Synopses & Reviews
Luke was not eager to accompany his best friend, Hayden, and the cocky new kid, Russell, up to the cliff that night. The plan was to watch Russell jump off the cliff into the lake--his initiation to the Briar Academy fencing team. But instead, after an angry confrontation with Hayden, Russell falls to his death.
Now Hayden is in jail and the pressure is on Luke to report what he saw. But what did he see? An accident--or a murder? Luke has always followed Hayden's lead, but this is one decision he'll be forced to make on his own. And to do it, he must face the truth about his friendship with Hayden and his own painful past.
This suspenseful and scandalous tale of rivalry, peer pressure, and finding the courage to take responsibility will have an impact on readers long after the last page.
Review
“Nineteen-year-old Anhalt displays some definite polish in her debut novel…Teens drawn to boarding-school-scandal dramas will find plenty to gasp about here.”--
Booklist "Anhalt seems to know the boarding-school world well, creating a rich setting for this drama of family demons, school friends and rivals, and an anguishing struggle of conscience. . . . An unusually rich and layered first novel."--
Kirkus Reviews "Teens will love this title because it is full of page-turning events and is difficult to put down."--
VOYA, 5Q, 5P (highest rating) "The high stakes, complex character development, and realistic dialogue and interactions will keep readers riveted—and likely have them imagining themselves in Lukes position."--
Publishers Weekly "Teens will appreciate the action and the drama, without being overwhelmed by trendy names and labels as in other books set in boarding schools. . . . Anhalt, a college sophomore, shows great promise in this debut novel."--
School Library Journal "[There's] plenty of jealousy, drugs, and misplaced loyalty to keep the pot boiling."-
Bulletin Synopsis
Taylor Antrims debut novel is a darkly comic, clear-eyed look at hidden worlds whose complexities and rules can be understood only from inside: the insular hothouse of boarding school, the thorny dynamics between father and son, and the self-delusion of blind ideological commitment.
Dyer Martin, a new history teacher at the prestigious Britton School, arrives in the fall ready to close the door on the failures and disappointments of his past: a disastrous first job, a broken relationship, and acute uncertainty about his future. James, a lonely senior, just wants to make it through his last year unscathed, avoiding both the brutal hazing of dorm life and the stern and unforgiving eye of his father, the schools politically radical headmaster, Edward Wolfe.
Soon, however, both Dyer and James are inescapably drawn into Wolfes hidden agenda for Britton, as the headmaster orders Dyer to set up and run a Model UN Club for students. As the United States moves steadily toward a conflict with an increasingly hostile North Korea -- whose pursuit of nuclear technology is pushing the world to the brink of nuclear Armageddon -- Wolfes political fervor begins to consume him, and he sets in motion a plan that will jeopardize his job, his school, and even the life of his own son.
With precisely controlled, deceptively subtle storytelling, The Headmaster Ritual is an insightful and captivating examination of the halting, complicated course young men must chart to shake off the influence of fathers -- and father figures -- while refining their convictions about the world and their place in it.
Synopsis
Three guys from the Briar Academy fencing team went up to the cliff that night for a hazing ritual—but only two came back alive. Now Lukes best friend, Hayden, is in jail and the pressure is on Luke to report what he saw. But what did he see? An accident—or a murder? Luke has always followed Haydens lead, but this is one decision hell be forced to make on his own. And to do it, he must face the truth about his friendship with Hayden and his own painful past.
Synopsis
Could Luke's best friend be a murderer?
About the Author
TAYLOR ANTRIM is an editor at ForbesLife and a regular contributor to the New York Times and Vogue. His work has appeared in Esquire, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Village Voice, and other magazines and journals. A graduate of Stanford and of Oxford, Antrim earned his MFA from Virginia, where he held the Poe-Faulkner Fellowship.