spell to send the school off into the void with all the mals, but her friend Orion Lake stayed behind when everyone else left. Now El has to figure out how to get him out, while also saving the enclaves from the mals that are trying to destroy them.

This is the third book in the Scholomance series. It got a little long and winding, but it was good to reconnect with favorite characters. We also learn more about El's family and her own abilities and the consequences of her actions. There are some chilling details about how enclaves are built as well. The conclusion is satisfying and it leaves the way open for another book in the series, should the author choose to continue.

In Eastern European folklore, the Scholomance was a school for black magic in Rumania, in the Transylvania region. It was run by the devil and open to only a select few students. The school was underground and the curriculum lasted seven years (as opposed to the four years that El spends at the school). The Scholomance also appears in some online games such as Worlds of Warcraft and Minecraft. The Scholomance in Novik's novels is in a multiverse, attached to our world but sort of hanging onto the edge. It's like a mirror image of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter novels: at Hogwarts, there are excellent teachers, wonderful meals and accommodations, and the school works to help and protect the students; at the Scholomance, there are no teachers, the food is atrocious, the dorm rooms are dangerously open to the void on one side, and the school is filled with malevolent creatures and tries to kill off as many students as possible. Nice. The only thing the two schools have in common is being located in a multiverse attached to our world.

A depiction of the Scholomance from Worlds of Warcraft

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

October 27, 2021

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

El, the potential dark sorceress from Novik's previous book A Deadly Education, is now in her last year at the Scholomance, the school for magically gifted children. She and her friends have managed to stay alive for all four years, despite a variety of monsters and what appears to be the school's determination to kill them. But graduation is the most dangerous time, with only 10% of the students making it out alive, and those students are usually from the large wealthy enclaves who have the resources to assist them. El and Orion Lake (her sort-of boyfriend) are determined to improve the odds for their classmates, while also protecting the under-classmen at the same time.

This is the second book in the Scholomance series. At times, it's difficult to figure out exactly what is happening and what kind of monsters are attacking them. But it's still a fun and creative read and I'm looking forward to the next book.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

January 8, 2021

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Galadriel Higgins, known as El, is a student at the Scholomance, a special school for gifted magical children. There are no teachers, yet the school itself determines the curriculum for each student.  The school's main purpose seems to be to weed out about 75% of the students before graduation, but it's still safer than the outside world, where the only chance for safety is to belong to a wizarding enclave. The enclave kids at the Scholomance are the only ones who have resources and a chance of getting out alive. 

El is an indie kid - she was raised by her whimsical mother in a magic commune in Wales. They are poor as dirt because her mother gives away her magic for free. El was supposedly born evil and has the potential to become a very powerful sorceress. Although the school seems determined to test or kill the students at every turn, El slowly makes friends (for the first time) and even has a boyfriend of sorts who keeps saving her life against her wishes. She and her friends are determined to find a way for more students to make it out alive and to protect the younger students.

This isn't Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series - the Scholomance is far deadlier. It's a cliche, but the school itself is a character. There is a really creative collection of monsters and supernaturals that inhabit the school. El has a very funny snarky voice, adding sarcasm to typical teenage angst. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

February 20, 2020

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Vanessa is a bright student who is seduced by her English teacher at a prestigious Maine boarding school.  Even while she was attending the school, rumors flew around about her and the teacher.  Many years later, a current student who has accused the teacher of misconduct contacts Vanessa, asking for her support.  The story line moves back and forth from the time Vanessa is a high school student to Vanessa at age 32, working a dead-end job as a concierge at a high-end hotel, still dealing with the fallout her experiences with the teacher as she comes to realize that it wasn’t a love story, it was exploitation.

This book made me furious.  Yet it is an important topic that needs to come out of hiding.

The teacher (Strane) made my skin crawl, he was such a slimy jerk who manipulated children, referring to it as "grooming."  He is so creepy that I had to skim over a number of the sections where he featured prominently.  Strane gives Vanessa a copy of Lolita to read – by this point, Vanessa is so under his spell that she sees it as a tragic love story, not as the story of a morally bereft pedophile who is sexually obsessed with a child.  Strane has so much control over her that she lies and takes the blame so that he can keep his job.  It takes Vanessa over 15 years to accept that the experiences traumatized her.

This is definitely not going to be for everyone, since there are repeated graphic scenes of statutory rape of an underage child.  While it is well-written and there are many cultural and literary allusions, it is also quite disturbing, and I sort of wish I could un-read it.  Vanessa and Strane debate about whether all girls mature at the same rate, and can a 15 year old be mature enough to have a sexual relationship with a 42 year old man – the answer is no, when you're a teenager, it’s the hormones talking – 15 year olds are NOT mentally mature enough to make that kind of a decision.  I'm pretty sure most 15 year olds (girls and boys) are infatuated with at least one teacher at some point.  I know I was, and it would have been devastating to have been abused that way by a teacher that I adored.

It’s been all over the news this week that the Boy Scouts of America organization has declared bankruptcy in order to protect its assets from the growing number of sexual abuse charges that have been filed against the organization (the cases number in the thousands).  What is wrong with so many men????  They can’t keep their hands off boys, they can’t keep their hands off teen-aged girls, they don’t understand the word “no” when it comes to adult women.

Despite accusations of plagiarism from another author (Wendy C. Ortiz wrote a memoir called Excavation was published several years ago and covers the same story), My Dark Vanessa is already hitting a lot of lists as a best book of 2020.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

October 21, 2019

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

Clare Cassidy is a secondary English school teacher in an English town in West Sussex, specializing in the works of literary works of Victorian author R. M. Holland.  Part of the school where she teaches was Holland’s house, where a number of rooms have been preserved exactly as they were when the writer lived there.  Clare is devastated to learn that a fellow teacher and close friend has been found murdered, with a quote from Holland’s most famous story next to her body.  But things go from bad to worse when Clare’s life begins to echo some of her favorite pieces of literature.  She turns to her diary to record her feelings, only to find that some unknown person has been reading her diary and writing in it.

This is a modern gothic with a classic whodunit feeling, perfect for October reading.  Many of the themes that occur in classic gothic and supernatural fiction are included:  a creepy old school with a resident ghost, an abandoned factory, isolated houses, unreliable narrators, heavy fog and darkness, screams in the night, mysterious lights that flicker on and off.  I liked the story-within-a-story structure, as well as the plot twists that keep the reader guessing.  The three narrators all have distinct voices and are each likable in their own way – I especially liked the fact that Clare adores her rescue dog (Herbert) and doesn’t care who knows it.  Herbert is a little guy but has the heart of a lion and doesn’t hesitate to defend his humans.

Another thing I liked about The Stranger Diaries was that the lead detective is a smart woman – she doesn’t miss obvious and not-so-obvious clues and have to have some bystander point them out or figure out the solution for her.

Except for the fact that the killer's motive is a little weak, this is an excellent read.

And yes, Herbert is alive and well at the end of the book.